Amaranth Seed

On Tuesday afternoon, Blanca and I harvested a big garbage bag of Amaranth seed heads. The plants have grown rapidly despite a lack of rain and incredibly hot weather. The plants are a lovely purple colour and the seed heads a bright crimson atop the two metre stems.

Yesterday, Santiago and I went through the bag and stripped the seeds and flowers off the stems. There should be several million seeds when all is said and done. Blanca tried planting some of the seeds and they are sprouting. I hope we can get a good source of seed from this next planting.

As with so many plants, finding the seeds, getting them to flower and set seed and then to find ways to harvest them and get a second cycle going takes a great deal of time. In this case, it is rewarding to see these plants producing. Amaranth is so nutritious and so hardy that it is a wonderful addition to people’s lives.

Amaranth is an old plant from Aztec times and it is good to reintroduce back into it original home area. The red flowers were used to produce some sort of red beverage that was drunk in honour of one of the old deities. The Church was not pleased with such a sacrilegious similarity to the wine of the Eucharist celebration. So, the plant was banned for several hundred years. A severe case of losing the baby in the bath water.

Three weeks ago, the women’s group took over the whole piece of land where their fish ponds are located. The young man I had working there had gotten rather tired of working every day and so went on to better things (we hope). In those three weeks, the women have made more progress than the young man was able to do in several months. Sigh.  It is, however, encouraging to see things being planted and tended with proper care.

This last week we have set out some mint plants that were started in seed bags a number of weeks ago. Those tiny seeds take a very long time to get established. We shall see how they do now that they can spread their wings a bit. One of the plantings is really enjoying the freedom ... so hopefully the others will as well.

A hard afternoon rainstorm has lowered the temperature a bit. We hope it is the start of the rains. Things were getting quite brown (only in Honduran terms). A dry season here still has not relation to the African sense of the word.

Other notes of interest. Saturday I crossed off a bucket list item. I sang Schubert’s Ave Maria at a wedding. It went well, although there was no standing ovation ... not that there ever is. The bride was nineteen and an ambulance was on call in case the baby arrived two days before term. It is very difficult to watch young people (children really) having children.

Sunday was the opposite extreme. The music group sang at a funeral mass for a mother and her two children who were killed in Los Angeles by their father in a murder suicide. The stress on individuals and families who travel to another country to find work and who have to deal with a new culture, racism and slavery is enormous. In addition, they are constantly being pressured by family in Honduras and (in this case) Mexico to send money and support them.

Too, we are often unaware of the cultural differences between Latin American countries and how these put stress on a relationship.

Must run. A trip to Tegucigulpa tomorrow to visit the Vice Minister of Education. I do hope that we get the needed papers this time. What a dreamer.

TTYL

BB

Fresh Chicken Dinner

Today, Edel and I went to a nearby village, San Antonio. We took the long cut but, in the end, after stopping and asking where the village was (truly, we had actually checked beforehand but were given the wrong distances) we arrived. It was a beautiful drive and only a few kilometres so an enjoyable extra few minutes.

Edel and Jessica going over the new program

We were installing the Education Program in a computer that two of our students had acquired. I worked on “To Do” lists and ideas to think about drawings while Edel did the installation.

Several minutes after we started, I noticed one of the smaller girls out running about. A few minutes later she called to her grandmother and stood holding a chicken over the fence. The grandmother brought it over to show us and check whether it would be suitable for dinner. We agreed and off it went to the kitchen for last rites.

An hour later, just as Edel finished the installation, two bowls with fresh chicken, rice and potatoes appeared on the table. I chose the dish with the gizzard (my favourite and ... from African days, the part always given to the eldest guest) and gave Edel the wing. There was a dish of freshly made (still too hot for my fingers) tortillas as well.  The students’ computer was loaded with country and western music so we enjoyed hearing about something or other in Texas and Alabama as we ate.

The soccer field next to the house has just been levelled and, consequently, the house is going to be in danger of losing the front yard from erosion. We talked about where and how to plant vetiver grass to prevent the problem. I do hope they actually follow through.

With the right road in front of us, the trip back to Santa Cruz was much faster although not nearly as scenic.

TTYL

BB

A Day in the Life of ...

The last few days have been full of a variety of projects, conversations and duties. It has also been full of extra warm temperatures and soaring humidity. The past three evenings have featured heavy downpours ... I rather like the Spanish word – tormentas ... rather more descriptive in many ways.

Last week, in the search for a cheaper stove/oven, I had some molds made to help reduce the costs of the initial layer of blocks around the base. We hoped that they would produce simple concrete blocks of the same dimension.

Wednesday morning, Santiago and I headed to one of the block making spots near our house to get some ready mixed sand and cement. I figured it would be easier to buy a half wheelbarrow of the ready made stuff than to fiddle with buying sand, transporting sand, ... you get the idea.

We arrived at the place and asked the young girl in charge of sales if we could buy half a wheelbarrow. She thought about it for awhile and said that she would need 170 lempiras ($9.00). We were rather surprised at this figure and began questioning her calculations. Finally, I asked if we could buy some freshly made blocks. Well, that was possible. So, the next set of three blocks from the press, we had the workers dump them into the wheelbarrow. Of course, they crumpled into a very nice half wheelbarrow full of mix. We paid the girl for three blocks – 30 lempiras – and headed off to try our molds. The workers were rather amused at this and, I think, the girl was a wee bit chagrined.

