Tribute to Farm Workers

It's farm tribute time once again. A team runs a farm, and though our Lawang Bato Farm has a very informal group of people helping out in it, we are a team, nonetheless.

The youngest in our 'hood is two-year old Yanyan. Everytime I'd arrive, he'd position himself at the back of the car, expecting to carry anything from a seedling and empty yakult bottles to pails of kitchen waste. Of course, we don't let him hold the latter, the weight of which would even surpass him. But he'd always want to carry at least more than one thing in his feeble hands. 

 He'd get his hands on everything everyone else is holding. He'll touch the soil, the sprayer and spay water at each sprouting leaf on the egg tray, the bottles, everything! Once I saw him staring at the ducks for several minutes and when I approached, he mumbled incoherent words, perhaps duck terms.

We love his energy, his enthusiasm, his delight. And he gets to sit on his throne when he wants to, or his wheeled horsey around.

Then there's her aunt Meme who helps in the cutting and chopping of everything that needed to. She said she enjoys experimenting, especially when we were working on the fertilizers.

Not in the picture is sister Tata, the mother of Yanyan and sister of Meme. In between breastfeeding Yanyan's younger brother Yohan, she'd talk to the little sprouts and give them the gentle stare to rise up. And true enough, she has grown more seeds than anyone of us had.

Then there is the girls' dad. We call him Mr. Guard because he works as one and when it's not his shift, he comes and till soil, move wood around, cut overly-long leaves or branches, or simply carry Yanyan, who calls him Lolo, and actually awaits for him by the gate when he knows he's coming. He knows the trees and the vegetables but he doesn't eat them. Not yummy, he says.

 Then there's caretaker Lisa, the mother of the sisters, wife to Mr. Guard, and granny to the two toddlers. She does the weeding, the general instructing of everything, and the one who announces when there are vegetables good for the picking. She also thought of the idea to put this seedling tray as such below that has proven more effective than my yakult bottle version.

So there you go, the farm workers who contribute as much to the Lawang Bato Farm as yours truly who sweat it out everyday but would never be close to her enthusiasm if not for these wonderful people around.