So my first week in La Cumbre has been wonderful! It’s so nice to be out of the city and up in the mountains. It’s been cold at night but I have a nice thick blanket on my bed to keep me warm.
Tuesday afternoon we went hiking around the coffee plantation up at the Trujillo Mansion and then to the conuco of Don Fermin where my friend Cliff is staying. A conuco is a traditional Dominican way of farming with different crops intermixed. Where we are here in the mountains it is quite steep so much of the farmland has crops running down the side of the hill. We hiked all the way down to the river at the bottom of the valley on Don Fermin’s farm and all the way back up. When we got back up we took a look at his goats and I got to milk a little. It’s a lot harder than milking a cow, or at least it was with this goat because she was so small. But it was fun nonetheless. I know some of my group members got pictures so I’ll have to try to get them from them and put them on my blog.
Wednesday afternoon we went with my friend Kevin’s host brother to put in a water filter at a neighbor’s house. He got 60 of them donated by Proyecto Las Americas and was installing them for a small price, just enough to cover his traveling expenses. It’s a pretty cool system and relatively easy to use although you can’t move the filter after it’s in place because it disturbs the biological cap that is on top which is what filters the water. These ones were made of plastic instead of cement like the ones I saw at Ann and Tim’s site when I visited.
Thursday morning I was sitting out on the porch when the house started shaking. It only last for a few seconds and I didn’t know what it was until my host mom, Doña Maria, came out and asked me if I felt the earthquake. Apparently I’ve felt so few earthquakes that when the ground shakes I don’t immediately think earthquake! I think, oh, maybe a big truck drove by up on the road. It was pretty exciting though! It definitely shook pretty hard.
Then Thursday afternoon we worked on soil conservation techniques. We had this guy Henry who works for an NGO come out and talk to us and then we got to do some hands on work. We learned how to make an agronivel which we can use to find the contours on the mountain because the important thing about making barriers is that they’re on the same plane, otherwise their strength is weakened. We made a live barrier on this steep hillside using machetes, picks, and shovels to clear out the area and planted patchouli. Then we went down to a local family’s conuco (which of course was on a super steep hill) and did a dead barrier. We had to measure the contours again and we did three rows of dead barriers with leaves, rocks, and trunks from his guineo (banana) and rulo (banana-like) trees.
Friday morning for Spanish class we walked to the Monument to the Mirabal sisters which is about 3 km from La Cumbre. For those of you who don’t know the story of the Mirabal sisters here’s a short explanation. They were part of an underground network that worked against Trujillo in the 50s. The story goes that they went to visit their husbands who were imprisoned in Puerto Plata and they took this mountain road here near La Cumbre. On their way home they were intercepted by Trujillo’s men and tortured and killed, then their bodies and the body of their driver were put back in the car and the car was pushed off the cliff. The monument stands where they were pushed off the cliff. The sisters, known by the code name Las Mariposas (the Butterflies) were well-known and well-liked and their was a huge outcry both nationally and internationally when their deaths were announced. This was in November of 1960 and many people belief that their death was the beginning of the end of Trujillo, who was killed in 1961.
On Friday afternoon, I gave a brief lecture on organic agriculture and then my friends Cliff and Andrea led a compost workshop where we made a couple of compost piles up at the Mansion.
And last night was my friend Kevin’s 27th birthday so the whole group came down to his house and we had cake that his host mom had made, and sang songs, and had a few drinks. Many members from our host families came and hung out as well. It was a lot of fun!
That wraps up my first week in La Cumbre. We have a couple more birthdays to celebrate this weekend. My friend Jaron’s birthday is today, the same day as my grandfather, Paw Paw, who is 86 years young today!! Happy Birthday Paw Paw!! Tonight we’ll be celebrating Jaron’s birthday and tomorrow is my friend Jasmin’s birthday.
I’ll be in touch again probably next week. We were supposed to have internet access up here but that’s turned out to be a pipe dream. The power is usually out when we’re up at the mansion so no internet. Lots of love to all!!
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