Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Desarrollo de la Finca y mi Vida

During the first two weeks of December, Pedro, Elias, Marsolino and I were busy planting vegetables and getting jobs lined-up for the students' arrival in January.  We finished planting a field of guisquil behind the auditorium.  These vines will be ready to be trellised in January, a perfect job for the students.  We have also seeded more carrots, radishes, peas, cilantro, cucumbers and squash.

Two terraces seeded with carrots
Newly transplanted cabbage
Cilantro seedlings
 Marsolino planting peas

On December 9, two of my good friends from home came to visit me.  Tyler Breneman and Jeremy Spangler made the trip from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to San Pedro Carcha, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.  On Monday, Tyler and Jeremy helped Pedro, Marsolino and me complete a stairway into the main garden.   The existent stairway, constructed with old car tires, did not extend to the top of the hill.  We discovered, while putting in more tires, that the old ones at the top of the hill had been buried under subsoil, most likely due to a mud slide.  Eight semi-truck tires have been laying around the farmyard ever since I arrived.  Though a bit large, they work well as steps.

Tyler bringing in a tire
Photo: Jeremy Spangler

Jeremy keeping it moving
Photo: Tyler Breneman

Pedro and Jeremy carving out ledges for the stairs

Marsolino, Pedro and Tyler filling the tires

Before
 

After
Photo: Jeremy Spangler

The crew: (left to right) Marsolino, Stefan, Pedro, Tyler and Jeremy
Photo: Jeremy Spangler

Having Tyler and Jeremy working with me was a great encouragement.  It was wonderful to spend time with my friends from home.  I appreciated the gringo power that day!  I welcome anyone else reading this blog to come visit me and assist on the farm.  Let me know when you are coming!

I accompanied Tyler and Jeremy into Belize to renew my visa and spend some more time with them until their return to Pennsylvania.  I enjoyed seeing the agriculture of the Belizian countryside.  It was interesting to see citrus groves and sugarcane fields bordering the road.  I would have liked to capture these scenes on camera, but this was a bit difficult to do when traveling at 90 kilometers per hour!

During my return to Guatemala, I traveled through Spanish Lookout, one of the Mennonite communities in Belize.  I felt at home among the rolling fields.  If not for the palm trees in the fence rows and screeching parrots overhead, I would have thought I was home in Lancaster County.  While I waited for a bus outside the large general store, I chatted with a Belizean gentleman who informed me that the Mennonites are very industrious, raising maize, black and red beans, numerous vegetables, chickens, hogs, and cattle.  Much of the harvest is exported to Guatemala, he told me.  I would have liked to have spent more time viewing the agriculture in Spanish Lookout.

A harvested maize field with farm buildings in the distance
A homestead in Spanish Lookout

A field of beans


Two weekends ago, Alfredo Jr. and I built our own kite to fly in the Chamelco park.  I have been hoping to build a kite for sometime after seeing many people flying them around the town.  There is usually a strong breeze in these mountains, which is perfect for kite flying.  I had a plastic bag to use and Alfredo found the string needed.  Two maize stalks served as the frame.  That Saturday, Alfredo and I eagerly journeyed to the park to try our kite, but alas, there was not sufficient wind to fly a kite that day.  We did get the kite to fly nicely for about 30 seconds, but that was all.  We will have to try kite flying again in the future.

Alfredo Jr. on the way to the park with our kite

It wants to fly!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Explorando Guatemala



From November 15-18, John Cahill and I were on a birding expedition in Tikal.  I enjoyed the opportunity to see these Mayan ruins with John as a bird watcher, rather than the typical tourist.  While I enjoy historical landscapes, I like to do sightseeing in a non-typical way.  In addition to seeing the ruins, I had a great time getting to know John more and adding some new birds to my list.  Some of my favorite new sightings were the Orange-breasted Falcon, Pheasant Cuckoo, Blue-crowned Motmot and Purple-crowned Fairy (a hummingbird).


 An amazing view from Temple 4.  A picture does not capture the entire scene.

Some of my favorite sites were during the trip.  I love to see agriculture!

A new maize field.  The Peten region can grow 2 crops of maize a year.

An expanse of African oil palm.

A new papaya plantation.


They look good!