The molds didn’t work. The blocks kept crumbling when we tried to tip out the new blocks. I hustled across the street and had the welder try to change the angles on one of the molds. Still no dice. By now, in 35’ C heat, I was beginning to worry about the mix drying out. We then spotted two concrete blocks and lined them up 4” apart and used them as a mold. It worked like a charm and we had 16” long blocks in no time. Of course, would they set? We covered them up with plastic bags and odd boards. Two days later and they are nicely stacked and perfect for the job. They are less than half the cost and we can make the blocks a variety of lengths.

Yesterday, a man who is helping over twenty young people in his village came to collect some exams. During the conversation, the problem of drying coffee came up. If they could dry and sort the coffee they could get a better price. Well ... now that you mention it ... Sigh. I dug up the picture of a portable greenhouse type dryer that we put together last year. We then discussed alternative building materials like bamboo. This dryer would also work for beans and maize. We also discussed a type of gravity fed system for sorting out beans by weight (and, therefore, quality).

Lime for prepping fish ponds, composting toilets, alternative types of pig food preparation and compressed earth block machines also cropped up.

The dying mother being recusitated by repentant daughters

The Board enjoying the theatre

Today was a special board meeting which the staff combined with a belated Mother’s Day celebration for the ladies involved. Several of the young students presented a skit with the very strong moral message that disobedience to mother may have tragic consequences but return and repentance will lead to a happy ending. Enjoyed by all.

I was up at 5.30 to cook the lunch. Fortunately, mashed potatoes, carrots and a pork rib stew went over well. The other staff quietly ensured that there was a tiny bag of salt so that newbies to my cooking could satisfy their salt habit without too much ado. They also made sure there was bread (the special tortilla equivalent) for people to feel comfortable with.

Not all the days are filled with exciting activity. Today, when I arrived at the office, I was informed that the wife of our night guard had delivered a baby last night but the baby was stillborn. So, this afternoon the board and staff went next door with flowers and candles to pay our respects to the family. The very young mother is still in hospital.

The baby was laid out in a lovely red gingham frock and matching hat. A tiny doll lay beside her. Flickering candles surround the little coffin and gave light to the gloaming of the room. She will be laid to rest this afternoon. The current heat means a burial is necessary even though the mother is still in San Pedro Sula.

TTYL

BB

Lions, Jaguars and a Hippo

A few weeks have passed since the school started in Victoria. All seems well there and activities here are back to normal after the Easter Week. Well ... almost.

This week is the annual fair for Santa Cruz. Yesterday was the day of the celebration of the Holy Cross and there was a procession to mark the event. Included in the procession was a statute of Mary which was ‘visiting’ from a neighbouring parish. The statue is over 600 years old so has done lots of travelling in its day. It never ceases to amaze me how much church history is a part of Honduras. With churches and artefacts hundreds of years old, it is such a contrast to the situation in Alberta where a building of 100 years is something to stop and look at.

This is also an opportunity to pause and reflect about our own roles here in Honduras. We must be careful to ensure that we are walking carefully in the footsteps of generations of people who have maintained and gained strength from their traditions. We are here to walk with them and to enable them and ourselves to maintain and benefit from the wisdom and strength that is already here. It is all too easy to look at the half empty glass rather than being enabled by the half full. It is even easier to forget the huge space above the water level in our own glass.

The fair brings with it a number of, for me, exotic fringe attractions. The usual fair rides are set up in small little lots as close to the town centre as possible. The centre of town is crowded with booths selling used clothing, trinkets, beer, sweets and fair fare. There are two stages set up for different types of entertainment each evening ranging from boxing, a beauty pageant, music competitions to live bands. I skipped the beauty pageant because it started to rain heavily.  Fireworks echo through the town each night at about midnight.

Yesterday, as I was putting gas in the truck, a big trailer pulled in to gas up. In the trailer were 8 lions, 2 jaguars and a small hippo (the hippo safely in a separate cage from the lions – although within scent and sight of the interested felines.) A crowd gathered quickly. They watched the lions and I watched the crowd. All were happy.

Last week also saw the completion of a new stove, Kim 1. This stove uses the rocket stove principle for the inside but the outside utilizes Honduran usage ideas. In the future, we hope to add a water heating component and, depending on our inventiveness, a bread oven component. The builder, Manuel Paz, is very proud of the effort and already has orders to build two more. His mother switched to using the stove even before it was completed so that is a good sign. We shall see what future versions will look like.

Manuel holding up the 'plancha' or stove top.

Note the storage area underneath and the food prep area in the front and the back.

The stove top features space for several pots, opportunity for tortillas, grilling meat and varying temperatures zones.

 The rains are almost here and we have had a couple of showers to settle the dust. This has cooled down the temperature but raised the humidity so ... the net effect is the same.

Our digital library continues to grow. It is a pleasure to walk by students and see them reading a book or working on some math exercises that the staff has created. It is obviously of value to them and that, in the end, is the real test.

TTYL

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