Sandwich Spread

Value adding is one way in which to increase the income potential of a product – you knew that already. One of the things we have been thinking about for the women’s fish product is finding a way to turn small fish into a saleable food product. Finally, this week, we got around to trying one of our ideas.

Tom Heller, a Canadian teacher, is here for three weeks to help out. Among his many skills is the knowledge of how to prepare fish neatly and efficiently.  Those two adverbs are not part of my skill set when applied to fish. I do a mean chicken ... but fish ... ‘nother story.

Finished product

Sandwich Spread on Bread

Tuesday morning Manuel and I went out to meet with the ladies at their fish pond. Their second batch of fish is now three months old and from 1/3 to ½ pounds. They are growing more quickly this time. Part of this is because the ladies have more management skills and are better able to see problems early on.

We bought nine small fish (about 2 ½ lbs) and took them home. Tom did the honours of scaling, cleaning and taking off the heads and fins. I cut up an onion, pressed some garlic and juiced two small lemons. Fish and so forth ready we put them into the pressure cooker. Small problem, the glass pyrex dish I had didn’t fit. Plan B. A small angel food cake tin fit nicely and in went the fish, a little salt and the onions, etc. We put on the lid, let it build to pressure and then set our stopwatches for ninety minutes.

Ninety minutes later we depressurized the pot (Tom’s first experience with a pressure cooker – no major steam jets to make it exciting) and looked to see what we had. Amazingly, the fish was perfect. The small bones were easily chewed and the flavour was outstanding. It was very much like tuna and didn’t seem to resemble tilapia at all.

We gave the fish a test drive ourselves, to Gladys, our neighbour and to the staff at the school. Everyone was delighted. What was left went into the fridge until today.

This morning Manuel and I went back to El Cipres to show the women the new product. We took a bit of mustard and mayonnaise and a couple of tomatoes along as well. Once there we had them try the fish by itself and then I mixed a bit of onion, tomato and the condiments to make a sandwich spread. We put it on a baguette and then passed it around. Four small fish became enough for everyone to have two small sandwiches – almost Biblical (but about 4994 people short).

With this way of treating the fish a number of potential things happen. The first, something I had never thought of, is that the fish is easier for children to eat. Yakie’s small daughter was delighted with the fish and was able to eat it without any worries.

Cooking the fish with bones increases the calcium available. This is important for women and children especially. Although we didn’t use the heads this time, they will make excellent soup stock. There are numbers of people in the area who enjoy munching parts of the head so that is another experiment waiting to try.

When the fish are cooked like this, each fish can be served with a plate of rice or tajadas and a vegetable for $2.00 - $3.00. Since the total cost of nine fish was $1.50, you can start to see the potential.

Whenever the women raise fish there a number of stunted ones which they have trouble selling. This is a way to use them for income generation. As well, focusing on smaller fish allows for a quicker turn around time, alternative feeds and breeding stock, less problems with theft and opportunity for higher stocking rates.

The next experiment will try to play with different flavours. Then we will look at ways to package and preserve the fish so that it can be sold. There is lots of work ahead but it was an exciting start.

Official Tester - Gives Thumbs Up

Tom helped with another experiment this week. We made Githeri, an East African Kikuyu dish. It combines beans and maize with some vegetables to make a stew that has all of the amino acids. This is a wonderful dish for people without money for meat. It is filling and quite tasty. We didn’t soak the maize and beans overnight – something we will do next time – but, with the pressure cooker to help, it turned out quite well. Some of the students didn’t like the carrots that peeked out – they said they were allergic to carrots ... hmmm. But, generally speaking, the dish was well received. The staff here who are used to new flavours and who also have a grasp of the economic and nutritional potential of things were much more eager to try the dish. It is amazing how different the cuisine is in different places even though many of the ingredients are the same.

Small note:  If you remember a few months back, we began a school in Victoria in the home of Consuelo. Today she came to the school with a woman from another village who wants to start a similar school in her home. What a pleasant surprise.

That is enough for now.

TTYL

BB

Back Doors

The good news in Honduras – there is always a second way to get things done. The bad news of course – there is always a second way to get things done.



