this is waaaaay better than tv

just a quick post since i´ve not written for over a month! time really flies down here and when i´ve had computer time i´ve tried to get pictures downloaded to the blog. after 45 minutes it poops out at the last minute, very fustrating. the first moments that come to mind are environmental. i´m loving living in the jungle and there´s no way to forget it - from cows politely nosing me off the path, to the giant snake that lives in the kitchen, to those darn howler monkeys starting up at 4 am. los monos son mui normal, pero todavia, cada tiempo que los vemos es un momento especial. my spanish is coming along, though i make lots of mistakes. i have chini and jasmine, the two other orientadoras for ninas grandes to correct me, and chini and i have a daily swap of words and pronunciation. so, back to those moments i´d like to share... i sat on the dock the other night during our hour of free time from 6:30 to 7:30 when the girls have activities with the other volunteers before bed. there is a great big white neon light. staring up at the stars, millions by the way, tiny bugs caught the light and looked like shooting stars. something kept flying by but i didn´t realize i had seen it until it was gone. after 4 passes i realized it was a bat. we´ve got lots of bats and they like to live under our house but it never gets old. it did it´s circular flight pattern getting closer and closer to me until it was within 4 feet every time it passed me. i looked over toward the light and the river below was alive with plop plop sounds. instead of something falling into the river, it was fish jumping into the air to eat the bugs that the light attracts. the image was very cool and another nice river-life moment.

i´ve begun working in the farm and am excited about spending more time there - though it is hot and sunny like nothing else. bob from minnesota just left us for home and i´ll be picking up some of his projects. he was working on installing drip irrigation in several zones of the farm - right now growing cucumbers, watermelons, and shortly replacing the green beans in the green house with tomatoes. also, seño bea, the on-site director of casa guatemala is going to teach me how to rejuvinate the worm farm. she used to be in charge of the agriculture and livestock aspects of the project, and now that she is responsible for the whole place she doesn´t have the time to focus on the farm. change is hard though, and i´m sure i have many battles ahead of me. for instance, after installing so many drip lines we found the (lazy) farm workers watering right over the drip lines by hand. watering by hand tends to soak the soil and the water only reaches an inch or two below, while most beneficial is an 8 inch penetration so that the roots are fed. this is the point of the new drip system... ideally we should only need the irrigation to run twice a week. if we get more rain or it´s especially dry and hot, then we increase the hours that the pump is on, rather than adding more days. i looooove learning about the farm.

just heard that we can hitch a bus in a half hour rather than walking across town so i´ve got to go. i´m in coban right now, travelling solo, which of course, is never alone. met a nice guy from germany and we have the same itinerary and now we´ve picked up a wonderful spanish and american couple so we´re all heading to lanquin and semuc champey together. it´s supposed to be the most beautiful place in all guatemala and we´re all going out of obligation but i´m pretty sure it will be spectacular. i´ll be there for a couple days and then head back to the rio dulce, stop at ak tenemit, a mayan village and school with 12 grades and a graduating class of 90! the study mostly community organizing for maya and maya trades and crafts. then on to livingston on the carribean coast of the river for a couple days with claudine from south africa whose descanso overlaps with mine. the 4th through the 13th is semana santa - a very big deal holy week with parties and family time. that means that we only have around 50 kids - the ones without family. we´re preparing many activities and i think we´ll have a nice meal at some point too.

haven´t been eating well at home obviously, so this descanco is about food. can´t wait to get some soon...

peace and love to all, te extraño!

s