Zacpotal

B’an a Tu’le’ ta’n Tiuxh Welcome Thank-you Come and visit us at Zacpotal.

Zacpotal is a small collection of families that live between Chel and Xesalli. When help does come to Chel or Xesalli this community is almost always left out. In many ways they could be labeled the forgotten of the forgotten. I think this title would apply even more accurately to the emotional state of the community than the physical.

In the search for lower land prices this community of around 150 people who have located outside of the other two communities. Homes are simple and made from a variety of materials. Most are one room and house three generations of family.

This photo was taken at our first community wide meetings. The home is owned by the family of one of the garden leaders is one of the nicest and largest in the canton. A group of four TRE leaders and I arrived five minutes late to find the four walls of the home lined with family representatives. As we enter a round of applause erupted that shocked me. Some of the older women line up to greet us with a kiss on the check and words of thanks for coming. It is very touching to be able to bring help and hope to people such as these. As welcomes like this are bestowed on TRE it has shown me the level of respect and hope we carry as an organization. By standing by these people we have earned a place in their hearts and they have a home in ours. By sharing with us you, our supporters, have earned this place as well. At the end of the meeting we handed out knit blankets, vitamins and hats.

Out of the 34 home we have started 22 garden spots. Magdalene and Anna are the two garden leaders who are organizing the community. The have conducted a full community survey and census, measured all garden plots, organized the portage of all the fencing, and lead us on a tour of all sites with fence post in place prior to the distribution of the fencing materials. All of this work is done with out pay as a service to their community.

Here Magdalene introduces us to one of the families in front of their home.

Three young girls behind two new puppies curled up on a worn out gunny sack

Providing firewood is a constant chore. Not only does this father have to chop the wood to size the trees are felled and chopped to length with ax or machete and then carried a half hour or more on their backs.

This girl has a scarf on because she has flu and fever symptoms. The day I toke this picture I visited around 20 families and a third of them had members with the flu. Poor diet, sanitation and a wet climate allow sickness to travel fast and hard.

Here is the home of Hacinta, one of the young mothers.

The week following our meeting 17 families built the fences for their gardens. To set fence post they are sharpened like giant pencils and lifted and slammed into the earth time and time again until they reach the proper depth.

A garden spot that is almost ready for the wire. We have gotten very strict about the fence preparation and this plot still needs the angular braces in the corners and a few more post where the spacing is too long. The Spanish nickname for the corner post with its two braces is “pie de gallo” or a roster’s foot. It is thus named because of its resemblance to the three claws of a chicken’s foot.

Two other plots in preparation. With over 70 garden spots in three communities being prepared and 34 chicken runs being built in another village TRE is defiantly in a fencing phase. It seems that everywhere I go there is a new plot being prepared.

This muchacho has cut down his coffee plants to put in a garden plot. This would have been unheard of three years ago but with the blight “La Roya” destroying the coffee crop families are desperate to find another alternative. Last week another man made me a dozen rake handles out of coffee trees which even astounded me.

Well this is just the beginning of the story of gardens in Zacpotal. We want to thank those who have dug deep to share with us in this project and the fund drive to raise $4,000 for seeds. All the gardens in this community will receive three fruit trees and training as well as fencing and seeds. At the end of June TRE is excited to host a training session for representatives from 7 villages in a neighboring town of Barrillas. This will be taught by a professional organic gardener and owner of a tree nursery with over 30 years of experience. We are also excited as villagers around our nursery plot in Xesally have started bringing us starts and seed to help us in our distributions. In June alone we distributed 200 tomatoes plants, two gunny sacks of yam starts and planted 100 pigeon pea bushes that were all produced and donated by members of the garden program. Never underestimate the power of a ripple!