Manioc On A Hot Tin Roof

Written May 2, 2009

I wake up to this scent. I know I have smelled it before and I am trying hard to place it. I keep my eyes closed trying to catalogue it, afraid if I open them I will lose it. Suddenly it hits me, I know that smell.

It smells just like when Mama dries manioc out in pieces and laid them out on a piece of tin roofing. All day they would sit in the yard in the African sun while Mama constantly shooed the chickens away.

At night she would gather up the manioc, not yet fully dry and set them on the porch for the next day. I would sit beside it and smell that same scent. It is a sickenly strong odor with a hint of humidity.

That was what I was smelling this morning, but it was not my Mama. I do not live with her anymore. The smell was my skin, my blankets, my pillow because of the heat during the night. It was the third night of restless sleep, the heat doe not quit and the rain has not come unlike the calendar promises.

My cat Gossamer lays in a ball in a sort of upside down fashion and I tell her she is lucky I did not accidentally roll on top of her in the night. She continues sleeping, not the least bit concerned.

I hear my nieghbor Eric singing in his scratchy voice gospel music like every morning. "Pastor Eric, good morning," I say and he laughs as he heads for the farm.

I grab the half of the bread on the table and the jelly. I cut it open to find a colony of ants that have infested it. I throw it out in the yard and sigh. No food is safe.

Today is Saturday and there is no schedule but to do a lesson plan for the Jr. High School about methods of contraception. "The volunteer before you did it," I was told. "ok," I say. "I will do the class, but I have other things I want to do that are different then the previous volunteer."

Because I am different.

I feel the breeze through the window and I hope the rain will come soon, the farmers are all thinking the same thing too. Give Africa some relief, give its people some food for their families, it feels like manioc on a tin roof.