This Friday I made a trip up to the site of another Peace Corps volunteer with a visiting group of MPH students. Matt (the other volunteer) is in the agriculture sector, and therefore works with small producers farms. Basically, AG volunteers are trying to improve the farming class’s way of life, be it more money or easier work, without doing more harm to the environment than farming already causes. Because most farming is done outside of cities, AG volunteers tend to live in the smallest communities assigned to Peace Corps volunteers. Usually, that means no electricity, running water, internet, cell phone service and all the other niceties that us “city folk” take for granted. When you think of the Peace Corps way of life you’re probably thinking of Agriculture volunteers.
Matt’s site, called El Volcan, is situated on the mountain to the south of Somoto. To get there he has to take a 20 minute taxi to the bottom of the mountain and then walk 40 minutes straight up. Everything he’s got up there was either brought up in a backpack or in a hired 4X4 pickup truck. 11 Public Health students and I made the trip on Friday to take a look at two of Matt’s main projects: coffee farming and stove building.
Because the community is so high (3000 feet above sea level), the weather is much cooler than down in Managua (450 feet above sea level) or even Somoto. Plants like coffee are perfect in this temperature and really thrive in the constant fog that sits on the mountain every morning. The 23 families that live in Matt’s community have formed a cooperative which pools their harvest to get a better price. They also invest together in the equipment and facilities needed to maximize their farming and minimize their effect on the mountain. In terms of price, the coffee in El Volcan is almost as high a grade as it can get. It’s sold in Wegman’s under the brand “Las Segovias.” Because of their co-op status and the various benchmarks they’ve met (it’s all organic!) the families of El Volcan receive a fair market price for their coffee, which ranges between 200 to 250 dollars for 100 pounds. The community produces 20,000 pounds annually, which divided between 23 families is 3,000 córdobas a month per family: a very good salary in the country. Here are some baby coffee plants in a nursery.
Matt introduced us to a local producer who was kind enough to show us his operation. The pictures below highlight the process from start to finish. We started off looking at the baby coffee plants. These sit in a nursery for 2 years before they are planted on the mountain. Because the mountain has been so heavily deforested by previous generations and because coffee loves to grow in shade the farmers don’t have to do any clearing of the landscape to make room for the coffee. They simply plant it underneath the trees that are still around. The coffee plant then grows another year or so before it starts giving off little red fruits which contain the coffee beans. The plants can grow up to 10 feet tall and live up to 15 years, as long as they aren’t attacked by the many plagues and blights that happen in the cool climate.
Twice a year the entire village leaves all other work aside and heads up the mountain to pick coffee. Everyone is responsible for working, including the children. Unfortunately, said our tour guide, the children aren’t as careful as the adults when picking the coffee bean and damage a lot plants to the point where they can’t produce nearly as much After the coffee is harvested, the fruit is run through a machine that grinds off the fruity outside and separates the bean inside. This is the only part of the process that uses any kind of machine. Then the beans are washed various times and set out to dry.
The fruity pulp is left to decompose and then is scattered among the coffee plants as a form of fertilizer. As the beans dry in the sun, workers pick through each batch and remove any shells or deformed beans. What’s left is bagged, put on mules, and taken down the mountain to be sold in Estelí. The coffee won’t get roasted until it makes it to its final destination, so at this stage it’s still very yellow, and the Nicas call it “café oro” or gold coffee. 
After visiting the coffee plantation the group built an improved stove for a local family. Virtually all families in the countryside use wood stoves that are built from adobe bricks. The stoves aren’t very efficient and are horrible at moving smoke away from the house. Respiratory illnesses are almost epidemic in Nicaragua, so, while the improved stoves project is normally left up to Agriculture volunteers, we Health volunteers have a lot of interest in seeing them built.
This photo shows the group (and Matt) buiding the metal frame that will act as a skeleton inside the adobe mud that’s used to keep the stove warm. We used Matt’s model to make measurements and then cut pieces of metal and tied everything in place. Next we carried the materials to the house that received the new stove. To make it all work you need the frame, 17 bricks, 1 wooden board, and a whole bunch of mud.
After getting to the house we demolished the older, less efficient stove. We framed in the new stove with the bricks, used the mud as mortar and finally placed the metal frame on top of the bricks. Then the metal frame is coated with mud. The wooden board is used to keep the mud from falling and therefore closing the whole where the fire burns.
Once the mud has dried for a week the board can be removed and the oven is ready for use. You may be asking, “what makes this stove any better?” Good question!
This stove has a ramp inside of it, which forces the heat from the fire up to each burner without actually having to burn a fire directly underneath the burner. In the old stoves, you have to have a 3 foot long fire, which means a heck of a lot of firewood. In this stove, you only need a 1 foot fire, which means one third the amount of firewood is needed. Also, the ramp forces the smoke all the way to the end of the stove and out the stovepipe that’s placed there. In the older model, smoke is leaving from all 3 of the burners, which means it stays in the kitchen with the people cooking.
So, just like that, you’ve fought deforestation and cut down on respiratory illnesses. Brilliant! The best part is each stove only costs $20 to rebuild. Matt has been raising money in his hometown in Maryland to construct stoves in the homes that need them most in El Volcán. So far he’s finished 16. Way to go, Matt!
Here are some other recent pictures from our life in Nicaragua. Enjoy!
Matt’s site, called El Volcan, is situated on the mountain to the south of Somoto. To get there he has to take a 20 minute taxi to the bottom of the mountain and then walk 40 minutes straight up. Everything he’s got up there was either brought up in a backpack or in a hired 4X4 pickup truck. 11 Public Health students and I made the trip on Friday to take a look at two of Matt’s main projects: coffee farming and stove building.
