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Week 5: Sumpango and Santa Rosa

25 June 2015

We’re so close to finishing working at Sumpango! The irrigation system was put into place on each of the raised beds on Tuesday. Next week, we’ll just work on testing it out and putting in the last few touches. After working at Sumpango, we headed over to San Bartolo and we helped sift out some fertilizer that was ready to be sold while Marvin and Jose took measurements for the new rabbit cages that we will be constructing.

We spent all day on Wednesday planting basil in the raised garden beds. They look great, but we’re really hoping that everything survives the rain and heat this weekend!

On Thursday we drove to Santa Rosa with Maria and Jose to plant the gardens and give a workshop. Once we arrived we spent some time visiting a few of the homes with gardens that were built in partnership with Hunger Relief International. We also distributed plants for some of the women that are enrolled in a program that helps provide supplies for gardens for families with children between the ages of 3 to 5 who are most at risk for malnutrition.

On Friday, we had planned to travel back to the community called La Joya that we had previously visited to get started on constructing the gardens, but unfortunately we weren’t able to. As soon as we were ready to start driving, we were informed that there was a major manifestacion or political protest blocking the only road leading into La Joya. There was no way for us travel in or out of La Joya so we had no choice but to travel back to Antigua. Now, we’re trying to find away to rework our schedules so that we can make up for the time we lost.

During our time there, we also met some other volunteers from Ohio. They invited us to visit a school that they have been helping build. Although they have done some really great work that some people are definitely going to benefit from, we were a little concerned about the long term sustainability of their project and about the ways that interacted with and spoke about the locals.

Without going into specifics, it really helped us further appreciate the Nourish model and its commitment to sustainability, cultural sensitivity, and passion for finding durable solutions to complex social issues. We are also really grateful to be partnered with ByoEarth and learn about its innovative model as a social venture that is conscious of the environment, creates jobs, empowers women, and generates income!

Written by Wendy Renteria

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