Photo Time 4

The municipality of Berlin, El Salvador is particularly prone to disasters. LWR and partner, CEPRODE, have worked with the local community to ensure that they are prepared and know what to do when disaster strikes.

We visited a school in Berlin and the children demonstrated for us how well they know their evacuation plan. They had a goal of getting out of their classrooms and into their common meeting spot within five minutes--they did it in three.

Once the drill was done, the children played many games as they waited to go back to their classrooms. Here, one of our travellers, Laura, couldn't resist joining in the fun.

Photo Time 3

The three teenage beekeeping aficiandos demonstrating their craft for the LWR/Women of the ELCA Study Tour. When they finished their demonstration and explanations, we all got a taste of absolutely yummy honeycomb.

Photo Time 2

Josefina--a key leader in Apicafe and a 70-year-old coffee growing dynamo.

Photo Time

Cecil Maureen greeting the members of Apicafe on our behalf.

A Recipe for Growth

The women on this Women of the ELCA/LWR Study Tour certainly do not fit typical stereotypes--which is why I hesitate to offer you a recipe from this trip. BUT, I can't resist. Here goes nothing:

APICAFE's RECIPE FOR GROWTH

100 bags of chicken manure

100 bags of coffee hulls

30 bags of rice flour

100 bags of ash

3 five gallon buckets of cane juice or honey

30 bags charcoal

Enough fermented bio-organisms to make the magic happen

Mix well in specially under a specially constructed shelter with open sides. Allow to ferment for 17 days. After 17 days, add in micro-organizsms. At day 20, stir thoroughly. Let sit. On day 22, your "cooking" is complete. Shovel mixture into bags. Use on coffee plants, family gardens, banana trees, mango trees, papaya trees and anything else you grow for your family or for the market.

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Once your recipe is complete--sell bags of this miracle fertilzer for $4. To buy a bag of commercial fertilizer in El Salvador, you would have to pay $80. That means that your home grown and home cooked fertilizer sells for 95% LESS than commercial fertilzer.

Next step: Use the money you saved when you didn't have to buy commercial fertilizer to help send your child to high school and/or college. Use the organic fertilizer to feed your coffee plants. Know that your improved coffee plants will produce better coffee. And so on, and so on, and so on...

In other words -- your ingenuity, your hard work and your desire to improve your community have worked some wonders. Creating your own organic fertilizer plant will serve as one step in improving your cooperative, your community, your life.

Ok, now I will translate. Today our study tour group visit the Jucapense cooperative and the Apicafe Cooperative Consortium (made up of many cooperatives). These cooperatives and the consortium receive technical expertise, support and accompaniment from LWR partner FUNDE.

One of the many projects of these incredible communities is their organic fertilzer plant. At $80 a bag, commercial fertilzer is an agricultural input these farmers just can't afford. And, the farmers in these groups really don't want to use commercial fertilzer because it is bad for the environment and their health.

So, with assistance from LWR and FUNDE, these groups learned how to create rich, organic fertilizer from readily available materials--coffee hulls, charcoal, ash, rice flour, etc. (see recipe above).

The women on the tour counted today as their best day. Who can beat coffee cooperatives, a 70 year-old-coffee-growing-grandmother dynamo, teenage bee-keeping aficianados, and how fertilizer recipes, coffee growing, bee-keeping and many other agricultural pursuits have made this community proud, strong and self-sustaining?!

Whew, what a day! We've got many more stories to tell. But, the day has been exciting and long and we are off to bed. Tomorrow -- some time to process what we've seen and learned and some time to enjoy each other's company on the beach.

More later! Peace, Lisa B.

The Women (and a rooster) of La Pelota

This morning, LWR staff person, Bernard Coppens, met us in San Miguel. Bernard's incredible international program expertise and experience, along with his ability to connect with each and every woman in our group has added a great deal to an already incredible journey.

After a long drive down an incredibly dusty road that was lined with fences laced with cactus, we arrived at the La Pelota community meeting center. I knew that we were going to visit with members of a women's association that had planted many family gardens as part of their work. As I looked across the desert-like landscape, I couldn't imagine how anyone could make a garden grow or thrive in this seemingly dead soil. I didn't need my imagination as I looked at some of the most beautiful and healthy family farming plots.

LWR's work with our partner, the Association for Health Care and Social Services (ASPIES) and the local community began as a water project. In 2005, after Hurricane Stan, it seemed like the absolute greatest issue problem this community faced was access to clean water. The entire area was flooded as a result of Hurricane Stan. People lost their homes, their drinking water was contaminated and they were left with nothing.

LWR worked with APSIES and the community to ensure that wells were dug and that everyone had access to clean and safe water. As we accompanied the community, it became clear that clean water alone wasn't hadn't fulfilled the needs and desires of the community. The women of La Pelota wanted to address their living conditions and domestic violence that plagued their community.

After forming a women's organization, the women began to get trained in co-counseling techniques that, as they stated, "changed their lives." The co-counseling helped the women work on their self esteem, love and generosity toward each other while also giving them a good space to get out their emotions and fear. As one woman stated, "These sessions help us, but, they also helped our husbands and our families. We were able to take home what we learned and practice it with our husbands and families."

One of the women, Candida Rosario Segovia de Guzman said, "Co-counseling has taken away our fear. After the war, we were afraid of everything. And then, our life as share croppers, living on land we didn't own made everything worse. The sessions took away our fear, we aren't totally dependent on our husbands and we feel independent and useful."

During a visit to the home of Irma Morales, our group got to hear and see what a difference the women's association has made in the lives of those living in La Pelota. As we stood outside Irma's house, she told us her story. No one in La Pelota owns their land. The land owners continually try (and often succeed) to kick the families off of the land. She told us that she would like to live in a more dignified house, but she only builds her house to a certain point because she never knows when the landowner might destory her house and take the land away.

Irma, her husband and three children get by on just $35 dollars a week. Irma used a microcredit loan from the women's association to begin making and selling tortillas and pupusas. But no matter how hard she and her husband work, they cannot get ahead.

What is one of the keys to Irma's (and her family's) future? Her twelve pound, "improved rooster" (a bigger, better, healthier rooster than she had before) that she had just received from the women's association. Her very empassioned story ended with a tour of her brand new chicken coop. She told us that she had built such a solid chicken coop because she knew she'd need it to house her new rooster from the women's association. She talked about how she knew that once her chickens began to multiply, she'd have enough more chickens and plenty of fresh eggs. The eggs and some of the chickens will mean that she and her family of five will be able to suplement their diet with much-needed protein. Extra eggs and chickens will allow her to earn money that she hopes will help her family live a more dignified life. You can imagine the laughter a large group of women (and a few men) shared when Irma told us that she needed her rooster to "get busy"!

We are in San Miguel for the night. Tomorrow, we are off to see more LWR projects and meet with more LWR partners.

More tomorrow. Peace, Lisa B.

15 Fabulous Women

Just in case you've been wondering, here's a photo of the fifteen of us that are travelling together on this LWR/Women of the ELCA Study Tour. We're all "gussied up" for our meeting with Bishop Gomez. Thanks for taking a look at our blog. Peace, Lisa B.