An Epistle 👉Highlight Of My Village Experience: visiting cassava farm, processing garri, harvesting cassava and more

For the 7 good days that I stayed in my village, which was from 8th to 15th, I really had a wonderful experience especially when it comes to admiring the farming that is done by my brother and my sister. The next day after I got to the village for the burial of my late step brother and his late wife, I was taken to the farm to show me a newly acquired land where my brother planted cassava. This farm land is the closest to my home. It was acquired for the purpose of planting cocoa but for the meantime, they decided not to allow it stay empty but used it for cassava farming for this year.

My immediate older brother and sister are managing the land and he also gave some portions to my step brothers to farm because the land is too big for them to cover. What I saw was a marvel. If cocoa is planted there, it will really do well because it is close to the river and sometimes flood enters there from the river if the rain is much. It therefore means that the cocoa will always get a steady supply of water. That land if more than 23 plots of land. It's very big.

	with my sister and her cassava stem
With my brother
	myself trying to plant the cassava stem

Apart from just showing me the farm land, my sister took with her some cassava stems to replace some planted ones that didn't grow or was skipped during planting. The video I will add later will show you around the farm land as well as the river close to it.

We spent about an hour as we were also trying to remove some weeds that had grown. We came back and the next experience was to show me inside the duplex that my big brother in the USA built but that was supervised by this my brother in the village.

This house was started a year ago. The reason for the building is so that whenever they return, they will have a comfortable house to stay in that will be ok for the size of his family. When the door of the building was opened, it was a marvel! The pictures below show the interiors of the building. You will see the exterior in one or two of the pictures I will be uploading afterwards.

The next day which was the wake keeping day, we left very early the other side of the farm but in a plantation where strangers from Eboyi state is settling. My brother in the village had bought a cassava crushing machine that will speed up the cassava processing and kept it there. The essence is that since the farm land where he planted cassava last year is close there, after harvesting the cassava, it will be processed there and the outcome, which is garri be brought home. They had harvested the ones they were processing the previous day before I arrived village.

It wasn't a small thing. I was told that every market day, they do take not less than 10 bags of garri to sale and each bag is not less than 50kg. The processing is almost manual because apart from that crushing machine, every other thing is manual labour. He highers laborers to do them

In the pictures above, you can see where the cassava is being peeled, where it is being washed, after crushing, you can see where is it being bagged, and you can also see where it is because fried. Then you can see the river close to it and the little fish that was caught there. My nieces were also with us.

We went back early so as to assist in mounting the canopies for the burial and arranging other things.

On Sunday after the burial, there was no farm but my sister went to ensure that the garri processing was being done accordingly as people were still working for us. I for my part went to the Kingdom hall for bible study and then it was football evening, a match between my village and a nearby village. It was goalless.

	my niece a d i
With my little friend
	spectators of the football match
The ongoing football game

On Monday, we went to harvest another cassava. We the farm is very far from home but close to the plantation. We went and harvested them, carried them to the plantation, peeled them, washed and crushed with the machine, then bagged them before going home. It was very tedious but I enjoyed it because we had more hands. The pictures below explains them all.

Meanwhile, on our way to the farm, I got mushrooms, mango, and Palm fruits. We washed off at the nearby river and then went home tired.

On Tuesday, I didn't go anywhere but my distant cousin whose farm was close to our house came around to clear his farm. I went and kept him company, later, I went out to visit my father's house and to see house everyone was doing over there. Then next day, I travelled to Umuahia for an appointment. Then, on Wednesday which was when I came back, I assisted my brother to load the garri on the vehicle that conveyed them to the market for sales. My sister was the one that went to sale it. I joined the vehicle to Umuahia where I joined another one to my destination.

My experience was one that I will like to have again apart from the burial aspect. It was filled with much fun though mourning seemed to overtake them all.

Here is the video