Days of hacking brambles, hauling logs, and burning brush slowly blend together into a few mental images of sun baking a charred landscape; blazing piles of small and not-so-small trees and vines; and lots of bilingual ribbing, joking, and laughter. Early in the week, after a scorching day, we decided to switch to a siesta schedule, with an early breakfast around 5:30, putting us in the chacra (field) by around 6:15, in time to put in a good five hours of work before the hottest part of the day. Then after lunch and some indoor chores and rest, we’d start back up around 3 pm, working until 5:30 or so before quitting for the day. It took a little while to figure out, working in meals and team worships around the chicas’ (ladies’) teaching schedules. We’re still tweaking it a little, but it’s much nicer to be hauling logs and tending our roaring brush fires in the cool of the morning and evening. We’re also getting close to done with the hectaria (hectare, 100m x100m – 2.47 acres, I believe?) that we’re clearing to plant lemon trees, to graft tangelos and mandarin oranges onto in a couple months. Maybe it’ll be ready by the end of this week, when we leave for a week of clinics.
Friday afternoon, we didn’t go back into the selva for our couple hours of afternoon work, but worked on some jobs that needed to be done near the casas. I dug up several wheelbarrows full of burned trash beside the house and carted it out to our trash pit, then worked with Mauro and Brent on digging a new trash pit and covering over the old one with dirt. Brent also took some of the dirt we dug out of the new pit to fill in some bucket-sized holes near our outdoor dishwashing station.
Early Sabbath morning, I took a walk into the selva with my binoculars, looking for birds. I’ve seen some really pretty firefinch types, with intense red patches on black bodies. The light wasn’t very bright yet, but I saw several that will be fun to look up when I find a bird book somewhere!
After escuela Sabatica y culto divino (Sabbath school and divine service), where I fought with my hereditary tendency to “rest my eyes” during church, and a good Sabbath lunch, a few of us headed back for choir practice and la programa de la sociedad de jovenes (youth program), where I gave an impromptu special music on my French horn, and also gave the short message, about the importance of time spent in devotions with God’s Word.
3 comments:
Nice. Siesta's make so much sense . . . I know I always want a nap after lunch!
I love birds. Take some pictures. Keep playing your French horn, preaching, and working hard. :) Talk to you soon.
Hey,
What you're doing sounds so awesome! I just connected Brent... is he Brent Sherwin? That sounds like a really awesome opportunity for you. Know that I'll be praying.
Erica
Another bird watcher in Peru! I bought four books while I was there (one of which was the size of a breadbox and Jenni graciously brought down from the states) and was still unable to Identify everything - but there are certainly enough there to add to increase your life list.
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