Many women here are very strong. They have to be. Gender roles are very distinct with men supposed to provide for the family, do fencing, look after animals and plow (with oxen). Meanwhile, women are expected to do all the household dishes (including washing dishes and clothes by hand, cooking over a fire, and cleaning), as well as child rearing, working in the shamba, milking the cows, fetching water, chopping and carrying firewood. Each person has a story and I am blessed to be learning some of them. Here are a few pictures I’ve gathered of the things women carry:
Not hats on their heads or backpacks on their backs, but sufuria's of vegetables, basins of grass, buckets of water, avocados, potatoes, and firewood... to name a few things. (Suitcases, milk, tea, and pineapples should also be added to the list; these things often with a child strapped to her back and maybe some things in her hands as well.
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