Tuesday
Today the intention was to visit several organisations in the village Chota. We were told that there is a foundation there that works for the advancement of agriculture, a group that is working with agriculture too, led by cousin Byron, and the group that works for the advancement of beans. So off we went, to meet with Byron first, because we made an actual appointment with him. Our super guide José keep telling us not to worry about appointments, because people are always around in this area. Unfortunately, the people we want to speak to all seem to be away at the moment we want to visit them, so the plans keep changing. Luckily we have left a couple of days for back-up, because we suspected this might happen in a country like this J.
Back to Byron. Turns out he is an individual farmer, not attached to any association. Nonetheless, he has a lot of knowledge of the area and always attends the meetings the local government holds for the area on topics such as agriculture and tourism. So he was able to tell us all about what crops farmers use around here, how things have changed over time and what kinds of initiatives there are regarding development of agriculture.
One development that sounded interesting is the opening of a factory for the extraction of oil from avocados. This means that the demand for avocados will go up in the area, and people will have a chance at a more steady income. This is not always the case now. For example, sugarcane used to be the common crop in this area but as it’s price went down, people switched to other crops, such as beans and vegetables (peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc.). Switching can be costly, because some crops take years to become profitable. The avocado, for example, takes 6 to 7 years.
Another development that could be interesting, is the use of sugarcane for bio-ethanol. Apparently, a company from Brazil came to the region suggesting this. Nothing has been set up so far, because they need permission from the government and as this will compete with the oil industry it will not be easy. I’m very curious who will win this lobby; the rising BRIC countries against the old institutionalised powers!
At the foundation for agriculture the people we wanted to talk to were just heading off, so we immediately set an appointment for tomorrow morning just to be sure. The bean group only have an office in Chota, but work in the village Tumbatú (also hometown of our guide José) so we will have to catch them there. As this left the rest of the day open, we decided to go and have a look at the village Pimampiru, because this serves as an example of how a village around here can develop.
Pimampiru is a lot bigger than Piquiucho and very organised. It looks like and has the size of a small town, including the big plaza in the centre and a permanently constructed market place. This is also where one of the secondary schools in the valley is. Most kids in the valley go to secondary school, except the girls that get married at an early age. Unfortunately this still happens a lot.
Girls aged 12 or 13 get married and taken out of school into the homes. Even though they have the same rights as men regarding division of heritage, the wives still have to do what the husband tells them to. Before, the men used to do all the work, but today the women are maybe working even more. Most of them are merchants; from Tuesday to Thursday they are out buying fruits and vegetables from wholesalers in the region and from Friday to Sunday they travel to other region to sell it at a higher price. This means that only Mondays all women are at home. The rest of the time the oldest child has to take care of the household.
After tasting some local delicacies, such as baked potato with an unidentifiable grease sauce and cheese covered corn on the cob, we headed off to Pichuiucho once again. There we were meeting the representative of the local farmer’s association. Luckily, he was actually there J. What we didn’t know however, is that this legally recognised group (as the representative told us proudly) only organises non-agricultural stuff. They organise community work on cleaning the river branch, for example, and games of football. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear what he felt the village needed next.
We have been asking the same question to several villagers, to get a feeling of what people around here want, how they see the development of their village, and to find out whether they have any initiatives of their own. They always start by thanking Ulises for what he has done, that the village would have never come this far without him (looking at the other villages in the valley, Pichuiucho is definitely the least developed, even though there is a disco!).
Then the shortcomings of the present system are pointed out. A local man we talked to yesterday pointed out how the houses have roofs that leak and that some people have to sleep with rats. The farmer today explained that the irrigation system is fed by mountain water, which has a lot of sand in it, which damages the land. Previously the would use river water, which has fertile sediment in it, even though they had to irrigate by hand.
When asked what would be the next step, the woman leading the dance group talked about further education, also for girls and adults like her, who had never had the chance to learn. When I asked the farmer today about adult education, he just answered ‘what would I be doing in school at my age?’. For him the way ahead was to hook the irrigation system up to the river to improve agriculture. The other local man just wanted new houses and a proper road leading up to the football stadium.
It’s great to hear all these different views and opinions, it really tells you that everyone has different needs. The conclusion I make of that is that there is not just one project that would suit all. One project could not lift the village into further development on it’s own either. But priorities need to be defined, and it’s not always easy to see how this can be done.
One criteria I use is to ask ‘what is possible?’. Look at what is there and what can be done from there. Furthermore, the right people need to be there to make the project work.
One thing that is on the foundation’s list is a school for adults. There are plans to construct a building for it in the future. But since an adult school has classes in the afternoon / evening only, and a primary school only has classes in the morning, the two could be easily combined in the existing primary school. So the possibility is already there, now we just need to find out whether the people to organise it are too. The staff for the primary school ate provided by the government, but according to José, they do not have a program for adult education. Therefore, this project would have to find other funding and the right staff. Let’s see if we can work that out.
On our way back from Piquiucho we stopped at a place where they make and sell artisans and handicraft. There was not a lot of stuff, but the little that was there was very nice. We went there to see whether there are products here possible tourists would like. Being sort of tourists ourselves, we proved to ourselves that tourists would indeed like this stuff, because we all bought several things! So if tourism should grow in this region, that is definitely something to exploit!
Many thoughts and ideas are formed during these days and we will write more about them every day, but for now I will leave it at this, because I’m afraid that if I make it any longer, nobody will read it anymore!
Bye for now!
