El Verano

It is summer here in Alta Verapaz and with the heat comes some of the most interesting and delicious fruit I have ever tasted.  My favorite fruit is changing about every two weeks and most recently I am happily feasting upon Injerto (Green Sapote), a green-skined, acorn-shaped fruit with deep orange flesh.  My host family has a large tree on their property, so I am well supplied.

It's good!

Though I am working from dawn to dusk, I am beginning to see some of the vegetables of my labor.  We are harvesting a few vegetables from the gardens.  The first plantings of cabbage and broccoli have been cut.  Cilantro and radishes are harvested weekly.  And the students are happily snacking on carrots each day after their work period.

Wormless red cabbage (the worms seem to prefer the green cabbage).

The broccoli is coming.

The squash. Notice the difference between the 2 rows?  The secret ingredient is cow urine.

The squash are coming!

The greenhouse chili is my pet project.

The fruit!

New seedlings.

New onions.

Natanael and Julio sorting green beans.

Julio, Elfedo, Edgar and Matio harvesting radishes.

 

The organic garbage collectors.  Natanael and Raymundo faithfully gather the leftover food and kitchen scraps for the pigs and compost pile each day.

Carrots! They are small, but tasty.

Jorge, Ernesto, Roberto, Minor, Mateo, Simon, Allan and Elfedo happily eating carrots and showing off their soccor jerseys.

 

We are also focusing on reviving the banana plants around the school by trimming them and applying compost.  My first batch of compost is finished and ready to be spread around the farm.

Albaro, Juan, Hector, Jaime and Mauro spreading compost on the newly planted bananas.

One of the new developments here at Bezaleel is that I now have a nickname.  The boys from Segundo Basico gave it to me the other week while we were working together.  As we weeded the beds of carrots and onions, they shared their nicknames with me and wondered if I had one.  I explained that the only nickname that I could remember was the term "Veggyman" given me by the chiefs when I worked in my college´s cafeteria.  What kinds of vegetables do I like, the guys wanted to know.  I like practically all vegetables, but one of the vegetables or rather fruits that fascinates me here in Guatemala is the tree tomato or tamarillo.  This member of the Solonaceae family is a perennial tree that produces light-red, orange fleshed fruits with a sweet, mild flavor.  I read about these tomatoes in grade school and now am finally able to see and taste them.

Chet pix!

One of my chet pix seedlings.

So now when walking around the school I respond to my nickname: "Chet pix" (Chet pish) which is the Kekchi translation for tree tomato.  We have 30 tree tomatoes started in the greenhouse and this week the Segundo Basico guys transplanted them out into rows.

Mauro, Jaime, Cesar, Hector Tiul, Juan and Moises carrying their tree tomato plants.

Hector Raul carrying his plants to their new home.

Moises, Jaime, Hector Tiul, Hector Raul, Mauro and Edgar busy planting tree tomatoes.

Cesar with one of the tree tomatoes he will be caring for.

One of Edgar's tree tomatoes.  I assigned 3-4 plants to each student.  They are responsible for keeping the tomatoes watered and weeded.  I am hoping this will give them a sense of ownership of the tomatoes and ensure that the tomatoes will be cared for over the long-term.

By the way, my favorite way to eat tree tomatoes is in a sauce with dried chile peppers and spread on a flaming hot tortilla fresh from the comal.

Yummy!

iDescanso!

The first semester of school is over!  Last week, Julio and I passed out final grades and listened to endless excuses of why a student did not deserve the grade he was given.  We enlightened each complainer with the fact that three semesters remain in the school year.  Therefore, if they want to improve their grade, they need to improve their punctuality, quality of work and attitude on the job.

"If you want to know how well you worked, ask us before you leave."  Julio advised. "You guys always ask, 'Is our time up yet?', but we want to hear, 'What else can I do?' and 'How did I work today?'"  

I could not agree more.

Easter break has arrived and I took the opportunity to visit one of my student's family in Chiquibul, Alta Verapaz.  Moises León invited me to go home with him this past weekend.  He overheard that I wanted to visit Playa Grande, a region in this department, and since he is from that area, he invited me to go home with him to eat fresh tilapia and visit the picturesque lake of Lachuga.  With such an offer as that, how could I refuse?

And so this past Friday, we set out for hot, sun-scorched land of Playa Grande.  Moi, as his family calls him, has seven brothers and one sister.  His father, Julio, owns about 35 acres of land and practices the most intensive version of agriculture that I have seen in Alta Verapaz.   His fields are an excellent example of intensive companion planting.  One of his maize fields was bordered with two rows of bananas and a row of oranges.  Chile was interspersed among the bananas.  Where Julio had planted hardwood trees, cardamom was planted in between the rows.  I also enjoyed hearing about Julio's plans of a future vanilla cash crop business.

