The need for cash
1:30 Machete and fishing pole in hand, Ratu Abele and Silivia walk single-file along the rocky river bank to fetch vegetables from their garden. Oscar gets to come along, but an upset Adi Salote stays home. From the tone of her cries, she must believe they’ll never return. Ratu Abele, Silivia, and Oscar cross the snaking river twice to get to their garden. All of Ratu Abele’ s land is near the river. He has planted dalo, cassava, banana, breadfruit and yams. Half of the harvest will feed his family and the other half he sells at the market once a month. But subsistence living is giving way to a need for cash; now the family needs money for schools, clothing and the imported canned foods, rice and spices that they have become accustomed to. The couple do not know, and do not worry about, the size of their plot. They know they could clear as much land as they would need to earn more cash. But the problem is that there is no more land close enough to rivers and roads to get produce out to market.
