Letter to Mom&Dad - Jan 20, 2007 - Fish Hunting

Dear Mom and Dad

Hey guys, how’s it going? I saw a new event in my village a couple of days ago. I’ll call it fish-hunting because it resembled nothing of actual fishing with a net or line. It was somewhat like “noodling” where people troll around the shallows of river banks for catfish burrows and try to catch them by hand but still not quite like it.

In my village there’s a pond that fills up during the rainy season and dries up during the dry season. It’s located in the middle of my village, To, and is almost dried. There’s still some muddy water in the middle, but it will be gone by April. Well, I was coming back from a village after talking to their women’s group on a few things when I see this group of people gathered in the middle, or just off, from the muddy water of the pond. Curious, I park my bike and wander over like any regular Burkinabe would.

The group of about 40 people were lining this hole that was about 15 ft across and 20 ft long. Inside about 10 feet down were 4 Burkinabe boys and men bailing water out of the hole with the help of people on the edge of the hole. 2 men were off in one cul-de-sac of the large hole/ditch digging amongst the shallower and muddier parts. They would periodically throw something up on the bank and the women and children would scramble to get it and put it in a bag. I circle around to see these two men and as I approach their side a 20-24 in catfish is tossed up and lands at my feet. I’m startled, but I smile and the Burkinabe laugh.

Looking over the edge, these men are covered in mud and scrambling around grabbing catfish left and right that burrowed into the mud, thinking they were safe until next year. Nope. These Burkinabe were, in a way, corralling and digging them out.One of them was actually crawling into a tunnel that he had been digging, that happened to be exactly underneath my feet at the time, and pushing out mud and catfish together. The second man would stand at the ready to grab the wriggling fish before they exited into the bigger puddle below, still in the process of being bailed out.

It was quite the coordinated endeavor for catching fish and I was curious to what extent they would bail and dig, but the process seemingly would take several hours to dig out all the catfish. I left them to their digging and harvesting of fish.

We don’t often have fish in To, so this harvesting is quite a big deal for the family who performed it. They’ll get quite a lot of money for selling the fish to locals who don’t get fish often either.

I believe I saw the family heading home later that day around 4pm, slightly cleaner, but with mud stains telling of their day’s work. They seemed pretty chipper.

That’s enough for now. Hope this finds you well. Take care,
Love, Laura