Wed 7 October

Today was the first day I used a machete!!!! When I got to the Caballerisa, the students were arriving and getting ready for their long day of experiencia. Different groups were sent out to do different tasks out in the field. The group's task that I was in was to cut a huge field of small trees, big plants, and tall grass. John told me to go to the rental warehouse and get a machete for myself, then meet him in the field with the rest of the students. After getting my machete, I couldn’t stop thinking about how nervous I was to use it. I never had before and I was extremely worried I was going to cut off my fingers or slice the blade right into my leg. I talked to John about my problema as he was sharpening my blade and he gave me some good advice. He told me to not play with it but to use it as a tool and be careful. After my blade was sharpened, I looked for a stick that I could use for my catcher. The ticos use sticks with a hook on the ends to pull grass into a pile or other plants together to make it easier to cut. Once I found my stick, I started hacking away at the endless amount of plants and grass in the field. After a while I started getting the hang of it and noticed that if I swing the blade more it less work for me. Also you need to cut at an angle because it cuts more efficiently that cutting horizontal or vertical. After a while I was good enough to switch hands when one of my arms got tired. After work I went to help Tonio on his Pineapple project. Tonio, his group, and I cut all the kings grass that was growing around there project before it got too tall. By cutting all of it now, then they wouldn’t have to worry about the grass taking the sun from the pineapple trees. Once again the only way to cut all that grass was with a machete. After hacking away for about two hours, we were finished and I biked home. My work day consisted of about 8 hours of hard machete labor and now I feel pretty comfortable with using one. Later that night we went to a friend’s house of my family and I had a lot of fun at dinner. My dad Daniel always speaks his mind and has a dry sense of humor, so no matter what he says is hilarious. After dinner it was about 11pm and I was ready for bed.