spring has sprung

and bees swarm the acacias, the goat had a baby (another week and we´ll hopefully being making cheese) and the cabaña is lleno de volunteers. When I arrived I was one of two (the other was the aforementioned New Mexican hippy who had never done any kind of manual labor and had to ask me how to use a shovel) so very little got done. We{re seven now, which is enough to stop up the poor septic system and force us to establish a temporary compost toilet outside, which would be fine and all if I didn{t have explosive diarrhea. I{ll get into that a little later. The upside, however, is that we{ve successfully cleaned the entire huerta (almost) and are finally planting. Tomatoes, beans, melons, all kinds of squash, eggplant, fennel, chards, kale, taters, more onions (always more onions) and quite a few herbs. We´re harvesting broad beans and artichokes and in one more week the stawberries will be ready (I´ve never tasted a white strawberry that was so sweet). The cold nights, warm days and frequent winds tell my body it´s fall; but the small green leaves and pink buds instead of dead oranges, reds and yellows serve to remind me of my sub-equatorial location.

Speaking of things below equators, my bowels, as I have alluded to, have been in an uproar. Mine and two other volunteers´. Two days of some kind of flu with aches all over, mostly in the head, and a constant reminder that the bathroom is no longer a few steps away but outside and a good twenty meters off. Again, no big deal, really, but throw in a a roofless structure around said toilet and a conveniently coinciding thunderstorm and you´d much rather be pulling weeds than laying in bed all day. The thing about diarrhea is that you think you´ve gotten it all out but the minute you get back in bed the tummy starts rumbling again. In two days I ate 4 smallish rolls and a bite or two of rice. I woke up more or less ok this morning, with more or less solid stool (this, of course, is relative; let´s just say is wasn´t the Hershey squirts no more. More like jam) and trekked into town to eat a lot of medialunas (croissants) and fracturas (croissant-dough pastry with bavarian-like cream filling) washed down with my first cortado (espresso and milk) in a loooong time. So far I{ve managed to hold it all in. I´ve got my eye on a choripan (big oily grilled sausage in a roll with onions, cabbage, or other condiments) or a milanesa (fried meat sandwich with ham, cheese, egg, lettuce, onion and tomato).

Last week I got to go to Mendoza with Azucena to clean up a space inside a Chinese medicine practice that will be the first organic produce market in thee city. There is a farmer´s market, but only 6 farms in the area have certifications. There´s a beautiful courtyard with a moro tree (huge berry-yielding trees;not as sweet as our north american varieties but delicious nonetheless) and space for a sizeable herb garden, flower garden, and picnic tables where patients can wait and drink a tea or fresh juice brought from the store. It will function like a co-op space where producers pay a small portion of the rent and the employee´s paycheck and name their own prices. Not all of the producers will be certified organic, since the license costs so damn much, but if the food is pure, natural, and without chemicals it can be sold there. It´s based of a German model that apparently worked so well that these co-ops have grown as big as supermarkets. Sundays in town are great. Stores close down but restaurants open up for old men to discuss the worlds´problems over a beer or cafe while their wives chat through windows and doors at home, kids rule the sidestreets with futbol pick up games and dog-chasing, young couples manage to walk in straight lines while making out down the scooter-lined sidewalks. It´s sunny and a little breezy today, perfect for a walk. I´m gonna go take one.

Last week I got to go to Mendoza with Azucena to clean up a space inside a Chinese medicine practice that will be the first organic produce market in thee city. There is a farmer´s market, but only 6 farms in the area have certifications. There´s a beautiful courtyard with a moro tree (huge berry-yielding trees;not as sweet as our north american varieties but delicious nonetheless) and space for a sizeable herb garden, flower garden, and picnic tables where patients can wait and drink a tea or fresh juice brought from the store. It will function like a co-op space where producers pay a small portion of the rent and the employee´s paycheck and name their own prices. Not all of the producers will be certified organic, since the license costs so damn much, but if the food is pure, natural, and without chemicals it can be sold there. It´s based of a German model that apparently worked so well that these co-ops have grown as big as supermarkets.

Sundays in town are great. Stores close down but restaurants open up for old men to discuss the worlds´problems over a beer or cafe while their wives chat through windows and doors at home, kids rule the sidestreets with futbol pick up games and dog-chasing, young couples manage to walk in straight lines while making out down the scooter-lined sidewalks. It´s sunny and a little breezy today, perfect for a walk. I´m gonna go take one. Until next time.