First day with a machete...

There isn't too much of a use for a 3-foot long knife on our farms back home, but given the superfluous amount of vegetation and different lifestyle of the humid tropics, machetes are quite common...

First time chopping vegetation with a long-bladed machete

Today was my first official day of "community work experience." Normally, students go out to work in an assigned module (i.e. the dairy, crops, forestry) for 5 hours on both Wednesday and Saturday mornings. I selected "experiencia de trabajo comunitaria" which involves going to a local community of agriculturalists to help them with daily work and work alongside them to solve problems (using past experience and scientific knowledge learned at EARTH). With my teammates, Perejitei (from Nigeria) and Gaby (from Mexico), we were assigned to the family of Dionicia. She owns about 3 hectares (approx 7.5 acres) of land and mainly produces plantains and mangoes for sale at a market in San Jose - someone acts as a "middleman" to take the goods there since the family does not have a vehicle. This community we are working in is only 5-6 years old, as it was previously a bunch of land that the government purchased then divided between 23 families (3 hectares each). While it is still a relatively new and developing community, the families are trying to earn a sustainable income from their crops. Nonetheless, problems still exist - allowing for this experience to be truly applicable to issues that EARTH graduates would face in the future if they work with the rural poor in their communities. 

But let's get to today's events. I didn't plan on making this a long blog... just one with lots of pictures (note: all taken from my phone! I was pretty pleased with it, even if I didn't drag my Nikon out to this rural community).

We arrived at Dionicia's house around 8:30 and got to work clearing a plot of post-harvested corn. And right away, my machete hand was at work! (see photo above) We chopped down approx 1 acre of corn (by my very approximate approximation) and let the stalks lay between the mounded rows (new Spanish word for the day! row = surco/hilera). Then, after a short break and some lunch, we went out to burn the stalks in the field! Now, I am not that big of a fan of burning fields to clear them (it damages naturally beneficial microorganisms and obviously emits CO2) but seeing as this family doesn't have many other resources to till/clear the field, I took the activity to be a wonderful new experience. 

Much work involved- the fire wasn't really cooperating so we had to re-lite often.

"Slash and burn" but not really, because we didn't cut down a forest - just slashed corn stalks with machetes :)

After a short while of getting smoke in our faces, we realized that the stalks maybe weren't as dry as could be to initiate a productive burn, so we are going to save the rest of the field cleaning for next week. After a short break, we then headed to one of the plantain plots with Ricardo (Dionicia's husband) to decide what to do with it. There had been a large insect, called a picudo negro (which is only active at night) that eats through the herbaceous stem of the plantain plant (NOT A TREE) and severely damages the structure- the tunnels made by this huge bug allow for other pests/diseases to enter and inevitably lead to a failed crop. So, for the plot of about 250 plantain plants, we were assigned to bring them all down - a task that took a surprisingly short amount of time. Between the 3 young adults and experienced farmer, all equipped with machetes, we took down the (approx) 1-acre plot in less than 30 minutes.

You would think chopping down a 10-inch thick stalk would take more than 1 swing... but with the right angle, you can cut through plantain plant flesh pretty easily!

While the plantains that were already grown aren't bad, they won't mature to the level of marketability. So, Ricardo chucked them for the two cows that they have on their small farm. I have never seen a cow eat plantain... so that was a new experience. Ricardo says he will probably let them in to graze among the yummy plantain remains and leaves, as they are pretty appetizing to cows (who knew!). 

Needless to say, after a grand total of 3-4 hours with machete in hand, I definitely earned some battle scars. Three nice sized blisters now adorn my right hand... and while two of them had already been broken by the afternoon (while clearing the plantains), I think I am going to survive. 

What a day! I am thankful for the wonderful experiences I had and the time spent with some friends out in a community. I am also thankful for this cute little puppy that I got to play with... makes me miss my dogs. But I guess I have something to look forward to next week (in addition to using a machete again) : )

Didn't chop this plantain plant down without first carefully removing the "bunch" with its secret treasure...