Vida de Kent: Gettin´ Dirty

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry again about the delay in blogging.

The day in and day out here definitely has elements of being routine. The unexpected has become a little more expected...but just a little. I think it takes much more than 5 months for the novelty to truly fade.

PART 1
Last weekend, Lauren´s family invited me to join them in bean harvesting. Who am I to turn down such an offer... In actuality, they were really curious as to why I want to do ¨work¨ for free, but it was obviously much more than that for me.

We all hiked the half-hour to their bean land up the hill.

Things that came naturally to all of the took me a bit more time. An example being how to put a blanket on my back to use as a sack for collecting beans. The giggling on the part of Lauren´s 6 sisters didn´t stop. Supposedly, not many gringo men have done the bean harvest with their family, who knew.

The work was harder than expected. Lots of beans actually liked to hide under grass or in branches. The family didn´t trust my work and I was assigned a ´watcher´ to be sure I didn´t miss any. I thought I was doing pretty well but they may say otherwise.

The hike back home was not as much fun. Each of us (including the 9 and 12 year olds) were required to carry a sack of beans all the way back. I figured I would be the gentleman and take the largest one. Big mistake. Every 20 feet, the sack (and my back and legs and arms) would give way and one of the girls would have to help me get it back on.

Eventually the father stepped in and told me to trade for a smaller sack. Torn between embarassment and physical pain, I took the small sack with humility and made my way down the hill.

PART 2
Harvesting once again. This time, tree tomatos (a fruit). My Aunt has a tree tomato farm out the back of my house. When I had first moved in, I had asked if I could help harvest whenever that was. Maybe she didn´t believe that I would actually want to pick tomatos off trees for fun (crazy gringo) so she failed to inform me of the first harvest. I only knew because we were drinking tree tomato juice for 5 days straight when I eventually asked why the lack of variety. Luckily, tree tomato harvests last for two months. I ran out to my Aunt and made her promise to let me know when the next batch would be ready. This time, I invited Lauren for the experience.

There is some satisfaction in harvesting fruit, but mostly just monotony.

It was really hard to tell which were ripe and which weren´t. Tree tomato logic is backwards. The really red or purple fruit is not ripe, but yellow and green splotches mean they are good to go.

Aunt Maria eventually told me I was thinking too much about it and should just pick faster. I got the idea and at the end of the day, we had a heck of a lot of tomatos ready to be sold.

PART 3

Patient follow-up for Tandana has meant revisiting many of the communities in which we had initally worked. Just in case I had forgotten the nausea and misery of riding in the back of a old truck with fumes, dust, and occasionally animal crap on the floor boards, I was thrown right back into the routine but this time remembered to find a surgical mask.

This time around, we did have the added bonus of having the truck driver´s adorable 5 year-old daughter along for the ride.

At one of the patient´s houses, we found this skiddish little piglet and I couldn´t resist getting a photo.

The views were typically astounding. From many of the communities, you can see the top of Cayambe, one of Ecuador´s highest and perpetually snow-capped peaks.

My host Mom always came along, being the region´s head nurse (and because she was the only one who could possibly navigate from house to house on those rural mountain roads).

I was in a constant state of awe, and also greatly appreciated any opportunity to leave the back of the truck.

PART 4
Around my house and Lauren´s house, there is always something to learn or something strange to experience.

Last night, I got home and the family was in town. I took the opportunity to kick back and do some nice relaxing reading. I kept getting interrupted by the faint sound of chirping. Animals making noice around teh house is nothing new, but this was coming from inside somewhere. I went on a hunt, listening and moving until I finally found the culprit.

This little chick had somehow snuck away from the coop and found his way into my parent´s room and under the bed. I couldn´t get my hands on him, but I was able to take this picture as evidence for when my family returned.

They wouldn´t have believed me had I not shown them the picture because the chick disappeared when everyone arrived. About two hours later, after dinner, a very excited Kami came running out of the room with the perpetrator in hand.

This little guy still had some time left in him. Some of our other critters weren´t so lucky this past week...

Three weeks ago, two of our rabbits had bunnies. We had had some bunnies before but they often don´t survive due to cold nights or hot days. This group of six all made it to adolescence.

I made sure to give them all a ritual hug.

Sadly, there as no longer a need for one of our female rabbits and...

you guessed it. Rabbit stew for dinner. Tastier than I expected but I still feel a little bad for eating one of our bunny moms. C´est la vie.

Here´s some cute animal pictures before I continue.

This was a mouse I found trying to scurry across a busy road. I think he lost his mother and couldn´t find his nest. I brought him safely to the side of the road but I am pretty sure he soon after consumed by a nearby hungry-looking rooster.

Lauren´s dog had puppies a few weeks ago.

Only these two guys survived but they both look healthy and should make it!

Lauren´s younger brother, Condor, decided that my hair was as a soft as their cat´s fur. We did a side by side comparison. I´m pretty sure I won.

Here´s a cow I tried to pet.

PART 5
I had a weaving lesson with Lauren´s family the other day. It is their main source of income and they sell the sweaters they make every Saturday at the market. The whole family always pitches in and they were pleased to have some help that day. Tedious definitely, but sort of mindless once you get the hang of it.