Pressin' on

Hey, so lots of stuff has happened this week- I guess that's a given. I'll try to remember from where I left off....

On Tuesday morning Felipe finally gave me my own machete and strap. I look pretty legit while I have it on, in case you were wondering. We went with a chainsaw back to the place where coffee had been cut. I spent the whole morning tossing and carrying stripped/cut coffee plants up to the road. I lost count at about 60 but I'm pretty sure there were probably around 90-100. It wasn't easy work but I enjoyed it. During this time, Felipe was cutting trees and stuff up the hill a little ways, making a different wood pile next to mine. After lunch, we shoveled manure into bags.

Shoveling manure! It reminded me of raking and bagging leaves..

During the evening, Felipe got me and we went back down the hill with a chainsaw again. I fed Mr. Pig all by myself this time and watered the 3 plants there (I guess that's my daily duty) and Felipe, using a chainsaw, began cutting apart two really big mandarina trees that had been uprooted in order to eventually plant sugar cane. All I could do was carry off the cut up parts into a pile on the side of the dirt road so, instead of standing around in the chainsaw exhaust, I went over under the Guanacaste tree (the same one from the first day) and just chilled for a while before carrying more.

On Wednesday I moved the manure bags out of the corral with Oscar while Felipe brought up 2 young oxen. We fed them and while I was cutting up some food for them I gave myself a small cut on the side of my left index finger... it was bleeding a lot and I had to just rub it on my dirty jeans until it closed up. I had a lot of resting time that night and there was a really nice rain that came through.

On Thursday we went to go retrieve the two cows that we had moved last week. Turns out I completely misunderstood what was going on when we moved the same 2 cows last Sunday.. Felipe had actually purchased them but was using a friend's land for them to graze on. (I thought they were sold to some guy or something?) So we walked over and brought them back, fed them (all 4 together), and then lunched. I had a smallish paper due the next day for my Language/Literature concentration over poetry we were given to read and my reflections over whichever topic I chose.. so I spent the majority of the evening working on that. I believe Felipe took down the 2 cows that night and left the 2 oxen in the corral.

On Friday we did the usual stuff, feeding animals and what not, and then I went with Felipe and Maria del Carmen into town to meet up with some professors and other students in the area. I got some time to catch up with 4 of my friends, talked with the professors, and then we headed back home. That night we went down to get the 2 oxen and brought them up to the little grazing area right in front of the house. I got to lead one all by myself. In case you were wondering, gee means go and hessah means stop (I spelled  them phonetically).. and you say manso or mansito to kind of calm them- it means 'gentle' I guess and is the opposite of bravo/brava (wild/untanmed).

Mixing up the ox food

On Saturday morning, Felipe and one of the relatives here got the oxen moving in the old trapiche (there is a new one too). I was told that the structure and many of the parts are 200 years old, although some of it has been replaced. The trapiche is where the oxen walk in circles, grinding sugar cane and getting the juice. There is also a stove with a huge bowl thing where the liquid is evaporated and leaves a more pure and syrupy form of the sugar. I got to help a little but mostly I just watched and chilled at the house. I helped get some food for the oxen afterwards and then took them back down to the corral with Felipe.

Here is a video of the Trapiche in action

Once the tub that collects the sugar cane juice gets filled, they have the oxen stop and then begin pouring it into this big bowl thing.

A fire is started underneath the vat and after some time, the liquid begins boiling

After 3 or four hours, the stuff that's left is put into this wooden.. tub? They scrape it up and put it into little molds to harden. Each mold only sells for about $1.00 USD.. As I understood him, Felipe said that really, they make it more for the family than as a thing to sell.. because honestly, it isn't worth all the work otherwise. I counted and it made about 56 molds. 

On Sunday I watched for the entire morning while a guy came and built a rock/cement/concrete box to capture some natural flowing water that is coming out of the side of the mountain. It's coming out pretty slow now but evidently during the rainy season, it will be a good source to add to the strength of the water that goes all the way down the mountain for the cows. It was cool to watch- I helped find some rocks and move sand around and stuff but mostly, I didn't do very much.

Constructing the water collector thing. You can kind of see the remains from one that was there in the past- they used it's remaining parts to help strengthen the newer one.

a while later, after cement had been put all around it and the opening on the top had been fitted

Lunch Break!

Sunday evening I got offered to go with a host uncle and grandpa to some place. I was uneasy because I literally had no real idea where we were going. We made a pit stop at my grandpa's sister's house and there were lots of people moving around and lots of stuff going on. I met, for the second time, a guy named William, a very light-skinned native Nicaraguan that lives in Maryland with his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. His wife is a part of the family I am "technically" in and they come to visit every year. We had some nice conversations in English (I was honestly really curious to hear his opinion on American/Nicaraguan/Costa Rican politics and culture. I ended up going with my grandpa, William, and his wife to a couple relative's houses that they wanted to say goodbye to. It was nice and I got some good food and some Coca-cola- which I hadn't had in a while for sure. Me and William shared contact information- he seems really interested in moving to Costa Rica and trying to have some job/connection with foreign students in Costa Rica. The pit stop ended up being "the trip" in all and we got home pretty late (9:15).

Today, Monday, Felipe left to some business thing in the morning. I went down with Oscar to feed the oxen and then we were tasked to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain to bring up 2 oxen that they are wanting to sell. When we finally got to them and he more-or-less lassoed them, he called Felipe and someone else and they decided that they weren't fat enough during this season to sell well. So we walked back up empty handed.. and it's a really brutal walk. Random note: I rolled up my sleeves to try to help my farmer's tan.. not sure if it worked.

I really like this guy! He was trying to lick the camera when I was taking pictures- their tongues are kind of sandpapery.. and super long.

This is from today.. and it is what we feed to the cows usually. A single banana plant (what looks like a tree) will only produce one crap of bananas. Instead of cutting down the plant once they get the bananas, they let them grow and use them to feed the animals. Behind the sack there is a machine that chops up the leaves/trunk and shoots them into the feeding trough. 

Just as an FYI... as I understand it, cows are the name of the animal in general. Bulls are male cows. Oxen are castrated male cows.