"Fishing Boats..."

One of the hardest, most labour intensive jobs I have seen in West Africa, is fishing.  The men paddle out in the boats drop their nets, and then people on the land will start pulling the net in while the men in the boat paddle back to shore. 

This process of paddling and and pulling of the net in will take "all afternoon", as one fellow told me.  There is not an ounce of fat on these young men. 

Boats will often have a family name, slogan, or verse on them.  They are hand made and extremely heavy.  I was watching a group of 5 men try to turn a boat on its side.  They rocked and rocked and rocked the boat.  It took them about 20 minutes to finally roll the boat.

In the "ruggedness" of the boats, there is a simplistic beauty.