Ever Ariel

Just a picture today. Ever lives two hours' walk from the bus stop. Then it is about 40 minutes on the rapidito. He studies, generally, on Saturdays. Today he was here to take an exam. It makes me feel pretty honoured to be able to be part of this program. I so hope that it will be able to continue next year.

Two hours walk ... and still smiling ... and, even more amazing ... still with white shoes. I can't even walk two blocks to work without getting dirty shoes.

TTYL
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Field Trip

On Thursday afternoon, the staff went with me to see the project I am working on in Santa Rita. As with any field trip, there was a great deal of toing and froing before we left.

We had two hay basket cookers quietly cooking as we drove the 25 km to the farm site. As soon as we got to the house we opened them up and enjoyed coconut flavoured rice with a pork curry. The curry had had a little too much liquid so had leaked a bit. However, that didn't affect the flavour at all.

Lunch finished we went for a tour of the grounds to look at the various plants and ways of planting taking place. It was nice to have Hondurans along as they were able to recognize many of the plants and pick them out from the background of 'forest' that is part of the property. People from Canada are often so overwhelmed by the maze of green that they fail to see the trees for the forest so to speak. Despite having walked and worked for many hours, I still find it impossible to pick out most of the species I am looking at. With over 2,000 tree species (not counting an equal or greater number of shrubs ... then the vines and smaller plants) in our part of Honduras that may not be so unlearned as it sounds.

Sorry - the picture turned sideways. Just turn your head

Santiago, Edel; Yeni, Maricela and Anna on a bed of Arachis

Two or three of the staff were able to see the reality of intercropping and agroforestry potential that is starting to take shape. They could then begin to imagine doing something like that for themselves.

Two hours later, we packed up our things and headed into Santa Rita to visit the hot springs there. For at least two of the staff, it was their first time to be in warm water. It seemed very hot to them at first but they soon got used to it and enjoyed the soak. Hard to believe that something so close (in my mind) is so far away to others.

Santiago soaking smilingly

Maricella and Anna

Today there is a bustle of cleaning as we are expecting someone from the Ministry of Education this week ... maybe ... we hope ... well ... we wait and see. But, regardless, things will be much cleaner by the end of the day.

Saturday afternoon, Gabriel, a worker in Santa Rita, and I drove up to his house. Well ... at least close. After parking the truck where the road disappeared into muddy tracks, we got out and began walking. The walk was along a beautiful stream that sang to us. We crossed the stream two times as we wended our way to his mother's house. Fortunately, I had my trusty planting shovel along to use as a support when crossing the stones and fallen log bridge. I am not nearly as confident about slippery places as I once was. Probably just more aware of what is likely to happen.

At Gabriel's home, we greeted his mother and some nephews and nieces and then headed up the hill behind the house to look for Mora seedlings. Mora is part of the blackberry family. We are going to plant it for fruit and, of equal importance, for deterrent purposes. Once we have the fencelines planted to Mora, invading woodcutters will find it way less inviting. The prickles on Mora are very noticeable and bite well. We found about 20 odd seedlings, put them in a bag and headed home. They soaked overnight and were planted Sunday morning.

I was silly enough on Saturday morning to get some of the sap of the Chaya plant on my shirt and one arm. It really is rather caustic. Seemingly, salty sweat doesn't help. Today the welts are nearly gone. Amazing that such a plant is an incredible source of calcium and other nutrients. I will definitely treat it with even more care in the future. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to bother the hands ... just tender parts of the skin.

Some guys get all the luck

Greysi with little Lydia

One more item of interest ... well to me. One of my workers' wife had a baby girl on Tuesday. She is only 15 years old. That has been a hard situation to know what is best to do with. However, the baby and mother are fine. So many children in Honduras have children of their own. We are hoping that one of the side benefits of our education program is allowing girls to have another one or two years at least of being children.

TTYL

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