First visit to an indigenous community

Tuesday 05.02

On Tuesday, Kumiko introduced us to a community, where possibly we could carry out our ethnobotanical research. There we met Don Fidel, a 70 year old man who could be our key informant as he has lived long in the village and knows about wild plants.
He receives us in western clothes and sunglasses, he is approximately 1, 60 meters tall and welcomes us with a smile. We explain him the nature of our research and he shows us his garden. He is an agriculturer, and probably he doesn't understand why we are focusing in wild plants. Looking at the surroundings, all the mountains have been converted into croplands. Why to walk kilometers to find wild plants when you can domesticate them and plant them in your backyard? Our research seems to fall, no nature around, no study! Although not everything is lost, he can tell us which plants were found in the mountain before, and which of them are cultivated now, this might be of interest!? And there are still wild plants growing on the edges, mainly weeds, but edible weeds! Ok, we can work on something here :)
Kumiko asks him if we can live with him and his wife, live like them, eat with them, help in the garden, help with whatever they might need. He has to ask his wife, I liked this :)