It took me back to my own boyhood. As the 8 boys came through the gate with their tools, ready for a “man sized” day of work I remembered the feelings of years past. These boys had wrapped tape or bandages around old machetes, to make handles. Most seemed to be old and broken tools borrowed from their fathers; they also had two picks with them. They waited in line for a man to sharpen their tools on Lifeline’s electric grinder. I could not understand the language but I know well the excitement of being with your friends and telling each other, “we will work really hard, and every day, and this will be the best garden ever!”
However before starting on the melon garden they planted some banana trees and put up a “living fence.” (A plant that seems to be of the milkweed family, called “Chandalee” in Creole) This barrier of protection from goats is supplemented by the boy’s watchful eye. They have already caught one goat and returned him (with stern warning) to his owner.
The hope is, by the end of the summer the boys will have their own watermelon to eat as well as profit from the sale of the extra fruit.
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