Volunteering at the botanical garden

Some of you may be wondering whatever happened to my big plans to volunteer at the botanical garden? I did finally, after many meetings and tours of the garden arrange to start volunteering this week. Initially, I met with the person in charge of the children’s ecology education program. For some reason, they assumed that since I am a social worker, I would naturally want to work with the kids in their ecology program even though I specifically wrote that I was interesting in more technical work such as propagation. After meeting EVERYONE in the education department and after being given a lengthy tour of the garden, they finally arrived at the conclusion that I was only interested in technical work. However, the person that usually dealt with such matters as referring someone to another department, was pregnant and was out of the office. This meant the next person in charge, Paula, had to decide what to do with me. In the end, Paula said she would call the person in charge of Scientifica (The Science Department that includes a large nursery) and that I should call back the next day. I should mention that everyone in the education department was unbelievable nice to me and treated me so well even though they didn’t know what to do with me. When asked if I could call a taxi at the end of the day, they called the taxi for me, they walked me to the taxi cab area, and they chatted with me and made funny jokes while they waited with my for my taxi. I tried to tell them that they didn’t need to wait with me but they said they wanted to and that it was no problem. So nice!

So as you might expect, I had some trouble getting a hold of Paula and she had some trouble getting a hold of the director of the science department. The weekend came and went, and I called on Monday and asked the receptionist for the direct number to the science department. Finally, I talked to the director there and made an appointment for the next day. The director of Scientifica is what you would call “Muy Buena Gente.” He is sooo nice, so chatty, very intelligent yet caring and seems to know everyone in the entire garden by name. He hugged half the staff as he gave me a tour of the facilities and introduced me to the staff. All of his staff and employees light up when they see him and naturally he was very kind to me as well and asked one of the nursery workers, Luis, to set me up to propagate seeds the following day.

I promptly arrived at 9 the next day and looked around for Luis. I was supposed to be volunteering and helping but Luis felt as though I was “muy educada” and did 2/3rd s of the work for me. All I had to do was make a whole in the dirt and stick the palm tree seeds in the hole (See photo 1 of palm tree). I told him repeatedly that this work was very easy for me and that if he had other work to do I thought I could manage. But Luis continued to help out regardless. After a while, one of the biologists at the nursery introduced herself to me and offered to introduce me to the other scientists and they familiarized me with their work. (I should explain that there are various levels of workers at the science department. The science department contains labs and several nurseries where scientists who have about a 5 year university education work with nursery technicians that might have some university or no university experience. There are also workers that seem to have more janitorial duties and don’t work directly with plants. So the janitorial workers do all the basic cleaning such as cleaning the nursery floors, cleaning out pots, shoveling and other back breaking tasks. Technicians have their own responsibilities with taking care of the plants and propagating plants but seem to drop everything to help the scientists with accessing what they need in the nursery. I think they think I am totally crazy for spending my vacation working for Nothing!) Most of the scientists are working on developing plant propagation techniques. Some of the scientists propagate but also focus on plant identification and taxonomy. I met two scientists that work with plants from the paramo (high altitude plants that are very very cool!) and one scientist that just works with ferns. The scientist that showed me around has spent a year studying the root nodules of 4 species of plants from the pea family (fabaceae). I am so glad I took a taxonomy class or I would have no idea what these people were talking about. It is surprisingly easy to talk with the scientists about their work in Spanish because the words are so similar in English. It is the everyday phrases and expressions that can really slow me down.

On my second day of volunteering, I finished another flat of palm seeds and Luis left to apply chemicals to some plants, promising to return and never did. I waited and waited and didn’t have anything to do so I just snooped around until I found someone and offered to help. I ended up working with a propagation technician who was so friendly and loved to talk about her work. I helped her weigh seeds and prepare a bed of soil where we planted the seeds. The whole time the woman was so kind to explain her different methods of propagation of cuttings and seedlings. We were working with seeds from a tree that originates in Bogota. The tree is called “The Hand of a Bear” or “Mano de Oso.” All of you plant lovers are probably picturing a large palmate leaf and that is exactly what it looks like! The technician gave me a leaf to take home with me and walked me to the bus stop. Everyone has been so incredibly kind and generous with their time at the garden. I guess I am the first volunteer they’ve ever had at the science department!

Believe it or not, I went back to the botanical garden on Sunday because the garden was having an exhibit on orchids. Soe of you may know that Colombia is the orchid capital of the world. It has more species here than in any other country. I included a picture of a very primitive orchid. Daniel also took a picture of me standing next to a really cool sculpture that holds hundreds of leaves from trees around the garden.

So that’s it for now. Please let me know what you guys would like to hear about. I worry that I am boring you all to death!