A farmer's determination
The determined farmer just keeps going even during a season where it looks like the rain had a mind of it's own and decided to take a vacation and chose to do it also at a time when the cost of basic resources the farmer needs is climbing faster than a hungry vine.
He watches the soil cracking and it's looking like a dry throat, and his very first instinct is to just drop that cutlass, call it quits and walk away. Besides he won't die from quitting. In the contrary he could.
Anyways that’s not how the majority of farmers in Ghana do things. They have this different level or I'll say special kind of stubbornness. You see them spend their whole week fighting all the pests that look as if they have a PhD in evading whatever organic mix they've concocted. After that they go to the market only to find out the price for their crop has dropped because some self centered middleman had a bad dream and decided to mess with business.
It’s enough to make me not only quit but actually retire. But there’s is also that moment when you see one green shoot pushing through the dust against all odds. Funny really, how much hope a single leaf can give you. That's all some farmers are looking for. God please give me a sign and the leaf shoots up just a little bit.
They wake up so early in the morning, they see the dust from the harmattan because it's first few months of the year, it's settling on everything they own, and they choose to still go out there to move some soil and water some plants. It’s full blown exhaustion, the profit is not what the spreadsheet promised, but the determination is the only thing that doesn't cost extra.
They do it again every single day till they see what they are looking for.