More about the Finca

Hola!

I have posted more pictures from the finca weekend. I'm sorry for the delay, but there are a lot and it takes a while to post pictures.

One of the pictures is of us on the corn truck that took us from Colomba to the finca. Another is of the front porch of the old house that we stayed in. Another is the son of our tour guide.... he followed us on the whole trip and was almost as knowledgeable about all the plants as his father. In this picture, he has all the oranges he found hoarded in his shirt. Another is the "Tree of Life" and they use the leaves to make a tea that heals general pains with all parts of the body. Another is of not-yet-ready coffee beans. The harvesting season is in September. The last picture is of the outside of the house I ate at. Everything was really green, and I took a ton of pictures, but like always happens, the pictures don't do the views justice.

I also wanted to highlight some other parts of the finca trip. The experience I described in my last blog was certainly crazy, and it has humor. But there was more to the trip than just the strange circumstances. The trip exposed us to a way of life that these people live with every day. I think what shocked me the most was the lack of easily accessible healthcare. The closest hospital was 3 hours away. If a person is truly in danger, they have a very slim chance of getting the help they need.

I also couldn't help but feel guilty. It was difficult to see children running around with worn shoes, a 61 year old barely able to move because he had done so much work in his life, young people that have no teeth because dental care doesn't exist, families breathing in open wood fire 24/7. Right now, the community is using tourism to save money to help rebuild the house in which we stayed, and they said they needed the equivalent of around 2,000 dollars. They hope to collect that within the next couple of years. It is shocking because I'm using that amount of money just to apply to Medical schools. The difference is extreme.

We had a discussion about feeling guilty and how to cope with some of the things we see throughout this trip. We were warned that much of what we see will make us want to change everything, but the biggest change we are going to see in is ourselves as we gain a deeper understanding of Spanish, other cultures and collaboration. I feel that we then have the responsibility of taking those lessons and positively affecting the lives of others.