Hola a mi familia y mis amigos,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits with the arrival of spring back home. I’m sorry that it has been so long since the last “Hola desde El Salvador,” but I’ve been pretty busy in my site! In addition, I only get to email about once a month, when I come to San Salvador for the meetings of a committee that gives scholarships to girls to continue their education, as well as meetings with various Peace Corps staff members and NGOs supporting my work. My trips into San Salvador are always busy times with lots of work to do and unfortunately I don’t always get the opportunity to write emails. Plus, I always like to get back to El Amatón as quickly as possible, since I really miss the people, the spirit of community, and the land when I’m in the big, impersonal city.
Living for four months among the incredibly generous and welcoming people of El Amatón has already made me feel like a part of the community. In particular, the family next door (consisting of Blanca Lidia, her husband Melvin, and their three sons Fernanado, Moises, and Elias) has nearly adopted me, and I give thanks to God each day for the care and companionship they offer me. I often accompany Blanca Lidia bring lunch to Melvin in the fields, and then stay on and work with him to learn how to prune coffee bushes or clear a field of weeds in order to plant milpa (corn and beans). He’s even started to teach me a bit of guitar. I haven’t had a lot of time to receive guitar lessons, but so far I can play Re Mayor (D Major). Fernando and Moises are always coming over to play, and Elias has definitely lost his initial shyness and has turned into a veritable chatterbox with me! When I’m in the back of my little yard turning my compost pile, he always begs his mom to pass him over the fence so he can sit and talk, talk, talk as I work, occasionally helping me sprinkle a bit of water to keep the compost humid.
I’ve also been blessed by the friendship of many other families in El Amatón. Although my busy work schedule has made it increasingly difficult to take time just to “chotear” (“hang out”) with people, I try to take every opportunity to listen to their stories and participate in their daily lives. When I’m at someone’s house helping them make up a garden plan, or when I’m informing the facilitators of the literacy project of the date and time when the promoters from the Ministry of Education will come to give the training, or while the bread made by the women’s group is cooking in the oven, I try to take the time to linger and savor the conversation. After all, this process of getting to know people is ultimately indispensible for my work here, as it helps me to understand people’s lives and the needs of the community.
Like all of you gardeners in the U.S., we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the winter rains and beginning of the planting season here in El Amatón. (In El Salvador, there are only two seasons, dry and rainy. The dry season, which they call verano, or summer, lasts from October through May. The wet season, which they call invierno, or winter, lasts from May through September and is really the only time when it is feasible to cultivate crops without irrigation.) Right now we are nearing the end of the driest part of the dry season, and the scarcity of water is even more serious than I originally realized. Coming from the shores of the Great Lakes (20% of the fresh water in the world!) I know that I never appreciated what so many people in this world go through to obtain water each day. With the beginning of the new year El Amaton had another lottery to reassign numbers for the order of filling canteros at the one public chorro (faucet) serving more than 100 homes. Although I probably could have played the gringa card and kept the original arrangement of being allowed to fill my cánteros whenever I showed up at the chorro, I felt that it was important for me to share in the lives of the people as completely as possible, to not only see but experience and empathize with their needs, in order to more passionately work with the community to fulfill them. So this time, I insisted on being treated as any other member of the community and receiving a number that dictates when it is my turn to fill my cánteros. The chorro is turned on each day at 3 a.m. and since my number is a low number it comes up quickly. This means that I’m up each day at 3 a.m., bringing my cánteros to the chorro to fill them up and carry them back to my house. And I’m lucky – when the chorro is first turned on, there is actually water falling from the chorro. My cánteros fill quickly and I don’t have to worry about water for the rest of the day. By about 5 a.m., the stream is already decreasing to a trickle, and after about 6 a.m. it’s not uncommon for the water to simply stop for awhile while the women wait and wait for it to return. In the last few months, there have been times when the Water Committee has been forced to reduce the quota of cánteros to three cánteros per household every two days. This comes out to about 7-8 gallons per day, for drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene including hand washing, bathing, and washing dishes for everyone ion the house. Washing clothes is out of the question – for that, people must travel to the river, which is highly contaminated by bacteria and parasites contained in the feces of livestock that are taken there to drink. As a one-person household, I don’t suffer when the quota is reduced, but for all but the smallest of households this amount of water is insufficient to supply basic hydration and sanitation needs. (Below are some pictures of community members -- including myself! -- carrying water and washing clothes in the river.)
