Greetings to everyone back home (and abroad!). I hope that this summer finds your gardens growing well, and that you’ve all been able to take a little time for relaxation and reconnection with family and friends during this break from the craziness of the school year (that is, the US school year – the Salvadoran school year is January – November, so we’re still in full swing).
First of all, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of those who have supported the classroom construction project, whether with well wishes or financial support. We are still a ways away from full funding for the classrooms, but getting closer with each passing week! Please know that your donations really will make a difference in the lives of the young people of El Amatón, and thus in the community’s future. At present, sufficient classroom space is the only area in which the school’s proposal to the Ministry of Education to extend its offerings to 9th grade is lacking. As such, construction of these two rooms will allow students who would not otherwise be able to continue their studies to complete the cycle of basic education in El Amatón. Thank you for your generosity!
I suppose the biggest news here in El Amatón is that it is raining. After the annual 8+ months of drought, “la bendición” (the blessing, as they call the rains) have finally arrived. They began in mid-May, just barely enough to soften the land for the planting of corn and beans – the community’s sustenance for the coming year, if the farmers are lucky. I have thoroughly confused (and amused) the community by accompanying the farmers in their labors of clearing weeds by machete, planting the seed with a chuso (pointed stick), and walking along the rows tossing fertilizer at the base of each corn plant. As a Volunteer hoping to help the community move towards a more sustainable agriculture, this has been an important experience in understanding current agricultural methods and how they might be improved. However, an unintended consequence of my “playing in the dirt” has been a challenge to traditional ideas about male and female activities. In my community even mores so than most places in El Salvador, gender roles are very strictly defined, and women generally do not participate in agriculture (or community leadership / public life, for that matter). It’s not just any guy who will take me planting corn – indeed, when I asked people if I could go to the milpas with them, I got a lot of confused looks and “Ummm … we’ll let you know”s, which in this culture of subtle, indirect communication, is approximately equivalent to “When hell freezes over!” Blanca Lydia explained to me that her father-in-law had given me such a vague reply because he was embarrassed at what other people would say about his taking a women to work in the fields. Happily, there are plenty of people who were happy to teach me to plant corn, like don Antonio. As we finished a row on the hill he cultivates behind his home, he gave a mischievous shout to the neighbor girl as she washed clothes, “C’mon, Leia, help us plant corn!” “But I’ve never planted corn before!” she replied, aghast. “Well, neither had Megan before last week,” he called back, “and just look at her now! She’s barbara for planting corn!” (meaning, she’s really good at it!). Little by little, perhaps my presence will change some minds about what women are capable of doing … and at the very least people find my activities quite hilarious!
Planting corn
In mid-June the rainy season entered in full force, making possible the planting of vegetables and trees, which require more water. And we have been planting! Planting home and school vegetable gardens, planting fruit trees, and planting forest and multiple-use trees in agroforestry systems on farmer’s lands. (Multiple-use trees are species such as madre cacoa and leucaena that function in reforestation and soil conservation as well as the production of useful products, such as firewood and pods for livestock feed. Many of these species re-grow quickly after a pruning, and as such they provide a sustainable source of firewood.) We were able to obtain trees from a nearby nursery maintained by the organization Trees, Water, People (Árboles y Agua para el Pueblo, in Spanish) for farmers to plant as living fences or live barriers against soil erosion in their milpas, or in mini-forests to contribute to reforestation of the watershed while providing firewood. As you can imagine, I’ve been very happy playing the dirt with families as they plant their vegetables and trees. I’ve decided that one of my favorite sights in the world is that of a newly planted tree seedling, standing straight and tall with its tiny leaves reaching toward the sun and its roots firmly anchored in the earth. Each one seems to enclose a hope for a more sustainable future for the community.
