I’ve been trying to grow cilantro; it’s not going very well. I have a small terracotta pot sitting in my windowsill. Every morning I get up and faithfully water it. About a month ago, the first shoot appeared. It grew steadily upward to a height of two inches. I was getting ready to transplant it when I host brother discovered the green plant. Bimboy is only six years old, he couldn’t resist playing with it, and he managed to kill it. Obviously, I was upset, but not deterred. I planted a few additional seeds. And once again it began sprouting.
I made sure that the tiny plant got some sunshine everyday, sometimes this meant putting it outside or in another corner of the house (it’s hard to guarantee sunlight in the rainy season). The plant was doing alright, until about a week ago, in an incident involving a chicken.
Spot, my host family’s dog, chased a chicken into my room. Why there was a chicken in the house- I am not sure. The chicken was visibly frightened, Spot is easily six times her size, and she frantically beat her wings trying to find a way out. Sunlight was streaming through the window and she thought she had found a way out. It would have been a way out, if my window didn’t have a screen. Not really wanting to touch or grab the chicken I attempted to shoo her out the door, using the end of an umbrella. I would just get her to the door, when Spot would appear from nowhere and chase her back in! At this point, the chicken had pooped all over my floor, run all over the top my bed, including a brief moment of cowering between my pillows. She repeatedly tried to get out through the window, I continued to guide her towards the door, and Spot persistently chased her back in. This cycle continued for about five minutes, until I screamed loudly at Spot to desist (his English comprehension is getting quite good- I wish I could say the same of my students). Finally, the chicken made it outside, and Spot continued to chase her through the yard, but the damage had been done to my dear cilantro plant. With all that scrambling by the chicken on my windowsill, the little plant had been uprooted and shredded. I guess it’s time to replant, again.
Yesterday, my host family came into my room early to wake me up. It was time to go potting! They were very excited, and as they were telling me, I wasn’t entirely sure what they meant by potting. I quickly readied myself and soon the whole family was off. We headed to the city, where my family is part of a farming cooperative. At the co-op we pulled up to a large pile of dirt. Suddenly I understood what they meant by potting. We spent the next couple of hours putting soil into 1000+ pots. I left for lunch with other PCVs before they got around to planting fruit tree seeds, dirt deeply embedded under my fingernails and my fingers stained a slight greenish mustard color.
I’m taking a break from school for the next couple of weeks and helping out with training for the new volunteers that arrive later today in the Philippines. I’ll be up in Manila facilitating many technical training sessions on everything from classroom management, creating lesson plans to encourage critical thinking, and differentiation (using a variety of teaching strategies to meet the learning needs of all of your students). I’m excited to meet all the new volunteers, and our new country director, who also arrives today. I’ll also get a chance to sit in on the teaching remedial reading technical sessions, and hopefully I’ll learn a few new things to incorporate in my own school’s program.
