CLEAN STREETS IN CHEL

Mondays are garbage pick-up days in Chel. We have been encouraging clean streets and clean home sites in anyway we can.

Although we are a long way from winning the battle we are seeing good results.

It is  mandatory that a recipiente of a stove work four days cleaning streets. 

Some of our garden leaders have been organizing their groups to join in the campaign. This last week they swelled our ranks to 32 workers! This is in response to a question we have been posing. What kind of community do you want to live in?

I took the opportunity to bring down seedling from the farm. I can fit 800 starts in the two boxes.

Tying together different programs only strengthens the work of community development.

 Cleaning the streets, making the kitchen safer and easier to work in and helping fill up the family garden all work together for a better community.

The Mayor of Chel decided to join in the work and recently approached us with a desire to work together. The mayor is in the stripped shirt between me and two of our community members. The other two men are hired by the mayor who took our suggestion to charge each store five quetzales a month to start a garbage service. But in truth  I am thankful for everyone on the team. Our next step is garbage cans at the soccer field.

NEWS FROM THE FARM

SUNRISE IN EDEN

I want to invite everyone to watch a dream become a reality. We are hard at work here helping its birth and with each day we see more hope coming to a people who have little. We have finished the purchase of the land that Eden sits on. We are all so grateful to the people who have come alongside of us in support of this training center. Almost a year ago I realized that this was a project that needed to be done. As we begin work and see the immediate effect on the communities we serve I know it was the right decision and one that will bear more fruit than any of the founders saw. Each day our team is in awe with the dawning of the richness and grandeur of the change that is coming for the Ixil people.  With so much happening every day it is not possible to report even a fraction of the events but I am watching a core group of Ixils see how they can change their lives with the tools and training we are providing. In the following reports I hope you also can begin to see and rejoice with us that a people who have suffered so much are moving themselves forward to a better tomorrow.

We are almost done collecting plant cuttings and seedlings from my Xesalli site. We have made many trips down the hill with our different work crews bringing seedlings to Eden.

It is a 20 minute commute  that reminds me of the song lyrics "over the river and through the woods" as we pass through some beautiful country. Each trip we would bring one hundred to one hundred and fifty new plants to Eden.

 Francisco is carryng a native plant called muxan. It is one of the preferred leaves to bake tamales in. The variety of plants we already have growing is exciting. We have plants from the states, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Morning sunrise breaks through a papaya tree in one of the gardens. We are using cattail stocks in the paths for a mulch or cover. As they decompose we will put the rich biomass they create onto the garden beds.

At the heart of the farm is our greenhouse. It lets us produce thousands of seedlings each month fro distribution as well as protect and establish new varieties of seeds.

Here in the lower part of the greenhouse we have planted two types of beans for a green manure crop. In two weeks we will turn the bean crop into the soil and plant tomatoes and peppers in their place.

Here a tray of tomato seedlings waits for its turn to be planted. We are planting vegetable starts in assembly- line fashion.  Last week we distributed 2,000 vegetable seedlings in Xesalli and Chel.

Each seed tray holds 200 seedlings.You can see little Carlos in the background. He is learning by watching us work how to prepare the trays.

 We are already producing over 3,000 seedlings per month.

As soon as we can grow them people are in line waiting to plant them.

Our two motorcycles have turned into delivery trucks. The two boxes on the back of the bike lets us deliver 800 seedlings into waiting hands.

 Being able to work at this volume level will make a real difference in our 600 family gardens.
                        
In early March Brad Ward from ECHO ( Educational Concens For Hunger) paid us a visit. Here he looks over a new variety of collards we are introducing. This green is so popular that we are planting  1,000 seedlings at a time. ECHO is a great partner to learn and study with. We are greatful for the introduction that Penny from Miracles in Action has given us to Brad and the organization.

Penny generously brought Brad and Echo's videographer Nate back to shoot some footage of our work. Here they are recording an interview with two of our garden leaders.

 We have also been busy with construction projects; building bridges, small dams for fish ponds and remodeling the second story of the ranch house. All this work is being done in the fashon of a living classroom that our workers benefit from.
 

Antonio and Saloman leveling off the top of a foot bridge. They later inserted flat stones to make Mayan designs of corn, birds and the date. It was a fun personal touch.

