Teaching, gardening, and more...

Of all the weekends in the year..this is one I wish we were able to be in the USA.

Mango tree by clothes line

Although we celebrated Eli's birthday in July, it would be great to sit and celebrate with him, hear in person about his trip to Germany, see his pictures, help him with the move back to Calvin, help him shop and just hang out.

So very thankful that both sides of the family can surround him with love and support..but miss being an active part of it.

My teaching for an hour in the adult literacy class appears to be a weekly event now. Good reports from the first two weeks and more suggested topics. Hard to simplify complicated subjects like the immune system and heart disease.

peach palm fruits

Clinic chats went well this week with great questions [on Monday a young man kept the conversation jumping for two hours!] Lots of chaya branches and information given out.

Tuesday's garden walk showed that despite another cow visit, apparently nothing was damaged and the plants continue to grow well in our hot steamy weather. The neighbor that was given some money to keep an eye on the garden reported that it was a big cow someone let in and he chased it out.

Non-'normal' events this week:

• cutting down of grafted (local variety) mango tree which also served to hold one end of our clothes line.



'Nam Dok Mai' X (mango 'Blanc'?) cross

• Why-because it was providing too much shade on the nursery and not producing enough  mangoes to justify its location
• Visiting the notary's office. More adoption paperwork as the addition of a new attorney to the team necessitated adding her to the power-of-attorney list.
• Watching the Fauche volleyball tournament. They divided the older three teams, ages about 13 to 18 years, and formed three teams each for the gals and guys. Saturday the youngest teams  played. Anna's team came in first with her finally trying more spikes. The winning point for her team was earned by one of her spikes.
• Getting an order and pre-payment for 40 fruit trees from a gentleman who lives near the big Caracol industrial park, and is a cousin of Pastor Nicoderm. It is fenced in, 1 1/2 acres and should be a good place to also do some trial plantings of the mango cross seedlings, eggfruit, and maybe peach palm, etc.
• Getting the lawnmower welded in Port Margot.
• Getting a better understanding of our visa paperwork..see the Grafting Treasure blog for more information. 
• Sharing more peach palm fruit with new people. The rental garden owner was impressed. Trying to pollinate flowering palms to increase the harvest.