When it comes to producing food, there are many tools that those of us who work in modern American agriculture can easily take for granted. Tractors, electrical- or gas-powered tools, whether they are pumps or string trimmers, etc. All sorts of conveniences that we scarcely give a second thought about and will even junk when we think they are not worth fixing. Take shoes, for example. “Shoes, you say? Shoes aren’t a tool.” Oh, but what if you didn’t have any?
Pumping water to raised beds
In my travel to Tanzania, I watched with curiosity as a fellow pumped water to irrigate his green plots which were for vegetable raising. He didn’t plug in an electric pump or fire up a gas engine or turn on the PTO on his tractor. No, HE pumped the water to his co-worker who directed the water to the raised beds. For hours, every day. With a pump that looked like a stair-stepper machine, with humid air in the low 80’s. With water that was most likely from the open “drains” that ran through the streets of Mwanza. Organic fertilizer included. Shoes were not included with his employment benefit package.
Double-cropping
In another instance, I watched intently as a smallholder farmer (a farmer with a very small piece of land, only an acre or two perhaps) tilled the ground below banana trees with a multi-tined hoe tool that was used like you would an adze. On the second tier, some of his land had coffee growing, and other parts had corn or other crops, including fresh vegetables. Intensely managed, every square inch with a plan. I have seen similar systems employed in India and China. Watching this young man breaking soil with a sharp tool to prepare for planting another crop was encouraging to see the potential for what soil, water and sunlight could grow, but watching him do it in bare feet was on the scary side, swinging the sharp tool into the ground only inches from his toes over and over and over. No steel-toed safety shoes here. Not even used tennis shoes.
Gratefulness
Each of these producers of food approached their work with the tools they had available to them. Each one worked hard to make the most of their land and their situation. Each inspired me to be thankful. To them for their work to produce food for the rest of the world around them, and for the incredible gifts with which I feel I’ve been blessed – things as simple as a cordless drill or chainsaw or tractor, but also shoes. Yes, shoes.
Moments of Grace watching these barefoot farmers.