so, i was talking to andy, one of the kids shown in one of my latest posts, last friday.

sometimes, on a friday or saturday night, i go to Antigua, a tourist town with good restaurants/bars/things to do and meet up with friends that happen to be in the area. it's expensive there in terms of my budget/a guatemalan's.

andy asks me "you going out to antigua tonight?". I say "nope".

I ask andy (five year old) "you going out to antigua tonight?" Andy says, "yeah, like i have any money (Suggesting that it was a really dumb questions to ask him solely because of his lack of funds)."

my house

seed purchase

With the 3 women's groups that i have, we've been learning about how to make compost piles, cut the tires, blah blah blah. We're ready to plant now.

When i was in my old site, i sold seeds. I decided to take a different approach to seed attainment now. The villages that i work in are closer to an "urban center", so they have more of an ability to go and make the purchase. That doesn't make it easy. The women have never bought seed before, and it's a rather and somewhat daunting endeavor.

What i am doing now, and hopefully, it's done, and i won't do it again, is literally teach people how to buy seed. It may seem really simple and easy, but it's kind of necessary. Were i to only tell people "go buy seeds", it wouldn't happen, and they may end up getting ripped off. I went around in town and priced the seeds at a bunch of different places in order to find the cheapest and highest quality seeds. Then, we had group meetings to decide what they wanted to plant (ended up mostly radishes, cilantro, cucumbers, and carrots). Then we asked each woman to chip in 75 cents. Today we made the purchase. I asked the women to come in to town, and I met them there, we then went to the store, and they bought them. Now, within the groups, we are going to split up the seed so that everyone has a little bit of each variety to plant in their homes.

Next time, they're completely on their own.

They laugh. I tell them, it's not that i'm a jerk/lazy and don't want to help them out with their seed purchase. I tell them that I want them to be able to do it on their own.

Empowerment.

That was cheesy.

tires

Been working with women's groups teaching them how to cut and prepare tires to plant in. The idea with the tire is to have a place close to one's house, that saves water, can be prepared with a good mix of soil, and is cheap and durable. Tires fit this bill. The machete must be sharp to cut. And, must be several times while cutting. I was joking with the ladies that after the machete is sharpened, that it's like cutting margarine. People don't really have butter, would be lost in translation.

Here they are, planting in the tire

well trained

the kids were playing with some post-it notes of mine. they were writing on them and posting them on my door. without me saying anything, what ended up written on them is as follows;

"No knocking, don't bug jake and do what he says"

"Don't put your dirty hands in jake's food"

"A E I O U"

addendum to the lentils

ok, so make the soup as detailed below.

then about halfway through the cookin', throw a can of corn in there.

then, when you eat the soup, take a whole avocado (chunked), and put it in that bowl of yours with the soup.

i know you're saying, "but avocadoes are soooo expensive here in America!" First off, quit your cryin', second, this is a cost benefit analysis. the benefits of that avocado easily make any cost pretty much zero.

this soup will make you believe in a higher power, or more higher powers.

don't let them fool you

Names: Harold and Andy

Occupations: Unemployed

Crime: Not washing their hands, entering without permission, asking too many questions, not listening.

Quotes: "Bend down, open your mouth, and close your eyes."

"Give us cake."