By Dan Friesen
Last winter our group visited a tiny farm in Sri Lanka in the center of the island just a few miles from Sigiriya, the Lion Rock. The guy and gal in the photo on the left own a little farm where they grow a tremendous variety of tropical crops – Sri Lanka is just a few hundred miles north of the equator. The other gals are friends and neighbors that came in to help cook and prepare our delicious lunch.
After riding down an epicly bumpy dirt road in little wagons pulled by miniature tractors they call “landmasters”, we took a short stroll around the farm – bananas, peppercorns, a variety of vegetables, papayas, and lots more. His cash crop was onions, and his biggest pests were…elephants and peacocks!
You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when farmers’ worst enemies are elephants and peacocks. The government tries to head off dangerous DIY remedies by issuing firecrackers for them to toss at these foraging nemeses. Dogs are kept tied up when the pachyderms are in the area because elephants will chase the dogs right into, and through, their humble abodes.
The photo above plays a part in my desktop screensaver at the moment, and it brought to mind these hospitable, humble people – I wonder how they are faring right now?!
