The Things they Carried

The Things they Carried

This is the title of a book by Tim O’Brien.I think it’s a very relevant title for this blog.

 I see people carrying things every day and in pretty much every way.

These are generic pictures from google of an African woman carrying her young child in a chitenji and a man with a huge load being transported on a bicycle.

One day I saw an African woman carrying her baby in a manufactured carrier and was greatly surprised. Most often local women carry their children from babies to toddlers in a Chitenji. This is a wrap that serves as a wrap to cover a woman from the waist down, and many other purposes. It can also be rolled and coiled to make a padding of sorts on top of one’s head to facilitate that carrying of plastic tubs or any number of other items, including firewood, charcoal or random bundles. Often with no support from their hands.

It is not uncommon to see young men carrying long poles of bamboo on their head or other kinds of wood or beams and loads of charcoal as well.

Vehicles also carry many things. I have seen huge loads of cane furniture balanced on a flatbed pick up sort of vehicle. I have also seen an amazing number of people carried on the same sort of vehicle. Possibly in work clothes headed out to work for the day or in dress clothes in the rain with a large number of umbrellas.

Bicycles also carry things. They can be ridden with a load on one’s head or they can be loaded up with various packages strapped to the frame and pushed. Large loads of charcoal are carried by our gate like this fairly regularly. 

Just a glimpse of what we see every day