Yummy times three

Here is a little follow up on the last blog of cool and beautiful things in the cantons ...

1.  The chicken was yummy.  (Sorry ... she is no longer with us).  Jesus came and did the dirty deed of killing her off and Idalia cleaned and cooked her.  The rest of us ate her.  I didn't know that till after the fact.

She was yummy ... but a TOUGH bird. 

2.  Monster mangos are green inside - and not sweet.  But it was still good.  Best with some salt and chili.  Not my favorite though.  I prefer the sweet.  We all shared one ... and sent the other one home with 11 year old Marvin (Cecilia's younger son).  He was thrilled! 

3.  Normal mangos when ripe are YUMMY.  Sweet and juicy - the juice will literally roll down your chin as you eat as well as down your forearms to your elbows.  And it is stringy meat surrounding a large pit.  So if you are lucky and have a knife, you can slice a wedge off and scrape the fruit off the peel with your teeth and letting the juice go all over.  If you are in the middle of nowhere and want to enjoy one - you bite off a piece of the skin and attempt to peel.  You bite the fruit off the peel and the pit.  A lovely MESSY MESS.  And you can't worry about the juicy mess while you eat a mango.  That takes away the fun and would be a waste of napkins. 

I waited till we were at the Pastoral House for my mango treat.  And I sliced it.  But I was still a mess when done.

What was given to us in Virginia the other day.  Two of the larger mangoes and lots of regular ones

My just consumed snack.  I had to clean up before starting this mini blog.

How is it??

How is it I always end up with the chicken?

And since Alejandro was driving, it ended up on my lap for the entire hour ride back to Berlin.  BUMPY ride I might add.  And I am pleased to say it did not poop on my once. 

The following pics are just some beautiful things I saw in Virginia today.  We were doing the 'final' water filter verification, changing lids, diffusors and exit tubes and giving two new cantaros to those who continue to use their filters.  We had 18 family visits today.  Going door to door. 

I know what hard work this is ... it takes a long time and much muscle.  But she is beautiful.

I LOVE this chair. 

These and the following were all in one person's yard. 

Two families up this path ... two water filters in good use! 

And Cecilia has such a lovely grace about her. 

Even in the most rocky, muddy paths - she seems so elegant.

Natural beauty

Elias is holding a MONSTER mango.  Irma is laughing at my disbelief!

A 'normal' mango on the right ... the monster mango on the left. 

Nances are in the guacal in the upper right corner.   All were gifted to us before we left.

Irma said our visit was so special ... she said she spends so much time 'crying' that our presence brought her a great joy.  I don't think there are many visitors that get down to where she lives ... the road is quite bad - and as the winter here contines - it will only get worse and eventually un-passable.

I call these 'lobster claws' - but I daresay they have a real name. 

Absolutely incredibly beautiful and unique.

These also have a THICK petal (or leaf - it might be a 'fake flower'  I know there is a technical term for that ... I just can't think of it - when the leaf is vibrant to attract birds/insects because it really has no flower - someone help me out here!!  haha)

All of these plants are in Irma's yard 

Even "just the green things" are beautiful

Getting to know you …

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks.  We hosted a delegation of 5 people from Dallas Center for a week and since they left on the 15^th, I’ve been catching up and attending to different obligations and activities.

One highlight of our delegation week:

A thing I particularly enjoy doing is going to our partner churches communities.  And as tiring and exhausting as it can be, I LOVE to go walking door to door to talk to the people.  It is a great way to get to know the community a little better  - this time we asked questions about what grade their children were in (which is always interesting to see a 17 year old in 4^th grade).  We also asked if the land on which they had their home theirs or rented or if they were caretakers.  Then we asked about their farmland: owned or rented and how much land they had.

Some delegates worry about being rude but no one finds these types of questions intrusive.   People here like to talk about their lives.  And when the North Americans come and actually take the time and make the effort to walk in those extreme conditions of heat and sun, dust and dirt, steep hills up and down, rocky, slippy, narrow paths and needing to dodge all manner of large animal pooh – as well as the animals themselves (dogs, cats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, cows, horses and pigs) well – suffice it to say – folks here really appreciate the efforts made by their Iowa family members! 

We don’t get to stay as long as we’d like – but in every home we are welcomed in.  And whoever is there – man, woman or child - they try to find a place for some of us to sit be it a worn out and holey hammock, a very tired plastic chair, a tree stump or humble wooden plank bench.  We are hugged and told ‘pase adelante’ (come on in).  We step onto their dirt floors, look THROUGH their walls to the outside, breathe in the oppressive smoke from their cooking fires, try not to trip over the chickens running under foot and smile and talk and love each other.

The best thing is that not only the delegates get to put a face on their Salvadoran family – but the Salvadoran gets to put a face on their new Iowa family.  It makes the partnership real.  It builds a beautiful connection.  Everyone can now say a prayer for and think about each other with a face in mind. 

So our 5 delegates walked to 119 homes in 3 days – also taking the time to meet with the Directiva (the town council) and share a Celebration of the Word.  What a blessed week.

Virginia home

A beautiful family in Virginia

A steep entry to a home site

Ahi no masito!!!  (not far now!!) hahahaha

Making a 20 point turnaround with lots of 'helpers' STOP!!!!

