Arco Chel

 

Beauty in the midst of Poverty.

 I am always impressed when a family that has so little wants to do something extra just for the beauty it provides like these flowers in a vase. The wife in one family that we have eaten with in this village would place a cloth on the two board table they used so she could set a proper table for her guest.

 

The village of Arco Chel is just three years old. It is located in a beautiful valley setting with a spring right above the village that feeds a small stream. The land is fertile and the climate not too cold. There are five different languages spoken here yet only 17 families. The community is united and motivated and a pleasure to be in. There is always laughter and jokes going on. Much of the festive feelings are on their good fortune to be able to settle on this land. TRE has placed a green house in this community and the village has started a 45 meter square community garden. We are preparing to do a water project later this year possible starting it is July.

 One of the raining, misty mornings. Almost all homes but one have leaf roofs and are made of lose fitted logs, split poles or sapplings. The pox leaves used for the roof grow higher up the mountain. It averages 100 plants and 17 trips with  85 pounds bundlesof leaves each time to make one roof.

                                    

Homes are built without nails. Lashings to attach fences poles or to attach poles to a home are made from tree bark or vines. This home is made from split poles lashed to a frame. The dark corner poles are from tree that will withstand rot for 70 years or more. This is an astounding feature when you consider most other wood will rot within five years. Unfortunately the leaf roofs only last a few years. If a house is not lived in and there is no fire to dry the leaves from the inside of the house it will start to rot within six months.

                                  

This home owner is lashing a tall fence around his home with the hope of raising goats. Wood, poles, water and land are some of the good resources avalible for this comunity.

Their farming practices are good. Here they have yams, corn and beans all sharing the same space. Although they are good farmers their knowledge of how to raise different crops is very limited. Common crops they enjoy eating like cabbages or potatoes are a new experience to grow but they are absorbing information like sponges. Their excitement to get to harvest and eat their new crops is contagious. The other day we were harvesting radishes which are such a simple crop but their excitement was tangible. With no store to go to and purchase a new and different vegetable a new taste is such a treat. After a training session at our site in Xesalli we sent the attending home with fruit trees, berry bushes, avocado and lemon trees.

 

 

Here is the spot they choose for the green house.

I like to share how to build the structure and than stand back and watch them work.

The simple tube frame is almost complete.

Lashing down the ribs with bark strips for protection againts the winds.

Here one man is striping the bark. After the bark is stripped it is cut into narrower bands. These can be used immediately or can be twisted or breaded together to make a strong rope

Placing the cover. This nylon is designed to withstand UV rays and normally will last seven or more years. The hot house will allow protection durning heavy rains and cold tempatures. The cost to sponser a hot house is only $90

 

We mix "brosa" or the viney vegatation from the fields to put some humus into the soil. This caused a little problem with our first transplants because the roots were tangled in the vegetation below. This will decompose rapidly so will not bother us for very long. Simple gardening applications like this are received like a light bulb being turned on. They have never thought about doing it but when shown understand right away what I am doing and why. We now have place future fertilization and water retention in the understory of our planting beds.

After choping the brosa into the soil we spread some better top soils on top of the beds

                   

 After two weeks we have some of our first transplants ready. I should have taken a close up of these starts. There are probably 500 transplants in these photo.

 

Transplants are like a alarm clock to me. Once the seeds are in the ground the date the site must be ready on is set. The community got working on the garden spot. With four rolls of chicken wire and two of barb wire we can fence almost half a football field! We have two other communities in line for community gardens. Here Margarito is putting in a post. He has carved the end to look like a giant pencil and continues to lift and thrust it into the ground until it is planted two feet deep.

The space in front of Juan is only about a third of the size of the total plot.

 

Streaching and nailing wire

 

Starting to form the beds. There are 18 beds of potatoes planted now as well as brocolli and cabbage beds.

Away from the garden work here are some of the women of the village. Even the way they dress is a sign of their different backgrounds and language groups The black and green huipiles are from Nebaj, the woman in the black jacket is latino, the women in tan coat is kaqchikel and the one in blue and red is from Chajul.

We put into the mix some clothing knitted in the United States.

Sweaters, hats,ponchos and stuff toys that were doonated though Miracles in Actions.

                                                         The village mayor Gaspar

               And Margarito again. They are well colored cordinated with their new wardorbes.

A very colorful group

Enjoying a last minute breakfast before we hike out to the next village.

The elder son of this family showed us a carving he found while digging on his house site. He told us the day he found it his gramother said she heard a sound like mules or horses entering the village but when she went outside to see who it was nobody was there. They feel it was the spirit of the women coming back to the village. Although today this area is remote, taking two days to arive from the closet paved road at one time it was along a major mayan route. Below the village is the remains of an arched bridge and a large caveran that was at one time a sacred gathering site.

 

While his brother shows us the past this boy looks out his doorway to his future. A new sweater, hat and promise of better food are gifts we have brought. Good friendships are gifts we have received yet is time again to hike on.

A little side note. After our second visit to this village this year we left late in the afternoon to head to neighboring Caba. One wrong turn made the journey longer and night descended on us. A second wrong turn led us far from our objective. Exhausted we arrived at a new village at 9:30 that night. In the morning we could see across the valley where we had hiked the previous day but were actually farther away from Caba than when we had started. After four days of fever and back pain I decided to head back to the road and save the trip to Caba for another day. Experience is a good teacher and I don't think I will miss those turns in the trail again!