Chipilín – January 9

A long night of rain that made the metal roof of my apartment sing, hammer and pound for many hours has brought cooler temperatures. Three days of over 30° weather must have brought some thunderstorm like rains. The small seedlings that are starting to sprout are well watered and that is nice.

We need to transplant some of the Moringa seedlings today so that they can be given to the officials who missed out at the Educatodos Tour a couple of weeks ago. We will see how that goes. I am always nervous about transplanting. Will they make it or not? I have a little bit of my parents’ green thumb but not enough for confidence in trying new planting techniques. Part of the problem is likely that each seedling represents so much effort to get seeds, plant, establish and so forth.

Yesterday, we travelled to several other communities to take more medicine cabinet type boxes to the little first aid dispensaries. Every time I travel I am again struck by the enormous riches that are available here in Honduras. Yesterday was no exception. We saw four new types of fruit that I had not seen before. I finally saw a breadfruit tree which, although from the same family as the Jackfruit, which I am familiar with from Africa, has different shaped leaves and fruit. Amazingly, both of these fruits are related to the Mulberry tree. So amazing to have one tree with raspberry size fruit and another, from the same family, with fruit that would fill a twenty litre pail with ease. Manuel has noted on several occasions that when he was a child there were many more fruits available but these have gradually disappeared as people have not replanted them.

At our last stop, we were just leaving the house when Carolina stopped me and said, “Chipilín” while pointing to a small plant. She told me that this plant has some of the same qualities as Moringa. We talked about it for awhile and then came back to the office. I looked it up on the Internet and, sure enough, it does have some of the same qualities. It offers calcium, Iron and Vitamin A among other benefits. The dried leaf powder is 34% protein and able to be used with maize flour for making tortillas and so forth. It is a great chicken food as well. On top of all that, the plant is able to be harvested for up to six years before replanting. The obvious question, “So ...?” comes to mind. Why is it not in every fenceline, by each doorstep and crowding the pathways?

In the last few months I have been working on a textbook that tries to pull together ideas for people to make their living or improve their nutritional resources using the many resources they have at hand. The book I am reading quotes a 1985 figure that says 85% of India’s population suffers the residual effects of poor malnutrition before the age of five. That is staggering. When I told Manuel that figure he did not even blink and said that it was certainly true in Honduras. Wow. What we consider an exception and something that needs special classes and funding in Canada is the norm here and in most countries of the world. Simple nutrition and ways to grow that nutrition in small, easily cared for plots has so many long term benefits. Is there a way to reverse the downward spiral that has so much of the world in a deadly grasp?

My new bank account works. Hurrah! Instead of the former five hours to get money I can now walk five minutes and be dealt with. Now, to learn the hours when there are no line-ups. Today was wonderful – no one in line. I am much more comfortable not having to carry money on the bus and in a busy terminal. Here in Santa Cruz, I can put any money into pockets, socks and what not before leaving the bank.

Josué the barber was in today. Even though he had his “Cerrado” sign up, he let me in when he saw it was the poor linguist from ‘outside’. One of the features that I find most interesting about haircuts here is the use of a straight razor at the end to trim all the lines. Josué has a small 1” paintbrush that he dips into a soap dish and then paints a line of suds around the ears and back of the neck. Then he clips a new razor blade in his (what in the world is the word for that device??) blade holder, places a clean towel on the client’s shoulder and gets to work. Knowing just how sharp those blades are, I concentrate on keeping as still and cooperative as possible. Certainly needless angst on my part but ... still. I turned down the pomade – still have a left over aversion to anything that smacks of Brylcream. $2.00 later and I was out the door and headed home for a pan shower.

Saturday now. A little chance for a change in perspective again. The carpenter is here replacing four interior doors that have been decimated by termites. Consequently, I am working on the front porch. It is amazing how moving one’s desk six metres and from one side of a wall to another changes a person’s view, experience and interaction with the world. It is strange how quickly we fit into one viewpoint. Even though, in a sense, I am outside of my ‘Canadian’ set of parameters, in very short order I have built another set of ‘walls’ in which to live. The ‘walls’ provide a sense of security but often, in reality, may be doing more harm than good. Light and life pass us by because we are so confined by the ‘walls’ we have built. In addition, walls require maintenance and furbishing. How much effort do we put into painting, papering and texturing our walls? How much do we spend on pictures, paintings and memorabilia in an effort to give life to the very things that are keeping us from life?

Bryan