Corn and Coffee

Well we haven't actually started planting corn or coffee yet, but we're working on it. Actually it is already becoming more work than I was hoping for. Finding test plot locations has been kind of tricky. I don't think that corn is going to be a problem, however the coffee thing is ending up being a lot harder to find good locations for. For good coffee you want high elevation (which we have) and no frost (which some places have here) and good soil (which other places have). The hard part is finding places that have all three. We're still looking but the clock is starting to tick down. We wouldn't need to plant the coffee until this summer, but if we don't talk to some farmers about it soon they will have already planted things on the land. So hopefully we'll be talking to some guys in the next couple of weeks. My roommate and I are also going to head down far south to the border to help out some other people with their coffee planting. It'll be a good opportunity to learn some things and to help some people out. So that is really about it. The past couple of weeks have been busy with traveling out to villages and when I'm in town trying to keep up with class and other responsibilities. A friend and I have been meeting with some local guys for the past couple of months. Things are going well and two of them are actually going swimming this next week. There are still a couple of other guys in the group who are dragging their feet on some things, but they are asking a lot of good questions. So in looking ahead for this next month I'm probably going to be out trying to find some test plot areas and planting a lot of corn. We've got to plant about six different fields, so that'll take up some time. It'll be good to be out in the villages though. I get sick of being in the city after a few days. Actually I think it is mostly because of the traffic here. There aren't a lot of cars, but no one pays attention to anything so every day I'm dodging someone who almost runs me over. Village life is much safer, with the exception of the occasional parasite. I'll take a parasite over traffic most days. I'll keep everyone posted on the village trips over the next month.

Going to the Farm

So I know it has been a few weeks since I've posted something on here. School has officially started back up; however I have only been to three classes in the past two and a half weeks. The first week of class I came down with a little case of the Giardia, so I wasn't doing a whole lot outside of my apartment. I think it was something that I picked up while I was in the village but it took about a week to finally catch up with me. Anyway, it knocked me out for a few days. I was better by the end of the week, which is good because I needed to go to class, and I went on a nine hour road trip on that Saturday. I was starting to worry that I was still going to be sick during the trip, but I was completely better by then. Last week was spent down on a farm doing some ag training. This is the second time that I've been, and I really enjoy the trips down there. This time we focused on methods to raising chickens, corn and a little bit about soybeans. It is a huge skill to know these kinds of things out here because everyone is a farmer in the villages. So we've applied for a grant that is going to pay us to establish corn test plots in villages. Over the next few weeks we are going to have to set up these test plots and then spend the summer going out and checking them and collecting data. All of this means a lot of time out in the village for me. I'm actually looking forward to it. We're also looking for a few good places to establish come coffee test plots. My filipino roommate is sort of a coffee growing expert, so we're going to try and get that all going in the next couple of months. It is a lot to coordinate, so we'll see how it all goes. Anyway, that's about all that has been going on out here. I'll be traveling to about half a dozen villages over the next couple of weeks to try and get these test plot locations squared away. Other than that it is going to class and trying to keep up with my normal responsibilities in town. It'll be busy, but it is fun.

Back from the village (again)

So I've just realized that I've spent most of my Winter Break out in villages. I'm not going to complain, it is more fun than staying in town. Actually I was about to go crazy from boredom before I went out to this last village. Chinese New Year here is something that you just have to see to believe. Even being in a smaller city, there were fireworks for a solid hour before and after midnight. Actually, there were fireworks the entire week before and after New Year too. There were a few times where I felt like I was in a war zone. All of the streets were deserted and you would randomly hear fireworks going off in the distance. Everywhere closed on Saturday and didn't open back up until the end of the next week. So I decided to go and visit my friend in a village for the week. I tried to leave on Monday, but when I went to the bus station, after talking to the driver earlier that morning, I found out the driver went home because not very many people showed up for the bus and he didn't want to drive out on the holiday. So I didn't leave until Tuesday. The week in the village was a lot of fun. I think I met about half of the village while I was there. One day we went to around nine houses and I ate at six of them. By the fifth meal of the afternoon I felt pretty miserable. There is only so much blood sausage and liver that you can eat in a day. It was a great trip though. The village sits around 2,000 meters elevation and it is in the middle of one of the deepest gorges in the world. On both sides of the village there are two 6,000 meter mountains. While I was there we got the only rain of the winter and there was a ton of snow on the mountains. It made for an incredible view. I've also got a few invitations to come back, and hopefully this will be a possible location for some coffee test plots.

