So ... Why Are You Puzzled?

The main focus of this past week has been getting fruit tree seedlings for the agriculture project in Santa Rita. The Government run nursery is about 30 km from St. Rita or, in Honduran terms, about forty-five minutes driving.

Wednesday we made our first trip to the location. We found the office where you could get information and order seedlings. However, it was too late in the day (3:15 p.m.) to get any. The next day we headed back and found the nursery itself and bought seventy seedlings – ten each of seven different varieties. The truck box was full.

Friday, Manuel and I headed out again, this time via a different route ... faster? Fortunately, we were only twenty-five kilometres or so down the road from Santa Cruz when we found out by phone that the nursery closed at 2:30 on Friday. I left Manuel at a bus stop and headed back to Santa Cruz.

Monday morning, Santiago and I left the office at 10:00 with plans to make two trips to the nursery in one day. What a revolutionary concept ... as I was to find out. We arrived at the nursery only to be told at the gate (by the armed guard – seedlings are expensive ... but THAT expensive?) that Ena, the lady who takes money at the nursery was sick. We would have to go to the office (5km away) and pay there before returning and getting seedlings.

Vicky, in the office, was very helpful but quite amazed that we hoped to get a second load on the same day. Despite phone calls, she made an effort to hurry the process of filling out the order form (four copies) and the receipt for the money (duplicate – one copy needed for the armed guard upon leaving with the trees). We hustled back to the nursery and Santiago explained that we hoped to make two trips in one day. Unheard of. But, it garnered one extra man with a wheelbarrow to help load.

This time we managed eighty plants – twenty behind the seats in the cab. Still room. Off to Santa Rita where we unloaded in a hurry and where I left Santiago to move and sort. As I passed Muncho’s house, I saw his son, José, sitting. I shouted and asked if he wanted to come along. He hustled to the car and off we went.

One more visit to Vicky (genuinely surprised to see us) and back to the nursery. The guard recognized our truck so waved us through without stopping. We loaded ninety seedlings (we are getting better at packing) and left for home.

Along the way we hit a torrential rain storm. The windows went up and the defrost went on. I realized a few kilometres later that the fresh, citrus smell of the seedlings was being replaced by wet José. Oh well, have been on lots of buses in worse situations (olfactorily speaking).

Yesterday Manuel and I got the final load of trees. In order to buy twenty coconut seedlings, the remaining seventy had to be packed very closely. As I had no passenger for the return trip, nine sat on the seat and in front of the seat (these seedlings are at least one metre tall and have very large root balls – in terms of seedlings).

After unloading the seedlings and sorting out the various varieties – many look almost exactly alike (Muncho pointed out, quite correctly, that it really won’t matter once they are planted – we will know what they are in two years when the fruit comes – there is something Biblical in that).

Muncho looked at the sky (his clock) and said we should go up the mountain for banana shoots. Seemed good to me. The road up the mountains is steep but in good condition. We stopped every few hundred metres to pick someone up. One lady, in her sixties, was making the two hour walk from the bus stop by the highway.

We arrived at a home where Muncho and crew got out to talk to the banana owner. Five minutes later and we piled back in to head up the road some more. At a muddy branch, everyone got out and I was told to go further up and turn around. Did so and then waited.

Five minutes later, down the muddy trail came the crew carrying banana shoots on their shoulders. These were good sized shoots and weighed up to fifteen kilos each. The boys had forgotten boots so had rolled up their pants and gone bare foot. The mud was halfway up their calves so it must have been rather sticky up top. Nineteen shoots later and we had what we needed. These are a water loving banana that produces red fruit and is, evidently, very medicinal for women.

In the school this week, we are once again getting a group ready for graduation. We should have between ten and fifteen more students finishing a grade. Exciting.

As well, we are getting a group of about fifty stories and books ready to put on the computers for the students to read. We will have some of the students work on enhancing the stories with pictures and so forth. I am extremely excited about the progress on this. I will now have to read Snow White in Spanish.

TTYL
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