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June 08, 2007
A morning with very small trees
This morning I had a chance to escape the city, breathe some fresh air, and do some work with my hands that made me feel useful. ICA's work with reforestation has been in motion around 15 years-- their longest running project. Their nursery is mostly filled with tiny alder (a kind of birch), pine and eucalyptus trees which they plant from seeds they collect between November and January. This morning there were four guys working the soil to fill hundreds of small plastic bags to plant in and I helped Yolanda and Chata consolidate some rows of alders. They usually work from around 6:00 in the morning to 2:00, when they will finish and eat lunch.
I took a scenic route back to our host familys home for lunch (i.e. missed a few turns), but also got to catch some out-of-town scenes: seeing the farmers working their fields by hand, women gathered at a community laundry point to scrub their clothes, the general above-ground cemetary (including a large grave that looked like it may have been commemorating the Guatemala´s long civil war that ended in 1996).
Back in the city, I'm once again in the company of a computer, electric laundry machines, even hot water for a shower (except when I can't get past the dog Nena to light the heater).
Tomorrow holds a trip that I've been looking forward to throughout the week. A group from the school is taking a trip to visit a large coffee estate about an hour from here to learn about their production. From there we'll travel another half hour to visit the Pacific black sand beach in Champerico for a few hours before heading back to Xela. More about that afterwards!
-derrick
Posted by Derrick at June 8, 2007 09:50 PM