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summary

A Christian, who moved from the lowland to the highland, the narrator talks of the worsening environmental conditions, the impoverishment of the people and her own sorrow that seven of her ten children had to leave the area to work as housemaids or shepherds as her plot of land was too small for them all to live off. She sees the new development activities as providing hope for the future.

detailed breakdown

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Section 1	Former productivity of the land: “In the old days, one used to harvest 30 to 80 donkey-loads of yield from one farm.” Effect of land redistribution – impoverishment; no land for seven of her ten children, who have to work instead as housemaids and shepherds: “I had to be separated from them before my love for them was satisfied.” Rise in the cost of living.
Section 2	Development programmes - protecting the forest, forming credit associations, growing new crops e.g. coffee and potatoes. Hopes of improvement in the coming years: “I want to see [my children]…throw away these rags and wear better clothes, and live in houses with roofs of corrugated iron sheets.” Brief description of religious customs and social institutions. Increase in family size, impoverishment and effect on social relations – no property for the woman to take away after divorce.
Section 2-3	Importance of passing on family history especially as she moved from the lowland to the highlands: “If I don’t tell my son about his great grandfathers, grandfathers and father, someone could easily attack and victimise him, but if he knows who his kinsmen are, he can get their support.’
Section 3	Separateness of Muslims and Christians. Relations between men and women – women now assert their equality. Work as a midwife, importance of spacing children. New school in village – serves children and adults (women learning carpet-weaving and basket-making).
Section 4	Road-building and access to medical treatment elsewhere, including vaccination for children. Experience of 1984/5 famine.