Hola Family and Friends!
I came into Santo Domingo today with my new facilitator/maestra and two companeros from Tahuasa, a small town 10min. down the road from my own. My former facilitator, Elizabeth Roca, thought it best if I abandoned Lonne and Sally (the elderly couple from Texas) for a class that would have people closer to my age and learning speed. My first class in this new group was on Monday and I think Elizabeth was right. I'm learning much faster than before. Previously my classes progressed at a less-than-ideal pace since Lonne and Sally found remembering new words fairly challenging.
So today I picked up my first machete. It's beautiful. I bought the more expensive (~$3.50) Columbian brand, Gavilan. And it's huge. It makes me feel like the man I never was. Like big and stuff. A machete as enormous as the one indecently protruding from my backpack right now would make anyone feel strong and capable. Indeed, I almost feel like running out of this internet cafe right now and chopping up some bamboo... for a nice garden, maybe, with some cute pink and blue flowers growing on the border just like my mom always grows.
Perhaps a zillion times more important than the machete is that I've heard about where I'm going to stay for the next two years. As you know, this period of living in and around Santo Domingo is temporary, solely for cultural/language and technical training. It's to last only three months. It's my new site that is the 2yr. staging for all the "good" I'm going to do. And so last week there was a big "Site Fair" where we heard about and saw pictures of all our possible site choices. It was like making my Christmas list all over again. My first pick (out of three) was Santa Barbara in the Imbabura province and that's exactly what I got. I am so FrIGgin lucky, I just can't tell you. So, let me tell you about it. Fairly soon I am going to be living amidst a small population of indigenous peoples in the high Sierra mountains, where the temperature is around the low 70's all year round and the view is perpetually gorgeous. These people are a modern wonder. They have a very conservative culture and are fairly closed to outside influence and so have preserved much of the culture that was present before those brazen Incas busted into the region. They're very much into their folk art which takes the form of ceramics, woodcarving and all sorts of textile work. And they speak Quichua, their ancient language, as well as Spanish. So, because these wonderful people have requested for someone to teach them organic gardening, I have hit a cultural and environmental jackpot of awe and wonder. Needless to say I am eUPhoRic. And I simply can't wait for two weeks from now when I go for a 1 week visit to my site. I mean, can you wait? I can't.
Ok, I'm going. Oh, that reminds me of my favorite phrase in Spanish: "Ya se va." He/she/they have already gone. It's a beautiful phrase when the locals say it. Short and sweet with a hint of loss. I say that phrase sometimes in my bed at night when I'm thinking of my family back home. If you say it enough times, it's like counting sheep.
Love and miss!
John
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