Jess writes:
Women in this country love to sweep! Seriously, they will sweep just about anything! Every morning, usually rather early (since it gets so hot in the late morning), you will see all the village women emerge from their homes with their short, twig & bristle brooms and begin a very arduous-looking, very hunched-and-uncomfortable-looking, sweeping frenzy. And do you know what they’re sweeping? The dirt. Yup. Most of the “yards” in this country are nothing more than dirt, so the women like to make their yards look good by sweeping out all the leaves, pebbles & trash from the dirt. The result is that their dirt yards look amazingly well-groomed, in an almost Chinese-garden-esque fashion, with broom patterns of varying depths and lengths across the entire expanse of the ground. Even more astounding is when they continue outward from their yard to the length of the street in front of their house and even the public walking spaces along their fences and behind their homes. It’s truly incredible! By the end of the day, the artistically groomed areas are erased by the wind and littered with all form of contaminants – mostly leaves – and the ritual must be repeated the next morning to maintain sweeping appearances. It seems to be a tireless job… one that I’ve already decided won’t be an every-morning practice for myself! Yes, that’s right, I’m going to let our dirt go au natural… what will they say!
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Jess, I just wanted to tell you I am really enjoying reading all your wonderful posts. I know I don't usually leave comments, but I read all of the posts. What you are doing is amazing, and the fact you are sharing your experiences is awesome. :)
ReplyDeletethey sweep dirt here too. and with short, always-requiring-the-sweeper-to-be-crouched brooms too. Today a woman was sweeping the dirt from the side walk and wouldn't take a break while my friends and I were walking past her, making us walk through a cloud of dirt. But I guess its helpful somehow.
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