Because the community is so high (3000 feet above sea level), the weather is much cooler than down in Managua (450 feet above sea level) or even Somoto. Plants like coffee are perfect in this temperature and really thrive in the constant fog that sits on the mountain every morning. The 23 families that live in Matt’s community have formed a cooperative which pools their harvest to get a better price. They also invest together in the equipment and facilities needed to maximize their farming and minimize their effect on the mountain. In terms of price, the coffee in El Volcan is almost as high a grade as it can get. It’s sold in Wegman’s under the brand “Las Segovias.” Because of their co-op status and the various benchmarks they’ve met (it’s all organic!) the families of El Volcan receive a fair market price for their coffee, which ranges between 200 to 250 dollars for 100 pounds. The community produces 20,000 pounds annually, which divided between 23 families is 3,000 córdobas a month per family: a very good salary in the country. Here are some baby coffee plants in a nursery.
Matt introduced us to a local producer who was kind enough to show us his operation. The pictures below highlight the process from start to finish. We started off looking at the baby coffee plants. These sit in a nursery for 2 years before they are planted on the mountain. Because the mountain has been so heavily deforested by previous generations and because coffee loves to grow in shade the farmers don’t have to do any clearing of the landscape to make room for the coffee. They simply plant it underneath the trees that are still around. The coffee plant then grows another year or so before it starts giving off little red fruits which contain the coffee beans. The plants can grow up to 10 feet tall and live up to 15 years, as long as they aren’t attacked by the many plagues and blights that happen in the cool climate.
Twice a year the entire village leaves all other work aside and heads up the mountain to pick coffee. Everyone is responsible for working, including the children. Unfortunately, said our tour guide, the children aren’t as careful as the adults when picking the coffee bean and damage a lot plants to the point where they can’t produce nearly as much After the coffee is harvested, the fruit is run through a machine that grinds off the fruity outside and separates the bean inside. This is the only part of the process that uses any kind of machine. Then the beans are washed various times and set out to dry.
The fruity pulp is left to decompose and then is scattered among the coffee plants as a form of fertilizer. As the beans dry in the sun, workers pick through each batch and remove any shells or deformed beans. What’s left is bagged, put on mules, and taken down the mountain to be sold in Estelí. The coffee won’t get roasted until it makes it to its final destination, so at this stage it’s still very yellow, and the Nicas call it “café oro” or gold coffee. After visiting the coffee plantation the group built an improved stove for a local family. Virtually all families in the countryside use wood stoves that are built from adobe bricks. The stoves aren’t very efficient and are horrible at moving smoke away from the house. Respiratory illnesses are almost epidemic in Nicaragua, so, while the improved stoves project is normally left up to Agriculture volunteers, we Health volunteers have a lot of interest in seeing them built.
This photo shows the group (and Matt) buiding the metal frame that will act as a skeleton inside the adobe mud that’s used to keep the stove warm. We used Matt’s model to make measurements and then cut pieces of metal and tied everything in place. Next we carried the materials to the house that received the new stove. To make it all work you need the frame, 17 bricks, 1 wooden board, and a whole bunch of mud.
After getting to the house we demolished the older, less efficient stove. We framed in the new stove with the bricks, used the mud as mortar and finally placed the metal frame on top of the bricks. Then the metal frame is coated with mud. The wooden board is used to keep the mud from falling and therefore closing the whole where the fire burns.
Once the mud has dried for a week the board can be removed and the oven is ready for use. You may be asking, “what makes this stove any better?” Good question!This stove has a ramp inside of it, which forces the heat from the fire up to each burner without actually having to burn a fire directly underneath the burner. In the old stoves, you have to have a 3 foot long fire, which means a heck of a lot of firewood. In this stove, you only need a 1 foot fire, which means one third the amount of firewood is needed. Also, the ramp forces the smoke all the way to the end of the stove and out the stovepipe that’s placed there. In the older model, smoke is leaving from all 3 of the burners, which means it stays in the kitchen with the people cooking.
So, just like that, you’ve fought deforestation and cut down on respiratory illnesses. Brilliant! The best part is each stove only costs $20 to rebuild. Matt has been raising money in his hometown in Maryland to construct stoves in the homes that need them most in El Volcán. So far he’s finished 16. Way to go, Matt!
Here are some other recent pictures from our life in Nicaragua. Enjoy!
Jess took this picture on a recent hike.
Jess and I make pizza a couple times a month from scratch. We are lucky enough to have a mozzarella in the grocery store in town, although it tastes nothing like cheese in the states. We use tomatoes and pretend they are pepperoni. No pepperoni here!
Pizza going into our Easy-Bake Oven. It takes about 30 mins to cook, but it comes out pretty darn tasty.
Astro is upset because he´s not getting pizza for dinner, just a little leftover bread with his normal dog food. He´s really got nothing to complain about, though. see below.
The way most dogs look in Nicaragua. People might let them sleep near the house, but they are left to fend for themselves when it comes to food. Very sad...
Pizza going into our Easy-Bake Oven. It takes about 30 mins to cook, but it comes out pretty darn tasty.
Astro is upset because he´s not getting pizza for dinner, just a little leftover bread with his normal dog food. He´s really got nothing to complain about, though. see below.
The way most dogs look in Nicaragua. People might let them sleep near the house, but they are left to fend for themselves when it comes to food. Very sad...
2 comments:
Poor Doggys
mmmmmmm. Pizza.
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