Wednesday, March 2, 1977, 10:00 pm - Day 400, Part 2

I got up good and leisurely . I had had both a good and a bad night's sleep, depending on how you look at it, but I will tell about that later. The time was maybe 8:00 am. I occupied myself doing little things for awhile, but I forget most of them. After awhile I started breakfast. My usual breakfast routine was followed this morning, only in a very leisurely and carefree manner. I woke up this morning feeling on top of the world. I was pleased with myself for what had been going on last night and during the last few days.

I was continually humming and thinking songs to myself. A sure sign of happiness. They weren't any of this new-fangled stuff either. The ones I remember were "I'm getting married in the morning", "Yankee doodle", and alot of others (I forget them now) that were all along the same lines. Nothing but good, wholesome songs. Some of them I had also thought of in times past, but most were just popping out of my head for the first time in ages, if not ever.

Anyway, I felt great. My breakfast routine consists of first putting water in my teapot and then lighting my one-burner kerosene stove that really works. I put the teapot on, and while the water is heating I prepare the ingredients in my 3-cup metal tin coffee cup. The ingredients are: 5 tsp of instant milk, 2.5 tsp of Milo (malted chocolate flavor, which is good for you too), 2 sugar cubes, and then to top it all off I very carefully unstick and count out 6 miniature marshmallows, which I treat myself to every morning in Kamiendor. The marshmallows were old in the store when I bought them, which was ages ago, and which I have opened and closed countless number of times. The bag is still only half empty, but the marshmallows come out tasting as good as new. The only problem with them is that they are stuck together in the bag. With these 6 small marshmallows now in my cup, I am ready for the next step.

I take last night's leftover rice and topping pots, I pick them up off the floor where I store them, and inspect them for ants. I remove all that I find, and I am always sure that I have gotten them all. Then I put the topping in with the rice and mix it all up until it is good and loose. By this time the water is hot, and so I exchange the teapot for my rice and topping pot. While it is heating, I mix my cup-a-chocolate. I first put a little water and then stir it all up. This insures that the milk and chocolate dissolve. Then I fill the cup half way and stir again. By now the sugar is also dissolved. I then fill the remaining cup space with cold water to cool it down to where I am able to drink it. A few times while I am filling my cup, I take time out to stir my rice pot. A few minutes after my first sip of chocolate, the rice is warmed, so I turn the fire down, remove the pot and fill my plate. I then blow out the fire if it is still going. This routine is the same, all of this time. This morning I stretched it out a little, not being in any hurry at all.

I shaved this morning inbetween taking off the teapot and mixing my cup of chocolate. I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time in a few days also, and liked what I saw. I cut my fingernails and toenails also, but I seem to remember doing that before I started breakfast. I also took a shit, that I was very happy about, but more about that later. I think I read a little from my current book also, but again more later.

I was finished with all of these things, dressed, and ready to meet the world at 10:30 am. These times are all relative to my alarm clock, or to what my guess of the time is. One is just as accurate as the other, because there is nothing for me to set my clock to except my guess at what the time is by looking at the location of the sun. I think I can tell you the correct time, within a half hour or less, at any time during the day. Practice makes perfect. Besides, who is to say that my guess is not correct?

I didn't make it anywhere except to the front of the house, before I got way-layed. I got talked into helping to knock the rice by one of the ladies of the house. I have beat rice before, which is what they do to remove the husk from the grain, but I had as yet not observed "knocking the rice" before today. Knocking, it turns out, is what they do to remove the rice from the stalk. When they cut the rice in the field, they do it one shoot at a time. Holding it at the top, where the rice is, they cut it with a knife about 6 to 8 inches lower down. These rice and stalks are then collected into neatly piled big hand fulls and then tied together with a bit of grass. These bundles are then packed carefully away until such time as they are dried completely. They are then ready for knocking. I had seen it all except for the knocking, so today filled in the missing link.

After knocking, the rice is put in the sun to insure dryness and then packed away until it is needed. Then it is ready for beating, accompanied by fanning. Only native-made instruments are used, and it is alot of work (hard work), but it gets the job done. The instruments are a hollowed out and shaped log section, which looks like a fancy ice cream dish, only bigger. It varies in size, but usually comes up a bit higher than your knee. the rice is put in here, until about half way full. It is then ready to beat. This vessel is used for everything here, not just beating rice. They beat and mix anything and everything in them, just like you at home would use a mixing bowl and spoon.

To beat it, there is a large assortment of wooden poles, usually about 6 to 8 feet long. these are shaped in different shapes and sizes at each end. Holding a pole vertically at its center, you stand near the vessel and, using both hands, you pound it into the rice or whatever until it is done. Two people can do this at the same time, standing on opposite sides, each with her own pole. Often, during the course of beating, you stop and empty the vessel's contents ontpo a wooden straw (or whatever) tray, about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide in a circular oblong shape. This is the fanner. Working one of these is a work of art, and also requires good rythmn and beat. By both shaking the fanner sideways back and forth or flipping the contents up into the air to catch the breeze, the operator is able to get rid of what she wants and keep what she wants, and even sort out what she keeps.

By working the fanner back and forth and up and down, she is able to arrange the contents from the heavier ones (husked rice and stones) down at the bottom at her belly, and the other contents arranged in order, all of the way to the top, with the super light particles (stripped husks) going right off the top if need be. She is also able to empty parts of the tray with a flip of her wrist, while the other parts won't even move. It is fasinating to watch, and the sound makes African music good enough to dance to.

Well, back to knocking. Knocking is very simple, and I was an expert at it on my first whack. The rice, with dry stalks attached, is piled up, and then using a stick (1 inch diameter, 4 feet long), you stand there and beat it. This knocks the rice off of the stalk. You beat awhile, then you stop and fluff up the pile, taking from the bottom and putting on top and so forth, then you beat again. After a bit, you take up the stalks, shaking out the loose rice as you do, and put the stalks into another pile to be beat again. Change piles 3 or 4 times and you're done. This kept me busy for about an hour, before I was able to wander off, finally.