I visited the work in Juan Eulogio . Blanca and Rodrigo are teaching a group of women sewing skills on electric Singer sewing machines which must date from before the Second World War , but they work wonderfully.
Most days I have been giving teacher training in the school. On Thursday Luzcelli asked me if I would have a main stream teacher in as well. To my surprise six turned up, but it was good fun. We , the teachers and I, got invited to a farm high in the hills near Allurinquin, a town just outside Santo Domingo. We got shown the sugar cane press which looks as if it was manufactured during the industrial revolution. It stands at an uppermost point on the hill overlooking hundreds of miles of semi tropical forest. The family is almost self sufficient in all goods needed to sustain life. The farmer showed us snakes preserved in alcohol which apparently prevent cancer. He gets them ,well, before they get him. The eighty five year old grandmother, well able to carry 10 lb. of lemons ,seemed to be a living proof of the beneficial effects of the grog, but we declined tasting it. We returned loaded with lemons, oranges, zapallo and noni. I narrowly escaped being bitten by an enraged dog, and we laughed till our sides ached.
The Baptist church is bursting at the seams, with two services, classes for children , adolescents, married couples, singles , the elderly. No one is left out.
The water pump has broken again, so back to the cold water and bucket routine. Altogether an excellent week.
27/4/15
Jill Ball
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