A taste of what is to come

The first few weeks in my site have been wonderful. Yes there have been ups and downs, some hard times, but luckily many many good times. I have just completed the first three weeks in my community. And through that time, I have started to get to know my community by hiking up vigorous trails to visit their houses, by working side by side with them swinging my machete and pruning their cacao farms, by teaching english classes as well as how to make piñatas (lots of celebrations here), by helping a few kids start their own gardens, by sewing traditional dresses with a women´s group, by starting to learn this new indigenous language and more! I am living with a family that lives in a wooden house raised off the ground on stilts with a part thatched roof and part zinc roof. It reminds me of swiss family robinson. I live in an incredibly beautiful place where there are those times where I look around me at all tropical trees, parrot, hummingbirds, mangos falling from trees like rain, the beautiful view of the caribbean and I think ¨wow, I live here now¨. It is pretty amazing. Ups and downs though. My first real day in my community, I woke up bright and early, eager to head out with my rubber boots and machete for my first day pruning cacao. I tromped tromped down the trail behind eight other old Ngobe men ready to try and keep up with the day and pretend that I too have been weilding a machete all my life. But alas. I haven´t. And not more than one hour in, I sliced open my finger while filing my machete and made my best attempt at doing some emergency first aid and then hiding it. I threw together a peice of paper, a leaf, a stick splint and held it all together with a piece of duct tape that was previously holding my bag together. And then I proceeded, pretending like nothing happened and luckily no one saw. But a break time, it proved to be incredibly difficult to manuver on a very muddy and slick 40 degree hill while holding my machete and drinking a cup of juice while keeping my wounded hand hidden in my pocket. Quite awkward. but funny. and of course they got a kick out of it. But hey, at least I kept on working! After that experience, I have learned to carefully sharpen my machete and have started taking notes from small children who can control the machete better than I as we tromp through the jungle. One day in specific, a very happy afternoon, I found myself being guided down a trail by a group of four boys, ages 5 to 10, no shoes but so much energy. They led me everywhere, showing me what every plant was, cutting down mangos and oranges and having a grand old time. They even helped me collect seedlings to plant and now I have coffee, cacao, mango and lime trees growing! These people have amazing amounts of knowledge about this area and everyday I am learning so much. Lets see a few other notes. I have been eating lots of boiled bananas and rice, and now lots of this new amazing fruit called pifa or pixbae. Think of a fruit the size of a tomato, growing on a palm tree with spikes up the whole trunk, that tastes like a mix between butternut squash and popcorn and has the nutritional content of an egg! Also, I got bit by a giant ant called a Golofa while harvesting coffee! Man it hurt like crazy. I still can´t feel my pinky! So much has happened and so much more to come. Over all, this community is beautiful and I am excited to be here.