Part of our tour included a stop over for lunch at a local coffee plantation farm.This used to be home to many slaves that were brought over from Africa to work the land.
It was a very sad experience to see the iron chains that were attached to their necks & ankles.
It was more disturbing to see ruins of a small house that was built so that the landowner could "breed" his slaves to produce stronger mightier slaves after slavery had been outlawed.
This tree was one of the oldest and largest in the area. The slaves used this as their
sacred prayer tree which was as ritual from Africa.
Touching it you could feel the hope and also the extreme suffering that had happened here.
The old man in the background grew up on this farm, he was 76 years old and had been there all of his life. His farm which has been in his family for many centuries was now owned by the government. It was hard to leave the farm and see the man off. This was his life.
Showing the chains, the sacred tree, the horse rides, the deep water well dug by slaves...
After riding one of the horses, we ran for water bottles.
Guai told us that the horses would "get a drink later" after I asked where there water was.
I then noticed that the horse handlers didn't even have one bottle of water for themselves let alone for the working animals. The sun was very intense. I then felt terrible for riding the horse. But figured they were used to the heat.
So of course it was strange to leave the plantation and for us to all get back in our jeeps and never see this old man again. He rested his tired arm on the iron gated entrance and looked at me and smiled anyway while we drove away.
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