Blanca and Kathy

Walking by the unpredictable horses and cows

and pigs ...

This is what it's all about!  Maria and friend

And what beauty!

No Maria ... you can't take her home!

I think C.J. is in love!

Blind and very emotional about our visit!

New friends

And I can never resist holding a baby

Lots of walking

... and walking

and walking with a helpful hand

and climbing

through the crops

but worth the walk

Tortilla making

peeking in at the visitors

TWINS!  Thanks for coming to the rescue Mitch

Absolute beauty

Very humble home

obstacle courses

Each family received a new hammock!

Shelling red beans

Don't mess with these big boys

17 days old

The Twins

Cecilia either tapping for me to go ... or to stop.

And some people ask why we are here!! 

amendment

done with the census.

115 families with 519 people.

Time to close the books for the night!

May 24, 2010 – There and Back Again

We left the house at 8 a.m. and didn’t get home till 5:15 p.m. It’s been a full day.

We woke up to rain – it had been raining quite hard since about 2 a.m. – and it was still raining strong when we got up at about 5:30 … and I was worried. We had a full day of driving and visiting cantons planned. And the roads can get VERY bad when wet.

This morning we planned to go to El Tablón Cerna with 4 people from the UCA and 3 from the ‘Ministerio de Agricultura y Granaderia’ (MAG).

This was the ministry’s first visit to get a sense of the Cooperative being formed in Cerna. They are the ones who create and enforce the legal requirements of Cooperatives. If they don’t think a group is ready or able to become a co-op, they can deny the petition. So this was to be a very important meeting.

The rain finally stopped about 7:30. The UCA and MAG people arrived at 8 and we were on our way.

Two of the Ministry people spoke for over 3 hours. They explained in more detail what the requirements are and their rights and responsibilities as a co-op. It was really quite interesting. They spoke well and were very clear. They were really good with the members of the co-op. And the few times they asked questions of the community people, they received good responses.

There are now officially 21 members. And it looks like they are good to go

It was a good meeting but long. And hot. The UCA folk did bring a snack. They brought pop for everyone and WONDERFUL pastries. I’m glad they did, because I had forgotten to eat breakfast!

I was so sleepy during this meeting – the heat and sitting for so long does me in. And for as well as these men spoke and as interesting as it was, I had to keep biting the inside of my cheek to keep my eyes open. Mostly it was the heat.

The meeting ended about 12:45 – Otilia and I had driven to Cerna in the Pastoral House truck because we had a mass to go to in Virginia right after our MAG meeting. The UCA people and the MAG people drove in their own vehicles.

Otilia had packed a couple of tamales for us to eat between Cerna and Virginia – and a couple of cheese sandwiches. But – bless their hearts – the UCA folks handed us a Quizno’s bag with two big sandwiches! (Yes… I did say Quizno’s). That was SO nice of them. We were very surprised. They also sent the leftover pastries home with us! YUM

Virginia is a canton very close to Cerna – about 20 minutes or so away from Cerna. We were not planning to go back to the Pastoral House first because the mass was to start at 1:30 and it would have been WAY out of our way to go home and return. We had been invited to attend this special mass for their Patron Saint. They had lunch before and snacks after … they had a band from Alegria come in complete with keyboard and big drum set. They are a good group.

We got there right as the mass started. Father Santos was already there looking very hot in his vestments. It was a regular mass but we also had a baptism.

And the church was crowded. And of course, it was hot. And now I had a full tummy so I was really sleepy. But the music helped. And the frequent changing of posture – standing to sitting to kneeling …

But then the rain began to fall again. And it rained hard. I really hate to drive the muddy roads in the rain. But what to do – no sense worrying. I would just go slowly. So we enjoyed the rest of the mass. We didn’t linger afterwards though. Otilia needed to get back for a 4 p.m. meeting in her community. We left Virginia about 2:45 with bags full of little sandwiches, fruit drink and pan dulce. We made it home within an hour. Not too bad considering the (now lightly) falling rain. And we have a good truck – 4x4 standard shift.

As soon as we got to the Pastoral House, we needed to get Otilia to her community for that meeting. Alejandro was at the house, so we took advantage to give him some driving time in and give me a break from driving.

When we got to San Lorenzo, the meeting had already started. The church (meeting place) was packed. 2 people from InterVida (an NGO that does really good work in the communities) and 2 people from City Hall were leading the meeting. They were talking about being organized. This community needs help in this department. The 2 community leaders (there should be 11 active) are doing it all with no support from the rest of the community. So this was a motivational meeting – and an educational one. The community is in need of more involvement from more people. I wasn’t planning to stay at this meeting, but Otilia asked if I wanted to come in for “a bit” … sure I said. An hour later I was still there … it was a good meeting. Again – GREAT speakers from InterVida. They said that if a community is organized and working together to better the community … with a legal Directiva (city board) then they can come in and work and bring projects to better the community. But without that – they cannot come. Same with City Hall. Same with other institutions. Without a legal Directiva and a community that cares about their own well-being – organizations won’t even consider bringing projects in.

I left before the hand count of people willing to unite to work to better themselves. By then it was beginning to get dark and raining again. And we needed to get back.

I can’t believe I had enough energy to even write this… I’ll save my official Cerna/UCA/MAG report for tomorrow though. I think I’m going to hit the hay!