Project Update: What exactly have I been doing for the past 2 1/2 months...

By now I am sure everybody is probably wondering about my "project"- what is up?? How is it progressing? What exactly do I do with my time?

So I wanted to prepare a brief summary of my activities thus far. In a second post, I will tell you in more detail about my future plans...

- Biointensive Sustainable Agriculture Organic Workshop:

During my first few weeks here I attended this intense workshop. At the time it was a bit overwhelming (I wrote about it in an earlier post), but it has proved very helpful and given me many ideas and resources for my project.

- Community Diagnostic

During my first month here, I completed a community diagnostic with detailed family, work and agricultural information. This really helped me to see what each family grows - which in reality is very little besides corn and beans - and what things grow naturally in the area. There are 18 different types of fruit trees that grow in the area! I also learned a lot about the economic status in the community, and honestly, I don't understand how some people live day to day. Granted most people grow enough corn and beans to live off, but they still buy a few things rice, sugar, coffee...soap, and many have very little income. This info helps me to better understand the reality of the community...  and is invaluable as we work together to create a project plan.

- Community Survey

You are probably thinking that is the same thing as a "diagnostic," and maybe you are right and I am just using the wrong words. However, for the diagnostic I visited every family and gathered very specific information with numbers, dates, and quantities. For the survey I met with community leaders, the women's group, the youth group, and the members of the cooperative. I learned about all the various organizations and groups within the community and gathered info on all current projects in the community. I documented the project's history, related challenges and successes, which community members are involved, project needs, and the amount (if any) of income generated with each project. This information has been extremely helpful to me and some of my bosses at FUNDAHMER. There are a lot of good things going on in the community, but very little is generating any $$ for the people. It is actually am

azing to see how hard the people work to see little benefits. From this survey, I also learned about 2 other organizations that are interested in promoting organic agriculture in the community that we may end up collaborating with!

- Visited other projects

Part of my plan from the beginning has been to spend time visiting other organic agriculture and cooperative projects to learn from some of their ideas, successes, and challenges.  From these visits I have gotten an idea for irrigation during the dry season, and learned a few things that I don't want to do. The problem has been that at every place I visit, I get ideas for other projects to visit! However, it has been good overall. I have learned a lot and made some good contacts.

- Visited Markets

One thing I have noticed in a lot of other development projects is that groups can be producing really great products, but the products are sitting in storage until they ruin and people are leaving the project because there is no market plan. People are producing but not selling. Thus, I want to have a plan for where to sell things before we start producing. We want to produce and sell. 

- Applied for space in an Alternative Community Market in San Salvador

I was pretty excited about this. It was my first formal document that I have written in Spanish that people outside of FUNDAHMER would see - but I have to admit that Anita helped me a lot. I sent in the application a few weeks ago, but we still haven't heard anything yet because we have to wait for the market committee to meet so we can make a presentation!

- Attended a Forum on the Food Security Crisis in El Salvador

Someone from another organization that sometimes works in my community invited me to attend this Forum with them, which I was a little nervous about, but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of interesting stuff. It was good to see data backing up some of my own observations thus far. It was also good to be back in a semi-academic setting for once... this is the first time since I was 5 that I have been out of "academia" for more than 2 months, and I have to say I miss it a little. 

- Taught Computer Classes

The school in the community was donated 3 computers by a rotary club in El Salvador. However, of course no one at the school - including the teacher - knows how to use them! Thus, I have been attempting to help a few of the older kids learn computer skills in the little free time they and I have. But summer break will start next week and I am working on creating a formal "class" for those interested 2 days a week. Youth from a nearby community have already written me a letter asking if they can attend! I have never formally taught computer classes so anyone with experience or ideas, please contact me!

- Began working with the community youth

In my time here thus far, one of the things that has impacted me the most is the reality of the youth in the community. It is hard for them. I honestly can't even imagine living the life they live... and yet, it is they who make me laugh when I am having a hard day, and who give me hope when everything seems so overwhelming. It quickly become obvious that if I go somewhere all the youth in the community want to go, if I go to a meeting or an event, they all want to go. I have decided to take advantage of that and start working a little with the youth. Currently I just attend all their meetings and events and aid in the organizing part, but we are working to put together a project or try and raise some money for the kids to go to the beach one day or something else fun. After all...the youth are our future :)

- Hosted a group of 20 Furman University Students

Furman (the University I graduated from) has a Central America study abroad class and they are currently in El Salvador! Last week I was lucky enough to have them visit Los Naranjos for almost an entire day. It was really a beautiful day for me... two really important things in my life thus far came together for a short while. I think the students and the community both loved the day. I met the students on a Sunday, spent the afternoon/evening with them, sharing my experiences and then they came out to the community on Tuesday morning, getting to know the people I love so much for themselves.

