Monday 16 Nov

Today was my first day working at the vivero de frutas (fruit tree farm). I was going to learn how to graft trees and I was excited. When I got there I met two men, Omar, and Orlando. They welcomed me and we got straight to work. First with transplanted small fruit trees the size of your pointer finger into big plastic bags for each one. Then, we moved other trees in bags to that were ready to be graphed into the grafting area to get ready for the next day. The whole time we were moving these trees, I was raining and the ground became muddy and slippery so it was hard to maneuver the wheelbarrow with 20 trees each weighing about 4 pounds. I feel twice into the mud and got pretty dirty. After a while it started raining too hard for us to work. We chilled under on of the buildings were your fill up the bags with dirt and listened to music from Orlando's car. We talked for a while and I found out both of the men like to dance so I asked Orlando to teach me how to dance all the types each day for two weeks. So first he taught me Cumbia! He told me to feel the rhythm and go with the flow by moving your arms. After the rain, I helped sprinkle nutrients onto the different trees in bags. After work I went to dinner and then went to the Bibliotheca to study Spanish. A friend named Hugo who I didn't know too well came in. We started talking and he told me he needed practice with English because he was going to the U.S. the following year. I told him I would be happy to help him. SO we set up starting the next day and everyday after until the end of school we would meet in the bibliotheca around 7pm and I would practice talking Spanish while he would with English. After studying I went home and then went to bed.