After approval from the Ministry of Health,
we began to plan. The grant we were
applying for required an HIV/AIDS component, so we had to incorporate education
into the mix. Greg, our environment
guru, was happy to help with the vegetable garden, but also wanted to try out
his newly-designed economic stove which uses less wood and redirects
smoke. We also decided that an event
would be a great way to finish the project and show the community the improvements that would be made. So what was at
first a two-tiered idea soon became a five-tiered monster! I wrote the proposal and sent it off to
Washington.
We recruited students from the Instituto
Público de Boaco (public high school) and volunteers from the local YMCA to
help with the vegetable garden. Simply
cleaning up the garbage took an entire weekend.
Unfortunately, it has not yet caught on in Boaco that throwing garbage
on the ground instead of in a garbage can is a. rude, b. bad for the
environment, and c. ugly to look at.
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| Kelli recruiting |
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| Garbage clean-up BEGIN! |
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| YMCA working hard as usual! |
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| Greg and Instituto students |
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| Peace sign break! |
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| First week of garbage collection |
We then had to weed and figure out a good plot
for planting veggies. Then the real work
began! Digging holes, sifting dirt,
hauling rocks, etc. Another method of
garbage disposal in Boaco is burying it in the ground or burning it. So we found just as much garbage in the soil as we did above it. If you are wondering at this point whether or
not there is a garbage pick-up system in Boaco, the answer is yes there
is. But old habits die hard.
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| Greg showing us how it's done |
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| Sifting dirt. In spanish the tool is called a zaranda. |
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| Hauling weeds |
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| Plots of okra and bell pepper. If you look closely enough you can see their sprouts! |
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Plots of carrot, onion, and edamame.
No, people here don't know what edamame is. Or okra for that matter. |
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| Squash! |
By the end of April we had made 5 plots for
vegetables and even an organic compost!
Seeds currently growing:
Carrot
Onion
Edamame
Bell Pepper
Okra
Squash
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