Citizen Gardeners

This morning I stood outside my hostel waiting for friends to pick me up to go on an excursion outside the city. 

An older lady was outside sweeping the sidewalk. Otherwise things were pretty tranquil, as they often are at 9 'o' clock on a Sunday morning. Earlier in the week, I'd noticed these cool soda bottles tied to a tree on the sidewalk.

Now I started noticing the creativity in the median. I took a picture of a plant growing from a tire, stepping out into the middle of the empty road to do so.

The lady approached me, broom in hand. She told me that she was responsible for these awesome plant-filled medians. "Even those bottles on the tree?" I said. She smiled and said yes. She'd taken it on herself to do this task to help beautify the place. Her name was Iolanda.

She told me how she'd planted fruit trees so that people passing by could pick the fruit. She picked a pitanga berry and patiently pronounced the name several times for me so I could understand it and repeat it back. She told me that I should let it ripen to a darker red and then give it a taste.

The berry, after ripening while traveling in my bag up into the mountains for the day and then back again, was really tasty. I am keeping the seed. Iolanda said I should bring it back home with me and plant it.

She was awesome and inspiring.