What I saw this morning shocked me! It's a positive kind of shock though...No alarm!
Sit tight, grab your popcorn let me gist you.
So we have this neighbour who likes farming. She must have been a farmer in her village before they came to the city.
She has converted every nearby bush around the compound to her farm. Like, anywhere grass grows in the compound, she must cultivate something.
Thanks to her,we don't have bushes around again 🤣 She has turned them to her garden.
Sadly, I don't know, maybe it's because of the type of soil we have here, those gardens don't produce well.
For the past 4 years now she's been cultivating corn 🌽, cassava, yam etc but they never yielded good produce.
As a matter of fact, there was a particular year she cultivated them with pregnancy. When she gave birth, it was her mother who came for omugwo that continued where she stopped. I remembered they harvested some cassava and started the processing. Almost at the last stage of processing the cassava into garri, they discovered it was contaminated, so they poured the entire thing away.😢
The whole efforts right from the planting, the harvesting and processing, wasted, not to mention the treatment and fertilizer she used, all wasted!!!
Guess what?
The next year, she still cultivated those gardens. The past hurtful experience didn't deter her.
One day during the harmattan season, she weeded the tares and burnt it. The fire escalated into big inferno because of the dry harmattan season. Come and see this woman running helter shelter to put out the fire. We were all running around to help put out the fire because of the cars parked in the compound and nearby shops.
At that point, many neighbours were tired of her matter with that garden. People started murmuring...why would she be wasting her strength and time on a garden that has never produced any tangible harvest. The labour she puts there is in no way commensurate with the results she gets.
We thought she was done with anything that has to do with that garden. No!
This woman never got discouraged!
Even after the fire incident which ravaged every single grass in the compound, she still went back to cultivate that land.
Fast forward to this morning....
I was heading out this morning, my head was buried in my phone as i was chatting a client (it's a bad phone etiquette to be fiddling your phone on the road, I know 🤣🤣 but if a client is involved, I am as guilty as charged 🤣)
So because I was engrossed with my phone, I didn't notice what was going on near the gate. As I lifted my head up, I saw large quantity of corn everywhere on the ground with some women including that my neighbour standing there.
I turned to access the harvest
Wow! Where did all this corn come from?
She smiled...
Don't tell me it's from this garden o!😮..I asked
She nodded affirmatively and gave a winning smile. Are you serious? I exclaimed!!!
OMG ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ˜²
This is a bumper harvest o!!!
She nodded...
You should look for buyers o, you can't finish this just by eating alone before it gets dry...oh
wait!!!
Are these buyers?( I turned to the women standing there)
Again, she nodded in the affirmative with that gloaming smile🤗🤗
I couldn't hide my joy and sentiments, as I congratulated her and commended her for all her persistence, patience and consistency.
I told her, I'm going to write about you and your small farm because we know how this farm has frustrated you all these years but you kept persisting. Now this year, you've eaten the fruits thereof and even made monetary profit too. See customers waiting to buy the corn.
Of a truth, consistency is the key!
Oh, I didn't mention that earlier this year too, she also had a breakthrough with her cassava. In fact she shared the fufu (akpu) she got from it to the neighbors. She has also given us our share of the corn too
We've all eaten out of her persistence and consistency. I don't know whether you've drawn any lesson from this woman's story. But know that there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep doing what you are doing, don't give up. One day, like this woman, you'll make it.