Orion

One night during my first week in country I went up on the roof of my host family´s house. I instantly knew I was in a different place because when I looked directly above, to the sky´s zenith, I saw Orion. I almost didn´t recognize him in his new spot. And it was a little unnerving. Last night when I looked up at the sky, I couldn´t identify any constellations! When I lived in New Hampshire, the night sky and its constellations were so familiar I could get my bearings in an instant by looking up. I realize now that not only was I connected to the landscape there – the types of trees, the stone walls, the lakes, the wild blueberries, etc. – but I was also grounded by the sky. In Ecuador, I´m starting to grow accustomed to the high sierras, dead volcanoes, and Andean forests… but I still have no idea what´s going on overhead at night!

It´s been a little while since my last post. I´ve moved on from biol to biochar (a type of fertilizer and carbon sequestration method), and overall things are going well. I moved to an apartment, which has been a nice change (I no longer have roosters outside my window that cockle-doodle-doo at three in the morning). The dueña (landlady/owner) of the apartment is a doctor in town. She´s really sweet but a little nutty – the first few days she called me Daniel, David, and Andres. There´s a women´s group she´s a part of, and I plan to start working with them because of their interest in organic, home gardening. Another opportunity to look into. Also, I just started a home garden with a family in the neighborhood of San Jose, where I used to live. We´re in the process of constructing a perimeter fence to keep out chickens and dogs, and we´re forming raised beds for our veggies. I might try to make some Biodynamic horn manure preparations – not sure if that´d scare people though. The plan is to create a really beautiful garden (complete with compost, biol, biochar, and wormbeds) to use in the future as an outdoor classroom for folks who want to start growing food in their homes. It also hits multiple important topics: environmental stewardship, food security, and nutrition. I´m really excited about this project and hope to use it as a foundation for much of my other work. And I think it´ll make teaching easier. It´ll be easier for people to learn how to create compost when they can see how the system is set up. And it´ll be easier for them to learn what healthy soil is when they can feel it and smell it in their hands.

Stay tuned for my next post on learning Ecuadorian folk music… Hope everyone is staying cool up there in the northern hemisphere!