Back in August my community chose
reforestation as their main project in which I would be supporting. Many may be
thinking, well what’s going on with that? The answer: it’s been very slow. I
collaborated with the local ANAM office and they were very excited to work with
me. Ma main man and counterpart, Pancho, and I had a meeting with the community
to come up with a plan. He gave the community and me 3 goals.
1.
Reforest the creek in our community
that is used by many to bathe and wash clothes
2.
Reforest our watershed that is
providing the community with drinking water
3.
Reforest the farms of the
community members
Goal 1 was a success! I created an
ecological club for kids during their summer break. Every Saturday I teach a
lesson on values (responsibility, honesty, friendship, ect) and what exactly
each one of those values mean. I then tie values in with the activity for the
week. Last week we did a trash clean up and this week we reforested the creek.
A member of my community had several hundred seedlings of a tree called “soltocaballo”
in his farm, so he and I removed about 80 to be transplanted next to the creek.
This was ideal because 1. It is sustainable, we did not have to ask for outside
help from institutions, 2. The trees that are along the creek right now are
currently not flowering and I did not want to wait until later months to start
reforesting… especially when there were seedlings readily available! The kids
really enjoyed it, and I hope for years to come they can say: See that tree? I planted that.
In regards to Goal 2, it has progressed
into a long story of gossip and drama. The newly elected water committee has
been excited and determined in completing this goal. But Pancho told us he
wanted to certify the marked area where we are going to reforest. Before
certification, we had to ask permission of the owner. Now a little background
info: there’s a family here that consist of 6 brothers, all in their 30s or
40s, and the mother. The father left the mother years ago and lives in a
different community but comes to visit every year. Members of the water
committee and myself have been investigating, asking around who is the owner of
the land where our water well is. Everyone, including one of the brothers, said
that the father was the owner. Thankfully the timing worked out just perfect
because he came for mother’s day (Dec 8th) so the water committee
and myself met with the father and
without any hesitation he agreed in marking a 1 hector area around the well to
reforest and prohibit deforestation. Excited, I starting spreading the word that
we were going to reforest the well. I ran into one of the brothers and he
frowned “ Meti, there is no permission to reforest” then went on to explain
that his dad is not the rightful owner because he does not live in the
community and the rightful owner is the mother and the oldest brother and the
whole water committee needs to meet with the whole family (even 2 brothers and
a sister who don’t live in the area) before reforesting. Feeling discouraged, I
told the water committee president. This has caused a lot of drama, especially
between the family and the water committee president. Until they talk and
resolve the issue (since being a PCV does not entail solving family nor legal
problems), I am currently stepping away from the goal.
Goal 3: Pending until after the holidays
when Pancho and I return from much needed vacations!
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