On Tuesday I climbed one of the hills near My Village.
But I didn’t climb it just for the sake of it. You see, I was with my host mom and her daughter, chopping down some firewood.
But we weren’t chopping down the firewood for the sake of chopping down firewood. You see, we were getting the usable firewood out of the way so that we could start a big fire with the trunks of the trees that had been chopped down, and with the tiny branches as kindling.
But we weren’t starting a big fire just for the sake of starting a big fire. It was well over 100 degrees in the shade – we didn’t need the heat! You see, we were starting a big fire so that there would be a big pile of ashes in a few days when the fire died down.
But we weren’t just trying to get a big pile of ashes for the sake of it. You see, they use the ashes to make potash. They put the ashes in a container with a bottom that lets water leak out, then flood the ashes, collecting the ash-water that leaks out the bottom. That is potash.
But we weren’t getting potash just for the sake of it. You see, even though we use potash as a fertilizer in the US, here they use it as a main ingredient in “to” (pronounced “toe”), their main food (eaten on average three times a day). “To” is made out of corn flour, but as a step in grinding the corn into flour, they soak the partially-ground kernels in the potash. So we were getting potash to make “to.”
But we weren’t getting ready to make “to” just for the sake of making “to.” You see, in a few weeks my host mom’s son is getting married so they will have lots of guests and will need to make lots of “to” to feed all the guests.
So you see, on Tuesday I climbed one of the hills near My Village . . . to get ready for a wedding.