Dia de Campo

Reading: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Because I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, which inevitably means I am often very busy doing nothing with even less to show for it, I am going to take this rare moment to relish in an accomplishment.

The community garden

For the past few months,I have been working with a bureaucrat from Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Acuacultura y Pesca (MAGAP) and a farmers organization in the neighboring community on a community garden. The garden had been coming along quite nicely when the bureaucrat caught wind of another organization using their garden as a "dia de campo" open house, complete with the local mayor, a token foreigner (he was from Taiwan) and complementary lunch. After said bureaucrat, the organization president and some community members unexpectedly drove me six hours to check out this ordeal, we decided to host our own. Hello legit work.

Our dia de campo went off without a hitch with about 70 people in attendance. The 30x35m garden had a bountiful harvest of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, onions, beets, squash, string beans and corn, which the Ecuadorians were ever so quick to ravage - I equate such behavior with their contempt for waiting in lines. There was even free beer for the guys to their complement the lunch, courtesy of MAGAP.

Sidenote: there should be more pictures up on facebook... given that the computer that I'm using and facebook are working as they should...