finding traction in the mud

The Rains came this past weekend. They deserve the capital R. Then late Sunday and Monday, they stopped.

During the rainy days, between the torrential downpours, I was able to slip off to the store to buy a pair of shoes. I prefer gym shoes, with Velcro fasteners, but gradually I have come to realize that the type of shoe worn can make a difference.

Several months ago, while exploring with a friend, I stepped on a small tree trunk that had been chopped down or burned to a pointy tip. This drove through the shoe and was tenting the top of the gym shoe. With a some effort I pulled my foot of this hazard, and with a great deal of dread pulled my shoe off to inspect the damage to my foot. I could feel blood trickling down, and it felt like I might have destroyed one of my toes. We were about a mile from the car, about five miles from a hospital, and I don't think my friend drives.

I was lucky, the stick had slipped between two toes, cutting both, but not severely. I put the shoe back on and we continued to explore.

About one week ago, I managed to step on a rake. Hopping on one foot dragging the rake from my other foot, I surprised my family by screaming, "don't leave the rake with teeth up!". They almost in unison pointed out that I was the one who had put the rake down that way, but I was yelling at myself. As Rebecca pulled the rake out of my foot, I felt the bones in my foot move around as the teeth were withdrawn. I knew that I would need to go to the hospital, I suspected I might be crippled to some degree permanently. It hurt bad.

As the shoe came off, I was astonished NOT to see the wounds that I had felt, there was no blood, there was no damage to my foot, but three or four teeth of the rake had ripped through my shoe, and the shoe was essentially destroyed. I can't explain what happened other than perhaps all the teeth went between the toes, pushing them apart enough to cause a frightening pain in the balls of my foot. Also the tear in the bottom of the shoe lines up with my foot not my toes, but by whatever circumstance I was again very lucky.

With the construction going on, there are nails and screws of various kinds all around the house. Very few really, but I am looking for them, and with a sick feeling, I sometimes find them.

So this was in my mind when selecting shoes.



Breaking in my new shoes, I went to Chakha'asi alone. We now have a moat separating us from the sugar cane road.



But my little car appears to float. As long as I keep two tires on reasonably solid mud, and don't hit the gas, I am able to cross most waters.

The new dog Enki was happy to see me. Here he is guiding me to the house somewhere in the tall grass.



I planted more purple corn, more rosita beans and stuck a sweet potato vine in the ground. After spending the day there, I returned to town to check the weather forecast. With Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday looking like they might be substantially free of downpours, I made arrangements for workers to come on those days.

We are working on the septic tank. Tuesday, the floor of the tank was poured and wire mesh set round the walls to hold concrete. Around the top of the pit a ledge was chopped and fitted with boards to hold concrete and form a foundation for the cast cover of the septic tank.

Johnny and I helped mix concrete. This is probably a mistake, as we don't really know what we are doing. All we know is that it is hard work, and strangely both of us had an non-typical response to hard work.



There was a lot of progress on the septic tank yesterday. Today, however, maybe not so much. I am gradually learning that many things can slow workers down. The chief of these is me not having enough materials present on site. So there are interruptions while I fetch more.



Other things that can slow workers down are major and minor disasters in their families, that knock you down rain I might have mentioned, and the Unforeseen.

Today, it was the Unforeseen. I was having my typical response to hard work and was out wandering around when I saw the highly reliable man who handles night security for us most nights returning at 11am in the day. As he and I approached one another, I saw he had a sack. A bloody sack. Knowing that aside from work he can pick up from me, he mainly makes a living as a hunter, the rest of my day became foreseeable.

On his way home he shot a peccary. He wanted $1.50 a pound and he figured the peccary weighed about 20 pounds. I purchased half of the peccary. Of course this was an interruption to the efforts of the two workers, one of whom, also a hunter, helped him "peel" the pig. They quickly peeled, cleaned and halved the peccary.




The work resumed. But now Rebecca and I had about 10lbs of fresh meat on a hot day. The workers had all the supplies they would need for the day. When Rebecca is there, we are more likely to plant corn or beans than do construction as the boys and I often do. The workers didn't need us, so we returned to town.

Once here in town, we washed the peccary, and picked off any fur or dirt. There really wasn't much, the two hunters did a very good job of keeping fur and dirt off the meat.



I quickly checked Martha Stewart's Living site for ideas about peccary, however it was clear I would have to wing it.

Johnny and I quickly cut it into pieces. Probably not standard cuts, but workable ones.



Then we seared the meat, to seal in the flavor.



Packed it in a pot with some lard. Peccary is a pig like creature, but it is a wild creature and they are usually so lean that it helps to add some fat. I wish we had more pots, or a larger refrigerator, but as it is we have to cook half a peccary today.



We added garlic, onion, yellow ginger, recado, and black pepper as suggested by the hunter's wife.



Then we covered the pot, and popped it into the oven with the burner set to Number 2. We poured the juice into a skillet and then poured it back on the meat several times to baste the peccary.

It is in the oven right now, and the smell of it is permeating the house. But we want to cook it plenty long enough, as we have packed it into that pot and the center won't cook as fast. We will take it all out and put it all back in to distribute cooking. In the mean time, we fried up the tenderloin and a flap of meat behind the ribs, I think this is the part that normally gets sliced to make bacon.

I hope to remember to take pictures when it is finally cooked, but when it finally is ready to eat, I will probably forget about the camera.