A couple Thursday mornings ago, Ernesto and his grand kids led me up the hillside to his farm to collect almonds. We had been waiting for the harvest for months ever since the branches filled with pink blossoms late last year. We climbed the hillside passing his plots of pineapples, green beans, basil, peppers, and peanuts. Eventually we climbed above the fog and drizzle that enclosed our houses below.
I sat down on a fallen tree trunk and found my eyes stinging with tears. Precious little time remained for me to savor with neighbors I had grown to love. Ernesto has proven to be the teacher of all things: introductions to dozens of new fruits and edible or medicinal plants and advise on how to evict bats that visited nightly and the very large snake that took up residence in my roof. His grand kids have pulled me through the rough patches. They bring me tea or herbs when I cannot rise out of bed. They have taught me how to prepare all of the new foods their grandfather brings me. They also fire my oven. They are much more adept at the task.
My Peace Corps service will come to a close in a couple weeks. From there a new adventure will begin. On June 20th, my friends Kat and Kate and I will embark on bicycles for the United States. Along the way we will be joined by five others on a tour we have called Cycles of Change. More information on the participants, route, schedule, and mission is available at http://cyclesofchange.wordpress.com/. We will be updating regularly throughout the tour.
tree frog
a ubiquitous cacao pod photo
candied orange peels
orange peeling
my prep station
examining a walking stick insect
a wild cacao relative
tree roots that could inspire a Halloween mask
