5-10-06 Happy Guatemalan Mother's day!

These people have corn on the brain...

Roberto (and environmental engineer) and Randy(eMi engineer who has worked with a different community) joined me in my visit to Tabacal.
The setup of Tabacal is like the old west where there is the main "town" area where all the houses are together and then the fields are further out. The rainy season has started early this year so the people of Tabacal have already started planting corn. They know they shouldn't cut down more trees and further fields have not been cleared so they are planinting corn in their small plots in town where their houses are. Small plants speckle the entire town with just walkways inbetween. For Tabacal it was a good day because I had brought an agricultural engineer, (Roberto) who trains Peace Corp volunteers, to see the site and look at the fields to give us some suggestions. The bad news was that the chili plants had a virus from a "white fly" and they were also burned from putting too much pesticide on them and the soil inbewteen the rows was cluttered with other growth instead of having "clean" dirt bewteen the plants so the crop was a low quality that would have to be sold in the local markets for a much lower price instead of exporting them to the US.
The good news was that "we were doing everything wrong". This is good news because we are just starting and there is time to correct everything. The chili fields will be done within 2 months and then we can start over planting the fields correctly with the right crops and the right techniques. Roberto gave some broad strokes to Manuel as to how planting should be done there. He spoke of contour planting and terracing to keep the good topsoil present. the plants are currently planted in rows down the hill. He let us know that during rain, it is so steep that the rainwater will concentrate inbetween the rows and flow lik mini rivers to the bottom carrying the topsoil with it. He proceeded to explain how to plant along the contours and create live barriers and ditches to preserve the precious topsoil. The topsoil there is only a few inches deep and then it gets to a very nasty clay so if we did not have this information, within 2 years the soil would have been completely barren and unplantable. He explained terracing and what it does. I hope to be able to bring some of the leaders to a town that has made the mistakes of chopping down trees and not following soil conservation techniques to see what can happen. So far the only community I have contact with that are in this situation is about 3 hours away so we may just present some pictures of the area and talk about the consequences. Roberto told me that we must make a very concerted effort right now because culturally "these people have corn on the brain, they only think of corn and the corn they have planted in town is not getting enough sun and as soon as it starts to yellow they will continue cutting down trees." Cutting down trees removes the protective covering over the land. The trees guard the humidity low to the ground and keeps the sun from sucking the water out of the ground. Without the trees, not only is there erosion problems but it will also dry up our groundwater and thus our spring for a water source!
To answer their need to plant corn I will return after getting further info from Roberto and train the people in the soil conservation techniques. in 2 months, when it is time to replant, we will create terraces and contour planting and we will plant 3 rows of corn and then 5 rows of black beans and then repeat. After this crop is in then we will switch and plant the beans where the corn was and vice-versa. The third crop will be in winter again and we can try a cash crop of Okra. "Okra! how nasty! I've never seen anyone here eat okra." was my comment to Roberto. Apparently okra is a great export crop for the US. It is hearty and does not require the delicate attention of many different chemicals that the chili requires.
on the way back from the field we came across another lower dam and small pond below. Randy mentioned the possibility of a trout project there as he had heard of in Costa Rica to provide protein. I am looking into the possibilities and "where in the world do I find a trout hatchery in Guatemala!" The interesting problems and quests never cease here!

On a side note Heather has been ill so Guatemalan mother's day was kinda dull. Nothing seemed to mark it out except the roses I brought (which cost only $2.70 for 6 which is double than normal). Sunday (American Mother's Day) was much better. She was still sick but we celebrated with going to lunch, cards, and going to see Mission Impossible 3.