Last week, I was privileged to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with the Groffs and other North Americans here in Guatemala.  All the activity helped to alleviate the homesickness I felt for my own family back in Pennsylvania.  The next day, the Dennett family, who had driven up from Guatemala City to spend Thanksgiving with us, allowed me to accompany them on a trip to Semuc Champey.  This bucolic valley, with warm fresh water pools for swimming, is truly one of Guatemala’s hidden wonders.  A 1.5 hour drive on an unpaved road from the main highway, we all concluded that this attraction is not for the “faint at heart.”

A view along the road into Semuc Champey.


We have added two more composting structures at the farm.  The new tools were received last week and we spent a day preparing new handles for them.  Marsalino, Pedro and I put new plastic around the bottom of the greenhouse to keep rain and other intruders out and screened the doors with wire.

Marsalino and Pedro by the finished work.


Last Monday, Tara Cahill brought her crew of students to the farm for a workday.  They have been studying gardening from a biblical viewpoint and came to Bezaleel to do a service project.  I was certainly blessed by their work at the farm.  Forty-one girls accomplished far more in one day than my usual crew of three can do in a week.  They prepared some beds we will be planting this month.

A garden full of workers





I received a delivery of malanga, sweet potato and guisquil this week.  We have been busy planting the sweet potatoes and malanga.  The guisquil will be next.  We have also seeded more cabbage, broccoli, onions, cucumbers and carrots.

Newly planted malanga
A field of camote (sweet potato)
Cabbage, chile, broccoli and onion seedlings



Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Una Empieza


I am beginning to develop a weekly routine, which is something I like.  My days are beginning to fly by, usually an indication that I am enjoying myself, which I would say all in all is true.  I have a 15 minute (about 1 km) walk from my host family’s home to the school farm.  I arrive at the school at 8 to start the morning.  Lately, before I know it, 12pm has arrived and I head back for lunch.  The afternoons are passing by rapidly too.  5pm arrives soon enough and I return to the Siquic home to cleanup and have supper.

The first activity of the month was organizing the tool shed at the farm.  This was a great job for the rainy days in the beginning of November.  I arranged things a bit more conveniently and found tools no one knew the school had.

One of those finds was an ancient reel mower.  It was rusted stiff, but I knocked it with a hammer and loosened it up.  Elias was standing by watching me and asked what the thing was.  “Macquina para cortar grama.”  (A machine to cut grass) I said, and pushed it across the lawn.  It worked, but was still sticking a bit.  “Necesita aceite.”  (It needs oil) I said.  Elias was ecstatic.  He left hurriedly and returned with old motor oil.  He proceeded to drench the mower, and unfortunately the surrounding lawn, with oil.  He got it working fairly well though and is happily using it around the school.  “El esta jugando.” (He is playing).  Oscar told me when he saw Elias with the mower.

 Old rakes make great machete racks!


We have repaired 10 shovels that needed new handles. 

We also have 7 hoes back in commission with newly selected handles.
  
I happily selected a long handle for my own hoe.  I can now hoe with comfort, since I do not need to bend my back.  I do not understand why Guatemalans prefer to hunch over while hoeing.  It is very uncomfortable in my opinion.  They do not understand why I desire a long and straight handle.  So it seems that I have a hoe all to myself, which is fine with me.  Yet, to be sure, I engraved and burned my name into my hoe handle - just in case.

Making handles is an art.

Doing an engraving job.

I heated a wire in the evening cooking fire and burned my name into the handle.  Then I used a candle to seal my engraving with wax.

 Just a bit of new owner pride.


The farm now has 12, 5 gallon buckets.  Pedro, Oscar and I built a bucket rack to keep them organized and allow them to dry when wet.  They came in a stack and we had quite a time getting some of them unstock. Pedro, Oscar and I agreed to not stick buckets inside each other.


Oscar working on the rack.

Oh, the beauty of neatly organized buckets!


One of the first tasks with the newly acquired buckets was spreading compost.  It was much work for little gain, in my mind.  Scaling the hills was a challenge for me.  I need to repair the stairs down to the gardens.  Part way through the job, I slipped on the step slope and landed in a lemon tree.  After that, I left the nimble Guatemalans carry the buckets back and forth while I filled them.  “Este no es nada.”  (This is nothing) Oscar said and then told me about carrying two full buckets of cement up ladders during construction of one of the Bezaleel buildings.  My hat is off to that guy.  Nevertheless, in 3 hours time we only had 100 feet by 3 feet covered.  I need to think of a better system.  I bucket chain when the students are here would work.  Or a pulley system of buckets descending and ascending on a sky-lift like apparatus would be totally awesome!

