¡Extranjera! ¡Extranjera!

Up the dirt road, lush green banana and macadamia trees are looming overhead, as I admire the layers of comforting mountains. The pick-up truck which I am riding white-knuckled in the bed of- pulls up to numerous colorfully painted cement buildings. "Bienvenido a Santa Anita"! I am THE one and only extranjera (foreign girl) at the community of Santa Anita La Union for the first two weeks of my stay. Although it is difficult to feel useful and helpful here, I find myself following Mariola, a member of this 200 person community, in her everyday life routine. Cooking consists of old Mexican pots over a fire: fried plantains, coffee, rice, beans, eggs, and gallons of oil. I've become a junior expert on forming exceptionally round tortillas. Every day here has been more and more enlightening about the functions and goals of this coffee-producing community, especially the roles of each member. The women always have work regardless; cooking, washing clothes, washing dishes, collecting firewood, and also an assigned job in Santa Anita. The men, however, have the luxury of working as they please (the level of activity varies to each extreme). Family and community ties are very friendly and relational; placticas, or little chats, are always interrupting any task. Although the farmers life is quite limited, they have the priveledge of waking up in a land of indescribable beauty. Blue, yellow, green, white, red birds awaken the human species around 6:30 just as the soft yellow suns peeks through the distant volcano and illuminates uninhabited green land... the smells of campfire and dew are invigorating. Picture 1 is a coffee cherry not yet ripened (they are bright red when they are ripe during La Cosecha, the harvest, in September through December). Picture 2 is of us separating the bad from the good green coffee beans by hand before roasting. Picture 3-"Children of the corn"- is Kati and I outside the office building right before the afternoon rain begins.