Friday morning we awoke to a delicious breakfast of rice and beans and fruit. (This is what we have every morning, and so far, it is impossible to get sick of.) There were a few options for work to chose from: we could work at another clinic like Thursdays, but in a different village; we could help set up the hospital for the week of surgery ahead of us; or we could go to the Amigos farm for some manual labor. Lauren and I, and two other nurses, Maria and Liz, decided to go to the farm for the morning, and then in the afternoon come back and get a feel for the hospital.
On the farm, they grow plantains, which are banana-like fruit, only starchier; bananas; corn; squash; peppers; chiles; and papaya. They are also raising tilapia, a type of fish, but not for eating. (Because Chinandega is so close to the ocean, there is very little demand for farm grown seafood.) The hope is that it will be possible to to grown plants that float on the surface of the tilapia water. They also raise pigs, cows, goats, chickens and sheep. The sheep down here are not the same as the ones we see in New England with the long curly wool. Those sheep would keel over from the heat down here. In Nicaragua, they raise short-haired sheep, and the animals are still super hot all the time.
During our introductory tour of the farm, Chris (the person from Amigos who does a lot of work with agriculture) showed us the new solar powered water pump that Amigos has been working to instal for the last week or so. The plan for the pump is that it will be able to water some of the plants through irrigation ditches, even when the rainy season is over.
A note on the rainy season: In Nicaragua, it usually rains from May to November. It works like clockwork, so much so that farmers will place bets on the exact day the season will end. Usually, each day during the rainy season works about the same way. It will rain in the early morning, but clear off for late morning/early afternoon. Then, it will start raining again around 3:30 or 4pm and keep raining through most of the night. This year however, the rain all of a sudden just stopped - about a week before we arrived. The farmers were all very worried that the rainy season has ended so early because most of their crops were not ready to be harvested. A short rainy season means a lot of hurting Nicaraguans. Thankfully, the rain has begun again, and every night the air cools off, a breeze blows though the door, and we fall asleep to the sound of torrential downpour upon the roof of the school us outside our window.
After working all morning clearing dead plantain trees, leaves, and stumps from one of the many plantain fields, Maria, Liz, Lauren and I spent a little time with Marco's, the farm caretaker's, family. We were hoping to catch a ride back to the hospital, but the truck didn't arrive until around 3pm. We hung out with his daughter Karin the most, but also helped his wife out with a few tasks around the house.
Karin
I let Karin take a roll of film with my Holga, and she had a blast terrorizing her family taking pictures.
When Chris and the other boys came back from working in the afternoon, we celebrated Marco's birthday with a beautiful cake and incredibly sweet Coca-Cola.
Maria, Liz, Karin's sister, and me
Marco's Cake
abby you look so good. youre doing exactly what i want to be doing. love you lots.
ReplyDelete