Food Sovereignty and Youth Engagement

Greetings from San Isidro! The past two weeks have been busy,
productive, trying, and fun. The three of us (Sarah, Rebecca, and
Tomás) have spent most of our time getting into the swing of a regular
schedule for teaching at the 5 schools we are working with in
Vallecillo. As adorable as these kids are, we've always discovered
that teaching for hours at a time is physically and mentally
exhausting. With every lesson, though, we recalibrate and talk about
what worked and what didn't so we can improve the experience every
time we teach.

In our classes thus far we have covered salutations, numbers, ages and
asking about age, and colors for English, as well as deforestation,
climate change, oral health, and hygiene. Some of the highlights from
our lessons so far include playing a numbers game called Señor Tigre
and seeing the artwork the students at the Colegio produced depicting
their reasons for why trees are so important. We were truly touched
when one little boy wrote, ¨Cut one tree, plant two,¨ and when a
little girl wrote, ¨Plant a tree today, harvest life tomorrow.¨ These
children are really very thoughtful. When we taught the high school
students about climate change, we asked them to write a diary entry in
the year 2050 and imagine how their lives would change due to climate
change. Some of the kids had some really thoughtful ideas, and some
didn’t hesitate to say that cars would be illegal!

On days when we don't teach we regularly go with Marvin (our FIPAH
coordinator) to the fields to work with some local farmers. Usually we
learn (along with the farmers) about new, more sustainable farming
techniques from Marvin and then spend several hours helping plant and
clean the fields. All of this has been rewarding work and has helped
us integrate ourselves even further into the community. We have been
planting a lot of experimental seeds to see how different varieties of
corn and potatoes will grow in the region.

It hasn't all been work though. We've had ample free time to explore
San Isidro and also had the opportunity to travel to Jesus de Otoro to
spend time with the other Nourish folk. In San Isidro, we love to walk
down to Las Quebradas (a small river and waterfall that dries up
during the summer months) to cool down. This is especially enjoyable
when the running water isn't functioning and we haven't showered
recently.

In our free time we´ve also helped out some members of the community
with their own farms, played games with the local children, and spent
time learning how to bake bread and make tortillas from our friends
and neighbors. Our trip to Jesus de Otoro the weekend before last was
enjoyable because we got to reunite with 4 of our original group
members that we haven't seen since we were in La Ceiba and because we
learned a lot about how FIPAH operated in that region. Otoro is
metropolitan compared to San Isidro and all group members were very
happy to return to our wonderfully small and close-knit community of
San Isidro.

Next time we´ll be writing from Yorito where we´ll be attending a
Biodiversity Festival and helping out with FIPAH operations in that
region. Hasta pronto!

We are here representing Nourish´s first group to work in Vallecillo.
What an amazing initiative FIPAH has here! We arrived at night, after
a 10 hour trip from La Ceiba through bumpy mountain roads. When we
woke up the next morning, we were amazed by the beauty of our town,
San Isidro. We are surrounded by rolling hills dotted with grazing
cows, horses, chickens, pigs, and donkeys, and an angry burro who
brays every hour on the hour.

On the morning of our arrival we met with Marvin, the
FIPAH--Vallecillo director, and staff member Carlos to discuss the
role of FIPAH and our role here this summer. FIPAH--Vallecillo works
with 15 communities and 12 CIALs (Local Agriculture Research
Commitees) on participatory research. One of the projects that the
Vallecillo staffers have been working on is the S.O.S. seed banking
campaign, where they are working towards conservation and maintaining
biodiversity in the region. We have already visited three sites where
members from different CIALs are planting avacado, plantains and
coffee plants together to measure how an increased biodiversity will
increase the yields come harvest time. FIPAH has also been working
with the adult groups on climate change programs. By spreading
awareness about the effects of climate change and how to adapt crops
to these changes, the FIPAH workers help farmers prepare themselves
for possible increases in droughts and floods, like the ones they
experienced last year when almost the entire harvest was rained out.
FIPAH has also conducted personal finance workshops to dozens of
people in the villages. In fact, just this week, we bought jelly from
a very successful new microempresa (very small business) in town and
went to visit a small scale organic fertilizer business operated by an
18 year old farmer.

This week we also met with three of the five schools we will be
working with. The teachers were all excited to allow us to come and
share time and knowledge with the students. We have been working hard
to improve and make each lesson plan specific to the needs of the
different schools. Marvin and the teachers are both really open to the
idea of promoting knowledge about the upcoming elections, as well as
about sexual education--topics that are a bit more sensative than just
teaching English. We´re looking forward to exchanging points of view
with the kids on these important issues.

It is so exciting to observe and learn about the work that FIPAH does
here in the communities of Vallecillo. Having already seen the impact
of the organization thanks to the kind members of FIPAH, we have each
been inspiried to find a focus in the various activities FIPAH is
involved in. We know two months will fly by, but for now we are
excited as every day will bring new adventures and new knowledge.

Hasta Pronto,
el equipo de Vallecillo

Yesterday we arrived at the FIPAH office at aroud 10am or so, and got to work right away. We were able to accomplish most of what we had set out to do, thanks entirely to FIPAH's internet connection. After getting a preliminary idea of how we could be of best use to the facilitators of English classes in the communities of this municipality, we decided to develop some pronunciation guides, extended glossaries, and various activities to supplement the intruction. At about noon, we called our good friend who makes the most delicious baleadas, and said we would be dropping by to enjoy some of her delicious chocobananos (frozen bananas dipped in chocolate).

Just as thoughts of chocobananos were brewing, however, we heard the first hesitant drops of rain! It was intensely amazing hearing the fat droplets land on the tin roof, soon making a racket. We stepped outside to feel the downpour and were surprised to find that it was only sparsely raining.

I went back inside to continue working and in the meantime the storm really gained strength. The next time I looked out the door, the rainwater was actually flowing in streams across the grounds of the FIPAH office. The gutters were gushing and a whole population of ant-moth insects (not sure the proper name) had erupted from somwhere. Birds were swooping across the swarms, enjoying a feast. The gray of the sky really contrasted with the greens in FIPAH's research plots. The air became so cool I actually felt my first goosebumps since arriving in Yorito!

Locals describe the town as ¨fresh,¨ which is extremly fitting after experiencing the weighted heat of La Ceiba. Everyone seemed glad after the rain and the usually dusty roads were temporarily dampened.

Also, in a show of unbelievable kindness, our friend had her niece bring over eight chocobananos for us all the way to the FIPAH office under umbrella cover. It was unbelievably generous of her and I can't wait to spend more time with her (hopefully learning how to make baleadas).

After a long, beautiful drive (longer than Diana remembers because she slept through it last time), we arrived in Yorito! FIPAH has arranged for us to live in the old apartment of a Peace Corps volunteer right in the center of town. It is lovely and we are thankful for the immediate hospitality shown to us. Our exploration of Yorito starts today. We visited the library and Rachel, Anna, and Jaki met its director. He showed us all photos of when Diana went on a hike last year with the teens from Zona X. Now we are going to look at the house from last year and head over to the FIPAH office (once we find it... Diana remembers, right?).

We'll keep you posted on our exciting adventures!

Besitos,
Diana, Anna, Jaki & Rachel