12.22.2009

hn31.

alright, so i thought it would be worthwhile to write a new one for this, as my voyage today was quite the interesting one. let's call it, "a day in jalons". "a journey of a rusingo across the honduran countryside". i like that, maybe i'll write a book about all of the jalons that i have experienced. anyway, i went today to santa rosa to get my mail, and found myself looking at an empty apartado postal, with no package to take home. i decided at that minute that i would be returning home early, hopefully by lunch. however, after standing for about 40 minutes on the corner awaiting a pickup, it dawned on me that i might not be getting anywhere anytime soon. suddenly, a construction truck pulls up, and the offer to take me almost to cucuyagua, a midpoint between capucas and santa rosa. well, i happily jump in, and we speed off. soon he buys me some pineapple on the side of the road, and it seems to me like my luck has changed. when he drops me off he reminds me that theres still a distance left before cucuyagua, but i wave good bye and start trecking down the highway. i soon see a bunch of young men excavating something by the side of the road, while across the autopista, a small man/child sits in a wheelchair with a bag on a stick. i figure, well this should be interesting, and i decide to say whats up and hang out with them for a minute while i wait for a ride. well, turns out the people are working to build a house for the wheelchair guy, who's job (self-employed) is to sit by the side of the road and attract jalons for passers-by. he then takes a tip, and apparently has enough to build himself a house at the spot the jalons are best. i offer them some piƱa and we chat about life, work, living in the states, and all sorts of topics. no jalons stop, and i end up taking a bus, of course forgetting to give a tip to the wheelchair guy. i still feel remorse. anyway, i made it to cucuyagua, then caught a ride in a truck headed for corquin. talking to the guys, it turned out that they made the same journey from san pedro sula to corquin every day, bringing crap there, and taking some back. seemed like an awesome job, especially since there were three of them, doing mostly nothing. after they dropped me off, i ended up riding the rest of the way with a friend from the community, and we talked about entering him in the process of certification, what he would need to do, and by when. after lunch, i hopped on the horse and finally made it here, to write this, for you guys. now that i finish, it doesnt seem like such a great story. but at the time, it was pretty awesome. if it makes you feel any better, while getting my horse out of its field, a cow got out, and i had to chase it across a pasture, which resulted in me falling ankle deep in a oxidization lagoon for coffee, and now i smell like shit. so laugh about that.

12.21.2009

hn30.

so new pictures are up. check it out at the picasa site, by clicking to the right of this post.
alright, and now to the blog post. this entry will probably be updated and changed in a few days, but i thought i would write for now, and see where it takes me. the mood isn't exactly the best, as its raining and my cooperative is having issues, but you know, you do what you can and then sit back when there's nothing you can do.
anyway, the past week or so has been somewhat crazy. i spent 4 days mapping farms, and it took longer than expected, as always. right now, i am awaiting better weather conditions to continue working, but with the rains its hard to get reception, much less precision. and what good does it do me if every point has an error of 20 meters. however, the process is very interesting, and its giving me an opportunity to learn quite a bit about simple gis, which i think will come in handy in the future.
the horse is good, and riding him is becoming less and less of a chore every day. yesterday he made it all the way to the outskirts of town, with only a little arguing, and i think by the end of the week he will follow where he is told, and without question. the time is approaching to take him into corquin and get him fitted with a new gamaron, but that might have to wait til the end of january.
this weekend was quite difficult for me for a lot of reasons, and in some way discouraging, but one needs to be able to survive much in order to make it through two years of peace corps. one of my best friends from honduras, a fellow pam volunteer, left service this saturday, and his farewell get together was held in the capital. i went, and not only was the 10 hour bus ride tough, but seeing him go was even harder. its strange how attached people can get in just 3 months, but losing someone who provides support and advice at a time when its needed, is difficult. at least, he's left for better things, and hopefully he'll be happy in Colombia. as for us, the remaining 40 something h15ers, we're staying for now, although it will be interesting to see how many remain after christmas. its usually a tough time for all, especially those that go home and then have to return to their campo lives. and it's not that people can't handle the transition, its that the trip home allows for some reflection and comparison, and usually puts the final nail in the coffin of "early termination".
right now, everyone is anxiously awaiting new years, where many of us are going to Tela, on the north coast, to get away from our sites and get a little vacation. should be a blast. now i just gotta find someone to take care of the baby.

