More plant chat

Re: my last post: many of you had a good guess on the species tulips for the cream one. You guessed Tulipa dasystemon...but if you look closely, which Jill Selinger of the Chicago Botanic Garden did (she's a bulb expert), you would have seen the blueish foliage and recognized Tulipa turkestanica. It's an early bloomer that goes for years...just needs it well-drained and the more sun, the better. The other, red tulip, was the species clusiana, but I've forgotten the cultivar.
Now to these plant pix. Above, were some containers with perennials and annuals that should last until October....We planted them Tuesday expecting cold temps (we had a dusting of snow this morning), but I was surprised they weathered the 5 inches of torrential rains we had Wednesday & Thursday.
Below, is a Bromeliad I brought this client of many years...the astonishment there was to see that it exactly matched an ashtray of hers!

The First Species Tulips...

...Bloomed this week! Do you know these little beauties?

Mayan Mam Elders

During my guatemalan site-visit, I was inspired by several Mayan Mam elders who took part in AFOPADI programs. Their continued energy and commitment, not to mention beauty, inspires me.
Today, I was speaking with a colleague here in Chicago, a terrific architect in his 60s with a long white beard. We were discussing society's attitude towards those of us who are not "youth." Mostly he gets called Santa Claus, though he has noted an uptake in hip young men complimenting his beard so he is wondering what current band has a member sporting a beard. He also noted that his Asian clients have a totally different attitude coming from cultures where elders are respected. I have always believed that it takes a community, not just in terms of age, but also in skills, personality types and experience.

I'll be speaking about my guatemalan trip on WBEZ's Worldview 2 April 2013

This woman is a midwife and an agricultural promotor. She has 10 kids and finally got the courage to leave an abusive husband.

On Tuesday, April 2nd, I will be speaking for about 10 mins. on WBEZ's Worldview, likely at the end of the show unless somebody doesn't show. This is all exciting & fun and in preparation for SSG's participation in the Worldview Global Activism Expo this Saturday from noon to 6 pm at the UIC Forum. In the hope that pictures speak louder than words, I post a few here of some of the inspiring people I spent time with on my recent SSG and Earthways visit to AFOPADI in Guatemala.

 This man lives in a village dry as dust with little available water. He practices permaculture and has made amazing strides with the land and internally. A total optimist! 

This man used to work in the mines. Now he is like the Johnny Appleseed of AFOPADI, an agricultural promotor who is a true man of the earth.

Finally there is me with one of the sweetest of the women I have met and have known since I first started visiting the AFOPADI projects in 2005. She witnessed her brother being executed in front of the whole village during the war. She is a wonderful weaver of cloth as well as being able to weave her way through the daily reality of that legacy.

Home again, Hippity Hop

In the midst of reverse culture shock, not sure where to begin. Why not plants?
Blooming Beauty high atop the mountains AND dust amidst a dry season compounded by Climate Change.
Appropriate for Easter...

Climate Change in Gutemala

So here we are in the "developing world," in a country with far less means than the US...the other day, one of the two newspapers had a big spread about the impact of Climate Change. It discussed which regions in Guatemala  would become far more dry in the future. Here, the question of water and land accessibility already impacts who can eat enough and who is malnourished (52% of the country and in the region AFOPADI works, between 72 and 82% of the Indigenous are malnourished according to a recent AFOPADI study), so you can imagine the negative repercussions from less rain and all the impacts that follow.
Where AFOPADI works (and SSG supports), the dry season is normally from November through April. This past year, the dry season began in September...in Chicago, we had a severe drought so, who knows how we are all connected. Anyway, I have been visiting this area since 2005 and I have never encountered such intense heat here. People imagine that extra month of the dry season intensified the heat. By late morning, it´s been too hot to be out in the sun for more than a few minutes until the wind sweeps in mid-afternoon and it´s bearable. People plan their day around the heat, leaving for market early and returning so they avoid the mid-day sun. The rains normally begin in May and the Mayan ceremonies include this as part of their annual, seasonal rituals...I wish we had more integration with the land and the seasons and the weather in the US.
The area where AFOPADI works has such poor land that only the Indigenous migrant workers farm it because they have nowhere else to grow subsistance crops. Through AFOPADI permaculture practices (compost, terracing, avoiding monocultures and chemicals), yields are improved, but people still don´t own enough land to support the nutritional needs of their families. Around here, advocating for land reform can still get you killed. Just last week one leader from Platforma Agraria was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated. Another was kidnapped. This is all happening just as Guatemala is making History in terms of its past governmental and military use of Genocide. The former President during the early 1980s, Rios-Montt, is finally being brought to trail after eleven years of the cases being brought against him. He presided over the government during the worst years of the genocide against the Indigenous. There is much documentation of the atrocities during the 30-year-war that began after the CIA coup against the democratically-elected, Socialist President, Arbenz in 1954. Even though it is likely Rios-Montt will not be convicted, it´s amazing that the proceedings were broadcast over the Internet.
Yes, to more transparency! 

Hi from Guatemala

High heat, dry season began a month early...Climate Change possibly.
High poverty.
High inspiration from AFOPADI, step by step positive change.
High gratitude for all of it, especially teas from medicinal plants in the garden.