Pre-vacation post

Im getting ready to head to the beautiful beaches of Uruguay. Me and a group of my fellow ag. sector volunteers are heading down to Montevideo and Punto del Diablo for Christmas and New Years. We are all so excited. It will be good to be out of site for a bit, but I am feeling a bit guilty about not being with my neighbors for the holidays. That is alright, I have many more days to spend with them.
In other news, Ive started an art class with some kids in the neighborhood. It started off with us going mango hunting one hot afternoon. After we came back with our bounty and had stuffed our selves silly with mangoes we sat around trying to figure out what to do. I had a box of crayons and paper so I asked them if they wanted to draw. Their eyes lit up and we got right down to it and started drawing. Every day for about a week now we have been drawing in the afternoons. The goal has become to get the kids to be as creative as possible. I tell them they can use whatever color they want and that there are no rules. We have started doing theme days. For example, one day's theme was christmas and new years. We had draw things related to the holidays. Yesterdays theme was things that makes us happy. A lot of the pictures involved trees, chipa, cows, music, etc. Im having the kids label all their pictures to incorporate some spelling as well. It has become one of my favorite activities so far..and it works! Yesterday as we were drawing our pictures I asked Nidia, my 6 year old counterpart (amazing artist, by the way) what color I should use. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use silver or a golden color. Without looking up from her drawing she said "David, if you want to color it green you can color it green, if you want red, use red, it doesn't matter. Any color you want is fine." I was shocked. I sat there wordless. Most kids would quickly have said either a brass color or silver but Nidia is a creative spirit...and those are hard to come by. She blew me away.


Dahlia bloom in the flower garden.


Cosmos.

This is a Luffa vine, I will take pictures when the fruits mature.

My garden. Giant Brasilian Okra, Okra from NC, Amaranthe, Tomatillos, Soy beans, Wormwood, Basial, Thai basil, lime basil, rosemary, Hungarian Wax peppers, cayenne chiles, jalapenos, Purira Chiles, Sweet Peppers, Parsley, Cilantro, Lima beans, lemon grass, two types of mint, cherry tomatoes. And Paraguayans said you cant garden in the summer...

The flower garden.

Kai Andres teaching his grandson how to drive the oxcart.

Thai coleslaw: Cabbage, cilantro, thai basil, papaya, mango, black sesame seeds, mint, pickled ginger carrots, garlic, fish sauce. Yum.

Hunting for mangoes with Hedeon and Nidia.