Mani (Peanuts)

Part of my community diagnostic is a map of the community. Well, there´s over 850 houses in my community so walking the whole thing has taken some time. In fact, there´s still places that I haven´t made it to because they´re so far away. But I was out walking one day when I ran into my friend Francisco who, as luck would have it, didn´t have anything to do at that moment so decided to tag along with me. I don´t think he knew what tagging along with me entailed until too late. Doing a map of the community is a long slow process let me tell you. Especially when you´re walking it. Anyway, there were some people working out in a field as we were getting going and I asked him what they were harvesting. He said mani (peanuts). Now I was excited because I had never seen peanuts come out of the ground before. I have Southern relatives so at least I knew they grew in the ground but had never seen the plants before. They had already pulled the plants out and were working on taking the peanuts of the vine. They were kind enough to answer my questions and were excited about posing for some pictures. Luckily, later on that week I found some peanut plants that hadn´t been pulled up yet so I got to see the plant up close and personal too. Well, my friend and I continued on our walk. Me trying to map the houses and figure out what direction we were pointing. We stopped at a few houses and hung out for a bit, which is a must both for meeting people and to get out of the sun and stop sweating for a few minutes. And if you´re lucky you can find a house with a water filter so you can get a big glass of cold, filtered water. On our way back we stopped by to see how the peanut pickers were progressing. They suggested we head up to the house and talk to Jose (the owner of the property) and maybe he would give us some peanuts. He was perfectly happy to let us have some peanuts and in addition went and got some manzanas (not really apples as far as I can tell) for us too. Here´s some pictures from the day!


Here´s what a peanut plant look like. The plant actually grows up out of the ground and then send shoots back into the ground, which is where the peanuts grow.


The whole group of people harvesting. They were super friendly. Although you´d never guess it. I think Dominicans are forbidden to smile in pictures!


One of the women picking peanuts!


Another woman picking peanuts!


I think this may be one of the best pictures I´ve ever taken. This girl´s name is Beatriz.


Here´s what they look like when they come out of the ground!


A bunch of the peanuts all laid out to dry. Don Jose will take these in and sell them to a company whose main product is peanut oil.


My friend Francisco with our score of fresh peanuts from Don Jose!


Trying out the hats the people working in the field use here. It´s called a pastora.


So this is what they call a manzana here. It´s really not very apple like if you ask me. It looks more like a pear, and the flavor is not quite apple like either, although when refrigerated they are a yummy snack.