Rice Planting and the Rutile Mines

Rice harvesting is actually very interesting!

The community has only harvested about half of what they have planted.  Here is what the rice looks like after harvesting...

It is pretty incredible the amount of rice harvested so far and to think they have double that!  The next couple of pictures are of all the rice that is stored in a store room right now (which is 50% of the total harvest)

The rice on the ground above is to dry it out. We are told that they have to re-dry the rice every two weeks so it doesn't go bad because of the high humidity.  I love the 'bushels' of rice above, they look great!


Here is a picture of a guy named John Barry.

Chad employs him to watch over a couple of the different rice projects, help us know whats going on since we can't be there all the time, and be a cultural interpreter.  Our cultures are so different that we often need some kind of cultural help.  Things that seem so easy and straightforward are often very difficult when crossing the cultural divide.  Our worldviews and expectations differ vastly and John helps us to navigate these.  He is a good worker.  John (my John) really like him a lot.  By the way John is a VERY common name here so we are trying to get used to calling him Campbell instead.

After all the rice is harvested, it needs to be threshed.  This means that grain is removed from the stalk.  You can do this manually as they have done in the pictures of the rice in the bags.  One can also do this with a threshing machine. Then the rice is milled.  This removes the outer hull.  Machines can do this as well and is often how white rice is formed.  The machine removes the outer hull and polishes the grain down to remove the 'brown' bran.  Unfortunately this removes most of the nutritional quality of the rice.  Out in the provinces, most of the Sierra Leoneans mill by hand, preserving the bran of the rice and thus the nutrition. 

Eating brown (or 'country' as they call it) rice involves a little more work.  You have to wash it very thoroughly and remove all the rocks.  When the locals dry the rice, they usually dry it on a road.  When they go to pick it up, small rocks are included.  It also takes a little longer to cook and uses more water.  I think it is worth the extra work since nutritional deficits can be such a problem here.  I personally like the taste better anyways... its not as plain and has a little more flavor.   I like the pictures on this website to explain it better.

While John and Chad were ironing out some details with the community in finishing harvesting and threshing the rest of the rice, I was drawn to the cute little kids.

They spoke the tribal language Mende so we couldn't understand each other.  They liked repeating everything I said.  I eventually got them to tell me their names.  They also like mimicking the faces I made.  They LOVED when I took pictures of them and then got to look afterward.  The little boy in the blue shirt was my favorite.

After we finished at Serabu we headed out to the Rutile Mines.  Chad's wife Robin told me that they love the Rutile Mines.  It is like a 4 star hotel for the price of a one star!  Chad explained to me how they charge so little but I forget.  Basically they provide housing with AC, HOT SHOWERS!!!!!, flush toilets, and three meals a day for $20 a person!  What a deal!  It was my first hot shower in over a week.  Even so, wherever you are here in SL, you still have to be as quick as you can to preserve the water.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the food they had for dinner and the following breakfast.  They tend to cook in a more Western way. (and by western I mean America and other developed countries not the cowboys)

The sad thing is that the AC was too cold for me lol!  I've already acclimated to this heat (although it has been really beautiful in comparison to how hot it gets in January-March apparently)

Alright, I have a post ready to go for tomorrow about our housing that starts in January.  I thought I already posted it but it just saved in drafts.  So here it is as promised.  God Bless!