#30 Planting Corn in Titihoyo

We visited in Titihoyo on the day they were plowing fields and
planting corn.  This is the Condori farm.  Wilder Condori and his
brother-in-law Felipa Arce are plowing. 

This is hard work and the field looks  pretty rough to us but
they plant the seed and it comes up really good. This is like
a step back in time. 

This is Wilder's better trained pair of oxen.  So to help the
younger pair of oxen they follow close behind. 

You need to keep control of the oxen and make sure you
plow in the right place at the same time.  The oxen do
like to go their own way sometimes.  

Lloyd could not wait to try this.  He had done this before on his first
mission here.  They used the same kind of plow.  He said they helped
the people here a lot with their field work 43 years ago. 

Elder Rengifo and Bilanzich both wanted to help. It was a great
experience for us all. The mountains and sky  are beautiful here. 

 

This is the one blade plow they use. 

After they finished plowing the field.  They tied these long funnels
to the side of the plow.  This is Felipa Arce. He was Branch President
in Quiriza at one time but  has been less active for a few years.  We
visited him one day and invited him to come to church with us on
Sunday and he has not missed a sunday since then. 

Lloyd is holding the long stick they use to drive the oxen with.
Notice the nail in the end.  This helps guide the oxen while
turning and plowing.

This plow is ready to be used for planting. 

The women help them plant the corn seed and fertilize with goat
manure.  They walk along with the seed and fertilizer wrapped
in an bright colored shawl called an aguyilla.  They put the seed
and fertilizer in the long funnels while they plow a furrow.  

This cute baby is Ivan Condori the II  he is 3 weeks old and
his mother was helping plant the corn.  So Kristie was glad
to help by holding him. His mom would lay him in the wheel
barrow on the side of the field for a bed.    

The next week when we visited in Monte.  The community was
working together in this field.  They had nine teams of oxen planting
corn this day. 

This is pretty country.  It is late Spring, Early summer and the
trees are green and it will be even greener when all this corn
comes up and starts growing. 

On a Saturday morning we went  to help Felipa plant three fields of corn.
This is what they look like now.  You can see Lloyd and Felipa
plowing in the distance.  The rest of us would pick up  bunches
of grass and break up large clods of soil. In a few months when
these fields are green with tall corn, I will take another picture
and put it on the blog.  

Lloyd plowing with the oxen.  This is hard work.  You have to hold
the plow with one hand, making a straight row, hold the long stick w/
the nail to guide in the other hand and walk verily fast on loose,
rough soil.

Rosaria Condori and her niece Mirtha Arce carried lunch to us.
They walked about 3 miles. They had is wrapped in their Aguyillas.
We had a large bowl of soup with goat meat, fried chicken, rice and
french fries. They didn't have quite enough plates so a few of us ate.
Then Mirtha ran up to the irrigation ditch and washed them and
brought them back and dished up some food for someone else.
We had Coca-cola to drink.  They brought one glass and we
all shared that glass.  They share glasses here all the time.
This is a little hard for some of us to do.  But the meal was good
and we did appreciate their thoughtfulness and effort.