In recent months I’ve been doing more nutrition related work. We’ve been growing a lot of beets in the family gardens we’ve made. This is a new crop for these families and one day one of the women I’ve been working with – Dona Catarina – asked me how to prepare beets. I figured this was a good segue into cooking demonstrations and we made veggie burgers together with her harvest. I shared this recipe with Dona Juana, the PROMASA madre lider in Salquil.
Mmmm beets
Dona Juana frequently gives cooking demonstrations to the PROMASA beneficiaries and she took my recipe and ran with it. Together with Dona Catarina we made veggie burgers with groups of women and over a series of demonstrations one week, Dona Juana gave the demonstration to all 200 PROMASA beneficiaries in Salquil Grande. I’m proud that this recipe had caught on and I’ve been experimenting with other recipes since. In addition to cooking demonstrations I’ve been giving integrated farming presentations. I’m still making gardens with families with underweight children. This month I hope to begin my work with at least 10 new families.
Making veggie burgers
The new group of Food Security trainees arrived August 11th; exactly one year after my group did. I was asked to help out with training so I went down to the Peace Corps office in Santa Lucia for three days and gave a presentation on gardening and helped the trainees make tire gardens. It was funny being with them while they go through the same training that we all went through a year ago. I actually went through training twice in a year including Togo (that’s 5 months!) so I know just how miserable it can be at times. Last year I was the sole male in a group of 7 Food Security volunteers but this group is evenly balanced, 5 guys and 5 girls. Thankfully no one cut themselves making the tire gardens. I’ve a feeling they’ll make good volunteers; they seem very knowledgeable and comfortable in country after only 2 weeks.
Trainees cuttin' tires
I have a great relationship with my host family at the moment. We still watch a lot of movies together. Most recently I showed them all the Scream movies. I’ve always enjoyed that film series, except for dreadful 3rd. The first Scream was damn good in my opinion. A very clever film. When I was in Santa Lucia helping out the trainees I bought a bunch of movies, including all four of the Scream films. I figured it would be a nice scare for my little siblings. And it was. The youngest ones sat with their hands close to their eyes to shield them in case anything scary happened. My oldest host brother absolutely loved this.
When he sensed something scary was going to happen, Miguel, the youngest, would run out the door. He would wait there and then peak his little head back in. Then fearing something frightening was coming he would run back out. This happened over and over again. He’d run out come back in then run out again. By the end of all the movies they were quoting the killer, asking “What’s your favorite scary movie?” in a raspy voice (in Spanish of course).
Xhun and Miguel
The kids are a lot of fun to joke around with. They help keep me sane and other times drive me insane. But they definitely keep me entertained. In fact earlier today I was listening to music and looked over and there was my little brother Xhun in the doorway wearing a shirt that read “Social Butterfly” and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Workin’ Day and Night”. He cracks me up. Xhun is a very bright 11 year old. In fact he’s in classes with older kids. Tuesday is market day in Salquil and after picking up supplies I always pass by the family store in the plaza to visit Xhun. He’s usually just sitting there bored. Last time I came by he was whittling a drum stick. I’ll sit with him for about a half hour and sometimes I’ll teach him geography. He appreciates my typing skills so he will have me type up his homework for him on the family’s Smith-Corona.
I’ve started giving English classes to my family. It used to be that during dinner they would ask me how to say certain words in English, but now things are more formal. After dinner my host father, my youngest sister and my two younger host brothers will pull up desk chairs before a dry erase board and I’ll teach them English. It’s difficult but I’m enjoying it.
And speaking of teaching, I’ve begun a new project: a school garden. Earlier this week I gave a small presentation, sort of an intro to gardening to a class of about 50 students, ages 13-14. Not only did they impress me with their knowledge but I impressed myself with my ability to conduct a class in Spanish. We’re going to make a garden come next week. I’m not a hundred percent sure how well this will work, making a garden with 50 some children. I imagine it’s going to be a mess but I think it’s great that I’m working with kids. Doing agricultural work with them is just as important as it is with adults and from the knowledge they displayed in our first session together I’m confident in their abilities. We’ll see how this garden turns out come Monday.
Over the past few days I’ve been collecting animal waste for composting purposes. The Guatemalans probably think it’s funny when they see me shoveling cow shit into a sack or hauling buckets of goat piss. I’m glad I amuse them. It’s messy work but I’d much rather be outside getting my hands dirty than sitting in an office typing away on a computer (as I’m doing now). Maybe part of me is still a kid who likes playing in the dirt.
