Photo by Megan
I watched nervously as Lan stood on her tiptoes, camera perched on her shoulder, Fatima holding onto her waist for balance, as she attempted to film the boy driving the ox cart from the constantly jostling bed of the ox cart. After I had watched the boy beside me tumble off the back, an 80 pound Lan flying off the front didn’t sound too far fetched. Lan finally sat down to safety (the things a camera crew will do for a shot) and the boys laughed at our insanity as they passed us some warm chocolate milk.
Every day a group of students drive the ox cart out into one of the far fields to cut and gather grass to feed the cows during milking. We had seen the students about to leave, asked if we could join and jumped into the back of a sketchy looking wooden cart pulled by two oxen. Halfway to the field the yoke broke and one of the oxen tried to escape. Ox, however, are very big animals and the runaway soon found he couldn’t go very far on the narrow pathway. The boys fixed the yoke in a matter of minutes, the ox was recaptured and we continued our bumpy journey to the field.
Once we arrived the boys immediately began gathering the grass stalks (which were taller than the boys were) from pre-cut piles and loading them onto the cart. When they finished, the grass heap was so tall it threatened to spill over the sides of the cart. The students leaped into the mound, (which was looking more and more like a green, grassy mattress) Fatima, Lan and I piled onto the end of the cart and we headed back to the school.
Later on that night, the Dark Killer and Co. came over to watch the footage we had shot during the day (although, I think they were really wanting to watch soccer). One of the shots was of Marcos, a third year student, teaching a younger student how to give an antibiotic shot to a cow. As I was watching, I realized just how much leadership the older students show around the school and how seriously most of them take their responsibility to educate the younger students, both in the field and in the dorms. The sun set on the television (the last shot of the camera crew’s 17 hour day) and we clapped for Fatima and Lan’s excellent first day of filming. Marcos stood up and took a bow, “Gracias, Gracias” and the students bid us buenas noches.
- Jamie