Why a pumpkin squash?

3.2.2012.  The A team traveled through the community, meeting friends and notifying residents about the coming week of medical clinic.  We stop at each of the schools to leave notes with the children, explaining how the clinic will work and inviting their families to come for medical consultation, and if needed, for medication.  The roads are rougher this year; the colors more spring-like.  It’s clear that the rainy season has been good; there is water in creeks and rivers in the lower elevations, and there is foliage.  Dust from the roads doesn’t rise until late mid-morning.  But the roads are rutted; there is clear evidence of erosion.  Our nearly new Land Cruiser “Prado” lasted only one day.  It’s possible that we (I) damaged the 4-wheel drive by banging the undercarriage on a deep rut.  (I don’t think so, but the Budget Rental folks are less certain.)  We will drive back to Estelli tomorrow to exchange the broken Land Cruiser for a different vehicle with 4-wheel drive.  We need to be back for a meeting with the CPCs by 10 a.m., so we will need to be up and out early.

It’s been a good day.  We have seen most of the CPCs that we want to meet tomorrow.  Kristin Giordano (’14), Lester Chavez (’14), Alex Ferraro (’12), and Michael Cammarata (’12) spent time with an aging member of the community who talked about life lessons and showed them the results of years of labors of love, his house resplendent with expressions of his deep affection for place and home.  They talk warmly about his reflections, and they quote him liberally.