- Revised my project plan and created modified more realistic proposal

My original project proposal was more like a 5 year plan, and so after my time here, visiting other projects and getting to know the community better, I have come up with a revised version that is both realistic for a year and will still make positive sustainable difference in the community (and don't worry I will tell you more about this plan in another post). What's even more exciting is that I presented the idea to the community 2 weeks ago and they liked it, and so Armando, the director of FUNDAHMER, and I had a meeting with the community a few days ago to formalize everything. So we are ready to start doing stuff!!

So, maybe it seems like I haven't been doing that much, but I feel like I have been running around like crazy attending meetings and such, as well as trying to spend as much time as possible in the community. I hope this helps all of you picture a little bit of the "work" I have been up to.

This is a picture of me working in the beehives in the cooperative - they have a beekeeping project and sell the honey! I am one of the few women who will actually go in with the bees :)

Analyzing Reality

Poverty... will I ever understand it...???

The poverty here in the community is a lot worse than I first realized... or maybe it is just that I am getting to know the life and the people a lot better.

On one side I am feeling way more secure, happy, and comfortable in the community and where I am right now. I am getting more used to the daily life, learning bus routes, my spanish is improving, I am making friends, I can now get to everyone's house in the community without getting lost, the cold rainwater showers in the morning are now refreshing rather than dreadful...I am getting to know both the community and office dynamics better (but I still have a long ways to go!). I think a big part of my contentment and joy is that I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now and that is a truly good feeling. 

However, on the other side of things, there is a deep sadness that I am experiencing... I am not sure exactly how to describe it, but it is like I am grieving for the people, my friends, and the deep injustice they suffer everyday... something I had no idea about for most of my life... a suffering and reality that most of my friends and family back home in the US know very little about. Even though this grieving or sadness hurts, I think it is good. I am learning from it. I think it is the only way to experience true compassion for the people...

Recently I have come to notice a sadness that has settled in the air over the community. Even if I get fully wrapped up in the children's laughter during a dance or a game of duck-duck-goose, I feel it again when I walk by Daisy's house on my way home and Abel isn't there to tell me a joke, or when I get to my house and Ricardo isn't there playing with Diego... most of the men in the community are gone now. Two weeks ago almost every man in the community left for Honduras to get jobs working on cell phone towers there. The work is extremely dangerous and difficult, but of course it pays well - about $250 a month. The men will hopefully come home one or two days a month. 

Before leaving, Ricardo (my host dad) had a job working for the cooperative earning about $125 a month or $4/day for 8 hours of work per day. When he left, Alicia (my host mom) asked him if the job in Honduras was worth sacrificing his family. He said, "no it's not, but I don't have a choice... I have to support my family." The economic situation in the community is very difficult right now.

Everyone feels there absence. Not only emotionally, but physically. Women with little babies now have to out and work in the cornfields, and chop wood - among all their other daily chores.

The effect of poverty on the youth is something else that has been hitting me hard and has been contributing to the recent sadness in the community. In the past month, 3 girls from the community have moved in with their boyfriends (with or without their parents' permission).Of course the parents want more for their kids, but they cannot change the situation they are living in... Two of the girls are 13 and one is 16. The 16 year old actually surprised me the more than the two 13 year old's because I did not see it coming (and neither did anyone else in the community). Her parents had no idea it would happen until she was already gone. The girl was a close friend of mine and had a scholarship to study in the city for high school. She only lacked 3 weeks to finish 9th grade...but in that one night where she sneaked out of her house her entire life changes. When she decided to leave her family and move in with her boyfriend, everything changes. She stops going to school, stops participating in the youth activities, and mostly stays at home cooking and cleaning - only leaving to participate in things that her husband allows. It is a difficult thing to understand, and I can't say that I will ever understand it... the reality of the lives of these kids is so far from the life I lived and the reality I know that it is hard to even imagine their thoughts and feelings. 

I was talking to my boss, Anita, about it and she said something that hit me hard but helped me to understand a little. She basically said the kids and the youth have no hopes, dreams, or plans for their future.

For as long as I can remember I have had plans or dreams... when I was little I wanted to be a horse trainer, then a firefighter, then a teacher...and I have always wanted to travel - to El Salvador, Africa, Cuba... and I had plans to go to college and now I have plans to continue studying... but it is true that in the 2+ months I have been here I have never once heard the youth talk about their future or any sort of plans or dreams they might have.

I have been thinking about that a lot lately. I am going to find a way to start including the youth into my project. I want to find something that excites them or motivates them... but I must admit that I can't guarantee that I will find that "something" so more than anything I want to accompany them in their search for hope and for a better future.