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits with the arrival of spring back home. I’m sorry that it has been so long since the last “Hola desde El Salvador,” but I’ve been pretty busy in my site! In addition, I only get to email about once a month, when I come to San Salvador for the meetings of a committee that gives scholarships to girls to continue their education, as well as meetings with various Peace Corps staff members and NGOs supporting my work. My trips into San Salvador are always busy times with lots of work to do and unfortunately I don’t always get the opportunity to write emails. Plus, I always like to get back to El Amatón as quickly as possible, since I really miss the people, the spirit of community, and the land when I’m in the big, impersonal city.
Living for four months among the incredibly generous and welcoming people of El Amatón has already made me feel like a part of the community. In particular, the family next door (consisting of Blanca Lidia, her husband Melvin, and their three sons Fernanado, Moises, and Elias) has nearly adopted me, and I give thanks to God each day for the care and companionship they offer me. I often accompany Blanca Lidia bring lunch to Melvin in the fields, and then stay on and work with him to learn how to prune coffee bushes or clear a field of weeds in order to plant milpa (corn and beans). He’s even started to teach me a bit of guitar. I haven’t had a lot of time to receive guitar lessons, but so far I can play Re Mayor (D Major). Fernando and Moises are always coming over to play, and Elias has definitely lost his initial shyness and has turned into a veritable chatterbox with me! When I’m in the back of my little yard turning my compost pile, he always begs his mom to pass him over the fence so he can sit and talk, talk, talk as I work, occasionally helping me sprinkle a bit of water to keep the compost humid.
I’ve also been blessed by the friendship of many other families in El Amatón. Although my busy work schedule has made it increasingly difficult to take time just to “chotear” (“hang out”) with people, I try to take every opportunity to listen to their stories and participate in their daily lives. When I’m at someone’s house helping them make up a garden plan, or when I’m informing the facilitators of the literacy project of the date and time when the promoters from the Ministry of Education will come to give the training, or while the bread made by the women’s group is cooking in the oven, I try to take the time to linger and savor the conversation. After all, this process of getting to know people is ultimately indispensible for my work here, as it helps me to understand people’s lives and the needs of the community.
Like all of you gardeners in the U.S., we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the winter rains and beginning of the planting season here in El Amatón. (In El Salvador, there are only two seasons, dry and rainy. The dry season, which they call verano, or summer, lasts from October through May. The wet season, which they call invierno, or winter, lasts from May through September and is really the only time when it is feasible to cultivate crops without irrigation.) Right now we are nearing the end of the driest part of the dry season, and the scarcity of water is even more serious than I originally realized. Coming from the shores of the Great Lakes (20% of the fresh water in the world!) I know that I never appreciated what so many people in this world go through to obtain water each day. With the beginning of the new year El Amaton had another lottery to reassign numbers for the order of filling canteros at the one public chorro (faucet) serving more than 100 homes. Although I probably could have played the gringa card and kept the original arrangement of being allowed to fill my cánteros whenever I showed up at the chorro, I felt that it was important for me to share in the lives of the people as completely as possible, to not only see but experience and empathize with their needs, in order to more passionately work with the community to fulfill them. So this time, I insisted on being treated as any other member of the community and receiving a number that dictates when it is my turn to fill my cánteros. The chorro is turned on each day at 3 a.m. and since my number is a low number it comes up quickly. This means that I’m up each day at 3 a.m., bringing my cánteros to the chorro to fill them up and carry them back to my house. And I’m lucky – when the chorro is first turned on, there is actually water falling from the chorro. My cánteros fill quickly and I don’t have to worry about water for the rest of the day. By about 5 a.m., the stream is already decreasing to a trickle, and after about 6 a.m. it’s not uncommon for the water to simply stop for awhile while the women wait and wait for it to return. In the last few months, there have been times when the Water Committee has been forced to reduce the quota of cánteros to three cánteros per household every two days. This comes out to about 7-8 gallons per day, for drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene including hand washing, bathing, and washing dishes for everyone ion the house. Washing clothes is out of the question – for that, people must travel to the river, which is highly contaminated by bacteria and parasites contained in the feces of livestock that are taken there to drink. As a one-person household, I don’t suffer when the quota is reduced, but for all but the smallest of households this amount of water is insufficient to supply basic hydration and sanitation needs. (Below are some pictures of community members -- including myself! -- carrying water and washing clothes in the river.)
