Well, a new week and come and gone, and I finally managed to get some action in the work department. Yep, I’ve been going to CIAT everyday and so far it has been going pretty good. The office itself is a tiny, run-down building about a block from my house. It has two rooms, the small, cramped room that the two guys I work with share, and then a much bigger, empty room with big windows that I’ve been using. There’s still no desk yet, but they’ve pushed a table up against the wall, so that’ll do for now. They’ve assured me that soon I will be going out to the campos to help the farmers and give chats about fertilizers and pesticides and stuff like that, but for now I’ve found myself with a veritable desk job. For some reason they want the little English-speaking, confused-looking girl to edit a 62-page Spanish report, as well as help write the proposal for the municipal viveros, which of course is also in Spanish. I don’t mind doing it, and actually kind of like it, but geesh! They’re taking a big risk with me since I can barely speak the language, much less write it or edit someone else’s work. Oh well, only a week or so more of that until the proposal is done, then we’ll send that into the mayor’s office and do fun stuff while we wait for the money to come in. My schedule for the last week has been roughly: get up, eat, go to the office, chat with the dudes, then get to work on the computer in the backroom until noon, go home for lunch and either hang out, do laundry, or go to the market until whenever I feel like it (usually around 3), then go back to the office and try a little bit more until my eyes hurt or I just feel like going home. Basically I make my own schedule and no one asks about it. It’s great. This week one of them also took me out to the experimental farm place (it’s right next to the Mennonite colonies) and showed me around. It’s pretty big, with lots of different crops growing. Unfortunately it was all recently harvested, so a lot of plots were bare, but hey, I could still picture it in my head. And the fun thing is that when planting season comes I’ll get to go out there and play in the dirt and help out.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, something super sad and gross happened at work on Thursday. I was sitting at the table, alternately writing the proposal and looking out the window into the neighbor’s backyard, when all of a sudden two guys, one with a large knife, came stomping through the backyard towards this cute little pig who always makes comforting piggy grunting noises while I type. Before I could register what was happening, the pig was screaming bloody murder and the guy with the knife was slitting its throat right in front of my eyes (well, luckily some of it was partially hidden by a bush and on looking children that appeared from nowhere, but you know what I mean). My first instinct was to pass out, but I guess that before I could pass out I had been making some strange painful moaning sounds that the guys from the next room heard and came running out to investigate. They said my face was white and my hands were clasped to my face Home Alone style. They made me go into their office and sit down for a bit. Of course when they saw the dead pig they just started laughing like I was an idiot. They couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen a pig slaughtered before. What was kind of ironic was that just as I entered their office to sit down, the pig-murderers came around the side of the office carrying the dead pig between them, so I had to watch them walk all the way down the street with it before it was actually gone. So, as you can imagine, that was a tough day for me. It’s bad enough to have to see a pig being slaughtered, but much worse when you aren’t even expecting it. But I guess that’s the sad and very real side to life that I’ve been sheltered from back home. And to be honest, I like the way they do it here better. Each animal is raised with the utmost care and only killed when it is necessary, usually by the owner themselves. It just seems like the best way to go. They don’t do it with malice or joy, they do it to eat and survive, and that’s just life.
On a happier note, I’ve got some animal sightings to add to the list. First of all, I discovered that yes, there are wild parrots, and in fact there are a ton of them!! They’re gorgeous, with bright lime green bodies and red and yellow on their heads. They look like a beautiful piñata when they fly in a big group together. They’re also very very loud, so you always know when they’re coming. I also saw and got about 3 yards from a huge hawk or some sort of big bird of prey, I can’t really tell the difference. It was just sitting on the side of the road watching me come toward it. I thought it was hurt, obviously, since we were staring each other straight in the eye and yet it still wasn’t moving. Finally, though, when I was almost close enough to touch it, he hopped up and flew away. It was pretty cool. I also saw a big group of vultures of some kind, and those weren’t quite as cool. I mean, once you’ve seen one vulture you’ve seen ‘em all. But I do seem to always forget how big they are. Vultures are big damn birds. And oh yeah! This doesn’t count as an actual sighting since I didn’t actually see one, but when I was on the farm I kept seeing what looked like big gopher holes, so I asked Humberto (my work partner) what animal had made them. The answer: an armadillo! How cute! Yeah, armadillos are crawling all over this place, and apparently they taste good, too. Everyone eats armadillo here and he just couldn’t believe that I’d never tried it before. Now I’m invited to an armadillo dinner on his dad’s property as soon as they catch some armadillos. If I can work up the courage to try one I’ll tell you how it tastes.