Gaspar, one of our field hands, was always quick with a smile even though most of his teeth are gone. It's a fun place to work or visit. We offer three weeks of work to field hands then switch workers so others have a turn to learn and earn. Learning from the experience of having workers show up who have not eaten the day before due to lack of food, we offer a company hot lunch each day.

 

We are already harvesting enough produce to provide a good portion of our  lunches.

A few weeks ago we realized that we could be generous with our greens harvest. What is special about this realization is it does not just apply to the limited time of a few weeks or months but an abundant harvest is going to be the daily occurence from now on. This is quite an awakening in a place where malnutrition ranks high. 

Felipe is our field supervisor and is happy to enjoy some of the rewards of his labor.

The farm also allows us to deepen the help and relationship that we offer our neighbors. The boy in the foreground, Lucus, was living under broken tarps with his family when we first met him. Behind him is Carlos. His home was so small we had to get them to add on so we could install a new stove for his family.

Well, that is enough for now. Thanks to everyone for following along on this journey and a special thanks for those who are helping us make this dream a reality. Qil tip' paq'te ma'te b'en   Hasta luego Adios, We'll see you latter Got to go.

EDEN IXIL-- A DREAM COMING TRUE

   I like to dream. I think it is imperative for the human spirit to have dreams, visions and passion. Without these yes we can live but we cannot truly be alive. Dreams can be a guiding beacon which shape our thoughts, actions, and future. A dream can be the seed that when cultivated, nourished and given time to grow becomes a reality better and bigger than the original conception. Yes, I like to dream and we, TRE, my Ixil friends and other partners and organizations have been dreaming, planning and preparing to make a very important dream a reality. It is with great gratitude and excitement I want to introduce you to “Eden Ixil,” a project that will change the face of poverty in the region where we are working and with the help and faithfulness of future dreamers can springboard into adjoining lands and make a ripple of change that we have not even begun to imagine.

   What is Eden Ixil? It is a project to put an agricultural and village technology training center where it is needed most, right in the middle of extreme poverty. To make a dream a reality takes a lot of work and we have been working and laying the groundwork for this project for two years. The project is comprehensive in its goals and I will not try to explain everything in one blog but like an onion we can peel back and look at the different layers in the upcoming months. Today, I hope to share the dream sufficiently that you can see the potential that lies before us. The potential to teach much needed skills to the Ixil people and how we can make the work of T.R.E. sustainable far into the future.

  T.R.E. is buying the farm! We need space to grow our gardens and seed banks, space to conduct training sessions. A place that will centralize our work and let us put down deeper roots . . . and we have found it. We are starting the purchase of a 10-acre farm outside of Chel. The land is beautiful and centrally located to serve 20 villages. The new site is loaded with potential. It has river frontage, two steams, a two-story ranch house, some barns and two main pastures. The ranch house has a large kitchen that can serve 40 people with ease and guest quarters for sixteen.

 

   Two years ago we stared testing this idea of a training center with work on a small nursery in Xesally. We needed somewhere to grow seedlings and prove the value of soil improvements. The land we borrowed had such poor soils the nitrogen level would not even register on a soil test. Our first vegetable crops all failed due to infertile soil. For two years we have been improving soil quality and learning about the climate.

 

 

   Two years of study has proven results! (These photos were taken in the same location as those above.) This year we have been distributing thousands of seedlings from this tiny site. Villagers who first asked us for chemical fertilizers so they could garden now are following our example by composting and building their soils. If we had handed out bags of fertilizers and seeds to start they could have grown their vegetables but would need our help each and every year. By teaching how to build soil and grow seed stock we are giving them the ability to provide for themselves. The good news is . . . it is working!

 

Training session in front of Michael's house with women testing out the flavor of hibiscus tea.

   But it is still a small site. It does not have enough space to grow seed stock or have small groups in for training. Our weekly training sessions are almost comical. With over 400 family garden sites and hundreds more wanting to enter the program we need to dream bigger. We need to dream holistically and sustainably. Project Eden Ixil is that dream and the crowning event of The Ripple Effect's work.

