From the Womb to the Grave

So the delays between blog posts are definitely getting longer as you probably have noticed. That is if you are even still visiting my blog to see how or what I'm doing anymore. I say that because as time has powered on it seems that contact between the outside world has become less and less. There is nothing wrong with this in my book as it probably mostly means that I've become adjusted to life here. In any respect, here are some updates and a little story. The updates first:

My body hates me once again. Most of the problem has been the crazy heat and humidity we have had here in the last month. My body revolted and decided to break out in a crazy heat rash all over my legs. This combined with an infected wound on my ankle, tick bites, and mosquito bites has pretty much forced me to pop a benidryl to be able to sleep.

Now for some good stuff. We had Cacao Training Week in my site and it was pretty great. Some new Peace Corps recruits came along with the trainers and we got together every day for a week to learn the hands on way to keep a cacao farm healthy. It was pretty eye opening and I learned more than I ever thought their was about grafting one tree to another. We chopped, grafted, and pruned cacao trees all week not to mention all the cacao we turned into chocolate.

A group called the Floating Doctors has come to port in Bocas Island and after having dinner with them it has all but been decided that they will come to my site to do a clinic day. They have medicine, doctors, and even a sonogram machine. I've already received antibiotics and bandages from them so hopefully they stay for the whole 7 months they promised because its nice being close to medical attention.

Chocolate sales are doing good with our new chocolate to eat. I knew that we would sell much more than just the chocolate liquer and the roasted and raw beans. We have upcoming appointments with the government here and a place near Boquete for organic certifications too which will be amazing. With these two certifications we should be able to sell much more than we are now.

The tour has tapered off some due to the slow season and the fact that our article is no longer running in the local newspaper. For about the 5^th time we had someone say they were coming and then not. The only thing is that this time Salomon said this was OK and when it came time to meet them no one was there. I'm hoping that this will be a lesson to all of us about having people pay before they come on the tour. We have 3 reviews now on Trip Advisor and had a couple come the other day from just that review so it is starting to work.

Story Time:

I rushed down the hill to the river following Salomon. The water soon rushed into my sneakers as we hurried through its shallow coldness. Weaving in and out of plantain and cacao trees, we scurried to the other side of the hill. A place that Salomon confessed himself he hasn’t been to in awhile and as we briefly lost our way we soon found it again.

The hill was muddy and straight up. Vines and grass clinging vertically to a trail that seems to be only used for special occasions. One of those occasions was today and saying that the occasion is special might imply that it is special in a good context. Quite the opposite. We were scrambling up this treacherous hill because on top lay the community cemetery. A cemetery that would take in two new inhabitants in the same day. Both being babies that were robbed of their first breath as humans.

We made it to the top panting and sweating. The heat seemed to enter into my body from every direction and the humidity tricked my mouth into thinking that water was readily available. We stepped into a surreal scene. Belisario standing off to the right of freshly shoveled dirt. Both of his boys clinched in his arms and theirs clinched to his. While two men whom I see and talk to every day shoveled dirt on top of a casket that should have never been made, I stood behind a small crowd of loved ones and relatives. Belisario looked over to me and smiled. Sending me a message that everything would be alright and that things like this happen.

Not two in the same day. It couldn't be. As I looked over my shoulder to the left I could see the freshly moved dirt of another similar sized grave. Salomon explained to me that another baby in hospital just down the street died in the exact same way on the same day. It strangled itself with the umbilical chord coming out of the womb and no nurse or doctor was present in the room to help.

This cemetery, unlike any other I had seen, had been cut out of the jungle and sat upon a small hill. Looking to the sky, about 100 tall to medium sized purple and red colored plants lay were the fallen of this community are now resting. The two men broke off three branches from two older trees and stuck them where the new member of this tranquil place lay. We left in silence and returned to work.