A Week in El Carmen

Friday (2/15):

Before our  stay at the agrarian village of El Carmen, we were first invited to the grand-opening fiesta for a new production facility.  Centeotl (a reference to the god of maize), the non-profit organization with whom we we’ve partnered, has been working with several villages throughout Oaxaca to find adaptable focuses that may help to develop both the community and its local economy.  In El Carmen, the focus in this past year has been the cultivation, consumption, and sale of a crop called “amaranth”—one that is abundant in high-quality proteins, vitamins and minerals, and may also be made even more profitable by making tasty treats called “alegrias”.  Since the village’s dry climate throughout most of the year is so hostile for the cultivation of most crops, malnutrition and poverty remain serious issues.  While there is no silver-bullet, amaranth’s ability to grow in these conditions may provide both a cash crop as well as added nutrition for the community throughout the dry season.  Centeotl recently provided the funds to build an amaranth-toasting machine—a necessary procedure in accessing the benefits of its consumption, as well as making it light and crispy for the alegrias—which began its operations on Friday.

With the due date for a final paper looming, a small group of us hopped onto a bus en-route for Zimatlan in the morning.  We weren’t going to begin our immersion experience until Monday, but Nicandro from Centeotl invited us to both an introductory meeting and later a fiesta in El Carmen.  When we arrived, however, we were surprised to find other Americans in the conference room, checking their iPhones and prepared to listen to a translated version of the presentation through radio-headphones.  It turned out that these people were prospective donors to the organization and that the ensuing activities throughout the day were targeted toward them.  We could go on for hours describing how oblivious these people looked, or how bizarre our interactions were (for example, after asking about our purpose in attending, one woman asked Caleb: “So if you’re not here to help, what are you doing?”), but the important part was experiencing and appreciating the day for what it was.  Of course, some of the community’s activities felt a little staged or insincere, but that exposed us to the importance of funding.  Without these donors, much the development that the community has seen wouldn’t be possible, so the community—in coordination with Centeotl—needed to appeal to them.

Our bedroom!

Afterwards, we returned to the city of Oaxaca and discussed the village, reflecting on the day and looking forward to the week ahead.  We had to remind ourselves that the experience to come would be much different.

Monday (2/18):
Arriving in Zimatlan, we met up with Nicandro and were transported to El Carmen. It is a small village, quiet, calm and hot. Nicandro, a man that has worked with Centeotl for over 19 years, brought us to the house of Gloria, the village promoter for the amaranto (amaranth). We chatted about the village, the project and its history. After the chat we were brought to our respective homes. Josie and Torey bunked with la maestra Amber, Phoebe and Sandra set up camp on a cozy concrete floor with Carey and the boys (Corey and Caleb) bunked down with a happy and welcoming couple. Once we had settled in we expereinced our first little taste of the tradition of comida. Talking with our families we began a relationship that would only grow over the next several days to evolve into something truly special. After comida we attended an Ahorro meeting. This project gives women the opportunity to create a savings account and apply for loans. There is no outside source of authority, the positions in the meeting rotate among women and the money never leaves the village. To our surprise, there was a fiesta planned celebrating El Dia de Amor. What did this entail? Food, too much food, a tradition that would continue throughout the week (Let this concept of too much food be summed up in a quote emitting from a mouth full of tamale and atole: "I can't believe I ate seven tamales today"). Returning to our homes, exhausted, stuffed and slightly dehydrated we were offered more food, politely declined and crawled into bed (onto the floor), fell deeply asleep, spiders and alacrans slithering over our dreaming toes.

Tuesday (2/19):

We awoke to the sound of roosters squawking and morning sunshine tumbling over orange mountains. After eating a delectable breakfast of beans, eggs, assorted breads and sweetened dark coffee, we met Gloria and began our hike over dirt roads and up rocky hills to visit houses of several families within the community. Our purpose was to encourage people to grow amaranth and to give pride and confidence to those who already grow it or wish to. The idea behind this can be explained in a quote by Nicandro: "When I go into a community, about 50% of the people will listen to what I'm saying. But if a pretty eyed foreigner comes in, 90% listen." Upon first thought, this approach might appear a bit manipulative, but when we thought about it, we were glad to fill that role in the name of a good cause. Our visits seemed successful in regards to this, as most of the people we spoke to expressed interest and pride in growing amaranth. Aside from amaranth, we spoke with each household (five in total) about their life in El Carmen, most of them having lived there their entire life. We were touched by the sweet hospitality of our visits as we were consistently brought chairs to sit on and cool water to sip on under the shade. They weren't necessarily expecting company, yet they took time from their days to talk with and care for us. After walking from house to house for hours, we were all pretty wiped and ready to relax with our families by comida time. After eating, we napped and then headed back out to sit in on another micro-financing meeting of women. Day turned to dusk, as we sat in a dusty soccer field, contemplating the events of the day. Walking back home under the star-speckled navy sky, we were feeling rather lucky to be in such a big-hearted place.

Wednesday (2/20):
On our third day in the village we woke up early with plans to go on a hike. We arrived at Josie, Amber and Torey’s host family’s house only to find out that their family was going into Oaxaca city. They told us that they would be back in an hour and we would leave for the hike then. This is a perfect representation of the time schedule we were on because it takes an hour and a half to get to the city from El Carmen. Instead the eight of us left for the home where the rest of the girls were staying to do some harvesting in their garden. The rest of our day consisted of walks about the village, fruit gathering (and eating), an amaranth bar or allegria making workshop, more amazing meals and much chatting. Some of us went to a fiesta that evening while others built card houses with their family. Finally we settled down for our last night's rest in the village.

Thursday (2/21):
As Thursday quickly hit us, we dreaded saying our goodbyes to our new families. Before having to face this sad reality, we all went to the market in Zaachila, a nearby town. There we had a delicious traditional breakfast, then wondered through the market where there was an endless supply of fruit, clothes, mescal, livestock, and more. Once we returned to El Carmen we were lucky enough to see the process of producing bokashi, a Japanese organic fertilizer consisting of manure, sulfate, molasses, ashes and other natural ingredients. We learned that a group of women in the community are trying to promote this fertilizer in hopes to, eventually, get every family to practice this for their personal gardens. Once this was finished, we returned to our host families where it was finally time to leave. All of us expressed our sincere appreciation for all of the generosity given to us as well as the meaningful conversations throughout the quick week; it is safe to say that genuine feelings of the experience were mutual among our families as well. We eventually left El Carmen and arrived at Hotel Princesa to regroup and rest before leaving to go back to the city.


Friday (2/22):

On Friday we woke up at Hotel Princesa with a newfound appreciation for nice beds and clean bathrooms with hot running water. For our last meal together, we went to get some delicious breakfast at the market from the same woman we got hot chocolate from a week earlier. Afterwards, we had our final meeting with Nicondro at the Centeotl office to reflect upon our experiences in El Carmen. We discussed our thoughts about how the amaranth program is being perceived in the community and what could be done to improve the effort. Even though we didn't feel like we did very much to help Centeotl promote amaranth, Nicondro reassured us that our presence in itself was enough to increase interest within the community. This concluded our village stay on a nice note before we all hopped on a bus and went back to our homes in the city of Oaxaca.

Paz para ahora,
Josie, Torey, Caleb, Sandra, Corey and Phoebe