Three swings of rope and old tires.

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Things are going well here, and I am loving it in Bahia. At the moment I am working with two short-term volunteers, Justine and Maggie, but they leave for Quito in a few hours. These two volunteers, a work party of Maria Auxiliadora residents (Elba, Benito and co.) and I installed benches throughout the park, with very nice log benches at the viewpoint near number 8 sign. Also we’ve put up a railing for tired hikers to lean against and take in the fabulous view, and installed three swings of rope and old tires. 

Jeff and I went to a village called San Jose de Minas north of Quito last weekend to view a permaculture initiative there and meet Deborah, a friend of mine and professor of forestry. 

Currently I’m researching dry tropical forest fruit tree species native to the Bahia region – I’ve arranged to talk with Marcelo Luque and one of the American volunteers at Fanca who has a degree in forestry. Any pointers, websites or books you could tell me of would be appreciated. Marcelo is going to help me identify the seeds we have – they aren’t labeled and I don’t know which is which. 

In the last week Chris, Kristen, Jeff, Sara, Matt and Rita have all left, so we are into the second generation of volunteers since I arrived two weeks ago. The binder that Rita and Sara started provides some continuity between volunteers past and present.