Not all who wander are lost: Farms and Fertilizer

Thursday, September 8, 2011

I left my beans in San Francisco!

Thursday, 9-8-11

Well, they weren't really my beans but we did leave them in San Francisco. Today we delivered beans to the canton of San Francisco. It’s probably the last bean delivery that I’ll be a part of. And it’s special to me because my church, Westminster Presbyterian, partners with San Francisco. At first we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to make it to San Francisco because it was pouring down rain for much of the afternoon. But around 3pm it finally stopped and several people from San Francisco made it to the house with a truck to load up the beans. On our way to the community the truck stopped by the side of the road a couple times and we were a little nervous since the truck yesterday had problems too. But we all eventually made it there.

Migdalia, a member of the Directiva, was there waiting for us when we arrived and the truck with the beans picked up Mirna, another member of the Directiva. Some members of the community were there but no everyone had arrived yet so we waited a short time. Once more people were there Miguel, the president of the Directiva, spoke briefly to the community about the beans. After he was done the bean distribution began.

Everything went smoothly with Mirna having people sign and Migdalia collecting money for transportation of the beans from people. I think it was something like 50¢ per family that people had to pay. I recognized several people and said hi to them. Two members of my community English class also showed up to get the beans for their families. I chatted with them for a while. They weren’t able to make it to class this past Sunday because it was raining so hard.

Then Daniel showed up from the caserío of Los Cruces. Daniel is a Delegate of the Word and a member of the Directiva. When he arrived we realized there had been a miscommunication somewhere along the way and the people from Los Cruces didn’t know the bean pickup was today. So he called some people and they told others so people could come get their beans. While we waited Kathy got us some chips to munch on since it was getting late in the day. Little by little people from Los Cruces began to show up to get their beans.

One of the last people to arrive was a good friend, María. I met her when I first came to El Salvador in 2007. At that time she had a baby boy, Christian. I held him for the first time while sitting on wooden benches in their old church and he went to the bathroom all over my pants. I think that bonded us. Today he is 5 years old and was crying when I saw him; he’s been sick. After talking to him and his older brother, Noe, for a while he stopped crying. I even got a picture of the two of them smiling. Their younger sister, who is now 1, was at the house with her dad. María says she’s walking like crazy. Before they left I gave them all a hug goodbye. It was good to see them again.

By then it was around 5pm and all the beans had been handed out. We said goodbye to Migdalia, Mirna, Daniel, and Miguel. Then we headed back to Berlín. It had been a good visit to the community.

Weighing, bagging, cleaning, etc.

Loading beans into the truck

A ton of work

All loaded up

We've arrived

Beginning to gather

Let the fingerprint and signing begin

Lots of fingerprints

Calling names

I loved this guy's shirt

Carrying beans home

We met by the school

Tying up the bag

Waiting for their beans

I love this lady!

Yanira, one of my English students

Niwman, another English student

Here you go

Watching the process

Poor Migdalia was cold

Daniel has arrived

Chatting while waiting for the people from Los Cruces

More prints

People from Los Cruces arrive

Lending a hand

I was happy when Maria showed up

Beans and a machete

Walking back home to Los Cruces

Chatting with her kids

Too cute

Christian

Noe

I love these boys

The last of the group heads home

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Muñoces bean delivery

Wednesday, 9-7-11

Today we delivered beans to the community of Muñoces. I hadn’t been to Muñoces for a while so I was excited to go there again. It takes about 40 minutes to get to there. We got to the community before the truck with the beans arrived so Kathy and I passed the time by playing the alphabet game. By the second round Kathy was starting to fade away in the back of the pickup and I decided to hop down to get some pictures of scenery. But soon we heard the rumblings of the other truck so I climbed back inside.

As our truck and the truck with the beans were making their way down the hill the other truck suddenly stopped. We parked and went to go see what was wrong. Well, something had broken. The front right tire was out at an angle while the other tire was facing forward. Uh oh. All the guys had gotten out of the truck and were attempting to fix it. Since I was going to be no help in that situation I wandered around some more checking out the things growing on the side of the road. Eventually they got the truck fixed up and started back down the hill again. Our pickup drove up and I climbed aboard.

We reached the spot where the community had decided the beans would be distributed and the process began. As with the other communities, the people of Muñoces were in charge of unloading and having people sign for the beans. I chatted with a woman from the community I know about how she and her family were doing. Her mother and father have both been sick and she’s not exactly young herself. But she remains strong and was very grateful for the beans.

Toward the end of the delivery I was talking to a couple kids at the house next to where our truck was parked. They kept talking about my hair and the fact that I was white. For some reason, probably because white people don’t often visit the community, this was very amusing. At one point I was taking pictures of a little boy while he tried to “hide” from the camera. I’d take his picture and then show him that I’d taken a photo of him. He’d laugh and then find something else to hide behind. We continued this until it was time to leave.

When all the beans had been distributed it was time to take off. We waved goodbye as we headed out of town. I decided to ride inside the truck on the way home. I attempted to carry on a conversation for a while but ended up falling asleep. I slept peacefully until I was jolted awake when the truck went over a large hole. Yep, that’s the canton roads for you.