Anything is possible.
A mini cab with a hatchback drew up at the corner by our Esteli hotel,
and offered to take us to the bus station going north (there is another station
if you are going south!). Our massive
luggage stuck out the back of this cab and had to be bungie corded together,
but we made it to the station. Once
there, a brightly colored second hand bus with railings on top was ready for
us. A pig was already strapped up there,
and was soon joined by giant baskets of produce and our own equally giant red
suitcase and extra heavy duffel of art supplies.
This bus stopped every five minutes for two hours, but it
never stopped for long! The driver’s
helper had to swing new luggage up on top and then ride to the next stop
hanging onto the ladder, since the bus always took off before he finished. We began to worry how we would get ourselves
and our six pieces of luggage off in time when we reached the solar center,
especially since we didn’t really recognize our stop. After reminding the driver 4 times where we
were going, and driving for two hours through the rain, we were told to run for
it. Within two minutes, our luggage had
been thrown down and we had been half helped, half pushed out the back door of
the bus. To our delight, Deb (who went
ahead yesterday) appeared miraculously on the other side of the road before we even
had time to ponder which way to go.
The solar center at Grupo Fenix has grown an amazing degree
in the last four years since I was here with Sac State students. A “solar restaurant” has been built. It consists of a beautiful and huge covered
patio with hand made, primitive wooden tables and chairs; a kitchen building; a
kitchen garden; and four solar ovens in back doing the cooking. Today the lunch menu is chicken, rice, beans,
avocado, tomatoes and cucumbers, and fresh made passion fruit juice. We are thrilled to have landed from our bus
ride to enjoy this bounty, under a lovely tile roof which keeps off the pelting
rain.
The sustainability projects in Sabana Grande have also
grown, and are both diverse and interrelated.
Vet students from UC Davis have recently been here, working with teaching
farmers to inoculate chickens. The
“solar mountain” now has a community built cob and natural wood conference
pavilion, as well as orchards growing traditional and native tropical fruits,
herbal gardens, and many acres of reforestation. A daycare center has been built and is about
to open. And a group of high school and
college students in Sabana Grande, inspired by our Da Vinci students, have
formed a bicycle driven collective to work on various projects and tours.
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| Teachers Gaby and Emma in front of the new solar childcare center, built of cob (mud). |
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The new solar
restaurant feeds Da Vinci volunteers and others from universities.
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Peregrine School is well represented already, by a dozen Da
Vinci high school students and their two teachers, who have been assisting them
in installing a bicycle driven water pump in the school and in teaching science
to the children for a week. Now we have
arrived, with Gaby Valenzuela, Emma Clancy, and me, as well as Deb Bruns, who
has initiated this project. Our task is
to explore ways of making Peregrine a “sister school” with the village school
here, San Miguel Arcangel, by creating shared books about their lives with kids
from both places. We will bring back
materials, mostly in the form of children’s writings, drawings, and photos,
which can help our students and parents to better understand life in this
village. Since Davis and Sabana Grande
share many features as communities committed to sustainability and to
agriculture, we feel that this partnership is particularly rich. There are many things dramatically the same
and dramatically different about our two communities, and both communities are
open to sharing their experience.
Staying in Sabana Grande for a week is a life changing
experience for most Americans, even without the things one can learn about
solar and photovoltaic technologies, sustainable agriculture, and natural
building. American students and teachers
enter households where electricity is either not available or is available
through solar devices which provide a limited amount. As one woman said, “if I charge my cell
phone, I need to go to bed at 8:30.” I
am currently typing this blog using my head lamp flashlight, because today was
a cloudy day so my host family has no photovoltaic power for a light bulb.
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Dirt walking and horse
or bike paths are the only roads in Sabana Grande.
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Showers at our houses are small outdoor shelters where a
large container of rain water has been collected on the roof and funneled
in. Dippers are provided. The toilet is an outhouse, some distance from
the house. Don’t forget to bring a
flashlight for night visits.
Cooking is efficient here, since much research has gone into
alternatives that can serve as a model to others nearby. Solar ovens are present in most houses. They are particularly good for slow cooking, cooking
in the dry season, and coffee drying.
(Local coffee is grown and sold by the women here.) In addition, there are elegantly designed “rocket”
stoves of mud and brick which provide convection features and cleanly remove
smoke. They are very fuel efficient, an
important thing since deforestation for firewood is a big issue. Dishes are washed in buckets from the rainwater
(it rains most of the night each night), and no hot water is available. In this equatorial environment, it gets light
at 6 AM and dark at 6 PM year round, so much cooking and clean up is done by
lantern light.
We share our meals with the family of the house, which
generally includes three generations. My
household currently houses two Da Vinci high school boys and me, as well as
three sons, two daughters, two parents, a granddaughter, and a ninety nine year
old grandma who is blind and needs constant care. The teenage boys and girls take turns helping
the grandma when the mother goes to work.
Bedrooms consist of a
bed with a mosquito net in an adobe or concrete block room, with a bedside
table and a rope across the ceiling to hang towels and clothes to dry. It is generally very dark, with few
windows. The house is really just for
sleeping. Work is outside, and eating is
in covered pavilions, which keep the rain off.
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One of many idyllic
Brahman cows
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The yard has an outhouse and shower stall, many chickens , a
dog, and a milk cow and her calf. Most
families in Sabana Grande are farmers who work corn and bean fields which
alternate with pasture fields for their cows.
Tortillas and beans from these crops provide the daily staple
foods. One wakes to the sound of
tortillas being pounded by hand. Most
people have fruit trees around their houses, and currently in season are
bananas, avocados, maracuya, and pitoya (a fruit which Californians call
“dragon fruit”.) Tree covered mountains rise up in the distance behind the
“sabana grande”, or rolling plain, we are on, creating a bucoloic scene. Village life centers around the ceiba tree,
which is thirty feet around and 600 years old.
To say this way of life contrasts with Davis would be an
understatement, and yet much is also the same.
A new and up to date agricultural trade school just opened on the edge
of town, where regional farmers will be trained. Young people more commonly go to school to
learn this and other trades than in the past.
Agricultural fields, orchards, and cows are a common sight, as are bikes. And much of the populace has made a
commitment to sustainability in energy and agriculture.
Visiting here makes one think more deeply about what
sustainability really means. Exposing
our Peregrine students to the vibrant but different lifestyle, and massively
smaller energy footprint that families experience here, will prove a challenge
that we look forward to as we reflect upon this journey ourselves and prepare
to share it with our students. Thanks
again to those of you who helped sustain this trip.
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| Village life is inspired by this massive ceiba tree, 600 years old, where people gather. |
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