So, I haven´t sent pictures in over a month. The first ones I´m sending are from the day I went to cut coffee (they call it cortar café). It´s rather like picking apples--you tie a bucket around your waist and then just pick the red berries until it´s full. Then you dump them into a bag. The girls I went cutting with are Kelin, Juliana, Julisa and .... I hang out with them sometimes in the afternoon around 5 pm...we sit on this plastic drainage pipe they call los muebles, or the couches, and just hang out and joke for a while. They always ask me, when I see them, if I´m going to come to los muebles this evening. I can´t really deal with the picture of me, but I wanted you to see the process. I´m just picking the red berries. It´s hot and sunny, but the long sleeve shirt is kind of necessary because of the bugs and the close branches.
The last picture is of the tambo, or tumbilla that I´m filling with coffee berries. 
Here´s a picture of me in case you forgot what I look like. And so that you know I don´t always look as bad as I do when I cut coffee. My hair is wet--I just took a shower. 
This picture is of Eulalio, my landlord, making a pila (water cistern) out of bricks and cement. He finished it, and this week when I filled it the water drained out within only a few hours. it is not supposed to do that. I let him know and he´s going to patch up the leak.
So, last week I was nearly entirely preoccupied with my new house. I went there nearly every day to clean, whiten the walls with lime (cal), or start decorating.
The other pictures are from the same day. Oneyda came over to help me whiten the house. We´re wearing old clothes, and trapos on our heads and fat and rubber gloves on our hands to protect ourselves from the burning basidity (I know that´s not a word) of the cal.
Here is a picture of how my room used to look, before I whitened the walls, bought new plastic for the ceiling, and decorated.
At the top was a picture from that same day. I´m with Eulalio´s youngest daughter, and Pichin (my little friend) is learning how to use my camera.
Besides working on my house last week, I had my first community meeting in El Cienegal, where I will be doing a latrine project with the community.
Here is a picture is of a man Danilo and I met on our way over. I´ve actually seen him quite a lot--he frequently comes to the catholic church to preach. He is working in his feilds in an immense and impressive valley where many people farm called Tapiquilares. I´m pretty sure he´s using a chemical to kill the greenery in between his corn plants from his last harvest so that he can plant beans for this one.
This next picture is just greenery, but it´s to give you a taste of what the hike between Planes and Cienegal is like. The village is in the valley between the picture and the next mountain. It´s very wooded, with pine trees. When it is nice out I love the hike. It´s very steep, though, and when Danilo decides he´s late I can´t keep up with the way he runs down the mountains. He´s like a mountain goat!
So, I was pretty nervous about the meeting. I think understandably, because I don´t have that much experience conducting meetings even in English.Here are some pictures of the people waiting for us to start. As you can see, it was mostly women and children (which could be a problem, as most of the latrine work needs to be done by men!).
But Danilo was there supporting me (which was great, especially at the beginning). He sat in front with me, introduced me and the meeting, and then I took over. I introduced myself and the PC (we do not just give projects, we help the community develop them and learn the process). Then I asked everyone to introduce themselves and tell me something they liked about their community. This is when my nerves left me, because they were so embarrased! I had to do lots of encouraging and joking to help them share with me just a little. And they´ve probably known each other all their lives! In the end, most of them ended up just telling me about how happy they were that I had come. (yay!). From there, we identified community needs, then voted on one we wanted to work on. People unanimously chose latrines. We elected a committee, I gave them homework (visit every house in the community and do a census and convince people of the necessity of all of them working on this) and we decided on the next meeting date. So I´ll be going there next Sunday. I´m working on planning the meeting.
On our way out, Danilo and I stopped at a woman´s house (he can´t resist conversation and coffee). Here is just a taste of what the houses look like in Cienegal.
They don´t even make their houses of adobe, but just use wood slats. They all have dirt floors. I have gotten used to the way things look, there, but the first visit was tough. So that´s how I spent my Thanksgiving. (give thanks for you water system and your indoor plumbing).On Friday I went to the clausura (graduation) of the sixth graders. I served as a testigo (witness) for Doña Ana´s daughter Isidor Juliana.
Here is a picture of the entire class with Profe Ana (my former host sister). They were all forced to buy the same dress. People in the community made the dresses.
And here we are at the celebration afterwards, eating enormous quantities of food! (unlike Grad parties in the US, people serve your food here. And I was invited to numerous parties, so I had to chose between feeling enormously full or wasting food. I was feeling rather ill from some juice I had been given in Cienegal the previous day, so I was able to turn down food). You can see Alayda standing in the background (she came for the party, and then left again...boo). And her daughter is in the dress nearest to us. 
The last pictures are of my decorated house. In the first one, you can see my hamock, my big work table, and my maps.
Then you have my pictures on the walls (thank you Ben and Kathleen and Jacqueline). I have another wall full of pictures on the other side.
The last picture is of my hornilla. This week, on Monday, when I moved in, I realized that my chimbo didn´t have any gas. So I went to get firewood and Ocote (a really sappy pine used for starting fires) and cooked over the wood stove. It was a rather frustrating experience. I had trouble starting the fire, and keeping it going, and it was VERY hot. But I´m through with that, now. It gave me something to do. And introduced me to new people (when I went to buy wood).
All for now. Until next time,
Jennifer
p.s.
i almost forgot,
This morning, I got two lovely surprises at my mail box. Thank you so much for the thanksgiving package, Aunt Kate (And Andrew, Jacqueline, and Tom). It was wonderful. I made sure to give the little christmas light up magnet to the post office worker, Claudia. Now she loves me (and the little magnet) and will make sure to treat my packages well). I also got an extraordinarily heavy package from Grandma Pat and Grandpa Al. Thank you so much, as well! I am so excited to see the nuts and dried fruit. They will last me a LONG time, and I will enjoy every bite. Thank you for all of the love!
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