Week Two in Review

Our second week in our site went very well.  Heather is busy helping with the English classes, and I am busy rejuvenating the old computers in the lab.  We have about a dozen which are in working condition, ready for the hands-on computer classes which start today. 

This past week we ventured to the local swimming hole, which is about a 10 minute walk from our host family’s house.  The water comes straight from the mountain.  It is most refreshing and we had fun swimming and jumping from the rocks.   Unlike the last place where I jumped in from a tree branch into neck-deep water, this swimming hole is so deep I couldn’t reach the bottom even though I tried several times.

Watch out below!

Heather enjoying the cool water

We hiked to the end of town on Thursday evening in time to see the sun go down into the Pacific.  There is just a thin finger of the sea reaching this far inland, but it was a beautiful sight.  The picture doesn’t really do it justice.

Friday morning at school there was the first parent’s meeting of the new school year. It was held on the covered basketball court in the open air.  A parent from each family is required to attend. Roll is taken, and if a parent doesn’t show up the family is fined $5.  This is a significant sum for some families, as the daily wage for a worker to chopear in the fields with his machete is $8.   Parents showed up from all of the surrounding towns, by foot, by truck, and by horse.

The parking lot!

At the meeting, the school director introduced us and we gave a short speech introducing ourselves and explaining the purpose of the Peace Corps.  The next item on the agenda was to elect new officers for the Padres de Familia (Parents Association).  This group is much more powerful than the PTA of the USA schools.  It has the power to fire teachers by going to the provincial educational authority.

The new officers for the Padres de Familia were then nominated from the floor.  After there were a sufficient number of these nominees; they decided among themselves who would be president, vice president etc.  One of the items on the agenda was to collect money from each family ($2) to put towards a fund for students who become ill and need medical attention beyond the local health center.  (Previously, teachers or the people who oversee the boarding students, accompanied sick children to a hospital were paying the fees up front and had to wait to be reimbursed.)  Also a parent from each family is required to give 2 days of service at the school per year.  This could be cooking in the school cafeteria, clearing brush, or working on the school farm.

On Saturday we hiked the highest mountain in our province of Herrera  (3,000 feet.) with our host father Aristides.  He is 72 and we could just about keep up with him!  He is a great guide and explained different plants and animals as we passed them.  We heard howler monkeys in the distance but never saw one.  We also heard toucans but didn’t see any of them either.  Heather was relieved not to see any snakes!  They do have fer-de-lance snakes in our area, which are poisonous.  In the dry season they usually come out at night near streams and rivers, so there was not much danger to us in the mountains.  Nevertheless it’s a good idea to carry a machete just in case.

Aristides was our guide

Unfortunately the highest point in the province doesn’t have a view to speak of.  The summit is completely surrounded by trees.  However, it appeared that lots of people had climbed up the antenna for a better view.  If you go up high enough you can see the Pacific, which is around 15 miles away.  I didn’t take a picture because the day was so hazy.

How's the view, Heather?

The weather has been very hazy this past week due to it being the height of summer and also lots of farmers are burning their terrain.  That is how they clear the brush from the fields to prepare for planting.  It hasn’t rained since we arrived in January, so the sloped fields are very dry.  The farmers are all waiting for rain to get here so that they can plant.

Burned fields in foreground and also in the distance

Sunday was a special day for two reasons.  We finally saw a toucan (actually two of them), and it rained for the first time in three months.  We were really glad for the rain, not only for the crops, which were really suffering, but also for our walk to school each day.  There was so much dust in the road that our shoes were always completely covered.  Most of the teachers take a change of shoes for when they get to the classroom.  We didn’t get enough rain to turn everything to mud, just enough to keep down the dust.  

The second toucan is hiding behind a branch to the left of the one you see clearly.

Nature lesson of the week:  These are termite nests.  The termites construct little tunnels running up the outside of the trunk of a tree ending in a huge nest.  The locals say that if you break it open it is excellent food for baby chicks.  These nests appear to be empty, though.  

Lesson number two:  These little blue and black frogs are only an inch long but are extremely poisonous.  They say that the milky liquid they give off when frightened can kill a person in three minutes.  We saw two of these.  Luckily they run away and hide when a human approaches!

Don't get too near this guy!  I zoomed in a lot to get this picture.