February Recap

Just like that February is gone, its amazing how some years that short month really does seem to fly by so much faster than the others. To be honest I myself had been on a little bit of a break from my program specific work, demo plots and crop extension, due to the fact that I was moving into and getting situated in my permanent house. Now that I have acheived this I have began my first installment of informational 'charlas'. Basically, a charla is a large sheet of paper prepared with the information that is being prepared.


The Huerta Series: Starting last Tuesday and continueing for the next three I am hosting a meeting and charla presentation at my house and in my garden. The goal of this series is to plant a seed of committment to the family garden on behalf of Paraguayan women and children (men do not work in the gardens). In order to encourage this I have made an incentive for the attendance of all four of my meetings whose information will build on itself as the meetings continue. For every family that has attended all four of the meeting I will give one 'almacigo' (seed box) with plants ready to transplant, as well as a generouse ammount of garden seeds. At the first meeting we collectively made the almacigos and I will be the caretaker for the duration of the series and will plant in my own garden any almacigos of those who did not meet the requirements. At the first meeting I had a wonderful turnout of over 20 individuals, more than I expected in my wildest dreams!


The Agro-Forestry Series: Starting last Wednesday and continuing for the next three I am conducting a charla series focusing on integrating agro-forestry techniques into a sustainable agricultural system on the family farm. These meeting are held at the local church and we will be gowing on tree walks as well and planting seeds and learning how to graft citrus and mango trees with the help of an agro-forestry volunteer. Like the Huerta Series, this has attendance incentives as well. Attend all four meetings and one will recieve 'macetas' (planted tree seeds in a small container) and two tree saplings, one grafted fruit and one wood producer. It is my hope that with this charla series I can start to approach an overarching goal of my to raise awareness amongst the community concerning economic planning of the family for the future.

My demo plot has been rather neglected during this time and is beggin for a good cleaning with my hoe. I will give it exactly what it want later this week and bring pictures to show the growth of my crops as soon as I can.