Thursday, May 4, 2017

The Washing of the Néré Seeds or Doing some Yoga in West Africa



Today I accompanied Mariam, my neighbor friend to the “marigot". In West Africa, a “marigot" is a water source fed by rains, over flows from a river or from underground. It’s free water and the ladies from Kong come here to wash anything what takes a lot of water, but nothing with soap as the water washes into the fields. Mariam had two big bowls filled with néré seeds still covered with the yellow powder. 


I helped her carry the utensils while she had the heavy stuff on her head. There was a big old well at the marigot where she immediately got water to fill the bowels soaking the powdered néré seeds. I started washing the seeds with her by hand.
The position we were doing it reminded me of my first yoga lesson for complete beginners which I had followed on YouTube. It was great being outside working alongside a friend, who was explaining me everything in Dioula I wanted to learn. It helped me to make progress in understanding the Dioula language better. 



Once the soaking was done, the yellow mud then needed to be sifted off the seeds. 



We finished just before noon and carried everything back home. It’s amazing how strong the women are and how hard they can work. There we put the wet seeds right in front of her court yard to dry on the asphalt. 



Natural solar energy is used here all the time to dry plants, piment (hot pepper), millet and corn powder, cloths, etc.


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