Gardening, Stoves and Health

February 5

Ruban isn’t available today so Charlie is our guide. He takes us up the hill across from our “hotel” where we are introduced to Hilda and the work she has been doing – with AMMID – for the past 15 years. Hilda, a woman of small stature but big ambition, has rough strong hands. She works every day in the AMMID demonstration garden-farm nurturing the plants, feeding animals, supervising volunteers, selling in the market, and sharing her vast hands-on knowledge with other women.

Hilda works seven days a week for 350Q or about $50US and some of the produce that is harvested but doesn’t sell at the market. She has school-aged children and teens at her home just behind the garden.  I would have guessed her age to be in the 50’s, but again I am likely wrong. Two of her sons have plans to go to university in Xela to study agriculture. The other will be a teacher, she tells us with palpable pride.

The closeness of her living space is how she came to learn about AMMID.

“Before I dreamed about doing something to help the people,” Hilda tells us, through Charlie. Before AMMID I couldn’t even read or write. I am so proud and satisfied to be able to take the information and skills I have learned from AMMID to help others.

“When I leave the earth,” she continues “I know I will have given others the skills to help better themselves and their community.”

We climb up cement steps – everything is cement here –to a watch tower/picnic-meeting space. It is here that Hilda tells us about the garden (through Charlie). They keep pigs, chickens and rabbits here. In the garden are cabbage, beets, radishes, swiss chard, cauliflower and fruit trees offering limes, grapefruit and avocado.  The money raised by the selling of produce in the market is used to buy essentials like fuel. When communities join AMMID the women come to workshops where they are taught about nutrition and cooking techniques. In 2009, Charlie expects that there will be nine new groups, representing nine rural communities in the northern sector of the country.

Liz, Charlie and Joanie try some small yellow fruit from the trees. It is unfamiliar to us and I don’t try it. Unfortunately, in my excitement I forget to record the name. I am cautious with my eating here. The water used to irrigate is unclean and sanitation is minimal.I don’t want to waste a minute of my time being sick!

 I am amused to hear that the toilet is of the compost variety, similar to the ones where I work at the EcoWellness Centre!

And there are other similarities. Hilda grows medicinal plants, practices vermiculture and promotes the use of organic compost.  She has learned these new techniques from Charlie, an International Development grad, and from AMMID. She says that they are important for the future, so that children will grow up healthy and have a better life.

Hilda has created her own natural pesticide and Joanie – the gardener in the group – can hardly wait to learn the recipe. So if you are a gardener, here are the basic ingredients: mix garlic, onion, chili pepper, and herbs (if you want the exact measurements let me know and I will get them from Hilda via Charlie!). She uses a dry detergent to apply the mixture to the plants so that it will adhere. Amazingly, she believes that it is the terrible smell that keeps the pests away!

Volunteers are welcome to come visit, work in the garden and stay in the rustic guest cottage…and many people from around the world do. It is cheap, costing only about $5 per day for room and board.

As wonderfully rich as the culture is in Guatemala, the pollution, malnutrition, lack of sanitation, and sexual discrimination are worrisome.

The past two growing seasons have been challenging in Guatemala; 2009 was very dry and many crops did not survive; 2010 was wet –heavy rains and  hurricane wreaked havoc, washing away the topsoil and seeds along with it. As a result, the soil is white in some areas.

Today is day two of stove inspections. Our first stove was built by Charlie and a mason. Paul is a popular guy here. He gives “Izzy” dolls to the children in the family. They are perfect for tiny hands; knit by his mother-in-law, Pauline Briere of Cornwall.  There are many generations of one family living here. The oldest man is 82 and in poor health, I am told. He doesn’t move off his perch in the dusty compound.

Stove two was built by a mason alone and easily passes Paul’s stringent inspection. Here the men are away working the  fields “el campo”.

Our guide for the day carries a child on her back the whole time. Stove three is at her home. Charlie helped build it. He says they did the base one day and then let it sit for a day or two  and then completed it. Paul says it was nicely done. Just as importantly, the door is in use. There is a weaving centre here and we visit it, marveling at the skill of these women, the tradition, and the brilliant colours.

Stove four has a concrete pipe so that smoke doesn’t escape at the joint.

At stove five’s location we have lunch with the community. There are speeches. Our gracious hosts have gone to a great deal of effort to make sure that we are comfortable and well fed.  They serve us generous bowls of soupa, stuffed with carrot and boney meat and some form of greenery. I pretend to eat some of the greenery and then do what has become my habit in these situations…eyeball Charlie-of-the-iron-stomache and switch bowls with him once he has completed his. I eat the tostidas –a kind of corn mush wrapped in leaves and steamed. Charlie gets most of my orange soda pop too, because it is served in glass bottles and the hosts stand watch to ensure the bottle is reclaimed to be replaced.

I am becoming more and more upset about the horrible brainwashing of these people being done by corporate America. They drink pop as if it were water. Everywhere we go they have plastic cases full of pepsi and coke products. Huts in the middle of nowhere are plastered with their slogans. Twice I have seen a coca-cola van loudly spewing verbal crap from megaphones strapped to the roof. It is sickening in a country where people lack clean water and are uneducated, where children are a suffering with malnutrition and rotting teeth, that pop promoters find them easy marketing targets.