Monday morning I had another lesson in the back door method of getting things done. My residence permit application has languished for more than a year. Finally, the lawyer’s son, Diego, took over the file (he is articling and needs some cases to work on). Diego is over six feet tall and built along the extra large model line. In addition, he has had a lifetime of certain privileges. When he walks into a room he is rather intimidating and exudes the air of expecting things done ... now. It is rather fun to be with him and, for a change, be the little guy in the picture.



a. Go to the office for police checks. Pick up form for bank payment (due to accounting vagaries, you cannot pay at the station but need to pay into their account at a local bank). The line up for the form was around the corner. But ... there was a back door and a friend inside. The form appeared in seconds and off we went.



b. Bank. No back doors here. We got a ticket – number 96. Number 68 was showing on the counter so I was prepared for a long wait. However, virtually everyone else was in the bank for the same thing so the numbers flashed by quickly.



c. Back to the office in ‘a’. Back door again. Hand in the form and wait for the police clearance certificate. It appeared in five minutes but with my name misspelled. Miraculously, it appeared again, correct this time, in another five minutes. Generally this process is a two to three day process (without the correction). You may ask yourself, as I did, just how thorough was the police check (not that I have anything for them to discover) in five minutes. Hmmmm. Good question.



d. On to Security Clearance (don’t ask me what the difference is). First to another bank to get the receipt of payment. With Diego’s cousin, Jacob, (another articling lawyer-to-be) in front, we got the receipt in record time. As always, my Leatherman was waved through the security scan because the case looks a little like a cell phone. No one seems to wonder about a tool with two four inch knives. I fail to demonstrate the capacity of the tool in the interest of fewer complications.



e. Off to the office of Security. Once again, Diego found the person he knew and within seconds was inside with the papers. Out he came to say we needed the 100 Lempira receipt and not the 30 Lempira one.



f. Jacob and I rush back to the bank. We discover long line ups have formed since our first visit. We each get into one and wait. Four minutes in and Jacob taps me on the shoulder to say, “Let’s go.” We arrive back at the Security place to find Diego waiting with the clearance certificate magically stamped for 100 Lempiras. Don’t ask.



g. Back to the office to rewrite the letter of employment that was a year old. The ‘correct’ signature is soon applied and it is done.



h. Off to a third bank to buy the medical certificate. This was a drive in bank with the pneumatic tubes to carry cylinders with papers and cash in them. I find them so magical. Harry Potter movies have nothing on these machines.



i. To doctor’s office. The doctor is an old friend and Diego and he begin catching up. The doctor looks at

me and asks, “Are you okay?” I say, “Yes” and he begins writing his learned diagnosis. Several minutes later and the form is completed, stamped and signed and we are done.



j. On my way to the Terminal, Diego phones to say we forgot to get photos. I was able to get that done in Tegucigulpa in the evening and they will be delivered today.



k. With all the various papers in hand, the whole application simply needs to get to Tegucigulpa and there another friend will see that it gets processed. Who knows? I may have a residence permit before the end of the year.



l. As far as I can tell, only the Canadian police check is truly valid in this whole process. Of course, the real question is, “Why did it take a year to get all of this done?” Again ... don’t ask.



Mandala - April 1, 11




Mandala - August 1/2011



The afternoon was spent bussing to Tegucigulpa for a Tuesday meeting with the Ministry of Education. The meeting went well and we hope that some positive results will come out of it. We see various ideas and suggestions that we have made in the past eighteen months starting to creep into government planning so that is encouraging.



On Monday we switched Internet providers. We now have to get everything reorganized. Lightning took out our router so we are back to one computer at a time. This morning the power was off here for three hours. Now, power is back on here but not at the Internet Providers. So, we are still without connection. You never know how much you enjoy and use something until it is gone.



This morning we had a mother come in with two children to enquire about our program. They are spending $25.00 a week on transport and food to go to the local school. The last two weeks have been without classes because of strikes by teachers and students. The mother is looking for plan B. They have a computer at home so this will be great for the family. ($25.00 would by a weaner pig which could be fed out over a few months and then marketed for more than $200.00.) We shall see what happens. Tomorrow the kids are to start learning how to use our system.



Enough for today.



TTYL

BB

Another Grad

We are definitely enjoying the buzz of excitement around another group of students completing a grade of studies. Monday saw 70 students receive certificates. Yeni, Edel, Manuel and the CPI Honduras Board organized the whole event. It went without a hitch so kudos to them all.

