Phase Two

Here’s a picture of my room. Check out the vintage 40-year-old desk-and-chair set. Pretty sweet.

Here’s the dining room. Check out my curtains. I think I could be an interior designer.

I feel like I’m pretty well integrated into the community now. I don’t get stared at anymore, people know me by name (even if I don’t always know them). In other words, the awkward phase is over. I also feel comfortable at the school, and I’m starting to figure out who the movers and shakers are in the community.

In other words, it’s time for phase two. I’ve decided that I’m going to revive the decrepit school garden. There’s an area set aside for it already, but (with the exception of a small area that’s set aside for the custodian) it is abandoned and given over to mala yerba (weeds). My plan is to separate it into plots by grade, and have each grade spend an hour a week working on their plot.

My goals are twofold. First, the school needs to vary the kids’ diet. They need more fruits and vegetables, and what better way to accomplish that than with free food from the garden? The people here eat the same things day-in and day-out; rice, potatoes, plantain, yucca, chicken, occasional pork and fish. No fruits, no salad, very little calcium. I can attest firsthand to the need for a varied diet. Last week I was in constant stomach pain, was always hungry, and had no energy. I went to the doctor worried that I had a parasite. Her diagnosis? Malnutrition, caused by eating what the locals eat (I’m better now thanks to taking vitamins and eating fruits).

Second, the kids will learn how to setup a garden and can set one up at home, helping their families cut costs and eat more healthily.

A tangential third goal is to teach the kids the difference between organic and inorganic waste. I’d like to set up separate trash cans for each, and use the organic trash can to set up a compost heap which we can then use in the garden.

There is of course one small detail that I haven’t mentioned: I (the Peace Corps Agriculture volunteer) don’t know anything about gardening.

Side note: It would appear, to a casual observer, that I have decided that summers are a good time for me to start working jobs for which I am absolutely unqualified. Last year: waiter at Yellowstone National Park. This year: Head Gardener. Next year: Scuba Diving Instructor? Leave me some comments with ideas so I can start planning for next year.

…But I’m not going to let that stop me, as I have some excellent resources at my disposal. Peace Corps provides us with some excellent how-to guides, the custodian already has a lot of experience, my host mom knows her stuff, and there’s another volunteer 15 minutes away who’s an expert and is already running her school’s garden. So my role here is just to be a facilitator/manager (I can hear Sofia laughing) and put in a lot of manual labor. That I can do.

Phase 3 is likely to be an expansion of the waste program to the whole town and familial huertos, but I’m also starting to hand out surveys to people who I’ve identified as movers and shakers, seeking more ideas.