   It is easy to take pictures of needs. I am surrounded by people with basic needs unmet. Lack of food, no potable water, unsanitary living conditions, poor shelters, and at times equally severe the lack of hope. That is what I see and what the camera can capture but in my mind’s eye I see something different.

 

  Where there are swollen bellies and poor housing I see a fertile garden and a new home. When smoke and darkness fill the house I see a new stove and solar light. I hear the sound of education both for the children and adults. I feel the sense of personal and community pride.

 

I see the potential of seeding a paradise in the midst of extreme poverty.

   The new site is beautiful and loaded with potential. It has a river, two streams, a two-story ranch house and some barns. The ranch house has guest lodging for international visitors or garden groups from neighboring villages. Some of the training classes that will be included here are: the cultivation, use and preparation of medicinal plants; cover crops and green manures; animal husbandry of ducks, sheep, goats, and pigs; fish farming and bee keeping; care of fruit trees; production of methane gas; the use of small hydro-electric generators and solar power; and classes on nutrition and hygiene. The list goes on and on. It is realistic to say that this training center will have a profound effect on the surrounding twenty villages.

Small garden spot in front of ranch house. Over 3 acres are dedicated to demonstrative gardens.

   Villagers can come and visit our demonstrative gardens and take home new ideas and plants to use in their gardens. Four model homes will be built to demonstrate how to integrate various parts of a small farm to complement each other and make work easier and more sustainable. 

                                       This site will allow us to centralize our work. having examples of efficient stoves, solar hot water, living fences and more for villagers to see, learn and copy.

A field training session for twenty families

Over six hundred gardeners will pass through the site for training in the first year. A greenhouse will produce thousands of seedlings monthly and a tree nursery will grow five thousand fruit trees in the first year.

All this training shared on the farm will assist families like Juana to have a productive garden site. It will give a living example of "how to" to thousands of people.

   We have just finished our six-month evaluation of 400 gardeners. We use these visits to explain not only what is going on in the garden, the good and bad, but what improvement they can implement around the home. We are choosing 100 of these gardeners with excellent work to be an example in their communities of what a home would look like with a productive garden, animals in corrals, a place where the home and children are clean. We will be helping the families by providing stoves, water filters, the building of latrines, nutritional training and more. Combined with the work on the farm these homes will establish a reachable benchmark for the community, an example of how life can improve not just in a textbook, not only for the wealthy or people in other communities but right where they live.

   I hate to say it but the level of poverty here has forced some families to live like animals in a state of constant struggle. That is what I see with my eyes but my heart sees a different possibility. This project gives us the resource to make the change from present needs to future possibility. The excitement for Eden Ixil is tangible in the communities where we work. Many are able to see that this is a project that they can manage and build to help the whole region have a better life.

 But we can’t do it alone. 

We need helping hands and I want to call on everyone. 

  President of Miracles in Action Penny Rambacher with Julia Lopez, one of our garden leaders.

                                          
   We are looking for partners to enter a relationship with the Ixil people. Partners to dream big with us. To dream what would life be like if there is food on the table, clean water to drink. What life would be like with new hope in the heart and the training to make dreams happen. To dream of making an Eden in the midst of extreme poverty. Eden Ixil is not just a ten-acre farm project but it is giving the chance for a region to change itself. A productive farm is not the goal. What we do on the farm will be implemented in the communities at the family level. The goal is healthy, hopeful lives.
   T.R.E. has never launched a fund drive before but now is the time. We have a $25,000 matching grant to help with the farm purchase. My grandmother used to say, "Many hands make for light work," and that is what we are seeking. Partners that will help us take our work to a new level. Why not join in support and see the ripple grow.

THE RIVER IN FRONT OF THE PROPERTY

THE ROOF OF THE NEW 24' X 60' GREENHOUSE WITH A NEW GARDEN SITE IN THE FOREGROUND

GARDEN SEEDLINGS: OUR SMALL GREENHOUSE PRODUCES A GOOD SUPPLY OF SEEDLINGS BUT CANNOT KEEP UP WITH DEMAND

A SEED AND HARDWARE STORE IN THE SECOND STORY WILL PROVIDE NEEDED SUPPLIES

SIMPLE VILLAGE TECHNOLOGIES LIKE THIS METHANE BIO DIGESTER WILL SPARK NEW IDEAS