THE STRUGGLE OF A FARMER (PART TWO)

Edith Maphari's story
Part two

My grandparents never forced me to take the route that I did,they were pretty old to understand anything to do with education.

All they understood about school is if you go to school then you'll one day work in big offices,getting paid for just swinging the chair all day and buy cars and houses.

I grew deep passion for farming in my second year. During school holidays I'd work on a very small part of the farm with my grandfather to plant tomatoes and onions.

After harvesting my grand mother would then go sell the produce at the taxi rank. Times were hard but we were surviving.

Years later when my best friends and I were done with school I was unemployed and still struggling with getting funds to get the farm back to what it used to be. My friends were doing great.

One worked at the biggest hospital as a Doctor while the other one owned four of the biggest grocery supermarkets franchises in South Africa.

We still kept in touch and met for lunch once in a while. Life was just at a stand still for me but I was very happy and proud of my friends.

I continued with the struggle for funds for the farm and with each year passing by my grandparents were getting heavy for their legs to carry.

I wanted to give up, I wanted to let go but I couldn't let the van der Merwe's and my grandparents down. My friends could see that I'm no longer my self, I was becoming a shadow of my self. I stopped taking their calls because I got tired of lying to them about "being ok".

I was now the one having to sell tomatoes at the taxi rank, my grandmother couldn't walk long distances nor carry heavy baskets no more.

We were just making enough to put food on the table. One evening when I got home I saw my friends luxurious cars parked outside my house, I wanted to run and hide but they had seen me already because they were sitting under the tree with my grandparents.

I braved through and walked towards them,they were happy to see me. I tried to hide my sadness and my struggles but how could I?when they were written all over my face.

We sat on a different tree from the one my grand parents were sitting under. I finally swallowed my pride and opened my heart to them. I would never allow them to help me by giving me money, that much they already knew.

My Doctor friend said she's got a patient who owns a huge poultry we should ask her for chicken waste to use as a fertilizer to bring the soil back to life ,my Entrepreneur friend said that she threw away a box of spoilt tomatoes weekly,so she could do with a new tomato supplier for all her franchises.

We giggled but then I remembered that spoiled tomatoes can be used to make seeds. I asked her to keep the spoiled tomatoes for me I'd definitely use them to make seeds then plant tomatos.

Two weeks later she brought me so many spoiled tomatoes. The three of us sat under a tree removing the tomato seeds from the tomatoes throwing them in a bucket with some water in it. We filled big buckets with tomato seeds.

The next day my friend's patient Brought a very huge load of chicken waste in a big truck. I took a tractor and started ploughing. My grandparents were very excited and they helped me with the soil preparation.

On the third day,I went to open the buckets to check on the seeds and they had grey and white mold at the surface of the water.

I spilled the water,reserved the seeds and added clean water in each bucket. I swirled the water and allowed the water to settle.

The bad seeds floated while the good seeds settled at the surfaces of the buckets.

One of the buckets has only good seeds,the others had very few bad seeds then I poured off the bad seeds reserving the good seeds.

I strained the water from the seeds then threw them on a very big unused sliding door. I poured them out to dry,I gave the seeds a day to be bone dry.

The soil was finally ready so planting began. The excitement on my grandparents faces during planting were priceless.

To cut to the chase,today I'm a supplier at my friends grocery supermarkets,I supply the hospital with tomatoes as well and I also supply tomatoes at the nearby mine and two fruits and vegetables store. I own a delivery truck and a bakkie. I've hired 5 people and we have planted onions on a 3 hectare,we are patiently waiting for harvesting.

It doesn't matter how long it takes but if you are passionate about what you do then you are a winner