The Ripple Effect

The weekend of Feb. 9th, I left Chajul to go to Chel, one of the communities that I was told needed a student center. The trip and situation was different then I expected. I rode out with a church from Chajul that had chartered a bus for an annual meeting at Chel. We were definitely in the mountains. At one point I think if I could have leaped 75 feet off the road I would have landed 1000 feet below. We only saw one or two trucks in the two to three hour crawl to Chel. On the way back we got a break as they looked under the hood. I asked if that was the brake cylinder that had a oil geyser. Si, si ,was enough of an answer for me so I took a 1/2 walk while they fixed it. Chel is a town of about 150 families. A bus leaves there at 3 in the morning and comes back at about 8 at night. In 1984 or 1985 ,the Army massacred 85 people here. Last year they got electricity and they farm coffee or coffee or coffee. They do farm other crops but coffee is the cash crop. The school project was not with the community as a whole but the church group I traveled with. There are three public schools in or just outside the town. The school in town is big enough for 60 children but only 25 or 26 kids attend school. I plan to help the pubic school out with supplies but will not be building a school. I am going back this week and probably the next week also to teach some carpenters how to build basic furniture. This is project #2 for me. During this time I want to learn more about the local needs and decide on a request of me to provide 30 cows. I was also asked to look at 3 acres of coffee to buy. Both requests are from the church of about 150 people and would be owned collectively for the purpose of raising funds. This is a hard decision for me. The coffee finca is about 3 acres and it was a 1/2 hr walk through incredible mountians. During harvest, one person can pick about 100 pounds a day and then packs it out in a sack attached to their heads. More to come on Chel