Last Saturday was the first harvest of the watermelon…it was fun (to watch I really didn’t do any work!), interesting (watching the process from beginning to end) and educational (the games the buyer played would be cut short next time).  Here’s my account of the day –

We were told the buyers workers would be at the farm at 10am to go through the farm and pick and cut the watermelon they wanted to buy.  When they hadn’t shown up by 10:30 Chuck decided to fill the water tank.  This is done by taking the 50 ltr tanks to a nearby well, filling them then transferring the water to this 1000 ltr tank at the farm…all by hand!

Once the workers arrived, around 11:30, they went through the farm and picked the melons they wanted.

They cut the melons from the plant and set them aside.

Once the workers went through the entire farm we (in this photo Roman, Lewis and Gutu) went to work bringing the melons to one location – sacks were loaded by hand then carried to the pile.  (When I say “we” that does not include me!  Someone needed to take photos, right?!)

Chuck got in on the action too.

While the work continued I took the opportunity to take a few nature shots

Once all the watermelon were piled up it was time to wait for the buyer to show up – part of the game, get the watermelon off the plant and sitting in the sun to lose kg’s (we are paid per kg).

While we waited for the transport to arrive we just had to sample the harvest.  In this photo are Johnnie, Roman and Bosco (workers on the farm).

And we had to get a picture of the farmers with the first fruits.

I’m no farmer but this is a nice watermelon – delicious too!

You see, I’m not the only one who thought the watermelon was delicious!

Looking out over the picked farm.

Transport finally arrived around 3pm

Weighing began (I recorded kg’s) and packing onto the truck.

This continued until dusk.

Until the buyer said he was finished…that’s when negotiations got a bit heated!  These were the watermelon their workers had picked but the buyer didn’t buy…he tried to get us to sell him the “bad” melons (he said they were bad but when Chuck told him no he started filling bags to weigh and buy!) for a very cheap price.

The sun began setting and negotiations were still on-going…until Chuck said they were done,  “we’ll give them to the kids to eat!”  And that’s what he did the next day (sorry I wasn’t there, so no photos) by taking some to Mercy and Nice View and he said they really enjoyed the melon!

And this one will have to wait for another harvest!

There’s a look at the first watermelon harvest.  Long day but we learned a lot for next time.  Big thanks to the workers, Johnnie, Roman and Bosco and our farmers Joseck, Lewis and Chuck…but thanks be to God for His wisdom and help during this entire process.