12.09.2009

hn29.

before the post: go to mycapucascoffee.com It's the new page of my cooperative that I participated in the creation of. More like facilitated it. Check it out. If you would be so kind, link to it in your site. That would be the kindest. Love you guys.

and now to the entry that i wrote last night.

I think its about time to write an entry that doesn't revolve around my horse. Otherwise, you guys might start to think that I do nothing but work with this horse of mine, and the truth is, there's actually work happening here. So first and foremost, coffee season is up and running. Although the quantity of coffee picked is somewhat small right now, but it's coming in, and for me it seems like a lot. Every day, visiting coffee pickers go out at 7 and start cortando, or cutting coffee (which in reality is more like a pulling off the branch motion but whatever), and by 3 pm each producer is delivered a quantity that depends on the number of pickers. this coffee is measured, by volume, and paid for. the going rate is 20-30 L per bucket of 2.5 gallons. That comes out to about a dollar fifty per bucket. pretty cheap labor if you ask me, but a family of four can cut up to 25 buckets in one day, which comes out to about 500 L, and that's more than minimum wage.
this coffee is then processed in one of two ways. there's lavado and melado. lavado is a conventional processing type, where the coffee is de-pulped, then washed to get rid of the miel (sugar based coating) that surrounds the pergamino (bean with shell), and finally dumped onto a patio where it dries with the sun and heat of the cement. this coffee is then sold as pergamino humedo, or dried in huge industrial driers (or even in some very environmentally friendly cases using solar driers), and then sold as pergamino seco. one could even go as far as one step further, take the shell off the bean, and sell it as cafe oro, but usually that's done by the roaster or importer. some farmers will also select the coffee prior to sale, removing bad beans and over dried beans, improving the taza, or flavor bouquet (whatever you call it). this is done by hand and is actually quite a relaxing experience.
melado is an awesome process which i may have already described in the past. the pulp is left on the coffee and it is thrown onto the same patio to dry in the sun. the red pulp soon turns black, and hard, and removed through a mechanical process. the coffee is then dried further, and the taza comes out bolder, sweeter, and overall better in my opinion.
anyway, moving on, coffee season involves a whole lot of manual labor. coffee is moved around in 100-200 pound sacks, which need to be moved, dumped, filled, thrown, and manipulated in millions of different ways. it leaves one sore day after day, but i think ill look like szchwarznegger within a few months. probably not, but one can dream. there's also rediculous hours, since coffee needs to be depulped the same day, washed the same day, and dumped onto the patio the same day. this means that people work well after nightfall, some til 9 or 10 pm, with a wake up call at 7 to continue with the labor. its arduous, a pain in the ass, but it's apparently worth it. and you guys better be damn thankful that so much labor goes into your specialty import organic coffees that you spend 14 dollars a pound on. just so everyone knows, the farmer almost never gets more than 2 dollars for the same pound. and sure there are costs involved in importation and processing, but the same green mountain coffee, or whatever else it is that you guys buy in whole foods or trader joes, is making a pretty penny.
outside of coffee, my life right now revolves around worms and GIS. The worm project now has two new project managers, youngins from my community. although they lack a formal education, they are both very intelligent and excited about the project. hopefully it doesnt fail and discourage them for life. we have begun project planning, have done some analysis of its faults and benefits. basically we are starting from the beggining together, which is awesome as it gives the kids a sense of involvement more than anything.
the gis is another thing where i wish i could involve others, but since everyone is so metido in coffee, its hard to find anyone available who wants to trudge through farms with me. but, regardless, its an awesome experience. not only am i learning an assload about ArcGis and GPS stuff, but I am also getting to personally know the farms of the people who live in my community. which means getting to know them as well, since they act as my guides. i spent about an hour and a half walking the farm of my host dad yesterday, and i ended up learning things about him that i probably would never have found out any other way. later today i will be visiting the farm of a carpinter, and by next week i should have about 10 farms done. i love my job.
alright, well that's about it for now. i wish you guys would ask me things to write about, but since none of you do, i will keep going as i have been for about 5 months now. its amazing i'm still writing. thanks to all of you who read.

