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From the Guatamala highlands: Xela!

We haven't blogged in a while - not because we don't have internet, but because Carlitos (the tablet) has been having a disagreement with the blog website.  A couple updates:

-Elana is better!

- I was wrong about the cardamom drying: Turns out the town/general area is full of dryers, so basically everyone dries their cardamom either in their town or the next one over.  I'm super bummed I didn't get to see a dryer, though.  Apparently they are a huge (room sized) semi-circular thing with a mesh bottom.  The cardamom goes on top, and they put a huge wood fire underneath.  Then there is a deisel generator that runs the fan to keep air circulating (because there was no electricity where we were).

But - on to Xela.  I love our hostel!  Not only is there free breakfast and hot showers, but our room reminds me of a train car, so I get to live my life long dream of being one of the boxcar children. So everything is pretty great.  We have done a decent amount of shopping and wandering around, as well as interviewing several organizations. 
 
We've talked to a coffee co-op and a women's org thus far, and we have several more organizations (including one that does radio programs!) for today.  It has been interesting talking to the orgs, but I wish we had some connections to farmer groups so we could get a more complete picture. Not surprising, but from our first week of interviews we found out that what organizations say/believe they are doing doesn't always line up with what farmers feel like they are getting.  Unfortunately, I don't think we will see much of the farmer perspective here in Xela, but we should be back on track once we get to Huehue and Canilla!  

 I spent our last day in Uspantan visiting this guy's really cool farm/goat house/tree nursery, but it involved standing in a muddy field in the rain for several hours.  They have been using composted manure as fertilizer, which is great, but made my already not that pleasant running shoes smell unbearable...thus, shoe shopping is on the agenda.
 
Kelsey Barale, graduate student, International Agricultural Development, UC Davis
Elana Peach-Fine, PhD candidate, Plant Pathology, UC Davis

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