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We took off for Puerto Rico early in the morning to talk with the jefe about signing paperwork for a new project. “I can’t sign this without first having a meeting with the village”, said the jefe, which made perfect sense to me. Alvaro just packed up his papers and the nineteen-year-old topographer that the […]

 There is usually a least one kid, or even a few, who gather around me while I talk on the phone. They watch me fixedly and listen to the strange sounds coming out of my mouth. Every once in a while they slap the mosquitos off my arms and legs. They also report my emotional […]

 I ate lunch with the grandmothers in the ceramics workshop: Masato de pijuayu, a bright orange drink made from blended and fermented pijuayu fruits, tacacho, mashed up plantains, and añojer, some kind of animal, I have no idea what it was. We all ate out of one plate, taking a handful of tacacho and rolling […]

 I bathed with a frog. I can only hope that frog water will have some magical properties in terms of skin or hair care. It’s not unusual to have to share the bathroom with frogs, but this one was actually in our trashcan full of water that we use for bucket baths. I couldn’t be […]

The grandmothers started painting patterns on their ceramics with a black slip. They use delicate paint brushes made from hair attached to twigs with cotton and thread. There are two different sized brushes to make thick lines and thin. The hair for the brushes comes from unsuspecting grandchild who are not allowed to protest when […]

The lieutenant arrived in the workshop asking to charge his laptop a full hour before the generator is usually turned on. I offered that he could leave his laptop plugged in and it would start charging automatically when the power finally came on. He said he had a lot a lot a lot of work. […]

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the soldiers as they performed their daily run around the village. Today it was more distracting than usual. because they did it without their shirts and with full camo face paint. They were documenting themselves I as much as I was, with the lieutenant filming them at they […]

I don’t know how we got talking about singing in the ceramics workshop. “Giro, grandmother, could teach you some songs that would make people fall in love with you instantly. Why don’t you make a recording of her singing and make a CD and get her on television?”. I explained that I could definitely make […]

Señora Zetti always calls me nuera, daughter-in-law, and the other señoras laugh. “Call me suegra, mother-in-law!” She tells me. As mothers-in-law go, she would make an excellent one. She has checked my head for lice, and she always brings me seda, the sweetest ripe plantains, and sometimes even a papaya. She knows I love her […]

Grandmother is making a clay pot with a face and little breasts. Every day I spend with the women in the ceramics workshop, they ask me more and more questions. Why don’t I find myself a Yine man and stay forever? Why don’t I have a Yine baby with blue eyes? What are the ceramics […]