Field Work 2

Ah. were to begin/continue. My mind is still spinning from this past week with thoughts about international aid, micro finance, organic farming, rural living, vegetarianism, fair trade, comparative advantage, economics, health, education, gender roles, family values, entrenreuers, windy roads, flor and fauna, modern commodities, and more. I could go on and on. To see our work in action, and participate in the lives of these communities was more than eye opening, in the respect that there is complexity in even the smallest piece of life. And I cant even begin to tell you how much I learned. I dont think I can even comprehend how much I learned There are some species of bees, for example, that have two wings, others that have four. Who knew? Helping purchase one blender for a woman to prepare papaya juice outside her home can change so much, and yet so little. Buying an oven for someone can begin the first bakery in town. Yet the new refrigerator for the meat vendor may still be unused. Complex issues.

The towns that we visited varied from 300 people up to 3000. No one has a phone. So the two phone booths in the town, in the evening has a line down the block waiting to call the cousin in La Paz, or who knows. Also, they have implemented the most ingenious system. Since the town is small enough there is a loud speaker on top of a building, and for 12 cents you can make an annoucement over the loud speaker to the entire town. Such as, "Mr. Fernando, come home for dinner right now" or "my bike has been stolen, my bike has been stolen!" very clever.

Also, since there is no phone and no map of the area, in order to do the interviews you just drive to the town that you know the beneficiary lives near, and roll down your window and ask someone where Mr Lopez the black bean famer lives. "around the third bend in the road on your right." so there you go... and sure enough around the third bend there are some steps up to a wooden house with a tin roof that has bricks on top to hold it down. so I hike up the hill in my fashin shade and hiking boots to the interview. outside, the wife is cooking lunch in a pot sitting directly on a couple logs that make a fire. They quickly accomodate you, wipe off the bench and popping open a two liter bottle of coca-cola (i drank SO much coca cola). And as i talk with the husband, the wife swings the child around that was in a sack on her back, and begins breastfeeding.

Also, along the way I ate papaya, bananas, oranges, cacoa and coconut that I picked myself. I saw green eggs, a turkey, birds building nests, cotton growing on the plant, tried wine from grapefruit (a variation on the coca cola hospitality.) and we saw a dead porcipine by the side of the road that the people i was traveling with proceeded to pluck the pines because apparently they are a good remedy for something...

All in all, I was enamored by the pace, generosity and lifestyle of the region. And it churned within me emotions of passion for natureand love of simplicity. I felt an ache confronted with poverty, toyed with the dream of living on a farm myself, and was stuffed with frsh fruit and coca-cola. I began reflecting on the work i have choosen to do. And had 5 very intense days of evaluating the life we choose to lead. Most of all it made me grateful to have a choice.