Explanation of Andy planting yams with the men
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This is the crew I worked with the first time they showed me how to prepare their fields for planting yams. 6 men dug the mounds, well actually I would have counted as the 7th working man but after 5 mounds in 15 minutes I had blisters on my hands! While they are digging up the soil they let the chickens out of their basket to run loose to eat up the bugs that crawl out of the ground. Later they will come and just stick a branch in the soil that will sprout roots and grow into yams in 2 years. To make better use of the land the children were planting corn on the side of each mound. Since the soil was soft they just dug their heel into the side of the dirt mounds, dropped 2 or 3 grains of corn from their bowls into the indentation, and covered the hole with their toes.