And for that reason, I’ve continued working with the Water Committee to solicit a potable water project. The Potable Water Project we are proposing would pump water from the well near the frontier with Guatamala to a water storage tank in El Amatón. From the storage tank, water would arrive in each home by gravity flow through distribution tubing. The Mayor’s Office of Chalchuapa has agreed to fund the pump, electricity, and tubing to bring water from a well near the frontier with Guatamala to the community, if we can obtain funding for the water storage tank and distribution tubing. I’ve already worked with the Water Committee to write the basic elements of funding proposals – basic information about the community, description of the community needs that the proposed project would fulfill, overview of the proposed project, and elaboration of the community’s contribution to the project (unpaid labor, land for construction of the tank, etc.). Now we are waiting on the engineers to finish up the technical folder so that we can provide an exact budget. We’re also working with the engineers to develop a plan for the cleaning, maintenance, and repair of the water system, as well as with the organization Trees, Water, People to reforest the watershed. These actions will ensure that the project will be sustainable, and in particular that the well will have sufficient water recharge due to infiltration of rainwater facilitated by increased vegetative cover on the land.
Once we have all the information together, we can start actually soliciting NGOs such as CARE and Project Concern International, the Embassies of developed countries in El Salvador, and Rotary Clubs. Already we’ve met with the Rotary Club of Santa Ana, and they have promised to help us by contacting some of their sister clubs in the United States to see if they might be able to provide funding. Since USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) is no longer funding water projects in El Salvador, I’m hoping that the generosity of NGOs and Rotary Clubs will be able to fill that void not only in my community, but in all the dry and forgotten communities of this tiny country.
I’m trying not to get my hopes or the community’s hopes up too high, but I already feel that I don’t want to leave El Amatón until I see water flowing in each household. This project would literally change lives. It would improve health by bringing enough water to the community to fulfill hydration and sanitation needs, and also by eliminating el desvelo – the need to rise before the sun or stay up long after the last rays have disappeared behind the horizon to fill cánteros. People would finally be able to sleep securely, without the fear that their number will pass, thus increasing resistance to disease. And water in the house – that would change all aspects of life! By liberating people from the time-consuming tasks of waiting for one’s turn at the chorro, filling cánteros, and carrying them to the house, a water project would give people more time to spend with their families and participate in community activities. I’d really appreciate your prayers that this most basic human need might arrive in my community in this corner of El Salvador.
In addition to my work with water systems (which I know NOTHING about but am learning as we go!) I am doing some work in the areas that Peace Corps spent two and a half months training me to work in – sustainable agriculture. In that department, I’m working with a vegetable cultivation project for the farmers and home vegetable gardens for the women, and soon we will begin a fruit tree project as well. All of these projects are designed to aid the community in crop diversification, organic cultivation practices, reforestation, and nutrition.
Unfortunately, my counterpart in CENTA (the agricultural extension agency) has been super busy and hasn’t had much time to help me, so I’ve pretty much on my own planned and given the first three trainings for the vegetable cultivation and home gardens projects. So far, we’ve covered composting, Lombricultura (worm composting), and garden planning using principles of crop rotation and polyculture. (Polyculture simply means interplanting a variety of crops in a single plot to take advantage of complementary requirements for space and nutrients, and to prevent the pest problems that come with large monocultures, or single-crop systems.) Given all the hard work that I put into researching these topics and preparing posters, picture-rich handouts, and demonstrations, I’ve been a little frustrated by the low attendance at trainings. I’ve ended up going house to house to those who signed up for the projects but did not attend the trainings to individually give them the information, which takes a lot of time and energy and means I can do less with other projects. When people have so much to do today – haul water, make tortillas, go to the river to wash clothes, travel a long distance to work in the fields, bring the cows back from their pastures – and the rainy season doesn’t start until May, it’s hard to convince people that they need to be thinking about vegetable gardens now if they want their compost to be ready and the seeds they’ve asked for to arrive in time. Yet little by little, person by person, I feel that I am reaching those who really want to participate. There are a faithful few whom I’ve helped to build compost piles and sat down with to place the vegetable crops in a sustainable garden plan – borders of nitrogen-fixing peas around beds of nitrogen-demanding tomatoes and peppers, rows of fast-growing radishes in between rows of slow-maturing carrots or onions, and pest-repelling radishes planted around infestation-prone pipián (a sort of small squash … yum!). And they have returned the favor, teaching me about the allegedly excellent fertilizer produced by ants in the zompoperos (humungous ant hills) and the trick of placing branches cut from spiny trees around the hills where squash and pipián are planted to keep the chickens from eating the seed. Though perhaps it will be a small number of people who fully participate in these projects, I’m hoping that they will be able to pass on their new knowledge and skills to others who see their success and are interested in learning how they can cultivate vegetables that nourish themselves as well as the land.