Moises' mother is a busy grandmother who cares for her 5 grandchildren on a daily basis.  Most of the children and their spouses live nearby, so the León home is quite a hub of activity.  One of Moises' older brothers, Jaime, enjoys fishing with a harpoon gun he made.  I accompanied the León brothers on a fish hunt one evening and enjoyed tilapia fish soup the next morning.  Marcos, Moises' younger brother, is responsible for operating the family molino business.  This machine runs early and late, keeping each home in Chiquibul supplied with the masa used for making tortillas.

And we did visit the lake called Lachuga.  It is a beautiful lake amidst a preserved forest.  We had a 3.5 km walk through the forest from the preserves' entrance until we arrived at the lake.  It was a nice hike!  The water was crystal clear, allowing us to have a good view of the large fish inhabiting the lake.  Jaime lamented that fishing was forbidden at Lachuga.  He wanted to try to bag some of the prize specimens!

All throughout my visit, I sensed that the United States is viewed as the promised land in the eyes of everyone in Chiquibul.  One thing they knew for certain: one earns more in one day of work in U.S. than what a worker earns in one week in Guatemala.   Having a family member working there is the best way to save for land, a home and to put one's children through school.

"Moises is smart." one of his older brothers told me. "He should go to the United States to work."

"But if all your smart people go the the United States, how will your community improve?" I replied.

I did not get an answer, but I hope they will think more about developing industry in their community.  Practically everyone in Chiquibul has at least one family member working in the U.S.  Two of Moises' brothers are working in the States.  Hearing their rosy view of the U.S. reminded me of college classmates who complained of the boring Pennsylvania life and the excitement of international travel.  I suppose we are never content with what we have or where we live.

I thoroughly enjoyed tasting all the fruits Moises' family has growing around their home.  I drank cool, refreshing coconut milk from the palms growing outside the house to beat the heat, while others in the family settled for buying the imitation fruity-flavored kool-aids at the neighboring tiendas.  I snacked on mangos, rose apples, pineapples, annona, bananas and gnawed on sugarcane while others preferred the little bags of chips and cardboard-like cookies from the neighborhood snack shops.  "You have so many wonderful fruits for snacks growing right by your doors that I do not have in the United States!"  I exclaimed to the family.  "Why do you buy snacks from the tiendas, when you have these free ones?"

I am grateful that I had the chance to learn to know one student and his family better.  I hope to learn to know the other students at Bezaleel more each day as we continue into the next semester.

Moises and his mother in the smoky kitchen with the family parrot and dog.

Moises father, Julio, sharpening the molino blades.

Marcos cleaning the molino.

Jaimes' harpoon gun.

Moises and me enjoying some of the tastiest things in this country: fermented blue-corn atol along with sweet and sticky annona fruit.

One ripe annona fruit in hand...

...is worth three in the tree!

Marcos, Jaime, Stefan and Edin drying-off after a swim in Lake Lachuga.

Asi es la Vida

The most recent construction on the farm is a new chicken coop.  Julio and I had been hoping to build a bigger and better one for a while, and the prospective work group of EMU college students was the perfect excuse to build one; the students would help build it and contribute some of the funds.  Who can argue with that deal?  I told the accountant that we must have the building materials before the group would come on Monday, February 11 or we could not start the project.  He agreed and purchased the lumber, wire and nails immediately.  "Hurray!" I thought.  "We can finally make some progress around here."

Axal, Natanael and Raymundo helped me square the area and dig the post holes for the new coop.  It was fun and a good applied math lesson on the Pythagorean Theorem.

Raymundo, Axal and Natanael measuring the distance between prospective post holes.

Natanael and Axal digging post holes.

 Monday morning dawned fair and we began by tearing down the old chicken coop, so we could recycle some of the old boards in the new construction.  My thanks to all those from EMU who helped with the construction and my apologies for not getting any pictures of you guys on the job.

Oscar (from maintenance), Cesar, Julio and Ernesto working on the coop.

The following week, another group of gringos arrived from Canada with MCC.  A number of that group enjoyed clearing land by machete and we accomplished much with their help.  Thank you!

One of my favorite projects is composting and the compost piles here are processing very nicely.  Last week, Manuel, Minor, Raymundo and I gave the piles a turn.  It is good excercise, and there is nothing like the warm, sweet smell of properly decomposing compost!

Minor and Raymundo forking away.

 

Stefan and Manuel taking a quick brake.

Other pictures from the farm:

Pigs are not my favorite creatures in the world, but Bezaleel bought 4 squealing and smelly, pink piglets.  They are good garbage disposals for the leftover food from the kitchen.

Artemio is one of my best workers.  He may only be 11 years old, but he does the work of a person 3 times his size!

Jiberto weeding carrots with me.  Pray for him, please.  He is a 16 year old wishing for more freedom and chafing at the bit of school regulations.  I hope he will not make decisions he will regret later in life.

Domingo, Moises and Jiberto hard at work.

