Things are happening in Bahia!

October 17 to 23, 2005

For the first time since the dry season started we had a reasonable rain in Bahia on Wednesday!

The dogs have found new ways to break into the greenhouse so we have reinforced the walls again. What we thought were Zapote de Perro seeds coming up were actually weeds, but now the real seeds have started to come up, although in small numbers. The first Seca has come up as well. They take quite some time. We have been recording greenhouse and site inventory data into the new database that David designed for us. I think it is basically the Seed Bank in a nutshell!  We added dirt to some of the seed beds which were getting low, and also repaired one side of the seed beds inside the greenhouse. We also transplanted into bottles many Guachapeli that were getting too big for their bags.

In Jorge Lomas, the Fernando site is doing quite well, and it turns out the digging beside Las Casas was indeed for a drainage ditch which will connect to the main one in the middle. 

The three km 8 sites are doing fine—Cherry Tree and Dairy Farm continue to receive water twice a week. There is still no municipal water supply to anywhere in Bahia but luckily Cherry Tree still has enough water for all, and as far as our house goes, we apparently have a huge cistern.

I met up with Shane, the Aussie who is doing his PhD on “learning tourism”, who took me for coffee and asked a few questions. I gave him a self-guided tour pamphlet for El Bosque Park and mentioned that the Maria Auxilliadora Barrio  Community where it is located is thinking of turning it into a tourist attraction.

Speaking of El Bosque, most of the signs there are now missing, posts and all, with no trace left behind. We did some trail, handrail and step maintenance, and the usual trash pick up. It is a bit better than before, but is still accumulating litter.

Riccardo fixed the screens on the windows in the dining room, and the women volunteers worked on placards for the Catolica University Open House next week. Stephanie made a new one for composting. We have formalized weekly house meetings again. The first one went well, and was relatively stress—free. Megan is settling in fine, although she was quite tired the first week. She also speaks good Spanish. Now we have four volunteers total.

I went to the launch of a UN Environmental Global Citizen Program, of which Canton Sucre is one of two selected cantons for the project (the other is Riobamba). Also, Friday was the launch of the USAID funded Solid Waste (garbage separation) Project. Looks like things are happening in Bahia!

Hasta pronto!

Heather