On the horizon are trainings in soil preparation, identification of pests, and elaboration of botanical extracts to control pests. Right now we are waiting for the seeds to arrive so that we can sow the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and lettuce (all the transplants) in mid-April to be ready to transplant in May. I’m especially excited that after searching high and low, I was able to find a source of open-pollinated seeds for the home vegetable garden project. These are obtained from heirloom, or traditional, varieties of vegetables that have been allowed to reproduce naturally as opposed to being generated by hybridization. (Hybrids generally have superior production to open-pollinated seeds in the first generation, but due to genetic problems with reproduction, crops grown by saving seeds produced by hybrid plants generally worsen with each successive generation. As such, it is necessary to buy new seeds every year from an agroservicio.) Obtaining open-pollinated seeds will allow us to save seeds from the harvest to plant the following year, thus ensuring the project’s sustainability. Each participant has already signed an agreement to donate some seeds of the open-pollinated vegetables she grows to a communal seed bank after the harvest to share with those who would like to begin a garden the following year, Heifer-project style!
I’m also working with the school on a school garden project, and have gotten quite a bit of support and enthusiasm from the kids as well as the teachers. The older kids hauled sacks of dry and green leaves and manure to school to build the compost pile, while the younger kids brought in fruit and vegetable scraps to feed to the worms I donated from my worm composting bin to start a bin in the school (the worms reproduce quickly, so there is still a mess of them in my bin eating all my fruit and vegetable waste and producing fertilizer for my own garden!). We’ve also planned the garden and built a stone barrier against erosion below the site of where we will plant the garden, which was a great opportunity to teach the students about the importance of soil conservation. Seeing as how the adults have kept me so busy thus far, I’m hoping that my involvement with the school garden project will be a good starting point for getting to know and working with the kids. After all, they are the future of this community and this country!
These vegetable and fruit tree cultivation projects coincide nicely with the Health Committee’s preventative health care program, showing the interconnectedness of agriculture, environment, and health. We are working with the health promoter, Eunice, to complement the Agriculture projects with trainings in nutrition. In particular, we are hoping to teach about the vitamin and mineral content of the various vegetables and fruits, since this is what is most lacking in the typical diet of the community.
Well, there’s more to tell – working to start an adult literacy program, teaching English classes on Saturdays, baking bread with the women’s group – but this is getting long so I think I’ll save the details until the next “Hola desde El Salvador.” Congratulations if you have reached the bottom of this email, and best wishes in your daily work and play.
Sincerely,
Megan
Once we have all the information together, we can start actually soliciting NGOs such as CARE and Project Concern International, the Embassies of developed countries in El Salvador, and Rotary Clubs. Already we’ve met with the Rotary Club of Santa Ana, and they have promised to help us by contacting some of their sister clubs in the United States to see if they might be able to provide funding. Since USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) is no longer funding water projects in El Salvador, I’m hoping that the generosity of NGOs and Rotary Clubs will be able to fill that void not only in my community, but in all the dry and forgotten communities of this tiny country.
I’m trying not to get my hopes or the community’s hopes up too high, but I already feel that I don’t want to leave El Amatón until I see water flowing in each household. This project would literally change lives. It would improve health by bringing enough water to the community to fulfill hydration and sanitation needs, and also by eliminating el desvelo – the need to rise before the sun or stay up long after the last rays have disappeared behind the horizon to fill cánteros. People would finally be able to sleep securely, without the fear that their number will pass, thus increasing resistance to disease. And water in the house – that would change all aspects of life! By liberating people from the time-consuming tasks of waiting for one’s turn at the chorro, filling cánteros, and carrying them to the house, a water project would give people more time to spend with their families and participate in community activities. I’d really appreciate your prayers that this most basic human need might arrive in my community in this corner of El Salvador.
In addition to my work with water systems (which I know NOTHING about but am learning as we go!) I am doing some work in the areas that Peace Corps spent two and a half months training me to work in – sustainable agriculture. In that department, I’m working with a vegetable cultivation project for the farmers and home vegetable gardens for the women, and soon we will begin a fruit tree project as well. All of these projects are designed to aid the community in crop diversification, organic cultivation practices, reforestation, and nutrition.
