It was a Saturday, and I woke up around 6 a.m. to complete my house chores early. I had to be at my fiancé’s place by 8:30 so we could head to his mother’s home and help with garri production. I had recently run out of food, so this was perfectly timely cause there's no way I’d return from there without a sack full of garri. My mother-in-law-to-be always measures generously when it comes to me. She likes me a lot; maybe it’s because I’m marrying her favorite son.
After getting ready, I left for my fiancé’s place. Luckily, he was also done with his morning routine. I met him eating and joined him. After the meal, I cleared up, and we headed out. We boarded a shuttle that took us straight to his mother's village. Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed and offered food, but we were already full.
After everyone was done eating, we all went to the farm to harvest cassava. That’s when I saw just how good my fiancé is with farm work. While he uprooted cassava, I picked ripe peppers. He showed me how to uproot them too, and I followed along. His mother showed me which ones were mature and told me to leave the tough ones for him so I wouldn’t get hurt.
When we had enough, we rested under a shady spot and ate before heading back to start peeling. We hired a bus, packed the cassava into large sacks, and went back. No time was wasted, we jumped right into peeling. With many hands helping, we quickly got through with it. I washed the cassava while my fiancé’s youngest sibling arranged them in a basin for grinding.
After everything was peeled, I took a short rest while my fiancé and his brother took the cassava to be ground and pressed. It took a while since they had to grind and tie them as well there.
Immediately I was up, I joined Mama (that’s what I call my mother-in-law-to-be) to gather firewood and prepare the frying area. When the guys returned, we offloaded the ground cassava. I started sifting with the garri filter while Mama began frying. The men rested during this time.
Mama fried three rounds, then I took over and fried one. Just as I was about to continue, my fiancé insisted I save my energy to give him a massage later, as his body was aching. He’s always funny like that, but he was serious, so I left the frying to him. He handled the last two batches.
We spread the garri on a clean floor to cool. When it was ready, Mama divided it, giving me and my fiancé separate shares. Mine was ten times more, and her reason was “He can always come back for more.” I thanked my Mama so much, she blessed me and i got in to pack our stuffs so we could leave. It was late already, so we boarded a shuttle a went home.
It was such a work-filled weekend, but I learnt so much, how to uproot cassava and identify mature ones. About the massage? Don't worry, that's for another day.
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