A Good Week

Organic Farmers Market in Upala

Some other PCVs and I went to support the Feria that has started up in the nearby town. Even though it was their first one, it was a pretty exciting success. There were probably about 20 vendors, mostly produce but even a few artisans and a bit of other food. There were plenty of customers, despite the rain it started off with. I was so excited about all of the organic food, although another PCV did remind me that lots of farmers around here are organic by default anyways. And to top it all off, the prices were cheap for produce, let alone for organic produce. I got a head of lettuce, a bunch of spinach, 4 cucumbers, 2 small bags of momones (local yummy fruit), radishes, and mostaza (a spicy leaf) for less than $4, and delicious dark chocolate for $0.20 – all organic and locally produced. It was a very exciting shopping experience, especially since it is a real possibility that we will soon get something similar started up in Bijagua.

Pippa & Donald’s Place

Ryan and I finally visited Pippa and Donald at their place and finca. When we arrived, we had to ‘work’ a bit for our breakfast. We each tried our hands at milking their cows, getting back to my farming roots that I never knew. Definitely wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I was excited to see any milk coming out. The breakfast that Pippa prepared was amazing – homemade tortillas, banana bread, eggs, cheese, fried platano maduro, lots of fresh fruits, and coffee (flavored with fresh milk from their cows).

Loaded with way too much food, we set off to their finca outside of town. We drove until the truck got stuck in the mud. Then it was time to put the rubber boots to use (one of man’s best inventions), walking through the river to get to the finca. Even though it took us 2 hours to go the 2 km, it was a gorgeous walk that I wish could be conveyed by pictures. Then we explored around the finca, seeing lots of beautiful birds, tapir tracks, and noisy monkeys, drinking straight from the spring that was the source for a small stream, and enjoying some beautiful nature all around. The walk back on the road in mid development was the hardest part – for one, the mud was deep and I got temporarily stuck at least a dozen times on the 2km trek back; but the much harder aspect was seeing the deforestation the road was bringing about, which lead to the erosion and horrible mud that we were getting stuck in and was washing straight into the beautiful river we had walked through. It is a project to make a new entrance to Rio Celeste, which cuts through the rainforest and would give much quicker access directly through Bijagua. This would increase tourism traffic in Bijagua, but it is definitely not helping the rainforest it is cutting through. It is also such a fine line as to how much additional tourism I hope for in Bijagua. It is such an amazing community right now, and while I want to see development and additional business, I don’t want to see it ruined by over development, if that makes any sense.

After 6 hours of walking through mud and rain, my first hot shower in 2 months was beyond amazing. Then after a nice dinner, we had a movie night slumber party. It was such a simple evening, but so wonderful to feel like I have a close friend to spend a relaxing night with.

Futbol!

After wasting the majority of the next day, Pippa called to let me know that there would be a soccer game at the indoor field at 830pm. Even though it sounded too late after being
lazy all day long and my bedtime is usually 10pm, I decided to go. It was such a successful turnout! There were 6 girls and 8 guys (a few more showed up later). We split up and subbed on an off. It was such a fun game. It sounds like we are going to try to do it every week, which is really exciting.

Despedida

We had a little get-together of all of the local twenty-somethings since the French volunteer, Justine is leaving, Ryan is leaving and it was the German volunteer, Marjorie’s birthday. It turned out to be a pretty fun night. All of the fun people I have become friends with were there. There was good music, some great food (Marjorie’s pasta, Kim’s pinto, cakes, etc), beer, wine, and great company. I even got a bit of salsa dancing in with my friend Maikol. The porch of a house is just as good as a club dance floor, as long as your partner’s fun. I would love to get some sort of regular latin dance class started up. The evening wasn’t a crazy time, but it was just a great night of hanging out with friends. And it was a great international house – Costa Rica, USA, Germany, France, Australia – with people switching between Spanish, English, French, and German. I loved it.

Project Updates

Ryan and I went out to El Jardin to check on the greenhouse after 3 weeks of school vacations. Surprisingly enough, the only real problems were 2 dead rows of cucumbers that we had planted from seeds, some ants, and some possible fungus on some plants. Other than that, it was an impressive sight, most of the plants had grown so much. I’m really excited about this project and the food that is growing each day including cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, radishes, and peppers. I’m a little less sure about figuring out how to help get the structure of cooperative set up with the kids and parents, but I’m sure it will work out.

The computer lab is great. I have 2 students that I tutor, and other community members use the computers or come in and ask for help occasionally. Not to mention the free internet for me.

We are really trying to get the Farmer’s Market started soon with whatever we have. Even though it may start out small, we can slowly add to it and make it better every week.

There is a lot of work with the ECCs (community banks). We’re working on improving the accounting in Excel to make the treasurer’s life better. It’s great to be able to bury myself in Excel formulas every once in a while. And we are trying to work on the regional meetings to get them some training and make the meetings worthwhile. There is also an idea floating around of a regional work center for those ECCs that don’t have computers as well as for a central training center.

So I definitely have a lot of fun and projects to keep me busy. So much for any fears of not having much to do for 2 years.