Hammer meets Body

I have been working on this giant worm box for the past couple of days and it was a lot more work than expected. Lining plastic in the bottom of the wooden box and then figuring out a method to secure it took us a solid three hours. And we still have to install a drainage system so that the worms dont drown. During this time we came across a scorpions exo-skeleton which can be viewed below and an actual scorpion which we fed to some Hormigas Locas. "Us" includes Merlin my surpervisor and her good friend Jimmy who runs the Beneficio (Coffee Processing Facility) next door. Jimmy has been the only handyman willing to lend his time to our endevour. All other help seems to think worm composting is a waste of time and resources. It is a waste of time when thinking about the immediate costs/benefit, but over the long haul the goal of the worm composting is to provide a teaching aid to school groups and provide farmers with a cheaper and richer source of fertilizer. Once the worms have multiplied to a desirable number the wooden composting box we have now will be torn down and a much larger cement box compost will take its place. After lining the box we had to create a rain sheild around the box. We already had a plastic roof so walls were all we needed. All around the Beneficio grows these Canye Indio plants which could be described as really skinny palm trees. When the majority of the area in Copa Buena was clear cut for coffee farms, these Canye Indio plants took root quickly and now provide living fence lines for the farmers. Since their is such an abundance of this plant we could chop it down and use it to create our rain shield. We dug six holes, jammed the six support beams into the holes, filled the holes and then attached the support beams to the roof with two clavos (nails). Upon installing one of these beams I had to climb a ladder to short for the job and then drive the clavos throught the roof and into the support beam. Akward as hell and with a shakey balance I managed to drive the first clavo in, but not as staight as I would have liked. The second one I tried nail in with baby taps but there must have been a knot in the Kanye Indio because it wasnt going anywhere. Slightly frustrated I decided to wind up and drive the sucker in but as the hammer came down my footing slipped and I nailed my thumb instead. My thumb began to turn black and blue and I felt like an idiot but as I have learned very well that shit always happens and you just got get back up and try again, which I did. We finished installing the support beams and called it a day.

Later that evening I was stoked to see the US and Costa Rica duke it out for World Cup standing. Costa Rica had previously lost to Honderous and beat the US in Costa Rica. In order to get World standing they would have to defeat the US. I´m not a huge fan of watching sports but I could not pass up the opportunity to shit talk (but in a nice way) with my host family becuase I knew they were dedicated fans. In the first half of the game Costa Rica was up 2 to 0 and the United States was playing horendous. For the moment I switched sides and told my family that I was rooting for Costa Rica all along until US scored their first goal with about 15 minutes to go in the game. At this point the US had stepped up their game and the ball was constantly on Costa Ricas side. In the remaining minute of the game the US brought the ball backl from their side and managed to get a corner kick. Now only 20 seconds remained in the game. The kick looked good was sent right into the quagmire of people in front of the cage. And it was Jonathan Bornstein, lucky number 13 who lended his head and a couple of brain cells to help tie the game, 2 - 2. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed and jumped around the house. The shocked faces of my family were priceless and even my little sister Maria Jose began to cry and I´m not sure if it was due to my parading around or the loss in general. For the moment I was a little resentful of shananagins but the family realized that it was just a game in the end.