Pride Goeth Before Destruction – Part II of III

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The truck had arrived. It was go time!

We were issuing to the farmers one bag of CAN, one bag of DAP and 10kg of seed (or double that for some of the larger land-owners). And by 'bag,' I mean 50kg BAG of fertilizer (for those of you who are twenty-first century Americans or seventeenth-century Englishmen, that's 110lbs). Jake and another Nuru-ite were on top of the truck, tossing the fertilizer into a pile below.

For those of you who don't know, Jake is strong. I knew that (people who were in the Marines are, as I have found, in general, stronger than those who were not in the Marines). But knowing a piece of information is a very different thing from seeing the man fling 110 pounds around like it was...was...was … something very, very light that would ordinarily be easily flung. [Note to self: if I ever get the time, I shall have to pontificate on the Philosophical differences between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge such as this].

Anyways, I was part of the moving team. I was so eager for the first bag, I just dragged it into place; from on top of the truck, Jake said it'd be faster with two people, and I found out he was correct. The field officers and I took the flung bags, two people per bag, and piled them in a line, awaiting the farmers. It was hard work. Really hard work. And I loved it!

I never get to exert my body in the service of others; this was perhaps the most meaningful menial labor I have ever done. In Boy Scouts, we did 'service projects,' but rarely for needy people. It was a superb thing to do when you're twelve. But now I was a grown up and I was actually helping someone provide food for their family (albeit in a small and exchangeable role; that is to say, anyone could have done what I was doing).

As further background, I've long believed physical strength to be a part of manliness, and one that I am rarely able to express. Both because of modern society and because of my position in it, only rarely have I felt the triumph of conquering a mountain or (rarer still) overcoming an opponent in a sport. The unique fulfillment of a hard day of physical work is for me is uniquely fulfilling and far too uncommon an occurrence.

I worked at double speed, making sure to push myself to the limit to not miss out on any of the labor. The field officers, accustomed to hard work, knew that it wasn't going anywhere. But I was greedy for it. The idlers, eager to get overpaid for work, were circling like vultures. The rapidity of our work also did much to communicate, “We don't need you,” to those who could potentially extort money or cause trouble. The first truck was unloaded of about ten thousand pounds of fertilizer in around fifteen minutes. Go team!

Then we had to wait. The seed and remaining fertilizer would have to come in a second load. It was a hot day, but we had shade, and in this we waited and conversed.

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