I think it´s a sign that I´m adjusting that events do not stand out in my mind as much as they did the first time I wrote to you from my site. My life is becoming more normal in Los Planes. What I am most happy about is the fact that even though my job is unclear and unstructured (get to know the community, think of projects) I am thriving. I guess, contrary to what I previously thought, I don´t need so much direction to be able to find things to do. I am actually rather good at self directed activities.
It seems that with each week that passes, a new window opens of things that I need to investigate. And that´s how I feel right now. I feel like a spy with an ongoing list of people to see and questions to ask (all over cups of coffee, surrepticiously slipped in after I´ve talked about the weather and the health of the kids). Last week, I started visiting houses of men and women in the community whom I had heard held leadership roles. These visits went really well--I have found that it is very interesting to me to hear about other people (I have to be careful about gossip!) and I really like to hear about these peoples´ lives. I have gotten to know many people in that way.
This week, I have become obsessed with agriculture improvement. There has been a tropical storm in the Carribean, so I have spend my time inside (the rain hasn´t stopped for three days) reading articles about improved farming techniques. From what I have read and already knew, I can see some very easy and important improved agricultural practices that could greatly help the yeild of produce in the area. As I have mentioned before, people here mainly grow beans, corn, and coffee (their coffee fincas are always intersperced with fruit trees--lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins, mangos, bananas). I have discovered that people don´t grow other veggies because the costs of the pesticides and fertilizers necessary to do so are too high to make the crop worth growing--the market selling prices end up being devastatingly low. From what I´ve read, it´s better to improve the techniques of the crops already grown than to introduce something new. So, although I´d like to start a women´s group to teach how to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, I´d like to work with them men in the community to teach them how to use barriers (live and dead) on their sloped land, cultivate leguminous green plants in between their corn to naturally fertilize the soil, and help them find alternatives to burning their crops in the feild after the harvest. I have become pretty fired up about these things, but the problem is that I have not yet visited many farms with the men in the village.
I really appreciate my counterpart´s wife, Oneyda. Whenever I am not sure what to do with myself, I go visit her. With her I make tortillas and listen to talk about the entire aldea, which always interests me. Oneyda loves flowers--she has about forty flowers growing in plastic bags outside of her house. They are propped up on wooden benches so that the chickens won´t get them. She harvests the seeds herself. Needless to say, she is very excited to start growing tomatoes with the women´s group!
I have found a house to rent! It is owned by a respectable man who I would like to get to know. He is the pastor at a church in the community that meets about four days a week. I can hear them singing late into the night. The house is a little place--it has a bedroom, a kitchen and a little sitting room. Right now it has a dirt floor, but Eulalio is an albañil, so he is going to put in a cement floor next month. There is a bathroom outside, and he will also make a pila outside (water cistern). The house is a little dark, but that is common for houses here--they usually only have one small window per room. But there is a big yard, and he is going to make a fence so that I can make my garden. I hope to start working on that in the begining of November. I am very excited, and in my spare time I dream about how I´m going to make a compost pile, and a place to bury my plastics and burn my papers and grow such delicious veggetables...I am sure such dreams don´t make sense to most of you (who dreams about garbage sorting?) but trash is such a problem here that I can´t wait to have one place that I can control. It will be clean.
And since this has been more general, I think I will let you know more specifically what I do with my days.
I usually wake up around six or six thirty, and stretch for a half an hour. My limbs tend to be sore here from all of the walking on steep terrain. I get up and shower and eat breakfast (oatmeal with raisins, honey and fruit--right now that means bananas and oranges) by about seven thrity. People here eat refried beans with tortillas for breakfast, but I have bought my own breakfast to avoid eating that plato tipico three times a day!
I wash my clothes from the previous day in the morning to avoid a pileup of dirty clothes (it is no fun to wash all at once). Recently it has been a problem because nothing dries in the rain. I am continuousy putting out my clothes or taking them in, depending on what the sky looks like. Usually I leave the house around eight. Many days I take a walk to the river. This means I have to walk through the town, greeting whomever I see and entering houses where I can. Occassionally a kid will see me and take me to their house (this has happened twice this week), and I always like that--it is a good excuse to get to know new people. Sometimes I get a second breakfast (it is hard to turn down food here in a polite way). I like to visit one or two houses before noon. I am usually done by eleven o´clock, at which time I return home to record what I have learned (about local farming, people, problems, concerns, or positives). I usually hang out, reading, playing guitar, or writing, until about one, at which time I eat lunch (refried beans, rice, tortilla. Maybe an egg, maybe pataste, a veggie like zuccinni). In the afternoon I like to visit one or two more houses, where they give me coffee and usually something else to eat (fresh oranges are popular right now--you could say they grow on trees they are so plentiful!).
Last week I played soccer with the high school students a couple times (great fun, and I don´t feel too bad at it because I am good at running, at least). I also like to walk again in the afternoon, up to a farm or the mountain or to the river again. I eat dinner around six, and spend the evening (from six to eight) reading and writing letters by candlelight. I listen to music for a while and then go to sleep around nine. I get lots of sleep here.
Well, this is a long one. But I´ve got to let you know what I´m doing!
Today I arrived in town at nine am. I have been using the internet (almost four hours!), visiting the post office and getting to know the city. I met Michelle, another PCV who lives here. I will be staying at her house tonight. At five I will be going to dinner with David, another PCV I have met, and his girlfriend (a Honduran) and Michelle. I am glad to speak English and see other PCVs today.
Tomorrow I´m going to a workshop on parlimentary procedure with a new coffee coop that has been formed in the aldea by an organization called CoHorsil. I´m still figuring out the goals of the organization. I´m going to support the leading group, to tryto help develop their leadership skills. That will be all day long, and then in the evening I will return to Los Planes.
I think that I will not return to town for another two weeks. So tentatively, lets say that I will be back here (and use the internet) on November 1st. I will bring photos next time.
I´ll talk to you soon!
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