12.08.2009

hn28.

so i rode my horse. for the first and second time these past two days. it was amazing. although now i may be realizing that i made a mistake, and possibly a serious one. the point is, that a horse needs to be trained extensively on the ground prior to riding, which i kind of skipped. and riding him wasn't so bad, but it required a lot of force, and that is something that shouldn't be used. well, we'll see what happens today. the only problem is that i can't train the horse well from the ground because he has learned very well to follow me, and when i try to drive him from behind he just turns around. i dunno. maybe i need to take it slow and see if i can retrain that behavior. then again, i think its a good thing that he follows me. i will keep you guys updated as to the status of this experience. but before i go, i should share the story of the first mount, which was pretty spectacular.
so most horses, when you put a saddle on them for the first time, throw the saddle off. they kick, rise up, and lose it. that's important to know before you hear this story. so two days ago i went to take my horse out and decided that i would saddle it. while i was pondering the question, a few people who are working for my uncle cutting coffee showed up to watch. i told them i would be putting the saddle on the horse, so they got all excited and called a few more. by the time i got to where i keep the saddle, i had an audience of about twenty people. i brought the saddle down, calmed ruso a bit, and then began the slow process of placing the saddle, the tail piece, and the ties on the bottom. not even a flinch. he didn't move, nor kick, nor anything. so i watched him for a bit like this, walked him around, and then suddenly someone says : "mount him!". and i think to myself, why not. so i have my friend alex hold the horse, and with my stomach, i hop on the saddle. nothing. so i swing my feet into the stirrups. still nothing. i get alex to walk in front of the horse, and he follows. it was amazing. no negative reaction whatsoever. so then yesterday i thought, why not do it again, but this time with the bosal, which is used to drive the horse in one direction or another. mounting was a little harder, because for some reason the first time i placed the saddle on him he threw it off, but with the second time there was no problem. i mounted him again, and tried the bosal. he didn't seem to get it. so then i had my friend pancho walk in front while i tapped the horses ass with the lasso. he started walking, then running, then all of a sudden i was way ahead of pancho with the horse trotting below me. it was amazing. we ended up riding from pancho's house all the way down to the cooperative. just me and the horse. it was hard, and he didn't seem to respond too well to the bosal commands, which i think is my fault due to the lack of ground training. but maybe, i can do it mounted. we'll see. anyway, that's the story. hope you guys like it.

12.04.2009

check out pics too. one of my horse, still waiting for my friend to upload the rest. she got some good ones so i dont want to waste your time until they're up.

hn27.

i made my first girevous error in horse training that may cost me about a week of trying to fix it. so a couple days ago I went to a talabateria, or leather shop (where the guy who owns it actually makes all the leather stuff), and bought a saddle and other horse accessories. everything came out to about 7000 lempiras, which brings my horse value up to 15000, or 750 dollars. thank you horse for making me broke. anyway, i hauled all this stuff home and yesterday decided that it was time to begin saddle training. i went into the little grassy area where i keep Ruso, and i slowly placed the mantillon (or little rug that goes under the saddle) on his back. nothing. he didn't move, nor kick, nor throw it off. so i, in my stupidity, decided that we could just walk around with it for a while and he would be just fine. we left the pasture, and started walking down a dirt road towards the soccer field where i do the training. about half way there, the mantillon slipped off of his back, and that is where all of the fun started. as the mantillon hit the ground, the horse reared, and i, feeling the pull of the rope, turned around to find my horse towering above me with its two front feet high in the air. luckily, i survived the incident, but the horse is now scarred for some time. it is impossible to approach him with the thing, as he has now aquired a deep seeded fear of the yellow foam and leather patch of rug. at any approach, he kicks, jumps, and does everything possible to avoid contact. we spent about an hour with me sitting by it, and pulling him to it to smell it, but once 15 seconds passed, he would lose it again. i even tried sitting on it and having him come closer, but as he noticed the yellow foam bellow my ass, he would kick again. i ended up using the time to train him in other things, and i think he now understands the stay command. at least a little. i also taught him to go backwards when i touch his chest, which i will use later to reinforce other moves. all in all training is going well except for this rug setback. i did try something else though, which seemed to work temporarily. i closed his eyes and had someone place the rug on his back, and with that he seemed fine, but as soon as it was taken off, he went nuts. I decided I would leave the rug in his little pasture with him, so maybe just by looking at it all day he'll get used to it. hopefully. if not, i may draw on it in permanent marker and see if the change in color scheme will throw him off. i'll keep you guys updated.
in other news, i found local young adults (18-20 so they're technically teens to young adualts, whatever) to run my worm project with me, and then, without me. basically, i will train them to manage and monitor the project, and then in a few months, leave it completely in their hands. whats awesome is that they seem genuinely excited about the concept, and since they're gonna get paid at one point, no one seems to worry. plus, since they're used to getting paid 6 months after doing the work (which is how honduras pays their state employees), they don't seem to mind that they will be working for free for the first two months.