Kelly, gecko, gecko's tail (shed in moment of fright) in hand.
The tower (foreground) and church (if you have excellent eyesight and squint just the right way) of San Vicente. After seven and a half weeks in our site, we reunited with our training group in San Vicente for two weeks of the second and final stage of training. During this time, we lived with our original host family once again.
Kelly and her Agroforrestry/ Environmental Education cohorts, however, spent the second week at La ENA (the National School of Agriculture) in La Libertad. The campus is full of resources, making it a perfect place for a week of very hands-on training. We practiced vegetable gardening, fruit tree grafting, pest control, tree nursery management, ecological stove building, worm composting, regular composting, hydroponic gardening, etc.
Our rural training community is now quite different. The Cheers-esque 'everybody knows your name' vibe is gone. For this half of the year, there is a massive sugarcane harvest that brings in workers from Honduras and Nicaragua, opens seasonal pupuserias to feed the workers, and generally transforms this otherwise 'tranquilo' land into a nexus of Mack trucks, smoke, and sketchiness. Think the-land-of-the-lifted Lorax. Also, do you remember those adorable kittens from a post in the fall? They're all dead; so is the family dog. The small house in which we slept for our first three months in country is now a 'comedor' that offers pupusas, chicken, fish, etc. This time around we slept in a tiny room next to that of our host family. The curtain that was our door didn't stop our five-year-old host brother. It was nice to see our host family and neighbors again. We played ball, colored, hid, sought, and ate deliciously sour unripened mangos from the tree.
aloe-telecommunications multi-tasking
Kelly cutting up some aloe for shampoo. We visited a Volunteer who works with a women's group that makes and sells their own shampoo.
fun with shampoo!
approximately the Youth Development '08 group
Keychain (one of you lucky readers might get this next Christmas!)
Kelly, coffee
Juayua
A friend's t-shirt ("I don't eat turtle eggs").
2 comments:
I think one of the kids in your photos was on the front of the post card you sent me. I just got it a few days ago! you guys made my day. It looks like things are going well. I would love to do something like this. Wishing you the best!
What a wonderful blog you post! Thanks for sharing your experiences. We wish you continued success with the kids, the infections, etc.! The gang from the Historical Society send their best too- Ellen R
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