One of my dreams for the farm came true this week.  I have been noticing the junk metal around the buildings and finding broken shovels and pick-axes while cleaning out the tool shed these past few weeks.  “It would be great to sell these to a scrap dealer and use the money to purchase seed for the farm.” I thought.  I was working on a plan for how to get them to the scrap dealer, when yesterday as I was about to leave for lunch, a scout from a metal recycler passed by and asked Oscar if we had any scrap to sell (I had told Pedro and Oscar that morning of my plan to turn the junk into seed).  Oscar asked me if I wanted to sell it to the guy for 50 cents a pound.  I asked if that was a good price and Oscar said it was not bad.  He tried talking the guy up to 80 cents a pound, but to no avail.  I told them it was better than leaving the metal sit around and rust away.  They agreed and we all helped to collect the metal strewn about the farmyard.  Now 124 pounds of scrap are off the farm and I have Q 62 to spend on more seed from the local market!

Quite a pile.



We are beginning to seed crops.  So far, peas, squash, cilantro, chard and red beets are in the ground.  It will be exciting to watch them grow!

Dew drops on a cabbage plant.

Planting Guisquil (a tasty squash) with Oscar and Pedro.

Plenty of compost to help them grow.


The first Sunday of the month, I attended the dedication of a new Mennonite Church at Chicujal.  It was a beautiful Sunday morning and as we marched to the church, the congregation sang a song in monotone harmony.  It was beautiful.

The church building itself was very nice, cement block and steel-roof construction, as is common in this locality.  The new congregation did not spare the sound equipment, as typical here among the Kekchi.  They boast sound equipment more advanced than in most of the churches in my hometown.  Why they need such projection equipment for a 50 by 30 foot building, I do not know.  I adjusted my earplugs as the praise team opened with their first song and tried to focus on worship.  This was very hard because even with the earplugs, the bass rattled my bones.  I am also not particularly fond of the style of music here.  The songs sound all the same and it is not because I do not understand the language.  They are usually in the same key and with the same pulsating rhythm.  The lead singer does more wailing than singing, in my judgment and there is very little congregational participation in the songs.  This is the same trend I have noticed in many churches in the States.  Congregations are losing the practice of singing.  I believe it is due to the type of music being played.  A band does not need audience participation for the song to be a success.  All the necessities for the song rely on the musicians in the band.  Accapella music on the other hand, relies totally on the audience to make the song a beautiful presentation.  What are we losing by adopting sound equipment and electric instruments?


The boys are in front of the subwoofers...


Anyway, while I was debating this in my mind, two boys, in the aisle to my right, motioned for my attention.  The one plopped a worm made out of the pine needles on my lap.  This is one Kekchi custom I totally love.  For celebrations, they carpet the floor with pine needles.  It gives a wonderful scent to the event and it is a totally renewable and biodegradable decoration!  Back to the worm, it was ingeniously created.  I walked it up and down my leg to the enjoyment of the boys.  That got my mind turning.  I gathered some pine needles and attempted to make a pine needle doll.  Unfortunately, it practically fell apart when I gave it to the boys, but they were delighted.  I then produced a dragonfly and rooster.  Two little girls behind me were watching and happily snatched these creations when I offered them.  By this time, the boys had made a second worm and attached the two in the shape of a heart.  This activity brought back memories of all the fun things my brother, Josef, and I made in the services and church functions we attended.  It is so fun to create things and I am glad to see that some Kekchi boys are flowing with creativity.  I hope they keep it up.

Two worms in the shape of a heart and a pretzel.

My creative friends.


Tomorrow, I leave for a bird watching camping trip with John Cahill.  Having put in four full weeks at the farm, I am ready for a change of scenery and expedition into the wilderness!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Aprendiendo Nuevas Cosas


I have been having trouble with internet connections lately, so my apologies for the late update.  I will attempt to adopt a regular posting schedule, so my readers will know when to expect an update.  My goal will be to publish a new post the second and fourth week of each month.  This one covers up to October 28, 2012.

