segundo cosecho de cafe

Last night I fulfilled my goal and made three more etiquetas: noni, papaya, y mango. Muy satisfecho. I think if I just keep on this track of making at least one more sign each day, I will slowly and steadily progress on my projects.

Today, at 6:20 AM, Sara and I walked over to Roberto and Noemy´s home and joined them in their harvest. We went to the lower part of the farm, to a part I didn´t remember very well. The trees were laden with ripe red berries! After a while, my hands began to fall into a rhythm. Roberto taught me how to pick más fácil y suave, so that I could crisply pick several without needing to drop every individual one into the basket. The basket sling rests perfectly against the lower back, and for that, it doesn´t cause any pain. The basket is held up solely by the strength of the legs.

For five hours, we harvested and talked, taking breaks to drink coffee and eat fruits - Noemy and Roberto taught me two new, wonderful fruits: mamón chino and naranjilla. The mamón reminds me of boba drink, in both texture and taste. The naranjilla is indescribably tasty.

A little after Noon, we walked up the hill and measured the coffee. Roberto has an old cajuela that he uses, before taking the coffee to the beneficio. Today, we harvested 6-1/2 cajuelas! That´s 1-1/2 sacks, a little more.

On the way back to the house, the strong smell of pig met us. Noemy looked at us with a smile: ¨¿Han visto los chanchos?¨ I had never heard that word for ´pig´ before, and I suppose I looked sufficiently confused. She motioned and when I went to look - there was a litter of little piglets! Of course, I was straightaway smitten - half of the little were an off-pink color, and the other half had patches of black skin. I wanted to get closer, but a very large pig in the next pen was standing up against the side and grunting in a menacing way.

The rain had been very gentle during the latter half-hour of the harvest, but it started again, more violently, when we sat down for lunch. After lunch, Roberto left for San Vito, and Noemy told us stories about her niñez and, upon listening to my various enfermedades, all the good medicinal plants for anemia and stomach problems - gineo negro, for anemia and hepatitis; cucurmeca and targua for anemia; madero negro and gavilana for stomach problems; and sávila, la planta milagrosa. Very sagely, she said, ¨Hay buenas saludables aquí en el campo¨, or words to that effect - There are many healthy plants here in the countryside, that will help you.

As Sara and I walked back to Coopa Buena, we had a while to reflect on the day, and on the amazing things Roberto and Noemy had shown us. Everytime I visit them, I can hardly wait to come back and spend more time with them. They are some of the most amazing people I know. We ended by musing a bit on CAN, on ways the organization could grow down here to access even more farmers and their projects.