Monday, November 18, 2013

Maize Harvest

One of the tasks that students at St. Monica's must do after exams are completed is harvest the maize. The school has a shamba (farm) of seven acres where they grow maize to help with food expenses. They hire day labours to do the majority of the work: clearing the fields, planting, hoeing, and cutting the maize and placing it in shocks to dry. However, it the students responsibility to do the actual harvesting: removing the cob from the corn stalks and carrying it to the store (storage shed).



First they go to the fields and remove the cobs from the dried plants. The classes are organized into teams and each team is assigned an area to harvest.



That cob wasn't totally dried and was difficult to remove from the husk. The ears of corn are tossed into a pile and then loaded into bags for transport.



Once bagged, the bags are carried to the store. On the average each team had two bags to bring in for storage.











There are many different methods for carrying the bags.



These girls had already finished their section of the field so they organized themselves into a cheering section to encourage those students that were arriving.



Once the got to the store, they helped one another lift the bags into the store where they were unloaded.

For additional pictures of the maize harvest click here.

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