Lebel-Sur-Quevillon, Canada - "Some say that I'm practicing voodoo in the woods, but I'm just very efficient. They call me the 'General of the forest,'" said Mamadou N'diaye with a burst of laughter.
Since 2002, this Malian immigrant has spent his summers working in the boreal forests of north-eastern Canada, far from his two little girls and family who live in Montreal about 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south.
Armed with a gas-powered swatter, he clears the undergrowth that stunts the growth of spruce trees due to be harvested in 20 years or so. His nickname stuck after he amazed co-workers with his prowess.
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From May to the first snows in October, this strapping man born in Bamako dances around the woods swatting shrubs for up to 10 hours a day, his clothes often soaked from heavy rains, his skin pocked-marked by tenacious, biting black flies.
Take off the rest of the year His only link to colleagues spread out across this vast and harsh landscape is a whistle clipped to his jacket: three short bursts to call for help; four to signal a retreat in case of forest fire or bear attack.
"It's a difficult life. We're far from our families. We're not paid an hourly wage, rather by hectares of forest cleared. You understand, it's like being in the army," he said. "But it pays well."
"I make a minimum of 300 Canadian dollars (R2 600) per day, and when the terrain is good, up to 500, 600 dollars," the high school drop-out said with a grin.
By the end of the work season, Mamadou N'diaye will have pocketed nearly 40 000 dollars, allowing him to take off the rest of the year to spend with his family, vacationing or tinkering at home.
"We can't make that kind of money in Montreal," Canada's second-largest city, commented Petru Rasunoiu, 38, a Romanian who landed in Canada in 1992 after the collapse of communism in his homeland.
'I unplug my brain, I leave it at the hotel'
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