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An aloe vera plant grows
in front of my house. A curtain of corn stalks (left) provides
some shade from the afternoon sun. Photo provided.
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I recently had the interesting chance to work with a team of U.S. Army
reservists who are building a school in El Congo, about an hour south
of here. They are working with the Salvadoran Army. My role was to translate
between the two groups. I spent two days working with them and enjoyed
it a lot.
Both the Americans and the Salvadorans were a friendly lot, and even
though it was blisteringly hot with little shade and constantly blowing
dust, it was great. We were putting up the building with a new technique,
threading together hundreds of numbered vinyl tubes over rebar. After
it's all up and braced, the tubes are filled with concrete. It's pretty
cool. It's good to see armies working together to build a school rather
than involved in death and destruction.
In the past, a small village in El Salvador had almost no opportunity
for local government. Since the 1992 peace accords, it is possible to
set up an ADESCO, or community development association. This allows
the community to be proactive and solicit funds locally, nationally,
and internationally.
I happened to arrive just as a critical mass of interest was building
here, and I have been able to support it. We recently had our third
meeting. Right now we are trying to get all the paperwork and bylaws
ready so we can get actual legal status.
I'm having some of my first experiences with small town politics, very
much related to the aforementioned small town gossip! Getting legal
status seems within reach, but of course it's only the very first tiny
step toward getting the community to take its destiny in hand.
I don't have anything formal going in the area of agriculture, but
I'm working with, and getting to know, the local farmers. Several have
become my closest friends.
Almost everyone realizes that current farming practices are not very
profitable and harm the environment. However, change is costly, risky,
and involves the unknown.
I'm going to try to encourage methods that incorporate trees more into
the system, and also include some soil conservation practices. There
is so much potential to improve the system, I think. And in many cases,
the techniques are out there and they work. They just have to be implemented
... as if that were just a small thing.
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