Oh the campo, watch the geese...

---

Yo tengo tiempo ahora.

SO i recently returned from the community of el tepayac in the campo(country side) outside of a little division named San Ramon. It was at the top of a mountain in a beautiful cloud forest and magnificent tropical hill side. Where there were banana leaves nearly as big as me and foliage everywhere. It had been raining recently and there was mud up to your ankles everywhere you went. Really it was one of the most beautiful places I have been. Pictures soon to follow.

I was in a family of ten members, mostly young adults and two parents. There was a main house with a living room and sleeping room and a kithen/storage room in the side yard. There were also two other buildings across the road where two yound couples in the family lived. There were a ton of farm animals; chickens, cows, roosters, and of course geese. We arrived by pickup truck in the afternoon, hiked a mile or so and were spread out in a group of six in the community. WEnt to bed early even though my familiy had electricity, and woke up early.

The first morning I woke out i went to wash my face outside, on the way to the house i had to pass one of three geese. This goose, probably 3 feet tall, started squaking and took a bite out of me. Luckily I was wearing thick pants and there was no damage done, but i think i might now have an eternal fear.

Ate the same thing for every meal, beans, rice, tortillas, and a wedge of cheese, with a cup of coffee. Sometimes there was soup, i think twice in the time I was there.

My family had a large coffee farm with thousands of trees. In retrospect the village I was in was not the poorest of the poor. But the village that some other students were in was, they had no electricity and were laborers on other farms.

The women were very passive at my house. Of course I was an extremely odd looking stranger and that had some effect. The only person I had a decent relationship with was the dad. He took me every where in town and toured the farm with me most days. Gender division were very fierce in the campo. Although the fathers daughters worked in the field with him I didn't see the mom leave the kitchen except to serve me.

There was no violence or alcoholism in my house but many other students reported seeing this in theirs. These are both huge problems in the campo and there is trouble eradicating(sp) this in that area.

I didn't do much work or much talking either becase i only got along with the dad. It was a time for much introflection. In tepayac we mostly hung out and partied becuase there was a grand birthday for a 15 year old from my community. We would go around to the other students houses and hang out a lot and not do much work.

There was intense staring from the campesinos towards us, of course most of them had not seen a gringo, and certainly never had them in their houses. But it really never stopped. Smiles ssstares and little talking.

With all the staring going on it was easy to see the hardship and sadness in the eyes of the women in the campo. Although most of them had never lived a different life it could be seen that the women desired something different than what their role provided. This is not true for all women I saw, but for the majority in my family. The father on the other side really appreciated living on his farm, and wouldn't leave it for anything. He was taken from his farm in the 80's to fight for the sandinistas against the contras.

there is much more to say but I will leave at this for now, as I process more and it comes back you all will get a view.

---