Jay, one of our employees and I, finished another terrace today.  we have done four so far in a yard across the road from ours.  it is funny;  working landscape construction in massachusetts, i built stone retaining walls, like terraces for luxury.  they are indeed beautiful.  down here i am doing the exact same work, but it is purly for function.  This is what love about edenic development, overcoming the dicotomy of function vs. aesthetic.  i find that in sustainable land development, what is functional is beautiful, and what is beautiful is funtional.  that is how i imagine the garden of eden.  it is beautiful but also abundant and life giving, serving a primary function of providing food.  it is stange to so far segrate much of the functions present in our world from our overall experience.  when this unity isn´t taken into consideration is where our present global problems arise, pollution, desertification, erosion, leading to hunger, illness, violence and poverty.  when we can appriciate and lovingly accomplish every step of our agriculture and industry, in harmony with the environment and society, we will really step forward to a more sustainable culture, and a prettier planet.  at least this back yard with nice terraces is prettier and more fruitful now.  one backyard at a time i suppose.

you on facebook may have read my update about how i was wondering when the lump on my arm would stop oozing.  well, it did.  after my friend squeezed a bot fly larvae out of it!  yuck!  it was the grossest thing i have ever seen on my body.  there i was sqeezing the puss out one night, and then all of a sudden there was a little white pointy thing poking out of the hole.  i sqeezed harder and a little more came out, but i couldn´t get any more out with one hand so i went to my friend Mac down the road.  dependable Mac, slowly sqeezed and pulled till an almost inch long larvae came out of my arm.  as it came out puss squirted on Mac´s face.  yuck!  but man am i happy to have that out of my arm!

 last weekend Mac and I went on an awesome camping trip up above a huge waterfall, deep into the virgin forests up in the mountains.  it was breathtaking, waterfall after waterfall.  we came to an increadable view of where our river, the Cangrjal, empties out into the carribean by La Ceiba about 10 kilometers away.  we could see all this from a full days hike up from the road into the jungle.  we saw three snakes, and a howler monkey.  As we were bushwhacking up a steep hill to ascend a waterfall Mac almost grabbed the most poisonous snake in the americas, the Fer deLance.  It was perfectly camouflauged in the leaves.  i never would have seen it.  it really freaked me out.  but we went on, and no snake bites.  yey.  we made it back safe two nights later with a lot of amazing photos, (Mac is a photographer), a better friendship and really sore calf muscles. 

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