Everyday Life

As you can tell by the title, I am going to answer one of the most popular question people ask me: "What does everyday life in Obule look like?" Life here is very simple. My day usually begins with school. I do all my classes online. Some days I get done before lunch and some days I finish my work around 3 in the afternoon - it all depends on my work load and how much time l spend doing other things instead of school. During most of the year, the local kids are in school until 5:00 p.m. Also, many of the youth my age are away at boarding school. I spend a lot of my afternoons watching makai, baking, drawing, singing (my family is a little tired of me singing), etc. I try to go to town as often as I can just to get out of the house for a little while. I usually end up in town only once or twice a week. When the neighbor kids get out of school, l go and hang out with them. Some days, it's difficult to find someone to hang out with. Usually, Lydia and l play games with Emalai's friends. Luka often is playing soccer or football with his buddies. Emalai loves to be apart of village life; she usually helps her friends with their work. And Makai wanders around, following one us older kids. 

This is our very sandy and bumpy road. In the rainy season, the bushes are overgrown and make the road more narrow. In the dry season, many of the plants die and those that are left change color due to the dust. 

This is part of our trading center. It's a very small town (not even a town) where food and everyday items are sold.

This is a typical compound in the village. There are usually 2-5 huts on each compound depending on the amount of kids. 

This hut has a metal door and the wall is painted with clay, ash, charcoal and/or mud. Some huts, however, have wooden doors and no designs on the wall. 

The roof on a hut is thatched with dried grass. The very tip of the roof is sometimes held together by old bottles or tires (as seen in the picture above). 

People here are farmers. There are two growing seasons. Families here grow almost everything from maize (corn), to millet, to sorghum, to ground nuts (peanuts), to sim-sim (seasme seeds), to sweet potatoes, and much more! They also grow fruits like oranges, watermelon, tomatoes, papayas, etc. 

The two girls pictured above are excited about the maize that is ready to be roasted, boiled, or dried to be ground into flour. 

A lot of what is grown will be dried before ground into flour or stored in sacks. These are unshelled g-nuts. 

Drying casava. 

These are Mandazi; they are a local doughnut hole. There are several different types of Mandazis. Pictured below are mandazis being fried. 

Very few people have running water in the village. Boreholes are scattered throughout the village. The yellow jugs people fetch water in are called jericans. Fetching water is primarily a girls' job and they start carrying jericans on their heads as soon as they can walk. 

Once the water in brought from the borehole to home, it is dumped into big clay pots (pictured above). These pots keep the water nice and cool. 

Dishes that are drying on a rack made from sticks and banana leaves. 

Garden work is done with hoes or plows pulled by a pair of oxen. During the non-growing season, the gardens get very over grown and bushy. 

Emalai digging in the garden with her friends. 

Smaller hoes are used for weeding or given to the small children. It's amazing that hardly anyone chops off a toe! I speak from experience when I say that hoes are sharper than you realize. 

Every family has animals. Chickens are the most common. But families also have cows, goats, sheep, turkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, etc. Animals provide a source of income and are eventually used to pay dowry for wives.

I love when there are baby animals around! One of our neighbors has six puppies right now! 

Bikes and motorcycles are a common site here. Bodas (bike/motorcylce taxis) are a common source of transport. Most ladies sit side saddle because of their skirts. 

Every evening, all the boys in the village migrate to the nearest soccer field. In the picture above, Makai is wandering towards a group of school boys who are playing soccer (futball) during their break.