More pictures to come later (found out the blogger can only do about 10 at a time). This, in addition to the first official community meeting (we did the community map) and the first official Friday tournament for the youth soccer teams (Cuatro Esquinas and Praderas won-followed by arguements about how old each player was--how American! :) ), concludes August. Hard to believe it's just been one month! Hopefully getting the hang of it. Big hug to everybody back home!
8/21: Had my first official meeting with all the socios of
the cooperative. Wasn’t half bad. Spent the whole morning redoing all the
posters I had done earlier that week and saving my energy with the antibiotics.
Need to get a crash course in everything that has to do with the empressa and
cooperative. Didn’t have any power so Edwin took us down to Dona Socorros house
to watch the telenovellas. They are very serious about telenovellas here!
Bought some oil and grease while in Praderas yesterday and Ariel took care of
my bike while I was at the meeting. Thanks! There is a huge red moth engulfing
my deodorant right now! Wow!
8/23: Got up early to get to the road, to get to the truck,
to get on another truck to Jinotega. Back of the truck again by the way. All
this with the board of the cooperative to get to a 10AM meeting with FIA
(Foundation InterAmerica- a development agenciy from the states). My
understanding is that the board asked FIA to fund a secadora and empacadora
–basically a very expensive drier and packer that would empower my community to
handle another step of the commodity chain for their basic grains. Right now
they are at the mercy of the prices and collection and distribution schedule
of the AgriCorps middle man. FIA basically told the cooperative that they
need to come up with a more multi-tiered financial approach and that they
currently do not have the land rights for the machine. Most of the land in
Pantasma is originally indigenous, but through the wars land rights and
redistribution have gotten rather sticky. The rep from FIA, Patrick Ahern,
turns out was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in 1972. At least it was fun
chatting with him. And got orange juice and fried chicken! Got a crashcourse in
the cultural difference between what the development agency wants to hear for
it’s constituents and what the local community members need and want, trying to
fit square pegs into round holes more or less. The guys and I had an informal
English class the whole trip back in the back of the truck.
8/24: Had to cancel the other practices while I was sick,
but had practice with Cuatro Esquinas today.
Also started frying onions and cuajada for meals, with minimal
questioning from my family. Lined the garden area with secos, or grain bags, to
keep out the chickens and anchored them with rocks- very high tech!
Transplanted the kale, cucumbers and sunflowers that were getting too big for
the shoebox. We’ll see if they make it in the shallow soil. Isi and Lidia kept pointing out spots that I
had missed where the chickens could (and did) get in. I probably looked crazy
chasing chickens out of my garden with a stick, but they were stupid enough to
leave the same way they came in, so I was able to figure out the culprits.
Shucked and pulled corn with Edwin and got a blister on my thumb. Ow! Still
have delicate, non-worker hands. Made torta de leche (milk cake) with the
cooking class today. Always feel better after cooking class and practice. These
women and youth are smart, tough, hard-working and motivated.
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