Patrick and I have less than a month left here now, and we are both feeling a little urgency to make more headway on some of the projects we have started. The chicken coop did not make much progress the last few months because of other priorities and some political issues in Yalchacti. The windows on the new buildings in the monastery have yet to be installed, and we cannot make much more progress there because without windows, many interior work type things would get water damage. Oscar Pop, Fr. Bernie’s right hand man, also wants us to help out as much as we can before we go. With this in mind, we came up with the plan of Patrick trying to get funding to finish up the windows in the new buildings working from Coban, and Oscar, Alberto (Oscar’s right hand man) and I working three consecutive days on the chicken coop, spending the night in the school in the aldea in order to save on fuel and time – it just did not make sense to make the 3 hour round trip drive every day. So on April 26th, 27th, and 28th Oscar, Alberto and I made good progress on the chicken nest boxes. We had about half of them completely finished, and we were able to finish the other half in those days.
They lacked a few odds and ends, such as the board in front to keep the eggs from falling out, but it was a big step. While working on the project we had a nice surprise – as I was lifting up a board, I saw something duck and hide. Inspecting more closely, I found out it was a big, black scorpion. I told Oscar and Alberto. Oscar said it was a threat to have it in our work space, so he took a pole and smooshed it. Alacran – puchica!
During these three days, Oscar and I also distributed a bunch of school supplies that my mom was able to fit in her suitcase when she came to visit during Semana Santa. Among the things she included some jump ropes, which the kids had never tried before – jump roping was a challenge for them but they had a good time and were pretty good considering they had never heard of the activity before.
I just got back from another three day jaunt in Yalchacti, where we finished the last detail in the chicken nests – placing the small board on front of the nest so the eggs do not fall out. We also continued the work of hanging the chicken wire around the whole chicken coop so that the chickens don’t get out and other creatures don’t get in. We still have to install the gutters which will fill the chicken’s water tanks when it rains – so I’ll probably end up making one more three day hitch out there. Siriaco, a father of a family in Yalchacti, helped us out quite a bit. He hosted us for all of our meals (we payed him of course, but even with the money it’s a big job) and he also lent a hand as we were finishing up the nest boxes and hanging the chicken wire.
We gave Siriaco some of the Moringa tree seeds that my mom brought down when she came to visit, and he showed us that they are growing well. He started them out in plastic bags, and now has them transplanted in various places around his home. Patrick’s mom brought down more Moringa tree seeds. We gave most of these seeds to Hermano Nikolas and Hermano Alejandro of the monastery because they are both accomplished agronomists. We hope that they will be able to start nurseries for the seeds and be able to give more seeds to the people in the villages, since the fruits of the tree (including the leaves) are so jam packed full of nutrients. The leaves have more vitamin C than oranges, more vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, and more protein than yoghurt, according to the presentation on the website, Trees for Life International: http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa/moringa-resources – If we could incorporate this tree into the agriculture of the people in the villages, it could work wonders for the health and nutrition of the people there.
That’s the idea with the chicken coop too – we hope that the school will be able to use the eggs in their nutrition program, and that any excess eggs could be sold to buy other foods for the school nutrition program. We were thinking that in exchange for volunteer help from people in the villages, the people could take a few eggs home with them as compensation for their help. This does not take any funding or anything from the nutrition program, because the eggs are still going to the kids and their families. Siriaco and his family definitely deserve to take some of the first eggs home after the chickens arrive.
Another thing we have been thinking about is the fact that with so many farmers in the villages around Coban – it is amazing that no one cans their own food. I tried finding canning jars and lids in Coban to purchase for a demonstration on how to can, but I was not able to find any at all. After talking with Fr. Bernie’s friend Dr. Toriviarti, we found out that canning jars were a big thing but slowly lost their popularity. The Dr. was able to locate some canning jars for me, but said they were really expensive (another reason why people probably don’t can) but said that if I got some regular jars, I could seal them with a certain canning sealer he is aware of, and apparently this is a lot cheaper for saving food. There are so many fruits here, and I see in the market everyday fruits going bad that did not sell, I think it would just make good business sense to somehow be able to preserve and sell the fruit, instead of always selling it fresh and inevitably having some of it go bad. We’ll keep you posted on this project as well.
