Well today was the BIG DAY and apparently I am going to be lucky for the next year. We have been staying at a center in San Felix that belongs to the catholic church. It has been dormitory style, but clean and cheap. This has allowed us to visit the Comarca for two days without having to sleep there where there is no electricity or safe water. This place is huge, welcoming indigenous people who need shelter and food. They have a working farm and a place to teach new farming method to the people here. There is also a waiting hospice for women who are ready to go into labour and live far from any medical care. We met a group of young native women who were waiting to give birth, some in labour and others near due. I admire their quiet, calm nature as they wait patiently for this event, which in many cases will repeat itself every year.
As we were visiting the Centro de Capacitacion y de Formacion this morning ,we stopped to greet the many pigs that were in varying stages of development. Just as one of my friends started to say that precaution was needed given that the troughs outside the pens holding the runoff from the pens were not covered (you know what that contains!)...I stepped into it with my left foot. What an odour. And what a way to start a new decade! Hopefully the good luck will last for many more.
Today we drove up to a very high peak called Pena Blanca. The ride was very difficult, but luckily our driver who volunteers for the foundation and knows the Comarca well because he supervises bamboo plantations here, is a good driver and is used to driving over rocks, over rivers and around hairpin turns. Once again the children at every village wanted to talk to us. The girls and women dress in native dress which is very colourful. I am having difficulty attaching photos but will try again .
Hasta luego
Jennifer
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