Monday, February 16, 2009

Appy Noon!, Monday, February 2, 2009

There was a big storm last night.  Wind, heavy rain.  Didn’t know if I should be worried or not, but we are in a strong building.  The trees were blown around a bit and one of the students said that people would make a lot of money today by going around and picking up coconuts that were blown off.  So, it’s not all bad.  The ground is well watered and everything will be growing rapidly.  A couple of the children were out collecting mushrooms very similar in size and shape to our white toadstools.  These are edible so they may be similar to the Portobelo mushrooms.  

After class Jonathan and I went down to a store about a kilometer to the west.  We had a pleasant walk, stepping around mud puddles and a new crop of dead toads in the road.  We got close to the store and found a pond just loaded with toads in the heat of passion.  (Enough details).  We shielded our eyes and passed by to the store.  

The little enterprise was just one room tacked on to the end of the house but fairly well stocked with everything from potted meat to ready to wear.  The store owner was very friendly and the children in the area came around to check out the tuntalala (white men).  The people are very nice and we are always greeted with bong bong! (Morning!) Or So Hasa (hello) or Che bong (good evening) or Appy Noon! (Good afternoon).  

After we got back Jonathan tried his hand at coconut shelling.  It wasn’t entirely successful, but   we did get to the meat of it (lost most of the milk).  It is really good and makes a nice snack for between meals.  

Jeff and I are missing out on the Superbowl.  Jeff is missing it more than I since he’s from Ohio and still a Cardinals fan.  It does bring home the remoteness of this place when I can’t get on line to find out what the score is.  I miss missing out on the new commercials more than the game, but we’ll both catch up when we get home.  

Our entertainment this evening was a little less enjoyable, but more important by far.  We watched the documentary “The Coconut Revolution”.  If all is to be believed, the BRA were totally in the right and the cause very just.  I think that was mostly true, but the documentary seemed a little too good to be true.  However, Jeff was quite impressed by it and said it opened up his eyes to many things he had not known before about the conflict.  It was very powerful.  I had watched about half of it back home before coming.  They were very resourceful in overcoming the blockade and the leader, Francis Ona said the blockade had forced them to find their own resources and resourcefulness.  

Go to: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9073157933630784238 or Google "Coconut Revolution" to watch the video (almost an hour) 

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