ecuador may16th, 17th,18th, 19th

May 16th
Helped in the kitchen this morning. The ladies in the kitchen speak no english and have the coastal accent which was interesting to work with.  We cut some fruits and helped set the table. Not too difficult, but a lot of fun:) After breakfast we were assigned our jobs for the day. In the beginning we started out by finishing up the irrigation in the big part of the garden. It´s important to make sure this system will be running smoothly for the dry season  where it rains very very little. The sun was out all morning but it was nice being able to work with the water to cool off every now and then. Later in the day i learned how Sergio makes the matte cups and spoons that we use for our meals. I helped scrap out the matte fruit (which isn´t eatten because apparently it doesn´t taste good. I don´t want to try it either i think it smells like paint thinner, ICK!) I really enjoyed this activity is was laid bacl and the volunteers were able to hang out and share our stories with eachother. The spoons we worked on will be used for a schoo fund raiser for the childrens environmental school here on the farm

May 17th
I cut my first pineapple this morning! I know, it´s crazy haha but hey i learned something new :) The pineapple came from the farm, it´s neat that they use fruit grown so near. I learned that it takes over a year for just one pìneapple to grow! That´s sooo long for just one fruit!
After breakfast we headed up to the garden agian. I was chosen to work on making beds in a different section of the garden that had recently been weeded out since the rainy season. It was hard work. The soil here is very thick and very rough. Most of it being a hard clay material. Tillage usually isn´t a part of sustianable ag, but in this case and in this location it is vital to helping create air pockets for planting. After that, i planted cucumber in one of the new beds we made. the roots of the cucumber already smelt like cucumber! it was neat. After lunch i learned how to and helped transplant a hole bunch of sesame plants. Transplanting was an intesteriing process that required lots of water and being very very gentle with the plant. Im hoping they turn out great in thier new home!  since it´s friday we are about to head to canoa for the weekend! i am very much looking forward to a break from the farm and experincing a more culture in the area!

The Weekend
This weekend was really laid back. Got to eat some locally made empanadas and spent some time on the beach. Even though Canoa is somewhat of a touristy area there are still a lot of locals and a lot of different things going on. It was a great weekend!