On My Mind

I am feeling the need to post, but have no coherent theme. Good news is that I waited a while to (my internet connection is nothing to write home about) get a few photos posted. And happy late 4th of July - I painted a mural, went for a run, and worked on trying to get some money for a project. I lit a match to boil my water and thought of fireworks.

It is "winter" and with regular rain sometimes it is hard to judge when one should wash laundry (if you get lucky, the sun comes out). Yesterday morning I had allotted some time to wash my laundry and at 4:30 am a HUGE storm woke me up. It was grey when I got out of bed two hours later and thought, "My clothes are never going to dry if it stays like this all day." So, I counted my remaining clean pairs of underwear and decided to wait until today. The sun shone brilliantly all afternoon yesterday and all of my neighbors had warm, dry, and clean clothes by the evening rain. I started washing last night and hung the clothes on the line outside (and got lucky with no storm, unlike most nights), and woke up to...grey skies. Damn. With my fingers crossed and remembering yesterday's beautiful fate, I waited. And I had no luck. It was grey all day and rained in the afternoon. I had to put up some makeshift clothes lines in my house in hopes that my clothes won't mold tonight (wouldn't be the first time), and the sun will shine tomorrow.

(Me with my makeshift clothes lines. And yes, my hair has gotten quite blond!)

On a different note, my work at the school has shifted slightly. I've become quite busy outside of my required school classes, and have noticed increasing tension among the three teachers at my school, and increasing interest in participation among the students. So I've neglected the school a little bit and tried to remedy it a little bit this week. My eco-club and I spent a few hours in the garden yesterday and today in order to aporcar (put dirt on top of the base of the plants where the storms have washed away the plants), and put up guides for the cucumbers and tomatoes. Even though I've been neglecting the school a little bit, the regular rains (they do have a lot good aspects!) have helped the garden flourish. The mothers on cooking duty this morning pulled up a few radishes to put in the kids' soup and we already have some cucumbers and green beans growing. The tomato plants are big and we have another planting day scheduled. Nature can handle life without nurture.

(A few of the kids putting up guides for the tomato plants so that the tomatoes don't weigh down the plants when they start growing.)

Speaking of gardens, mine is flourishing as well even though I've had no harvest. I haven't put any photos up of it yet so there is no comparison, but things are coming along nicely. I have planted tomatoes, onions (only one is still growing...I guess they don't like my soil), green peppers, romaine lettuce, green bean bushes, broccoli, carrots, and cucumber (that is in order looking at the garden from bottom to top). And while the rains are awesome because they relieve me of watering duty, they are problematic because my plants require lots of dirt reshuffling to keep the roots covered because the rains wash away the dirt so readily. I've also got some transplanted local basil growing and attempted to grow some aloe (see last shampoo post), but I think it got too wet and died. I'll post a photo in a month of my boyfriend (who has been quite the helpful farmer) and me eating some of the product.

(My garden - weird angle, but it was hard to capture at any better angle.)

A huge project in the last two weeks has been painting two murals with the youth group, Vida y Suenos, Life and Dreams. Lots of them have come out to help, which has been fantastic since community participation is one of the main goals. We have one that focuses on protecting the environment by working together and the other which focuses on non-violence. It has been fun to watch the teens learn a little bit about mixing colors and drawing/painting since they all claim that they aren't talented whatsoever. And although it is frustrating sometimes to have little kids and parents hanging around, it is a treat to see them interested in something going on in their community. The murals are in the very center of town so we have had lots of onlookers. I will definitely post photos of the completed murals (hopefully they will be done in another week).

(A few of the youth from Vida y Suenos working on the environmental mural.)

In other news, Nubia (my health promoter if you still don't know), was unemployed this week. The new government has switched around the Health Department and those who were under NGO contracts (like Nubia), were out of work as of Monday with no word as to future intentions. They were all put through tests and their supervisors had to put in feedback and some of them will be rehired through the new government. Yesterday Nubia got a phone call telling her to be at a training today, and even though she is not employed she went because she got word that they were only inviting those promoters they were planning on hiring back. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that the invitation was a good sign.

I took advantage of Nubia's unemployment this week (and she is on her semester break from university for a month, so she really wasn't busy this week), and we tried to work on a few projects. First good news it that we have found a way to get our mayor to fund construction on the casa comunal, the meeting house/rec. center since it leaks, has no light or water or bathroom, and could fall off of the cliff at any moment. We had a general assembly yesterday with the entire town (well, a couple of people showed up), and had quorum and convinced people to sign an act saying they were in agreement with a re-priorization of projects, bumping the reconstruction to this year. So Nubia and I now just have to write a letter, attach the signatures, and get a stamp from the town council to get the project rolling. Success!

The other way in which I took advantage of her sudden free time was having her call a bunch of institutions about funding for our new bakery project. (My Spanish is definitely good enough to make those phone calls myself, but it is easier for her and she's great at selling things.) We got a few leads and I think we'll be able to get training for the 25-30 women who want in, but we are still trying to find some startup money. So I am going to conclude this post with a plea for leads on a way to find us some mula. If you are still reading this post and have any ideas of U.S. companies/NGOs/grants/anything, please send along the information. We already have a lot of the major equipment (like an oven, and table, and shelving units) since there was a prior bakery here, which means we're looking at about $3,000-5,000. Any help would be appreciated.