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!