Unfortunately, my counterpart in CENTA (the agricultural extension agency) has been super busy and hasn’t had much time to help me, so I’ve pretty much on my own planned and given the first three trainings for the vegetable cultivation and home gardens projects. So far, we’ve covered composting, Lombricultura (worm composting), and garden planning using principles of crop rotation and polyculture. (Polyculture simply means interplanting a variety of crops in a single plot to take advantage of complementary requirements for space and nutrients, and to prevent the pest problems that come with large monocultures, or single-crop systems.) Given all the hard work that I put into researching these topics and preparing posters, picture-rich handouts, and demonstrations, I’ve been a little frustrated by the low attendance at trainings. I’ve ended up going house to house to those who signed up for the projects but did not attend the trainings to individually give them the information, which takes a lot of time and energy and means I can do less with other projects. When people have so much to do today – haul water, make tortillas, go to the river to wash clothes, travel a long distance to work in the fields, bring the cows back from their pastures – and the rainy season doesn’t start until May, it’s hard to convince people that they need to be thinking about vegetable gardens now if they want their compost to be ready and the seeds they’ve asked for to arrive in time. Yet little by little, person by person, I feel that I am reaching those who really want to participate. There are a faithful few whom I’ve helped to build compost piles and sat down with to place the vegetable crops in a sustainable garden plan – borders of nitrogen-fixing peas around beds of nitrogen-demanding tomatoes and peppers, rows of fast-growing radishes in between rows of slow-maturing carrots or onions, and pest-repelling radishes planted around infestation-prone pipián (a sort of small squash … yum!). And they have returned the favor, teaching me about the allegedly excellent fertilizer produced by ants in the zompoperos (humungous ant hills) and the trick of placing branches cut from spiny trees around the hills where squash and pipián are planted to keep the chickens from eating the seed. Though perhaps it will be a small number of people who fully participate in these projects, I’m hoping that they will be able to pass on their new knowledge and skills to others who see their success and are interested in learning how they can cultivate vegetables that nourish themselves as well as the land.
On the horizon are trainings in soil preparation, identification of pests, and elaboration of botanical extracts to control pests. Right now we are waiting for the seeds to arrive so that we can sow the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and lettuce (all the transplants) in mid-April to be ready to transplant in May. I’m especially excited that after searching high and low, I was able to find a source of open-pollinated seeds for the home vegetable garden project. These are obtained from heirloom, or traditional, varieties of vegetables that have been allowed to reproduce naturally as opposed to being generated by hybridization. (Hybrids generally have superior production to open-pollinated seeds in the first generation, but due to genetic problems with reproduction, crops grown by saving seeds produced by hybrid plants generally worsen with each successive generation. As such, it is necessary to buy new seeds every year from an agroservicio.) Obtaining open-pollinated seeds will allow us to save seeds from the harvest to plant the following year, thus ensuring the project’s sustainability. Each participant has already signed an agreement to donate some seeds of the open-pollinated vegetables she grows to a communal seed bank after the harvest to share with those who would like to begin a garden the following year, Heifer-project style!
I’m also working with the school on a school garden project, and have gotten quite a bit of support and enthusiasm from the kids as well as the teachers. The older kids hauled sacks of dry and green leaves and manure to school to build the compost pile, while the younger kids brought in fruit and vegetable scraps to feed to the worms I donated from my worm composting bin to start a bin in the school (the worms reproduce quickly, so there is still a mess of them in my bin eating all my fruit and vegetable waste and producing fertilizer for my own garden!). We’ve also planned the garden and built a stone barrier against erosion below the site of where we will plant the garden, which was a great opportunity to teach the students about the importance of soil conservation. Seeing as how the adults have kept me so busy thus far, I’m hoping that my involvement with the school garden project will be a good starting point for getting to know and working with the kids. After all, they are the future of this community and this country!
These vegetable and fruit tree cultivation projects coincide nicely with the Health Committee’s preventative health care program, showing the interconnectedness of agriculture, environment, and health. We are working with the health promoter, Eunice, to complement the Agriculture projects with trainings in nutrition. In particular, we are hoping to teach about the vitamin and mineral content of the various vegetables and fruits, since this is what is most lacking in the typical diet of the community.
Well, there’s more to tell – working to start an adult literacy program, teaching English classes on Saturdays, baking bread with the women’s group – but this is getting long so I think I’ll save the details until the next “Hola desde El Salvador.” Congratulations if you have reached the bottom of this email, and best wishes in your daily work and play.
Sincerely,
Megan