Danielle
Today the intention was to visit several organisations in the village Chota. We were told that there is a foundation there that works for the advancement of agriculture, a group that is working with agriculture too, led by cousin Byron, and the group that works for the advancement of beans. So off we went, to meet with Byron first, because we made an actual appointment with him. Our super guide José keep telling us not to worry about appointments, because people are always around in this area. Unfortunately, the people we want to speak to all seem to be away at the moment we want to visit them, so the plans keep changing. Luckily we have left a couple of days for back-up, because we suspected this might happen in a country like this J.
Back to Byron. Turns out he is an individual farmer, not attached to any association. Nonetheless, he has a lot of knowledge of the area and always attends the meetings the local government holds for the area on topics such as agriculture and tourism. So he was able to tell us all about what crops farmers use around here, how things have changed over time and what kinds of initiatives there are regarding development of agriculture.
One development that sounded interesting is the opening of a factory for the extraction of oil from avocados. This means that the demand for avocados will go up in the area, and people will have a chance at a more steady income. This is not always the case now. For example, sugarcane used to be the common crop in this area but as it’s price went down, people switched to other crops, such as beans and vegetables (peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc.). Switching can be costly, because some crops take years to become profitable. The avocado, for example, takes 6 to 7 years.
Another development that could be interesting, is the use of sugarcane for bio-ethanol. Apparently, a company from Brazil came to the region suggesting this. Nothing has been set up so far, because they need permission from the government and as this will compete with the oil industry it will not be easy. I’m very curious who will win this lobby; the rising BRIC countries against the old institutionalised powers!
At the foundation for agriculture the people we wanted to talk to were just heading off, so we immediately set an appointment for tomorrow morning just to be sure. The bean group only have an office in Chota, but work in the village Tumbatú (also hometown of our guide José) so we will have to catch them there. As this left the rest of the day open, we decided to go and have a look at the village Pimampiru, because this serves as an example of how a village around here can develop.
Pimampiru is a lot bigger than Piquiucho and very organised. It looks like and has the size of a small town, including the big plaza in the centre and a permanently constructed market place. This is also where one of the secondary schools in the valley is. Most kids in the valley go to secondary school, except the girls that get married at an early age. Unfortunately this still happens a lot.
Girls aged 12 or 13 get married and taken out of school into the homes. Even though they have the same rights as men regarding division of heritage, the wives still have to do what the husband tells them to. Before, the men used to do all the work, but today the women are maybe working even more. Most of them are merchants; from Tuesday to Thursday they are out buying fruits and vegetables from wholesalers in the region and from Friday to Sunday they travel to other region to sell it at a higher price. This means that only Mondays all women are at home. The rest of the time the oldest child has to take care of the household.
After tasting some local delicacies, such as baked potato with an unidentifiable grease sauce and cheese covered corn on the cob, we headed off to Pichuiucho once again. There we were meeting the representative of the local farmer’s association. Luckily, he was actually there J. What we didn’t know however, is that this legally recognised group (as the representative told us proudly) only organises non-agricultural stuff. They organise community work on cleaning the river branch, for example, and games of football. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear what he felt the village needed next.
We have been asking the same question to several villagers, to get a feeling of what people around here want, how they see the development of their village, and to find out whether they have any initiatives of their own. They always start by thanking Ulises for what he has done, that the village would have never come this far without him (looking at the other villages in the valley, Pichuiucho is definitely the least developed, even though there is a disco!).
Then the shortcomings of the present system are pointed out. A local man we talked to yesterday pointed out how the houses have roofs that leak and that some people have to sleep with rats. The farmer today explained that the irrigation system is fed by mountain water, which has a lot of sand in it, which damages the land. Previously the would use river water, which has fertile sediment in it, even though they had to irrigate by hand.
When asked what would be the next step, the woman leading the dance group talked about further education, also for girls and adults like her, who had never had the chance to learn. When I asked the farmer today about adult education, he just answered ‘what would I be doing in school at my age?’. For him the way ahead was to hook the irrigation system up to the river to improve agriculture. The other local man just wanted new houses and a proper road leading up to the football stadium.
It’s great to hear all these different views and opinions, it really tells you that everyone has different needs. The conclusion I make of that is that there is not just one project that would suit all. One project could not lift the village into further development on it’s own either. But priorities need to be defined, and it’s not always easy to see how this can be done.
One criteria I use is to ask ‘what is possible?’. Look at what is there and what can be done from there. Furthermore, the right people need to be there to make the project work.
One thing that is on the foundation’s list is a school for adults. There are plans to construct a building for it in the future. But since an adult school has classes in the afternoon / evening only, and a primary school only has classes in the morning, the two could be easily combined in the existing primary school. So the possibility is already there, now we just need to find out whether the people to organise it are too. The staff for the primary school ate provided by the government, but according to José, they do not have a program for adult education. Therefore, this project would have to find other funding and the right staff. Let’s see if we can work that out.
On our way back from Piquiucho we stopped at a place where they make and sell artisans and handicraft. There was not a lot of stuff, but the little that was there was very nice. We went there to see whether there are products here possible tourists would like. Being sort of tourists ourselves, we proved to ourselves that tourists would indeed like this stuff, because we all bought several things! So if tourism should grow in this region, that is definitely something to exploit!
Many thoughts and ideas are formed during these days and we will write more about them every day, but for now I will leave it at this, because I’m afraid that if I make it any longer, nobody will read it anymore!
Bye for now!
Danielle
2 comments:
hey
lot of information packed in there.
would have loved to see some more photos though... yours and the other members as well
but overall nice presentation
well written. when we come to know how the other side lives...its quite a revelation.
keep up the good work and spread the messsage. would love to see some photos
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