Many Chadians are subsistence farmers. Often they’ll have a small plot of land on the outskirts of town – a few acres where they’ll plant crops during the rainy season. Our house helper, Ashta, owns a fairly large plot just outside of Abeche. Every year, starting in early or late June, depending on when the first rains come, she prepares her field for planting. She plants millet, peanuts, and sometimes okra, not to sell but just to supplement her family’s food supply during the year. We have greatly enjoyed visiting her in her fields, where the boys like to help with the work and just wander around, exploring. Yesterday we went to see how they plow the field in preparation for planting. Sometimes they use tractors, although they are old, expensive and they break down often. Other times, like yesterday, they use horse or ox drawn plows, which are much more reliable. It’s a whole family affair, since kids in Chad are let out of school for the entire rainy season for this very purpose. So every day Ashta’s kids are out in the field while she’s working at our house, and then when she leaves around noon she joins them.