Miguel, Alan and Genner gladly moving a rock for me.

Walter, Julio and Genner trimming bananas.

The crew from Primero Basico: Artemio, Herson, Miguel, Alan, Adolfo, Mateo, Genner and Jorge.

 

February 28 signified another year completed for me.  I was able to celebrate two times:  once with the Groffs and again with my host family.  I could have celebrated with the students too, if I supplied the goods.  Some how they knew it was my birthday.  "Where is the cake?" they asked.  "Give us tamales!" others persuaded.  Some threatened to give me a bath, but I managed to remain dry all day.  My host family asked me what special food I would like for my birthday.  "Would you like cake?" they asked me.  "No thankyou."  I replied, envisioning the wimply feather-light cakes here drenched in sugary icing.  "I would like to eat tayuyus!"  For those unfamiliar with them, tayuyus are like bean burritos, spicy peloy beans inside a tortilla crust and when lathered with fresh avocado, they are certainly party food!

A nice birthday dinner with Galen and Phyllis.

A tayuyu with avocado!

 It is the custom in Guatemala for the celebrant to give gifts, so I gave a checkers game to my host family, complete with a board I cut and painted, and bottle caps I begged at tiendas.  I have missed playing checkers at home and wanted an activity to get the children away from the TV on rainy days.  Timing could not have been better because it rained from my birthday until the following Sunday.  We have had plenty of games since then and the children are learning rapidly.  I have been beaten by Mario and Axel a few times and must consider my moves carefully, which is hard to do some evenings after a long day of work!

Checkers!

A challenging checkers game with Axal.

And how old am I?  I have told my students and host-children numerous times, but they seem to forget easily.  The other day, Ingri was following me around the house and asked again for the nth time how old I was.  Hoping to get some peace and quiet, I gave her this math problem to figure out:

         3               2

√ 64 + x -2 = 576 + x - 47x

" My age is x." I told her.  "Solve for x and find out how old I am."

She lift for five minutes and then returned to ask my help in solving the problem.  I should have foreseen that, but it turned into an algebra lesson for the entire family and was kind of fun, I must admit!

Trabajo Fijo (en la lluvia también!)

Days are flipping by like pages in a book, well, most of the time.  My hours at the school are 7am-5pm.  I am very tired at the end of the day and only desire to clean-up, take a nap, eat supper and go to bed.  I am enjoying working with the students, though it is a challenge to keep them occupied and encourage them do a good job.  Even though it has been raining for practically all of the first three weeks of school, we have accomplished much.  Students have cleared more land by machete for future planting, made raised beds for more vegetables, transplanted flowers around the school grounds, spread gravel on pathways (to keep down the mud), built compost piles, transplanted vegetable seedlings out into the field and seeded more vegetables in the greenhouse.

Clearing the paths

Loading gravel

Spreading the gravel and making stone boarders

Everyone must wash his tools before leaving and Natanael is doing just that.

Roberto working on the compost pile.

Elfedo cleaning-up after the rabbits.

Sharpening machetes is a favorite rainy day job for Manuel, Roberto and Raymundo.

Newly transplanted flowers.

The main gardens.

New raised beds.

New bananas and cleared land in the background.

Newly cleared land for green beans.

I am visiting the surrounding aldeas (villages) little by little.  Last weekend, I visited Julio Tzul and his family in Sejol.  Julio pastors the Mennonite Church there and the congregation was having a special service to welcome three new elders joining the current team of three and a baptism for four new believers.  I enjoyed my visit and was encouraged to witness the joy among the congregation.

I was asked to speak (of course!) 

I had been hoping to try my hand at making tortillas even before I left for Guatemala, but I did not know if that was an appropriate activity for a male in the culture.  One evening, amidst a dozen other questions, Ingri asked me, "Quieres aprender a tortillar?" (Do you want to learn to make tortillas?)  "Si, supongo que si." ( Yes, I suppose so.)  I replied, trying not to sound too eager. "Hay hombres que tortillan?"  (Are there men that make tortillas?)  "O si!" (Oh, yes.) she exclaimed and preceded to name-off several male relatives who know how to tortillar (make tortillas).  So, I received my first tortilla making lesson that night, to the delight of the entire family.  They enjoyed taking pictures of the whole process and the results looked and tasted very good, if I do say so myself!

Shaping it.

Patting it out. 

Placing it on the comal. 

Repeating this process 6 times produces 6 tasty tortillas!

On January 16, I was able to welcome to Murch family to Alta Verapaz.  The Murch's will be serving at Bezaleel in the carpentry and English program this year.  I am looking forward to learning to know them during our time here together.

It has been very rainy these past three weeks and practically everyone is bored of the rain, except for Tomi, the little duckling that showed-up at Siquics last week.  He seems to love the mud puddles around the house, so I think he will stay.

The duckling given the name "Tomi" by Axel