First day on the Job

What an incredible first day on the job. I arrived at the Red Guaconejo office around 9am. After a mere 5 minutes of exchanging pleasantries with Yesenia and Maria Elena, the secretary and treasurer of the cooperative, Juan yelled for help. He had discovered a family of mice hiding in a tarp next to one of the warehouses… Yesenia and Maria Elena ran to grab brooms. Juan shook the tarp to force the mice out, the women ran around frantically beating the mice with their brooms. 10 minutes and 5 mice later we were back in the office.

Around 10:30 I walked outside to find them looking at a wilting pepper plant they had in front of the office. They were discussing that someone must have passed by the Cooperative and commented on how beautiful the plant was without recognizing that it was a blessing from god (therefore coveting the plant, the whole evil eye concept). As a result the plant had begun to die. Maria Elena said a prayer and did the sign of the cross in front of the plant 3 times… she said if that doesn’t heal the plant than it would soon die. After lunch (and a bit of rain) the plant was looking better, they discussed moving the pepper plant to another area of the cooperative that could not be seen by the road.

Later that afternoon a man came in with cacao for the cooperative, he brought the office a few oranges from his farm. We began eating oranges and talking, as I was eating he started talking about his 10 children, and one son who recently passed away. It will be one month tomorrow that he passed. He said he still cries often, and with those words he broke down again. There I was eating an orange, trying to figure out the right words in Spanish to express my sympathy. If my first day was any indication of how my next 2 years will be, it's definitely going to be an interesting 2 years!

November 27, 2007