Back from Vacation

I'm back from a week and a half down in Thailand. We talked to a few friends who are working down there and were able to find some inexpensive places to stay during the trip. It was a lot of fun. We had a place that was right on the beach and were short walk from some of the best rock climbing in the world. The island that we were staying on is only accessible by boat so there were no cars or bikes or anything like that. It was a fun week. I got to do some rock climbing, SCUBA diving (I was about five feet away from a 7-foot leopard shark), kayaking, riding elephants, and some other fun stuff. It was a good week. It has been a little bit of a shock coming back. I am definitely glad to be back, but it seems a little colder then when I left. Spring should be right around the corner though. This next week is Chinese New Year and I hear that it is going to be a huge party. Most everything will be closed down for a about a week, so I'm thinking I need to get an invite out to stay with a friend in a village or otherwise I'm going to starve. One of my friends has given me an invite so I think I'm going to try and stay with him for a few days. I'll make sure and keep you all posted.

Back from the Village

Well I survived my time out in the village. It was actually a really good trip. The village leader that I am staying with is a guy in his mid-40's. Usually he is out chopping down trees, so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him this week. His father is the former village head and he and I spent most of our time together. He is a great older guy. I can see why they are the leaders of this village because, as opposed to most people out here, they are busy most of the time. Them being busy was great for me because I had things to do almost every day. Most mornings we would wake up and eat breakfast at around 9:30 and then go out around 10am. It sounds kind of late, which it is, but the reason is because we were so high in the mountains that the sun wouldn't come up until then. And it was REALLY cold if the sun wasn't up. So during the morning we would basically hike a little over a mile to the other side of the mountain so we could find some trees to chop down. Uncle He, the former village leader, and I would chop down a few trees, strip off the branches from the top, tie them all together and then haul them home so we could feed the goats with them. And then most days we would go out and do the exact same thing in the afternoon. It is kind of a lot of work just to feed some goats. I didn't mind though. I got to chop down a few trees and it gave me something to do. Most of the time village life is pretty boring, but this week was good because it was different. I was also stretched with language quite a bit. I would read some in the afternoons and Uncle He would always ask what I was reading. It turns out he can't read so I had to tell him about it. There were a few times where I had to use some charades, but overall I think he understood what I was talking about. I've posted the video from week three from our village wedding trip here. This next week Jared and I are taking off for a little vacation down South. Nothing like going from about 9,000-feet in the cold mountains to sunny warm beaches.

Going to the Village

So the village thing has finally come together (I think). I've got somewhere to go this week anyway. I'm actually heading out tomorrow afternoon and I'll be back... I'm not really sure when. Hopefully I'll be back on Friday, but I might end up staying out there until Monday-ish. I'm going to be in a village about an hour outside of town on the side of a mountain. I've done some ag work out here before and so I'm staying with the village head. You would think that the village leader would have a nice place, but that isn't the case. I went out there yesterday and talked to everybody and I'm going to be roughing it a little bit for the next few days. It probably won't be too bad, but it is going to be cold. Last night, even before the sun went down, it was getting pretty chilly. I think it is about 1,000 feet above the valley, so the weather is a little bit harsher there. I hit it off with the grandpa that lives at the house though, so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot together this next week. They have a lot of goats in this village and Grandpa was telling me that I can help him watch the goats during the day. So at least I'll have a little something to do, and I might even come away knowing a little bit about goat ranching (if that is even a term. . .). The people there are really nice though, so I'm sure it'll be a good week. Hopefully this will open up a few doors for me to come back and start up some ag projects in the coming months. I think I'm going to start hitting the ag thing pretty hard once February gets here. I've got a friend coming out to live with me and he has an ag degree and worked on a coffee plantation for a few years. So I'm sure we'll find all kinds of things to get into out here. The game plan is that we're going to get some high elevation coffee test plots going and maybe some pigpens and whatever else we can come up with. It should be fun. Oh, and here is video 2 from the wedding.

Village Wedding

So I survived the village wedding. It was REALLY COLD though. I think it was somewhere around 20 degrees in my room every night. So it feels good to be living back in the valley again. It has actually been really nice here since I've been back. It gets pretty cold here at night, but for living at about 7,500 feet at the beginning of January, it really isn't too bad. Life out in the village was actually a lot more fun than it usually is. Normally in the village I catch up on a lot of reading and usually just sit around, which is all that is left to do if you don't smoke, drink, or gamble. There is actually a lot going on in villages during planting or harvest season, but otherwise, just a lot of sitting. The wedding was fun because there was a lot going on by village standards and we had a friend with us who could speak some English. The first day we were there they killed three pigs, so that provided a few hours of entertainment. Other than that we pretty much sat around by the fire, took pictures and shot video. I'm actually going to post a video a week. The link to this last weeks is here. Act fast though because I'm probably not going to leave them up too long. And heads up on this one, it is the pig killing. So if you're partial to bacon you might want to skip out until next weeks. For the rest of break things are a little up in the air. The game plan is that I'm going to live out in the villages some so I can work on language, go on a little vacation, and then start up some ag projects. I'll make sure and post more details when I have them, the problem is that a lot of things are still up in the air. Hopefully it'll come together soon so I can get the village thing knocked out before I head out of country and then I can focus on growing coffee once I get back.