Planting trees: Me planting trees as a living barrier against erosion
in a cornfield; don Alex planting a tree for shade in his coffee fields
The vegetable gardens have been a mixture of success and frustration, as I learn along with the people of El Amatón what works and what doesn’t. I’m very proud of my little garden, with its tomato, sweet pepper, green bean, pipián (a smaller relative of the squash plant), and carrot plants. So far the plants look fairly healthy – my organic compost is giving fuerza to the developing plants; I seem to have avoided fungal diseases in tomatoes and pepper by covering the soil with a layer of dry straw mulch (prevents soil-borne diseases from accessing the truck and leaves via raindrops that rebound with soil particles on them); and the botanical extract of the seeds of the Nim tree that I’ve sprayed seems to be keeping away the gusano perfador de fruta (worm that perforates the fruit) of pipián. The big disappointment has been the radishes – despite the earth Blanca Lydia and I mounded up around the plant truck to stimulate root development, the radishes had absolutely beautiful leaves but no sign of a radish head! I actually wasn’t too sad, since the leaves are delicious cooked in soup and actually contain more vitamins and minerals than the head. But Lydia was bummed, because she really likes fresh, crunchy radish heads. Perhaps the soil was too fertile for radishes …
Home Gardens: Lydia moving finished compost from the pile to the garden;
Lydia's son Elias in the wheelbarrow;
Bitia and her daughter Bessie with their garden of tomatoes and carrots
In addition to working with the Community Association for Education (ACE) to locate funds for the classrooms, I’ve also been working with the school and the youth in environmental education quite a bit over the last few months. Of course, there is the school garden, and I’ve also worked with a group of 7th and 8th graders to start a “Literary-Ecological Club” for the young’uns. After seeing how much the kids LOVED reading the children’s books my mom sent me for Christmas, I got the idea that we could nurture their love for reading and their love for the Earth by reading books with environmental / ecological themes. The older kids liked the idea, and so for the past few months we’ve chosen a Saturday morning each month to read a story with the kids and then do an activity to better the environment in the community. For example, one Saturday we read El Lorax, which emphasizes the importance of planting trees, and then collected seeds of forest trees for use in a school tree nursery next year. The trees will then be used to reforest community water sources, in cooperation with the Water and Agriculture Committees. So far, we’ve had to repeat El Lorax since it’s the only book we have (thank you Mom!) but I’m working with the teachers to solicit funding for a small library. This would provide a sustainable source of books for use in the Literary-Ecological Club, the classroom, and to promote reading for the pure joy of it among the students. (By the way, if you’ve never read Dr. Suess’ classic The Lorax, you definitely should. And if you know Spanish, the Spanish translation El Lorax is fantastic – somehow, the translator has perfectly preserved the story’s message while making everything rhyme, with the same whimsical feel of authentic Dr. Suess. In addition to reading this book with the Literary-Ecological Club, I have read it with some kids at least 10 or 15 times!)
The adult literacy classes are small – smaller than when we began – but I think that the faithful few who have continued to attend are happy with the progress they are making. I can understand why many ended up dropping out. After getting up at 3 a.m. to carry water, then working all day in the fields or performing endless, tiring household chores, it’s difficult to maintain the motivation to study from 6:30-8:30, or sometimes 9:00, at night. Sometimes even I just want to go to bed. But when I see María Emelina reading aloud what to her was an indecipherable jumble of letters at the beginning, or hear don Antonio exclaim, “Look how much my handwriting has improved from the first class until now!”, I know that my efforts, and those of the members from the community who give the classes, are worth it. I’ve noticed that not being able to read and write seems to be associated with a sense of powerlessness and inability to serve the community. As such, I hope that the literacy program will help people feel confidence in their abilities to be leaders in the community and affect positive change.
Well, I think that’s the major news from El Amatón. As always, I love to hear from you all about how things are going in your lives.
Sincerely,
Megan
The adult literacy classes are small – smaller than when we began – but I think that the faithful few who have continued to attend are happy with the progress they are making. I can understand why many ended up dropping out. After getting up at 3 a.m. to carry water, then working all day in the fields or performing endless, tiring household chores, it’s difficult to maintain the motivation to study from 6:30-8:30, or sometimes 9:00, at night. Sometimes even I just want to go to bed. But when I see María Emelina reading aloud what to her was an indecipherable jumble of letters at the beginning, or hear don Antonio exclaim, “Look how much my handwriting has improved from the first class until now!”, I know that my efforts, and those of the members from the community who give the classes, are worth it. I’ve noticed that not being able to read and write seems to be associated with a sense of powerlessness and inability to serve the community. As such, I hope that the literacy program will help people feel confidence in their abilities to be leaders in the community and affect positive change.
Well, I think that’s the major news from El Amatón. As always, I love to hear from you all about how things are going in your lives.
Sincerely,
Megan
