My cup runneth over

About three weeks into our first big GROW project we had our first major catastrophe. The outside part of the fourth wall of our new fish pond collapsed. At first look it seemed like maybe it had nothing to do with our project and only happened to be really close to it. But it turns out the little drainage ditch we made so all the muddy rainwater runoff didn’t run directly into the pond wore away at the wall on the other side until it caved- a wall that stood for over a century. My first thought after seeing the of mass of rubble lying on the ground was; forget the great fish pond, we’re going to be run out of town! We had collapsed their wall- right onto the road that was then impassable and in the process also severed a pipe leading to a community sink. But as we were out there in the rain working with some of the community to clear the debris away, they all still had smiles on their faces. They never once directed a single bit of blame or anger towards us or the project, but only looked forward to how they were going to fix the wall and make it stronger so this would never again happen in the future. It was then we realized that when you have gone through as much as these people have, a small section of collapsed wall is only a grain of sand on a large beach, compared to all the hurdles they have overcome.

Our tears of sadness and frustration with the new setback to the project turned into tears of humility for the greatness of these people. Believe it or not, they were the ones telling us not to worry, it’d all be alright. Within the same day the road was cleared, the pipe was fixed and within two days there was a beautiful wall replacing the older dilapidated one. This time the wall was supported by strong trees with root systems that will only get stronger over time. The whole process was amazing. This is just a small example of how wonderful a capable these people are.

Although La Florida’s history is amazing as well, I will not go to much into it here, But basically this group is made of 36 very large families that have been trying to uplift themselves for the past four years since they have had ownership of their land. For two years prior to buying the finca (farm), which was previously owned by a large landowner and then abandoned, the people here lived in makeshift tents out in the woods, in constant fear of government raids and the wilderness around them, fighting to gain the land they desired so that they could make a better life for themselves. When we first started our nonprofit, The GROW Initiative, these where the people we dreamed of helping. Although when we had originally come to the now community owned organic coffee finca we had only planned on staying a short time, within the first day we knew for sure that this was the place to do our first large scale project. Five weeks later and with the generous help of people from all over the world, the La Florida Nutrition and Aquiculture Project was completed. The project included the construction of an aquiculture pond with over 200 tilapia, a medicinal plant and vegetable garden, house to house and community nutrition education and a community participation greater than any we have ever seen on any of our past projects over the last three years.

Please check out The GROW Initiative Site to read more about the project and the history of La Florida.

In the past five weeks we have spent with these wonderful people, we have worked along side them in their fields, their schools and on the aquaculture project. All of our meals were shared in different families’ homes, usually by candlelight, continually laughing with the numerous children as the dogs and chickens weave in-between our feet hoping we might drop some scraps. We have traveled with them in the back of pickups and hiked with them many times in the pouring rain the half hour from the “main” dirt road to farm. We have spent most of this time without electricity as their hydroelectric generator is the only source and seldom works. In these types of circumstances you get to know people pretty quickly. Yet every day we are more and more amazed at the accomplishments of this group.

There are many people to thank that contributed to our efforts in this big project. As La Florida has a burgeoning cultural tourism project there are the occasional groups and individuals passing through. Those that were there over the course of the project helped greatly- whether carrying loads of dirt from the soon-to-be pond or clearing weeds for the garden. So thank you to the volunteers ranging from a group from Canada to those from Portugal to New Zeland. Of course thank you as well to the generous donors to The GROW Initiative, without whom the projects we were able to accomplish here would not have been possible. But for the work on this project and for everything else, the biggest thanks must go out to the community of La Florida, the people who are now a second family to us. Not only was it the hard physical labor which everyone from the kids to the president of the community helped with, but for the ideas and insights. From the start we emphasized to them that the project was not for The GROW Initiative, it was a project of the community and we were merely there to facilitate; and that is how it was.

As you can see by our photos the children here have this light within them and can lift anyone out of a bad mood with one of their smiles or laughs. Walking down the street we would be greeted warmly by everyone we saw, feeling not as an outsider but as a true part of the community. Leaving La Florida we had tears in our eyes as we pulled away, riding in back a pick-up as always. Things we miss are still coming to us, but mostly it is just the warmth of the people. Being in such capable hands, we know the projects we started there will continue on, just getting better and bigger with time. We look forward to going back someday and feasting on some tilapia raised in the aquaculture pond! Until then, we will have the photos to remember everyone by and stay in touch always. And if you ever find yourself in Guatemala, go to La Florida, you’ll be glad you did.
The before and after pictures for the Aquaculture project. The medicinal plant garden can be seen in the background of the after picture.

Really, we loved it.

We have so much to say about La Florida but not the time to say it, but we did not want to leave the blog on a rant though. The five weeks we spent there were incredibly rewarding in so many ways. We could not have asked for a better location to complete our first big project that was wholly implemented by The GROW Initiative. We promise we are currently working on the blog that our time there and the wonderful people deserve. We’ll get it up when we can, perhaps after a visit to another organic farm we are going to work on in Belize (another location where at least generally there is no power, not so conducive to staying up to date on the websites!). For now, we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves- we took about 800 while we were there (no exaggeration) but our album has just the highlights, or check out the GROW site which tells much more and will soon have a full report of our projects there!

My God they’re biting my eyes!!!!

So in this wonderful paradise we have found a problem; BUGS! I once read a quote from a very wise man that said “I friggin’ hate all of these damn mosquitoes!” While I might not be as wise as he, I certainly can agree with his logic. Why not use bug spray? you ask. Well, while DEET 2010 proof tends to work on most of the mosquitoes (except for of course the ones that go for your eyes) here we are dealing with more complex problems. Here we have an entire array of biting bastards. The worst of which is completely immune to DEET, you can hardly see, and they hurt worse and itch more than nearly all the rest. While they are pretty much invisible, you can kind of hear a high pitch laughter as they fly in you shirt, up your pants, and through the mesh of your mosquito net like it is the Holland Tunnel.

The moral of this story: if you come to the tropics, forget the bug spray and the mosquito nets and use the room that you save for the gallon of calamine lotion. Remember you can at least take comfort that the pink color is not a sunburn (since you’re not getting any sun as you’re trying to cover up every square inch of your body despite the heat). Oh, you might also want to bring along mittens to wear. It worked well when we were kids to keep us from scratching our chicken pox, and apparently you don’t gain this type of self restraint with age.

And when you pass back through customs and they think you’re a poor heroin addict because it looks like you’ve been shooting up for years but keep missing veins, just tell that customs official to spend some time in the coffee farms of Guatemala and see what his arms and legs look like!

It’s actually a good thing no one here understands English, because sometimes it’s just too much to take, and the profanities I shout would make them think I was crazy for sure. Although I’m guessing it doesn’t matter as a Gringo yelling at himself, scratching from head to toe, and swatting at the air might just cause the same affect.

But other than that, life is great! Actually it really couldn’t get much better than how it is going now. We’re sorry about the five week hiatus, but we will be putting up some more blogs about our amazing time in La Florida and our projects very soon.