Nourish and Organic Urban Agriculture

Much has happened since the last blog entry, so we will try to get everyone caught up. Last Tuesday, the day before we started the project, we all went with Alicia to the headquarters of Conquito, a corporation of the local government that works to bring together many different actors in the society to accomplish development goals. The building is full of job search opportunites, offices, and meeting rooms that all provide opportunites for development and business ideas to be realized. We met in a conference room to hear the basis of the Conquito agricultural development ideas and how they relate to the projects we will be working on with Triple Salto. It was great for us all to hear the ideals behind the projects and be presented with the long term and widespread affects our work and the work of other similar groups will have.
Wednesday we began the project. The seven of us are working with two engineers from Conquito, Luchito and Diana, who will lead us in the structural aspects of the greenhouse and some of the high school staff, as well as high school students who have decided to come to the school even though it is their break because they want to work on the project. There was no hesitation in starting and from the first post holes we have been working extremely efficiently. By the end of the first day we had the main greenhouse frame up and the ground weeded. We have made a great impression because we have all been efficient workers motivated by our own excitement to be here doing this.
The project continued well through the rest of last week. The greenhouse has continued to develop quickly. There are so many pieces and details that all come together to create a solid structure. We placed beams and cables and wrapped the junctions with cloth like injured appendages for reinforcement, then wrapped long beams of bamboo with plastic and climbed up on our wooden frame structure to bend them across as the roof. Yesterday was a big day in terms of the appearance of the house because we wrapped it all in plastic. Lead by Luchito, we measured and cut the heavy sheets of plastic. It took the whole crew to get the sheets held in place while we took turns hammering them and pulling them taught against the frame. Today everyone got a chance to sweat inside the humidity of the now fully sealed house. We measured out the beds with strings and dug out the trenches, then filled them with grass that will compost and provide nutrients to the plants, and of course caca de cuye (guinea pig manure) as fertilizer, covered by soil. Tomorrow the tomatoe seedlings are going to be delivered along with trees to plant outside. Meanwhile everyone has done their share of weeding the existing beds of veggies and a bench is being constructed.
On the more creative side of the project we have designed and now nearly finished the mural, which has become an awesome piece of artwork step by step. Hopefully we will be able to upload photos of it soon, but we will assure you it is beautiful. A greenhouse, beds of tomatoes, flowers, a river, a broccoli forest, a orange slice sun, with a big tree in the middle and Quito mountain range as the backdrop, the continents of the world outlined by a bright blue sky, bordered by fruits and veggies.
Work has been great, but we have been also been having fun exploring. For the most part when we get back on the bus from work we are all tired and ready to relax, but we have been going to the market to pick up all sorts of delicious fruits and veggies and other foods to make dinners. We carry our things up the hill to the house which is a great climb. Because we have been tired we have not been going out much at night but we have been hanging around the house reading, journaling, visiting, but some of us went to an Ecuadorian ballet last week and we went out for Mexican food last night as a group with Tachi and Alicia.
This past Friday we took a great trip to Otavalo. After a friendly, but competitive game of fútbol after work with the students and some of the adults we work with in which Ecuador won 7-4 to the United States we took a 2 hour bus ride from Quito and arrived in Otavalo around 4. We found our beautiful hotel, Hotel Otavalo, which is a colonial house that has been converted into a hotel. We were given our rooms and surprised to find that we had been given one room with 2 beds for Julia and Bridget, one room with 6 beds for Renata, Marie, and I, and another 6 bed room for Chris and Adrian. We went to ask the woman if it was a mistake, but she smiled a big grin at us and told us those were the rooms she had available and so we could all sleep in two beds if we needed. After showering off the workday dirt and grime we went out to dinner. We went to a small restaurant called Restaurante Otavalito. An excellent band of indigenous men played some awesome Andean music with flutes, guitars with at least 16 stings, drums, pig hoof shakers, and violin. We all really enjoyed the music and bought a cd as a group from them. The food was traditional Ecuadorian food and all were satisfied, but pulled ourselves away from the music to walk in search of a pie shop that Tachi had told us we must go to. Thanks to Julia’s excellent map work we found the shop just as it was about to close. Mora, an Ecuadorian fruit similar to blackberries but more purple, was the pie of choice, but there was some apple and blueberry had as well. Bellies full and happy, we went to bed.
We woke up to a bustling Otavalo Saturday morning, almost forgetting it was Independence Day in the U.S.. First stop was the animal market. A huge crowd of people all observing and purchasing all sorts of animals from bags of guinea pigs and chickens, cages of rabbits and chicks and ducklings, puppies, kittens and even a turkey. After the animals, we ventured on to markets that line nearly all of the streets. Vendors selling everything from indigenous handicrafts, to pig heads, to fresh pineapple on sticks, to knock-off Abercrombie and Hollister sweatshirts were expanding from the full center plaza outwards through the town.
After we had explored as many of the streets as we could handle we returned to the hotel for lunch and then headed off with Fernando and Tachi to Lago Cuicucha which is a beautiful crater lake about thirty minutes from Otavalo with high green mountains with foggy mist capping them, even though it was sunny and warm in the town. Some of us took a boat ride that circled around the mountain in the center of the crater.
On Sunday morning we woke up early to head to La Cascada Peguche, a waterfall a short bus ride from Quito and gentle walk outside of an indigenous village. Not only was the initial view of the falls beautiful, but we also got nice and misty adventuring above and into a cave that lead us to an awesome open cavern with another fall on the backside. After the fall we followed a lovely little stream and found some awesome meadows. We all boarded the bus with red bites from mosquito-like critters that make you bleed, but no worries, not malaria in the area.
After a long and crowded bus ride we arrived back in Quito around 4pm and some us went to call our parents in “Gringoland”, which is newer Quito where the white tourists generally stay and we can use internet and phones. Back at the house we all crashed, tired after the fun and games of the trip, but woke up ready to get back to the project and have been working just as efficiently as we started off, surprising all with our attitudes and motivation. So we find ourselves now being lazy around the house reading, emailing, napping, laying low so that we will be up for going out with Tachi and her friends this evening. Tomorrow at the project we are going to have a paper workshop put on by a friend of Alicia’s who makes paper from recycled produce and garbage, so we’ll let you all know when all of this first project is complete and we head to the coast at Machalilla National park to work on a reforestation and conservation project.