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

A number of observations:

 Maria Elsa, Gabina, Elin Banessa and José Erbin all took three Grades in our program. In less than eighteen months they completed three years of study.

It was also encouraging to see the way in which this educational opportunity has affected the self image of our students. Maria Elsa and Elin, especially, were very shy and retiring when they began. They even dressed in a very quiet way so as to make themselves invisible. As they have progressed in their studies, their dress and mannerisms have changed. It was moving to watch these students speak confidently in front of over 150 people.

A year of Junior High may not seem like a lot to people in some countries but here it is obviously something of great import. Notice the extent to which many of the students dressed up to celebrate their achievement. To be honest, I wore my best as well ... but certainly achieved nothing as spectacular ... sigh.

Two of the Grade Nine grads are planning on entering a Teachers’ College in January (Gabina and José Erbin). Less than two years ago, these two were looking at a rather bleak future. Now they can imagine and achieve a career as professionals. (Quietly do the Wave as you spin in your office chair.)

There were several groups of students who graduated because of the efforts of community members who were concerned enough to organize a learning centre in their homes. For me, this is especially exciting. When communities begin taking responsibility for organizing their own education, rather than waiting for the government or some other outside group to step in, everyone in the community benefits.  We had students graduating from twelve different communities.

Trinidad, from Las Delicias (and its setting of green mountains is truly delicious) has twenty students who meet in his home for studies. He has desks and computers for them to work at.  His wife teaches in the community kindergarten and has the school decorated with colours, cut outs and hand crafts.

Trinidad is a life long learner himself and is constantly studying new ways to grow crops, new plants to try and ways to value add to the crops they harvest. He has timber trees and fruit trees planted for long term income potential. He has over 2,000 coffee seedlings in place with hundreds more in his nursery. His house is surrounded by many unusual types of flowers.  It is exciting to talk with him because he knows so much and is able to grasp new ideas and mesh them with practical experience to come up with better solutions.

Elsa is a primary school teacher in La Barca. She helped organize almost thirty students and made space in the unused computer classroom in her primary school so that we could install four computers and give those students a chance to study. Yesterday I noticed one of the students over two kilometres from the school walking to her home.

Santos and Esperanza have a nursery and a knowledge of plants that is incredible. It is hard to walk through the nursery without filling the truck with plants. They organized a group of students in their community and encouraged them to continue studying.

Lydia in El Cipres opened her home for children to study and studies herself.

We are so pleased to have these and others contributing to the success of our students. It is interesting to note the confidence that this act of self-determination has given these people as well. They are beginning to take charge of their own future.

I think that is enough. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

TTYL

BB

P.S. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Latest Grad

Seventy students completed a grade yesterday. The staff organized a wonderful graduation ceremony. My part was basically to show up and look like a director. I did bake and decorate 20 round cakes. Since I have a toaster oven and a turbo cooker, that took a few hours. But, they all got eaten so that is good. I will write more later this week. Suffice it to say, for most of our students, this opportunity is huge and the extent to which they dressed up for the occasion illustrates this. Of course, having to get into pictures with the students is just part of the trials I go through in this project.

TTYL
BB

Projects

Keisy and Caminda Cooking Up A Treat

Satisfied Customer

And Another

We are having a number of students completing their work for a grade level. We may have over 60 ‘graduating’ in two weeks – fantastic news. Part of the requirements is to participate in a project which contributes to the welfare of their community. This week has seen three days of frantic activity to fulfill this part of their work. Two groups went to give presentations on the value of green leaves and to give cooking and tasting demonstrations as part of their talks. Yeni was their supervisor and she worked hard to help them have a colourful and informative presentation. A number of families are now aware of the potential of green leaves. They were able to try five different varieties of leaves in various ways. I am so excited about the potential of this project. As a very general rule of thumb, a half cup of cooked greens will provide a nursing mother with 50% of her calcium, all of her Vitamin A and C as well as a good portion of iron and some protein. Not a bad deal in my books.

Seda Presenting

A second project was talking about hygiene to two primary school classes. The students prepared coloured pictures of various hygienic practices, talked about them and left a copy of the pictures for classroom decoration. This project is also exciting because we are the only school program at this level that is having our students help out in primary schools. As well as being great from a learning perspective, it was also very good advertising.

