another day in the jungle: August 2007

Saturday, August 25, 2007

New Fruit Trees

The Women's Group has had an opportunity to purchase another batch of 50 fruit trees (Valencia Oranges, Persa Lemons, Mangos and Zapote) to put on their property and 10 decorative bushes to landscape in front of their new building.

A New Hyfrecator

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bob Dickson in Calgary, the clinic now has a HYFRECATOR.

(from Wikipedia ... a hyfrecator is a versatile diathermical medical apparatus used in electrosurgery. It has a large number of uses such as removal of warts, desication of sebaceous gland disorders, electrocautery, epilation, plastic surgery or many other tasks.)

You can see the unit up on the wall as Enrique uses it for the first time.

On Friday, Don Sebastian formally passed over the keys of the new building to Doña Juana (left) the president of the group and Doña Bety, the treasurer.

Rose and Beberly Are Back

Rose and Beberly (in the center with President, Doña Juana) are welcomed back by the women's group, who planned a feast of bolitos for their arrival (see Rainforest Recipes for more info about bolitos). The two women will be here for two weeks, helping the local women in several areas including their square foot gardens, the development of their new Women's Center and the beginning of a "peer-lending" group and micro-enterprise.

Guard Dog

Our local cable company was around doing some repairs to the lines the other day, and I noticed that the owner had found the ideal method of protecting his tools and equipment while he is up the pole!

Regan Volunteers

For the last couple of weeks we have had another young volunteer ... Regan O'Byrne MacElwayne from Calgary, who is almost 15 years old. We partnered Regan with Alvaro, a 15 year old who lives here in my neighborhood, so he could teach English to Alvaro, and Alvaro could teach Spanish to Regan. The boys spent lots of time swimming together and exploring the village, and we all went together to Tikal, a "first" for Alvaro as well as Regan!!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Can You Identify This Bird?

This is the strangest bird I have ever seen! It has been sitting here on the side of this same tree, without moving, since it was discovered several weeks ago. It has a look similar to a lizard, but the work crew that first noticed it threw rocks until one hit it, causing it to fly (it didn't move, even if the rocks hit the tree right beside it, until one actually hit it). For a few weeks, it apparently turned pure white, but is now turning darker again, like the bark of the tree upon which it lives. None of the local people (my usual source of information on the local flora and fauna) have ever seen a bird like it before. If anyone has any idea what it is, please let us know!!

(Added later) The mystery has been solved!! Jason Berry of the Guatemalan Birding Resource Center, this is a Great Potoo. On his advice, I googled the bird, and sure enough, there is no further doubt about it. According to Wikipedia, the Great Potoo is the largest member of the nightjar order, and is normally described as "uncommon", but occurs with strong frequency in ares of less disturbed forests. The clearing of forest is the only conservation threat known to this bird. The place we found it is located just beside the main highway, in an area that Eduardo has been reforesting ... it seems like a pretty "disturbed" area ... but it has been there for some time, and seems perfectly comfortable.