A highlight for me in the past 2 weeks was visiting La Finca Rubel Chahim, a preserve of cloud forest and demonstration farm operated by Rob & Tara Cahill.  Upon my first visit, I spent the morning watching birds with the Cahill’s son, John.  John is an excellent birder with the ability to identify countless birds by their call, coloration and flight pattern.  I saw many new birds that morning.  My favorites were the hummingbirds.  It so happens that property owned by the Bezaleel School, where I am serving as an agricultural instructor, is habitat for the Shear-tailed hummingbird, a rare bird in this area.  John took me birding there later in the week and we had a nice close-up look at one of the males in all his glory.

Beyond birding, I enjoyed the tour of the preserve and farm with the Don Bosco Catholic Boys School.  I was also able to assist with the agroecology center the Cahills are constructing.  This building will house classrooms, interns, labs and a food processing facility.

The agroecology center in process


Rob (Center) talking about sustainable agriculture, which cares for the cloud forest as well as feeding the village.

The cave

 The next day, I joined the Cahill’s interns on a tour of the Don Bosco campus near my town of San Juan Chamelco.  I especially enjoyed seeing the fields of guisquil (a tasty squash), malanga (or taro), yucca (cassava), camote (sweet potato) and maqui (a green of some kind) the school maintains to feed their 300 students.  My mind is full of ideas for starting the same at Bezaleel.  I am particularly fascinated by the root crop, malanga.  This is a starchy vegetable substitute for potatoes here in Guatemala.  Potatoes do not grow well in this damp climate and therefore require frequent fungicide treatments.  Malanga, on the other hand, grows prolifically without pesticides and once harvested, the stalk is replanted to grow another crop.  This crop reproduces itself, eliminating the need to purchase new seed.

Harvesting Malanga at Don Bosco

 A new field of Malanga


I am settling in with my host family in Chamelco and am enjoying getting to know the family.  I am staying with Alfredo Siquic, a former pastor and president of the Kekchi Mennonite Churches.  Alfredo and his wife, Albina, together with their five children currently living at home and me, make for an active household! One of the children is adopted, but I have not been told which one.  Wili is 19 and the oldest living at home.  He keeps busy with his guipil business; embroidering the blouses worn by the women in this area.  He can create amazing flower designs and at an amazing speed!   Mario is 15 and is enjoying his vacation from school by playing soccer as often as possible.  I have enjoyed some evening soccer games in the street outside their home.  Mariela is also 15 and together with her mother, makes tortillas 3 times as big as anyone else in Guatemala, from what I have seen so far.  They are great fresh and when toasted, taste like the best corn tortilla chips I have ever eaten.  Ingri and Axel are both 11.  I enjoyed a Sunday afternoon jog with them around the nearby school soccer stadium a week ago.  Alfredo Jr. is 9 and is usually at the house gate to welcome me back from the farm each evening.

Mariela and Axel in the kitchen
 La Señora tortiando
 (Left to right) Alfredo Jr, Axel and Ingri

Mario in his Sunday best.

Wili hard at work



Though there are no students at the school, I am busy getting the gardens ready for their return in January.  So far Oscar, Pedro and I have transplanted nearly 100 new banana plants for the coming years.

Planting Bananas with Oscar
 
Elias, Pedro and I built a second raised bed in the greenhouse for propagating transplants.  We have seeded Cabbage and Chile Peppers so far.

New raised bed on the left


Last week, Elias, Oscar, Pedro and I constructed composting bins.  The old ones are falling to pieces.  The school has been attempting to produce vermipost with red worms, but red ants move in and kill the worms.  Tara Katehill told me she has not had good experience with red worms for that reason and has discontinued using the method.  Therefore, Elias, Oscar, Pedro and I built three composting compartments.  We will follow Sir Albert Howard’s Indore Method for producing compost at Bezaleel and see how that goes.

Before

Building the composting facility with Pedro and Elias.


It may be crude, but I guess the compost will not care.  “Function over form.” as Joel Salatin says.  This was built entirely with recycled materials from old worm bins at the school.



In the coming weeks, I am looking forward to sowing vegetables for the coming school year.  I also hope to visit another demo garden operated by Medical Teams International, a Christian organization working to end the rampant malnutrition in this area of Guatemala.  The main problem health-wise in Guatemala is the same as that in the United States or anywhere else in the world: getting people to eat their vegetables!