A Tour, a Duel, and a Most Bizarre Snack

Birds are singing, my tongue is burning, a spider is hiking across my keyboard, and I'm sitting in a tree. That's what's going on right now, in case you were wondering. It's break-time between lunch and work assignments on Tuesday--our second day here--and I decided that this inviting-looking tree in front of the beautiful arched buildings here would be a better place than the dorm room to blog about yesterday. What about the burning tongue, you ask? That would be the result of my attempting just now to consume an extremely sour but unbeatably fresh grapefruit from the orchard here. But back on topic:





Yesterday morning was mostly taken up by a tour of the grounds here. I found myself officially re-immersed in a world of the taste of macadamia nuts and empanadas, the sound of ringneck doves calling from their hideouts in bougainvillea, and the sight of palm trees just waiting to be climbed.

Guavas, as fresh as they come

In the afternoon five of were headed off to sort macadamia nuts when the Job Coordinator ran over and asked for two people to go to the prayer garden instead. That's where I ended up, weeding in the experimental orchard. It's deliciously pleasant to be able to live and work in the shade of a stand of banana trees again. Another perk to the job was being able to partake in the sweet, pink guavas fallen fresh from the trees.

The fruit, the likes of which I'd never encountered nor
heard of before,turns out to be called a cherimoya.
It has it's own Wikipedia page if you're that curious to learn more.
 

At one point, Norberto, the gardener, brought over a spikey green tropical fruit for us to try. Splitting it open, he showed us how to remove the large black seeds and eat the juicy white pulp. It wasn't bad!

On Monday nights, visitors always get to babysit at the orphanage to give the house parents a break. Of all the activities we did together with our house girls--designing sticker posters, making bracelets, decorating cookies--I'd have to say that the funnest for me was the crazy balloon-sword duelling we did towards the end. Battling it out with a couple of squeaking inflatable swords to the sound of laughter mixed with intense Spanish music...it's a pretty priceless moment.