head load

I still can not believe the things that women can carry on top of their heads. A big basin-full of cassava, several huge pieces of firewood, yam, a bunch of plaintain, a whole sack of gari, a machete (bolo), a big bucket of water, and sometimes all together, too! Their entire vertebra must be compacted together! They can’t carry anything with their hands, even a roll of toilet paper goes on top of their heads. From the time they learn how to walk they’re already trained to carry things this way. That’s why even the very young girls walk tall and straight, and very gracefully. That’s why, too, that they’re incessantly afflicted with waist pains and back pains and whateverelse pains. This is one of the women leaders (who has sort of adopted me) when I went to farm with her. She has a very light load here, just several pieces of yam, but you get the picture.