Victor Presenting

Alejandra, Carla and Delvin

Glenda, Alejandra, Delvin, Ignacio and Leslie

Alejandra, Teresa, Carla, Leslie, Delvin, Glenda and Ignacio

Today we spent three hours on a third project. We planted seventeen different varieties of edible leaves in the school compound. Chaya, Moringa, Chipilin, Juniapa, Sweet Potato Vines, Mint, Lemon Grass, Spinach, Amaranth, Beets, Nasturtiums, Stevia, Native Cilantro, Leuceana, Cassava, Radishes ... I’m missing something ... but you get the point. A number of these are bush/tree type plants so they will provide a few layers of growth. It was the first time these students had handled these plants and, surprisingly, the first time to plant small seeds. We used cuttings, seeds and seedlings so they got a full lesson in ways to plant. Once we started writing down all the species, even I was surprised at how much we accomplished.

A note about the Vetiver grass we planted a couple of weeks ago. Most of them are sprouting so we should have a solid line of the plants in about three months. We have some Sikuma Wiki (a type of collard) with dinner plate size leaves. Manuel had two for lunch yesterday as a type of salad. He realized that one would have been more than enough. I hope they will go to seed so I can get some more planted.

Dennis, Victor and Felix

Reina, Karin and Suani - in planting mode

Manuel supervising Manuel, Felix and Dennis

Monday we should have another group working on edible plants. They will plant some chives and transplant some Sikuma Wiki and Amaranth. In another week, we should have some Malabar Spinach plants nearly ready for transplanting. I have about twenty here in Santa Cruz in bags and they have just germinated. Another thirty are growing in Santa Rita so that bodes well. Nutritional reports rank this plant as a ‘must have’.

Not all good news this week. We have a staff member who is a petty thief and so we now have to track down the person and get rid of him. That is so frustrating as it puts suspicion on all the staff. We hope to have an unofficial visit from a police person to do some interviewing on Monday.

TTYL

BB

Green Leaves

On Saturday morning, I cut a number of stalks of Chaya to make cuttings for planting at a project. Julia graciously harvested the leaves that I trimmed off and from the tops of the stalks. As well, Santiago had found a large branch of a Moringa tree on the ground. We harvested some of those leaves as well. The branch went for planting.

This morning I brought the bag of leaves to school. In addition, we had a small bag of beet leaves (Chepe and I found them sitting in a box by a vegetable seller destined for the garbage bin). We were having a cooking class for four girls who are going to make some posters about green leaves.

We began by chopping up the leaves and setting a small bunch in the pan for steaming. As the leaves finished steaming, we tried them alone, with vinegar and, finally, some butter (heavy cream). We tried both the chaya and the beets that way. The first bunch weren’t too well liked (the chaya are not a taste treat by themselves), but by the third or fourth set, they were being eaten quite happily (much to my surprise).

First taste of greens - rather apprehensive

The next session was to cook leaves in oil along with onions, jalapeño pepper and tomatoes. To this we added, in various batches, peanut butter, cheese (with peppers) and coconut milk. The peanut butter was the all round favourite with the coconut milk a close second. We needed a different variety of cheese that melts better.

All in all, a successful morning. The girls even took the leftovers home to let their families try. Again, a surprise for me. Yeni, one of our staff, has been cooking with leaves for a couple of weeks now so was a stalwart supporter of the whole enterprise. Other students meandered by to check on things. There will be many stories told tonight.

Professional tasters - more than one bite

Saturday morning, at about 5:00 a.m., Blanca, a worker at one of the projects, had her baby. It was number three so came rather quickly. When I arrived at 11.00 a.m. the house was cleaned, lunch was on cooking and she was ready to deal with project business. Her companion was obviously digging in and helping but she certainly had things under control. Rather amazing.

I took a bunch of food, diapers and what not. The lady in the store selling diapers was a great salesperson and did her best to make sure I went fully laden. I refrained from most of the stuff but did buy the small red band that was supposed to go around the baby to protect the healing navel. The person I was with assured me that this was an important item. I have no idea but enjoyed the sales pitch enough to cave in.

Saturday evening, I took in the farm and ranch show in San Pedro Sula. It was amazing to see the cattle and horses on display. Some beautiful animals. The Brown Swiss cows were my favourite and it certainly made me start calculating how I can get one or two. Will likely have to settle for a local breed first.

TTYL

BB