I´m behind! It´s so hard to keep up...Sunday was basically a much needed day off. We had an hour or so recap of the last week with Patricia, and a short look at what we will be doing in the next and then we fled to the market, where we wandered around, bought some stuff (I´m not telling!), had icecream (which, by the way, is abso-fricking-lutly delicious here, esp lucuma), ate lunch at El Abuelo, and regreso-ed. I meant to return to twon and get a few beer to share with all, but I never left my book, which is not so uncommon! It was really really nice to have a break. Since this is our last week we will have more structured time, but we have to choose a focus and do field research, and ... read more

We got up early, at quarter to seven, to go to the church up the hill. Well, almost all of us. It´s a teeny little chapel, with four benches and a cement podium and alter. The Padre was quite young, I think in his thirties, adn walked in carrying a guitar, which was way out of tune. It was great. We were there for a little over an hour and a half (ooooops) but it didn´t feel like that long, proably because I was really trying to follow what he was saying, and singing, and the Spanish was somewhat getting by me. He was very liberal, especially for a Catholic preist. He was open to alternative sexuality, Patrick read the Bible passage, and he incorporated the natural world into his lecture, a kind of fusion of ... read more

Woke up late today (8:00), which was nice after the hike yesterday. Max Patrick and I had a good game of BS last night before sleeping. -I can´t remember if I´ve written about Patrick yet. He´s a participant ffrm teh last group, in June, who stayed longer. He goes to Yale, which made me think of Zef.- Patrick also came over the night before, after we went out and watched the moon for a while. I think he´s hooked on my gummy bears lol. He read passages from a David Sedaris book, laughing so hard that he could barely speak. He´s hilarious. We went to the nearby school today. One room, 6 kids. Seemed familiar...oh wait, that´s what I did! It was fun. We pretty much just introduced ourselves today. we´ll go back tomorrow after the ... read more

I received a blessing in my dreams last night. "What I want in my heart I want because I was born that way, becuase that is who I am. Follow your true desires because they are God-given." I woke up with that resounding in my head. It was pretty awesome. If you haven´t read The Alchmist, do so. It´s amazing. Notes on the meeting we went to today- Participatory Action Research- a way to facilitate building community awarness and change. How to make, say, health education a community driven process. How to use PAR to facilitate environmental action in the US and Canada, to promote individula awareness adn action that will make the difference, encourage the end of the lethargy that is crippling efforts to move forward? Instead of telling them what is wrong, what the ... read more

So I was going to press al of the plants that Don Pancho showed us this morning, but realised that I would run out of journal space if I did that. Dan PAncho (a traditional "doctor" and midwife) came this morning and taught us a MASSIVE amount about the local plant uses and such. I did manage to get a lot of them pressed, and I´ll compare notes later. He told us about collaborating with the biomedical system here, adn how hard that can be. His specialty is midwifery, and he talked a bit about his follow up, which is something that they don´t have at all here, and come to think about it, very little at home. He does some chiropractics and stuff to help the mothers out once they´re home and the drugs the ... read more