Fishing and Rice Harvest in Betania

Today I left for Betania a little after 5:00 in the morning with my friend Johnny; Johnny does not speak English.  We got to Betania a little after 7:00, because the roads have gotten worse over the last week or so, and because we had to do a few things in Puerto Cabezas before we headed out.  When we arrived I saw the man that told me he would take me to his farm when they were ready to harvest rice, so I went to talk to him.  Luckily he speaks Spanish, so between Johnny, him, and I we were able to communicate well enough.  We got all of the fishing gear ready and then headed out (it is very common for the men to fish on their trip to the farm).  We spent the entire morning fishing, but had no luck; we were only able to catch some tiny bait fish.  When it was finally time to get down to business, we went to the first farm area to get some oranges and coconuts.  The coconut tree had to have been close to 100 feet high, but one of the guys that was with us climbed it with ease, and threw down a bunch of delicious coco.  We ate two or three each, first cutting it open with a machete, then drinking the milk, then splitting it in half and scooping out the young coconut meat.  After the coconut break we headed over to the orange tree and loaded up close to fifty oranges (we also each ate a few oranges).  After all of this it was close to 1:00, so we headed out to the area where the rice field was.  When we arrived he told me that when the river flooded after the recent tropical storm, he lost most of his rice crop; when I looked around at the devastated crop it was hard not to wonder how he would be able to come up with enough food to feed his family.  We arrived to late to see the process, but it is basically the exact same process as harvesting grass space plants at Pure Seed; cut the small clumps of rice with a machete, thresh it against a cerated board, and then take it back home to clean out the chaff.  By the end of this trip I was extremely tired, so I was dreading the drive home, which is stressful enough when you aren't tired and you don't have three people riding in the back of your truck.  We finally got home to the Pastor's house, which was a relief, because the diesel was getting really low in the truck.

After dinner Jessica, the house mom at the orphanage, decided we should have a bon fire tonight, so all of the kids got to stay up late to play games, sing songs, have devotional, eat sweets, and dance.  It was a very fun night, and exactly what I needed after the long, full day.  The kids are so much fun to be around; they are so full of life and happy all the time, even though they basically don't have anything.

I am going to get some sleep now; I will try to post some pictures later.

Austin