Happy summer!
The day was wonderful. Summer heralded the return of our favourite tree guy who hadn't been on site for over one month. He returned with a vengeance, bringing hand outs for us and we actually sat down in the conference centre and talked about trees in a structured way... for about an hour.
After a short intro/review of trees and identification, we headed outside into the beautiful sunshine and went for another walk to identify trees in their habitat.
This internship has really made me re-evaluate my learning style. We've had a few workshops and conferences on how different people learn. I used to think I was a purely visual learner. It turns out that I'm nothing in particular. I seem to learn best when I can mix visual with auditory and kinetic learning. I suppose that a mix is always the best way to absorb information, but some people seem to do best in very specific settings. One of the interns learns best when he can repeat/rephrase information back to the "instructor". Another intern needs to write things down in her own words. I definitely tend to doodle. I also have been having trouble sitting still for any amount of time recently. It doesn't help when it's incredibly sunny and beautiful out for the first time in days.
Anyway, all to say that it's an interesting thing to know about yourself. How do you learn? Also, for the kind of work that we'll be doing, it's great to have tips, ideas and tricks for incorporating all the different types of learning into a workshop. The CIL training we did was with this incredible facilitator who made sure that we were never sitting still for more than 30 minutes at a time. She used visual aids, anecdotes, encouraged questions, had us play games... It was wonderful. She was an older woman, probably mid 60s and had that teenage energy about her that is so refreshing to feel. Managing ten young energetic interns seemed like a walk in the park for her.
Back to the solstice. We went for a walk with the tree guy and halfway through the walk, I subtly brought up the idea of walking to the waterfall. We found out a few weeks ago that "Falls Brook Centre" was actually named that because there IS indeed a waterfall on site. It is only a 15 minute walk in the woods. We arrived there after several stops to point out different trees and herbaceous plants that are used as Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs). The previous days of rain had turned what was apparently a trickle just last week into a gushing waterfall. It is beautiful. I can't believe I hadn't been there before. Knowing how close it is, I'll definitely be going back there as much as possible.
There is something so calming about flowing water. The cool breeze coming off of the waterfall was a nice surprise after a sweaty, buggy walk. The breezy air was enough to keep the pesky deer flies off of us for the time we were there. It was a fantastic moment. We were all standing around or sitting or exploring around this beautiful little waterfall with the breeze carrying the smell of clean, cold water and the sun streaming through the canopy in little rays.
We finally tore ourselves away from the waterfall by remembering that lunch was being served in 20 minutes. Walking back, we had a nice conversation about how our forests yield so much more food than we think. The tree guy explained how the Hog Peanut, easy to grow and propagate, native to our forests, produces beans along a ground runner that has the same quantity of protein as soy beans. That was just one example of the different foods he mentioned.
A few hours with him is like downloading an encyclopedia into your brain. Imagine shaking out an encyclopedia onto someone's open head and the words, images and descriptions fall into the head. It's something like that. Except the information is compounded by smelling the trees, feeling the bark, hearing anecdotes and getting bug bitten.
The afternoon was quiet and sunny. I sat outside with my computer, making an excel file of Cuban medicinal plants and NTFPs. The afternoon was mainly me trying to stay busy while getting really excited about the solstice party.
When the clock hit 5pm, we sent off a crew of people to go get groceries for a solstice barbecue. I spent an hour skyping with my wife J in England. We caught up, gossiped and traded recent pictures. After that, I headed over to the "Ay Papi" centre to meet everyone for our barbec!
By 10:30, the sky started getting dark and we started plotting our next step. E and M had gone to town to buy me some flammable fluid for my poi and had picked up some goodies to surprise people with. They got those started to everyone's surprise.
I managed to get some great pictures of the fireworks. Once the fireworks had worn out their amusement, I grabbed my poi, which I had been soaking in fluid for 30 minutes.I also only drank water all evening, in hopes that if I were extra hydrated, I would be less flammable. E put my hair in a french braid and I wet it to make me less flammable. I changed into my least flammable clothes: spandex and lycra.
When I picked up my poi, I was really surprised by how much heavier they were compared to usual. I spun them a little to get rid of extra liquid and then walked over to the fire to light them. POOF. They were lit. I backed up and tried a few simple spins.Then a few more.
Then some weaves. Then some turns. IT IS SOOOOO MUCH FUN!
I'm hooked. It's exciting and awesome and wonderful and great exercise. I escaped with all my hair unsinged and didn't even hit myself with the fire poi. The most difficult part was actually putting them out. I was on a high for a few hours after that.We spent the rest of the evening/night singing random songs, looking at shooting stars and laughing. It was the best night we've had in a while! E and I walked back with M to our cabin and were shocked at the brightness and quantity of stars. It was breathtaking. E and I got back to the Greenhouse after much yelling and screaming about how amazing life is and had a dance party until we crashed.
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