Ka Ñüre (The Rainy Season)

It's now "Ka Ñüre," or The Rainy Season, for sure (say that "Kaw Nyoo-ray.") A thunderstorm rolls in about every day between 11 am and 3 pm, meaning that no events can be planned for the afternoon. The height of the rainy season lasts from October through mid-December. But October is also a time for seasonal celebrations: Bible Month, the annual rice harvest, and a big marching drum band fest at the end of the month. It's also the time when I'm wrapping up a round of meetings related to my upcoming latrine project and getting ready for the next stage of writing the proposal for the project.

Very cute and gentle, but her mother says "when she was younger she liked to throw live chicks into the cooking fire!"

My church organized a parade/walk down the main street of town to celebrate Bible Month or "Mes de la Biblia", September. Here we are, walking and singing with several other churches. It was fun! A handful of members from the local Independent drum band beat out the rhythm. (They're just warming up for a big drum-band event October 28th.)

The women are holding aloft their Bibles: "Quien vive? Cristo!" or "Who lives? Christ!"  

 

 

Teens share some tunes after the event

It is rice harvesting season in October. Many families plant a dry, upland rice on the steep slopes of our community. I had the chance to help out some friends in their field. The amount of weeds is pretty typical- after a few rounds of cutting weeds with the machete when the rice is young, the weeds or "monte" just grow up some. The heads of grain are cut with a small hand-held knife and gathered up in sacks. Later, the family will separate the grain from the stalks, dry it in the sun, toast it over a fire, and pound it to de-hull it before being able to eat it. Rice is a lot of work!

Here are some portraits to share with you. Some people, when they ask me to take their picture, succumb to fits of the giggles at this unfamiliar opportunity. It makes me smile. I try to convince them that they have nice teeth, not to cover their mouths, and that they look better smiling than serious. Ngabes generally prefer very serious portraits that look like those of our great-grandparents who had to stay still for a long time and couldn't smile. Bella and Miriam, pictured below, took several tries to compose themselves but it worked out nicely in the end. I am taking more portraits now that I've decided to do it, charging a small fee to cover the cost of printing.

Here's a portrait with a nervous bull. Stop tossing your head, you, and look at the camera!

We have continued with the latrine meetings; tomorrow is the last of a series of 5 meetings, that consist of an educational talk and some organizing details. There has been enthusiastic interest from the community, and as the meetings finish up, families are turning in paperwork and a small deposit to participate in the project. In this photo, participants take a look at a mock-up of formwork to pour concrete.


On October 20, I'll be celebrating my one year anniversary of swearing in as a Peace Corps volunteer. I've got one more year to go: halfway through my time here, I feel like I'm just getting started. And in a way I am, as far as projects and educational efforts go. I'll be celebrating with the other volunteers in my "group"- the 15 other Environmental Health volunteers that swore in on October 20, 2011.