I woke up this morning to reggeaton blasting in my ear and realized I had about 3 and ½ weeks left in this house. I tried to fall back asleep which didn't work. It was not a good start to the day and this day needed to be good. I hadn't a good one here yet and needed a “pick me up” for sure. I'm so sick of reaggeaton I could never hear it again and the happiest person on earth. I'm pretty sure that if I get sent to hell I'm just going to be strapped to a table and next to my ears are going to be big shitty speakers with all kinds of chrome on them for no reason blaring a 23 hour reaggeaton station. The other hour will be for talking about how great reaggeaton is.
So I had mentioned to Solomon, my hopeful future counterpart in the community, that I wanted to meet everyone in the chocolate group and that I would like to attend the group meeting on Thursday. I mentioned this about two days ago and forgot that Thursday was today. Solomon must think I'm an idiot because he had to remind me about the only thing on my schedule. I didn't think it was a big deal anyways. I was just going to see what the meetings looked like. I figured it was just going to be a bunch of dirty old men shooting the shit. I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to fry an egg in this house and then headed out the door. It's not as easy as you think here. Walking down the street I noticed an acquaintance on a horse and he asked if I was going to the meeting where I would get my name. This confused me but I quickly answered yes. This brought up two things: One being that random people in the town that were not going to the meeting knew I was going to the meeting, and two being that apparently I was getting a new name at this meeting.
I showed up at the meeting and about 25 people stood outside the ACODAAC building which translated stands for Association of Conservation of Development, Agriculture, and Artisan Culture. So its pretty much every word they could find that had to do with the “green” movement. They are twenty years old so maybe they figured it out first. It's pretty much a long name for the group in charge of refined chocolate production and artisan crafts. I figured out roughly that this group directly and indirectly affects the entire community and will be my primary working partner. After I get things rolling with this group I will move over to see what I can do at the school.
We hung out outside and I watched the men dig a trench for awhile until the meeting was called inside. We all entered the high ceilinged concrete room with large wire mesh windows, and sat down on the benches made from solid unevenly cut boards and tree rounds. The meeting started and everything started as usual I'm guessing. My ears have been and still are full of fluid and I can't hear a damn thing. I did hear my name come up with other things like Peace Corps and the word “help” then followed by the word “presentation” followed by a long stare in my direction. I decided to get up and give my self presentation in front of the group while a man in the corner took notes. My Spanish is still pretty bad and considering I was having trouble hearing or standing straight up, I think did pretty well. I explained that I was not like the past volunteer and that I wanted to get more hands on and work with everyone in every capacity. I got cheers and claps and I was happy. The time and date was noted by the recorder and we were off to the next subject. Or so I thought.
Solomon described why he had asked for another volunteer here and then went into talking about what other people's wants and expectations of me were. The conversation started well then quickly went into Gnabere which meant they didn't want me to understand what they were saying. Voices were raised and I could tell who was instigating and who was trying to calm the storm. This made me nervous and all the pride I had gained from the success of my presentation soon faded. The conversation died and Solomon suggested that everyone introduce themselves to me the same way. It took awhile and some of the older artisan women are way to shy to talk amongst others. They just put their hands in front of their face and turn laughing. I found out later that people were talking about how the last volunteer didn't really do much and never did anything with the community. The people felt used and wanted more participation.
After this procedure it was time for my new name. Now, I have to say that I was not prepared for how well structured and organized this group is. Not only do they keep record of every number for everything, they keep the time and date of events and democraticly decided everything. Four names were written on the board and each person gave one vote. I was soon given the name Chiro Mutari. I liked it and it was recorded that my Gnabe birth was to be at noon on the fourth of November and that my new name was Chiro Mutari. At first I thought this was going to be one of those things where people sometimes call you this name when they remember or it was going to be used as a joke. Not so. People starting using it immediately and word spread throughout the community fast.
I walked over to Solomon's house at around 3 feeling much better about my place here and after seeing some exotic birds including a couple tucans fly over me things started to look up. My sickness has brought me down a lot and I had another terrible dream last night about an ex girlfriend that has lingered all day. Solomon and I talked over dinner about the meeting and worked on a document on my computer that states the laws of ACODAAC. We also went over ways we could change the packaging for the chocolate and a little about the competition that I have seen here. His wife fed us a boiled fish of some sort and mashed plantains along with boiled water and coffee grounds of which I ate and drank about half of. We talked some more about creating plans for a bicycle grinder to present to the group and his desire to somehow get used baseball equipment down here for the teams because the weather here has almost all but destroyed everything they have. Dad or anyone else reading this, if you have contacts with a local team or any connects lets work something out. They love baseball here more than any sport I've seen. The problem is that equipment is expensive. More expensive here than in the states.
I walked from Solomon's house feeling happy. Dark now and my headlamp dim I slowly made my way through the muddy hill weaving in between trails of dirt, wet grass, barbed wire, and jungle. Moving giant toads from my way with my knee high boots I noticed the sky was clear tonight and the air hot. I could here my name being called from a distant window. “Chiro” the voice belted and I recall thinking that even in the dark my gringoness can not be hidden. To remedy the problem with my headlamp I walked to the road and then back up a mud laden hill where the small community store stood open by oil lamp. The store owner called me my new name and we chatted about how the coming month would bring much rain and lightening storms followed by a month of sun. I felt right in this place and like part of the community for the first time.
This place is beautiful, but without the trust and confidence of the people it would become a jail sentence for me. Betray their trust or friendship and I will be forever cast aside in this place where news travels faster than the river flowing through it. For now, I've got kids holding my hand walking me down the street and people calling me by my Gnabe name. Now, its time to prove to them that I'm worth a damn. I need to get better for that. Better in health and in Spanish. This week, I work on Spanish. Next week, we will see about this bicycle grinder business....
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