Page 25 - Feuilletez-a life, my Life, my path

Herding goats and sheep in Italy

around the village, the day was timed to coincide with the
ringing of the church bells. The men, all in a line, cut the
wheat with sickles and the women tied it into sheaves. Other
women stayed at home to prepare meals. When midday
approached, they would take the still-warm pasta, pieces of
sausage, bread, fruit and water to the field. They often
walked more than a kilometre to reach the fields with a
wicker basket on their head and a clay jug filled with water
in one hand .
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Sometimes food was prepared for two days. On some
evenings, the people working on the wheat harvest decided
to sleep on the spot to avoid having to make those long
journeys again in the late afternoon in one direction and
before dawn in the other. To protect themselves, they built a

makeshift shelter from a few sheaves of wheat. They slept
under the stars. My mother, who has always been frightened
of snakes, spent many a bad night there.

Thinking about these moments in life, comfortably seated
in an armchair, could almost make you believe that there
was something inspiring about living in the middle of
nature. However, the tone my parents used when they told
us about these moments in their lives made us realise that
they weren't exactly pleasant ones. Necessity was law!

15 Fresh water in direct sunlight. The principle of physics is well-known. You
place a wet towel over the jug. The water in the towel evaporates, while the
water inside the jug cools.
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