The other day, over breakfast, we conducted an experiment with Mia.
“Where’s your foot?” we asked her. She lifted one foot, smiling.
“Et ton pied? Où est ton pied?” Again she lifted her foot.
“Donde esta tu cabeza?” She raised both hands up to her head.
“Barkola wa’kan?” And she lifted both her feet, with a look of triumph.
I’ve been wondering how she is digesting four languages. At home we mostly speak English and Spanish to her. One-on-one, je lui parle en français, and Rony speaks to her in Kaqchikel. At 19 months the few words she can say are plucked from all four languages – mama, papa, chichi, duck, dog, nez, nena, fish, nan. I remember watching this video on language development in babies, and it’s comforting to know that she is absorbing it all. Language is a fascinating, fascinating thing…
Photo by this artist
In other news, coffee harvest is in full swing. We hit the fields last week – or rather, Rony, his mom and some friends hit the fields, and I ran after Mia. Now the coffee beans are drying on the rooftop, and Rony’s been climbing up there a few times a day and moving the beans around so that they’ll dry evenly. We have a medieval-looking machine sitting among our confused chickens right now, and we used it to depulp the coffee before hauling it up the to the roof. In a few weeks we’ll hull the dried beans and then, then we’ll roast them ourselves. The journey from bean to cup is a long one – but so, so worth it.
A journalist came to San Lucas a while ago and wrote beautifully about Rony and coffee and permaculture. Her article is here and this is such a great picture of a young Rony that I thought I’d share it too:
And here, because I couldn’t help myself, is the hand-made de-pulping machine:
… and some iphone pictures from the coffee fields.