Due to safety concerns I was advised to stay at the capital rather than at a house in the community. Given the lack of water in the town for the past months the collaborating company did not think it was best for me to stay in the town where the nursery is located. For this reason, I had to travel every day almost 2 hours to get to the nursery and back. That meant that whomever from the company was going in that direction, they would be my ride. One of the days I rode with Reydi. He is also in charge of the clonal garden for the cacao germplasm. Taking me to get the measurements was just another list of the tasks he had to do. He told me, be at the company at 8 for we are leaving early. I woke up extra early to have enough time to get there on time….on average it took me 30 minutes from the hostel to the company because of traffic.
I made it on time!! Actually, I made it
early…As I am ready to leave he says, we have to wait a couple minutes as I am
taking some cacao shells to be used as additional fertilizer for the farm.
Ok….that can only take 15 minutes I thought…..An hour and a half later we are
finally ready to go. The ride is nice, we take back roads and I get to see all
the scenery as it changes from the congested capital all they way to the
country in Boyá.
Finally about 11:30am we make it to
the nursery. Needless to say I am starving already, but I don’t dare to say
anything…obviously he is hungry too and will get some lunch soon. We measure
the design and mark the areas for excavation within two hours. Yes! I am done I
can go get some lunch, and get back to the city to purchase the last materials
needed..work..work..work..work workkkk...
No…..he needs to go take all the
cacao shells to the farm. OK that’s exiting….its not like I am starving….this
is when I start to think I am so unprepared, why didn’t I make a sandwich or
something, I knew we were going to be away. Finally we get to the farm and
throw the shells around for the trees. We explore the farm and eat some guava
(saved me from fainting, Its 3pm no other food around!) and I also get so suck
on some cacao seeds. Yes,…we are done! Lets get back! No….…he met someone on
the way that told him they had a friend that had a cousin that was selling
chicken manure at a really good price….and that meant….that we had to go look
for the friends cousin to get the manure…(nooooooo please some water!!). Sure….
I said that sounds cool, I get to see a chicken farm :S
We round up some other workers and they geot
on the back of the pickup truck…I am thinking how much manure are were getting
for all these people to come….We get to the chicken place and then…A FLAT TIRE!
So he leaves me there with some of the other people. And I just get to look at
the chickens, goats, cows and pigs. An hour later he comes back…no guavas to
snack on….and I see the light! Lets get this poop and get moving! Like 500
pounds of poop later, and manure even in my hair we finally leave the chicken
place. But we still have to go and drop it off at the farm again…..pleaseee
some water or candy or anything!.....How is this person not
hungry…seriously….
Finally we get back to the farm at like 5:30pm and drop off
all the manure. Yesss we are done! (I mean I was done like 6 hours ago but
okkkk, it’s a team..) Let me just say that we had to roll down the windows all
the way back because our smell was just vividly like manure. Finally we stopped
at the gas station and I got myself one large plate of mangu and salami with a
very cold……WATER ;)This is when I came to the realization that things were going
to be moving Dominican time….not my time and that I should just accept it and
bring a sandwich and water for the next days…
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