In which Tim feeds the mountain...

A few weeks ago I was sitting at home in the early evening, and my project partner pulled up in a pickup truck completely loaded down with sacks of seeds (corn, beans, peas, all the staple crops around here), about 2000 lbs altogether.

He said to me ''here are the seeds.''

I replied ''what seeds?''

''The seeds that you are going to distribute to all of the communities up here on the mountain.''

Oh. Well, no one exactly told me about this project. But what could I say? Basically my job now is to visit farms that are ready for planting, and make sure that they are adhering to certain environmental standards. They are not allowed to slash and burn, and they are required to build barriers to prevent soil erosion if their field is on a slope (which they all are up in the hills).

It's been tiring. For the last seven days I have been hiking up and down mountains, scrambling along near vertical farm fields, trying to explain to poor farmers why slash and burn agriculture is a bad idea. I am learning a lot. Here are a few highlights...
·Roads are not a necessary part of human life. I am meeting many people whose existence I was not previously aware of because they live three miles down a goat track in the bush.

·How to estimate the amount of seed a field needs. I can now eyeball a farm field and tell you approximately how many pounds of beans you will be able to plant there. Marketable skill, you think?

·Planting is best done on Sunday. I was informed by an elderly gentleman (with no teeth) that seeds that are planted on a Sunday will not be afflicted with sickness or pests. He says it is because God is watching over them. I am not sure how this jives with the Old Testament commandment to not working on the Sabbath, but I guess we shall see.