emphasis on the ¨relatively¨. I don`t exactly have the structure of a
9am-to-5pm, Monday-to-Friday job. But I am arranging things to be more
structured so that I can work more efficiently and be more effective.
Each morning during the week I teach elementary school groups about water
conservation in the ecological reserve in town called Cachaco. It´s a great
spot for teaching about that particular environmental issue because there are
about twenty fresh water springs welling up throughout the park. The water has
a high mineral content, and the park actually gets its name from this phenomenon.
The word ¨cachaco¨ is from two Kichwa words: kachi and yaku, which mean ¨salt¨
and ¨water¨, respectively. At some point, Kachi-yaku turned into Cachaco. Alot
of indigenous groups perform their rituals there because they believe the water
to have healing properties. Pretty neat, and a great spot for teaching children
– lots of birds, native plants, and other things to observe. It`s a good gig
and it provides me with a bit of structure in my time.
The afternoons and early mornings are when I often work with the women`s group,
Familias en Union y Trabajo (Families in Union and Work). We have mingas
(community work sessions) every Tuesday morning at the crack of dawn, and the
women are alot of fun to work with. Recently I presented them with a method of
making a garden bed called double-digging. The method is from biointensive
gardening (a fusion of biodynamic and traditional French peasant gardening),
and it basically involves aerating the soil about two feet down and creating
wide, raised beds. Because the soil is loose deeper down in this type of bed,
the plants can send their roots deeper, and you can grow veggies closer
together – optimizing the amount of space you have in your garden.The book that
describes it all (along with loads of other things, like planting according to
the moon) is How to Grow More Vegetables than you ever thought posible on less land than you can imagine by John Jeavons. We made one bed for experimentation, and I have seeds sprouting in the
greenhouse that we`ll plant as soon as they`re ready. As leaves are falling in
the northeast of the U.S. we`re sowing seeds down here on the equator. Trips me
out.
Other project-related news. Last week I went to a three-day course on how to
start/promote community banks, and in early December I`ll be going to a
week-long course in the coast to learn more about permaculture. Peace Corps
Ecuador puts on about one course each month to build the capacity of volunteers
to serve their communities. What`s great about it is that we`re required to
bring a project partner from our communities. While it`s nice that I can help
start community banks in Amaguaña, I´ll only be here for just a year and a half
more. Having brought a project partner from my site, I know that Amaguaña will
have someone to promote and facilitate the creation of community banks further down
the road when I`m gone. As volunteers, our projects can be sustainable only if
we`re not the ones ultimately running them. We train service providers.
Capacity building and empowerment of individuals in our communities are our
main focus in this sense.
Some photos para disfrutar (to enjoy!):
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