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Here's a tired but satisfied Jerome McDonnell setting up for the WBEZ Worldview Global Activism Expo at Northeastern University. The actual event (4/25/09) was, as they say: "Absolutely Fabulous!" Over 3000 people attended and learned about international peace & justice projects and met the activists featured on the Worldview Thursday series.
The break-out session I led on "Sustainable Strategies for Greener Gardens" was one of the best audiences I'd ever had: diverse, engaged, knowledgeable and with a sense of humor. Throughout the Expo, many fascinating people interested in our Earthways/AFOPADI project stopped by our table. We hope to soon connect with their generous offers of assistance. It amazed me that people with skills and connections I hadn't imagined materialized out of the air...which later in the day spawned ferocious thunderstorms to remind us all of the power of nature!Speaking of nature in general and landscapes in particular, Jerome said he was going to take a day off after the Expo to work in his garden. When we taped the 4/21/09 Worldview radio segment, we had discussed native plants, especially prairie grasses. So, yesterday, I asked him which ones he intended to plant. When you read this, I hope he'll be enjoying a much-deserved day of planting plugs of Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).
Saturday April 25th at Northeastern University. Free & Fabulous!I am honored and thrilled to be included. Stop by our table or come hear me speak at a break-out session at 2:30 pm. The topic is, of course, the Earthways/AFOPADI Reforesting & Organic Agriculture in Guatemala. Learn more about growing plants in difficult situations. Introduce yourself...
Re: previous post: I meant to say "Hollyhock." (This photo also by Judette.)
I've just watched the light fade on my first tulips (orange, three days ago) as the snow falls. Typical Chicago in April.
We have so many ways of defining beauty. When I spoke on WBEZ's Worldview last August, I surprised myself by voicing a desire to work with art once basic needs are stabilized in the Guatemalan villages where Earthways helps support AFOPADI's work. But of course it's a matter of art existing in different forms. People have long recognized the artistry of the weavings. To bridge her shyness, I compared the woman's huipil with the color of her gladiolus.
Below (Judette's photo), we got a demonstration of the intricate backstrap weaving process. Shortly afterwards, the weaver gave us samples of the natural shampoo (mostly aloe) she and 15 other woman have begun to manufacture. People did not use shampoo in the village before. This is one of the few successful micro-finance projects in the villages we visited. Another involves women who have learned how to slaughter their own pigs. Go local!
Up here on the outskirts of the village of Papel,
once the dry season arrives, there is no water source. Thus, you can only grow crops during the rainy season from about May through the harvest around October.
An exciting new development since my last visit in November 2007 is the installation of three cisterns in the town center of Papel. The cisterns serve the health clinic, the school and the marketplace every Saturday (which also inlcudes the municipal building and the church).
Water is collected from the rooftops during the rainy season and funneled into the cisterns. Here's a view down into one in March. The cisterns hold 30,000 litres each.
In college, I remember reading a poem by Erica Jong about eggplant (one of my favorite foods). In the poem, a Middle-Eastern bride gets returned to her father because her dowry was insufficient. The groom was promised his new wife could cook eggplant a 100 ways, but she could only produce 99.
This versatility with one food source reminds me of how corn fits into the Mayan existence. Not only can they cook it infinite ways (including the best tortillas & tamales I've sampled), but corn remains their spiritual staple as well. It's the crux of the Mayan Creation stories and as befitting its stellar place in the culture, numerous words define corn's substance. There are words for its different parts, as well as for various stage in the growing process. People's little corn growing spots are called "milpa." As a former poet, I relish the way the word forms in my mouth, rolls around like a smooth stone and emerges with the soft feminine ending, appropriately as corn comes from Mother Earth.
Below you can see coffee drying on top of a cistern. Since water is the source of life, we will focus on cisterns later, but for now, look at the subtle beauty of the beans colored by late afternoon light. These days, most of the coffee is grown in Mexico where the men in these Guatemalan villages migrate half the year, following work in crops or construction.
