I didn't get good sleep last night. Solomon, my counterpart in the community and the person whom I'm currently living with, left the his television on and it started playing reaggeaton. The television is tiny and has to be because it runs off of solar power but it was still loud. I walked up and pulled the plug at 3am confused and disgruntled. That's just the way things are here. I brought it up in the morning and he shrugged.
It would have been good to get a little better sleep last night now knowing the day I had. There will be days here that lag and draw out like a long boring movie. (Have you ever seen The Postman?) And then there will be days that so much happens I can't keep track of what is going on. It's a roller-coaster with more downs than ups but at least there are ups. I woke up tired having only had about 5 hours of reaggaeaton-less sleep. Solomon woke me up and noted that he was leaving to start making the food for the party. He also noted that it was already eight o clock which is the time that I had said I would be going with him to help. I ate what I could of the boiled green bananas that had been placed out for me, put on a nice shirt, shorts, and my large rubber boots.
I arrived at the Artisan House where the chocolate group works out of and all 6 of the men in the group were already chopping and mixing food. I got into some peppers and started chopping away while yawning and thinking about how I could escape to fall asleep somewhere. We cooked gigantic bowls of food over open flame and after 3 hours it was all ready.
About half way through the making of the meal we heard what I can only describe as Indian chants or yelling and it sounded like a lot of people doing it. It was coming from the mountain facing us. I soon found out it was a Junta bringing a dug out boat from the mountains. They had been spending about a month carving out this 27 foot boat out of a tree way up in the forest and now about 30 men from the city where dragging it through the woods to the water. To give you an idea of how hard of a task that is keep this in mind. I walked to where they carved the tree out and it took me 45 min and I had to rest when I got there because it was so steep but that wasn't even the whole distance. Once they go to the bottom they also had to drag it down the street which is a 20 minute walk and when your going 5 feet at a time I'm guessing a lot longer.
I couldn't let all the men in the town work their asses off all day and just have me stand there taking photos so I jumped in. That's when I realized that this thing was heavier than heavy. With more than 30 of us pulling and pushing it was sometimes moving a foot at a time. The Junta leader yelled and we pushed and sweated and fell and kept going. I lasted about 30 minutes before I needed a break. Someone else took my place they kept going.
After cleaning up for lunch we all came back and laid out presents for the women of the group. The whole purpose of this party was to celebrate Mothers Day which was why all the men were cooking. When the food was ready we filled the large meeting room and started the presentation. There were about 50 of us total including children and the place seemed more packed than I had ever seen it. The men circled the table and the women stayed on the benches as the presentation commenced. Solomon lead the service and called upon certain men to speak about the event and they talked about how this day was for the women. Solomon had asked me to bring my guitar so I did. He soon presented me and I sang Say it Aint So by Weezer and told them it was about loving a mom and they loved it. After serving gigantic bowls of food to the women we also ate and then cleaned up. It was a great gesture for them.
A Dead Horse
About two days ago we had some visitors and while we were walking through the cacao farm we came upon a horse tied to a tree from around his neck. They do not have money for a proper bridal or bit or anything so they tie the horse around the neck. We passed and I noted to the visitors that there is a high rate of horse death here. Today that horse died. Well it didn't die right away which was the worst part.
It had fallen and broken its back. Whether or not it had still been tied up like that I don't know but I have heard stories of horses accidentally hanging themselves here from it. We found out what had happened and went down into town to see what they were going to do. Solomon and I showed up to a big group of people standing around a large hole up on a hill and the medium sized horse laid amongst them. The horse was only about a year old and had never been ridden. It's life cut short by the steep terrain, lack of nutrition, and lack of education. As we showed up to the scene the 6 foot hole had been finished and the horse was heaved over and in. They had put it out of its misery before we showed and this was probably a good thing. As the corpse landed on its back kids laughed and one spit into the hole. I took a picture and more laughs came about. They started shoveling the dirt back in.
As the rich red dirt covered and filled the hole I stood thinking about us as humans and if we were “good”. This a long conversation that books have been filled with, but for this case I couldn't help but think about the irony in all this. The now buried and gone horse lay just feet from the church that the entire community diligently attends. Most of the town revolves around the church here. People argue about what the bible said and what it meant and what Jesus would do which is fine, but I think people here have missed the point in all that which is to be a good person. I guess I feel that people are so worried about pissing god off that they spend all of their energy on that instead of just trying to be a good person and good to the other living things around themselves. I'm going to stop this thought at that because an entire thesis could be written on this and much can be said about the positive and negative impacts of the church here.
In retrospect, I have to remember that this is the wild west here. These people only act how they were taught to act and have only learned what others have taught them. It is not there fault if they treat animals badly it is all of our fault. For me to come in here and start telling people to change would be counterproductive. I would loose the faith of the community and be cast out. I'm already skating a thin line by not attending church and not saying “Amen” before dinner. I'm not about to preach anything just yet. After we have had progress with the chocolate group and brought in some money which will hopefully translate into education for these types of things, I definitely try to find funds for animal education in this area. After today, I feel like it is something I have to do...
Adam my son, in my police career Im met many people who I know to be "religious" and "Christian" and they would abuse their children and drink all night. Listening to Christian stations and going to Church does not make you a "christian", and thus you see a lot of stuff that God would not approve of in any way. To be a Christian you have to walk the walk and accept the teachings of Jesus Christ and accept that he died so that all our sins were forgiven, but you are not suppose to sin over and over again. You would respect all people and animals and not do the things that you see. I am not trying to preach to you here. I was just trying to explain that many of these people in your tribe have half of the answer but not all of it. Hang in there, we love you,,Dad.
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