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| Cacao fruit, growing amongst the coffee bushes - it's almost ready to pick |
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| Don Chico in his coffee beneficio |
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| Cacao fruit - inside are white pods, like lima beans, covered with a sweet syrup (delicious to suck!), which contain the makings of a chocolate bar |
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| Don Chico on his reforested hillside. He says, "When I stand here, I am looking at the future". Francisco Aguilar Guido (Don Chico) Don Chico is a CHE leader, community leader, coffee cooperative leader, coffee farmer, husband to Dona Lidia, and father of 8. Only one child remains in high school; almost all the others are in some form of higher education. Don Chico’s sons who work on the farm with him enable him to take the time necessary for his CHE work. He lives in San Buenaventura San Buenaventura is 14 kilometers from Boaco, in the central part of the country. It has a population of 1200. It is a farming community where people keep cattle, grow coffee, or basic grains, such as corn and beans. I’ve lived here for 19 years, and when I came I had very little experience with different crops. My parents only taught me to cut corn. I trained with various organizations and projects so now I have a few cattle, grow organic coffee, and I work on the reforestation of my land planting a total of 1800 trees that are highly valued for wood. I have cerro real, pochote, and teca, amongst others. Natural reforestation is very important, too. We take care of the trees that sprout in the woods. I have 4,000 small trees that are growing naturally here. The climate has improved since the trees have grown, and Also the animals have come back - before there were no animals to hunt. You see and hear the monkeys, and sloths. These improvements help us take care of the family - there are 10 of us. Helps us keep the children in school: 7 of the 8 are studying. My children are working on the farm, fishing, studying medicine (1 son has 1 more year in medical school in Cuba), studying engineering, studying English to be a translator, studying law. In CHE I work with the communities, and the neighbours. From the spiritual point of view, I have seen changed lives. Other projects only deal with the material, the physical - CHE brings the spiritual. In San Buenaventura we work a lot with the families, people are converted to Christ. I’ve learned about preventive health work, I led the project to get running water to our community. Now we are working on getting latrines for the 60 families here who don’t have them. We are submitting a proposal to the regional government of Boaco asking for latrines. Another 15 houses need electricity. CHE helps us organize ourselves to work together. For example, in El Capitan (a small community, 7 km up the mountain) they’ve made a 6 km road. CHE groups have aquaducts for water, bringing water by gravity to more than 50 families; 15 beneficios (processing buildings) for small producers of coffee. These beneficios enable the farmers to ferment and wash the beans in hygienic conditions, which improves the quality of the coffee. Then, of course, they can get a better price. Our coffee cooperative is working in 15 communities. The members understand the importance of crop diversification, the importance of having fruit trees for the family, so that the children are eating fruit instead of junk food. They can drink fruit drinks, instead of soda. The members learn about farm administration in the co-op They learn a lot through the co-op and through CHE. Another great thing in our area is El Banco de Tierra (Land Bank), and working with David and Wendy vanKlinken. There are many farmers who are almost out of debt, thanks to the Land Bank. The neighbours notice the changes for the better. And, for a year now, thanks to friends of David and Wendy, we have the little pharmacy right at my house. They gave us $1000 for construction, later after we went over the accounts with them, they gave us $2000 to stock it with medicines. The Ministry of Health partnered in this venture. This pharmacy does not exist to make money, but to serve. It has been a great blessing - it’s right here in the community, and it is cheaper than other pharmacies. The people see what CHE does, so then they want to be involved. We’ve also got families and individuals involved in repujado (decorative metal work) which they have sold in Managua, as well as to Nicamade. (Don Chico’s son is a talented artist). The women are doing crocheted bags. Another thing is carpentry workshops. |
