Toro

i got up this morning to help my family with the days work cutting alfalfa to feed the guinea pigs they farm here (a local delicacy i hope to have before long). the grandmother has a face thats so wrinkled, it boggles the mind to think about where all that skin came from. the two of us went out to the field and had a lovely chat about other volunteers and the upcoming fiesta (which by the way is all anyone can talk about). the family im staying with is really quite a remarkable bunch. the woman i was working with is the mother of 7 children, most of whom have aspirations for social change. goodness knows their father was a strong enough influence. for something like 30 years he worked with five of the local communities for improvements in health, water conservation and job security.

so this guy has retired to this huge plot of land neighboring a rose plantation where hes set up a very complex irrigation system, redirected with patches of sod stuck in these deep channels that cut through the ground. anyway, while we were cutting alfalfa, which by the way is not unlike cutting a field of grass with a pair of scissors, the old lady walked off for a bit to grab something and mentioned rather matter-of-factly "toro" before leaving the field. this of course means bull in spanish so i thought she was just being a sweet old lady talking to the animals that hang around the place. it wasnt but a few minutes later that two more ladies came running over the hill with the grandmother of my family walking patiently behind her. they ran right up to one of the irrigation channels and started grabbing at something. it didnt take long to figure out there was in fact a cow stuck in the channel - upside down! no lie - here was this huge beast totally incapacitated and resigned to its dismal and watery fate. it took the four of us tugging desperately at its hooves to get the damn thing out. and then once it was free it was remarkably relaxed. ive never seen an animal so nonchalant about very nearly drowning to death.