Sawah(Okay)

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Waking up in a Rustling, but Silent home is a godsend all in its own. Tying my net so it dangles almost a foot above my blanket is a habit, a learned trait that is developed through repetition. I walk into the kitchen to Melissa’s smiling face and a happy greeting “Good Morning, did you sleep well?” I get my cup of coffee, eat my toast and enjoy my self in the ambient African morning its quite and perfectly peaceful. Usually I finish my routine of coffee and a walk around the grounds to see the chickens and walk to work, but today I ‘am going to Anton’s place. The drive out feels like the video game Grand Theft Auto we are flying down the road like Anton has stolen his own car! The boys and I are bouncing up and down on the lateral facing seats in the rear of the Land Cruiser. Honking at the cyclists, pedestrians, Motorbikes, and cars to get the Hell off of the small doublewide road. Cars’ flashing their bights, blinkers are flashing all showing their individual intentions to say I’m going make it there first. I don’t feel scared, I feel safe flying down the road. Going so Fast I can feel the engine roaring beneath my feet and every bump lifts me off the seat but it cant shake my smile off of my face. We turn off to Anton’s place and the Cruiser rocks back and fourth on the muddy red road. We pull in; the place is alive with people working men and women hauling sacks of pulped sugar cane that is used as fertilizer all around on the plot. We park on the one large slab of concrete that acts as a driveway; housing on either side I climb out of the Cruiser and there is a woman slicing up bananas on my left and a white haired men holding tools on my right. Immediately Anton and I are off; we make our rounds checking progress on the various projects around the plot. Then I’m introduced to Micah who is the head builder in charge of the masonry work being done on Anton’s in progress cottage. I begin helping by moving bricks from the driveway to the site via wheelbarrow. (Approx. 500m away) Then the work begins; I start by laying mortar on the bricks, so Micah can lay down a new row on the wall. Then I graduated to filling the gaps between the bricks in the new row on the wall. The next thing I learned was the finishing touch, spackling mortar on the wall in the fresh gap between the old brick and the new brick. I did this until lunchtime; the cooks made us a delicious meal of boiled Plantations (Bananas) in a tomato base. They are so tasty because when cooked the plantations have the consistency of potatoes! After lunch I made rounds with Anton again; then he showed me around his forest. Anton walked me around showing me and explaining the different types of trees and plants that he has planted over the years. He showed me all of his palms, eucalyptus, avocado, bamboo, flowers and many more things; it was honestly the best “learning” experience I’ve ever had, and I put learning in quotes because I didn’t remember most of the names but I got to touch, smell, and see all of these beautiful plants. Anton is very Passionate about his plants, you can feel the love that he has for all these organisms just by listening to him talk. Anton has made a very big impact on me because he loves what he does and he loves the area; this is his home it always has been and always will be. We slowly made it back to the cottage area, and we stopped at Mark’s cottage and sat on the patio talking about biology, population, desertification, and all the interesting things that are going on around in our world. I love talking to Anton because he was educated at Oxford and is an Atheist so his mind is very educated and open to say the least. It began to sprinkle rain so I moved my chair under the patio covering with Anton; it then began to down pour. So much water falling from the sky splashing, crashing on the ground at such a rapid rate that you couldn’t recognize the current rain drop’s impression from the last. It looked like a steady flow of water from high above resembling that from a garden hose. Every drop of water consecutively beating on everything around us was very loud; that we were practically shouting to keep conversation. I loved it though, it was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The African down pour was Amazing.



-Lucas

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