CELL Group Working with Sustainable Harvest International

The CELL group completed their language immersion and home stay experience in Copan and traveled tothe highlands of Quimistan (Honduras) on Friday, January 27th.  They took part in an orientation with trip leader Aaron Banas and then headed to the rural community of Brisas del Mar to meet their host families and get an introduction to Sustainable Harvest's (SHI's) program.  SHI is a small non-profit organization providing farming families in Central America with training and tools to improve quality of living while restoring the environment.  We have been working in Honduras since 1997 and the group will get a chance to see the impact of our programs while working alongside Honduran agronomists and families on a variety of volunteer projects.

Aaron sends saludos from the group and says that they are enjoying the time with the families and over the weekend helped to plant organic pineapples and cassava.  Quimistan is known for producing delicious coffee and the group will get a chance see how SHI is working with farmers to inter-crop coffee with spices under a canopy of native hardwood trees.  In addition to providing families with nutritious and marketable crops, these multi-story forest plots mimic the natural forest, protect watersheds and provide important wildlife habitat.  The group will also likely get a chance to see how coffee is planted, harvested, depulped and roasted - so as you sip your morning cup this week, think of them in the coffee highlands of Honduras!

The village of Brisas del Mar doesn't have electricity and cell phone access is limited so I don't expect another message from the group for a few days...  They'll be departing the rural communities on Thursday of this week and then traveling on to their next program site - Fundacion Simiente in the South of Honduras.

Hola again! Yesterday was our wonderful endeavor of empanada making where we toured the process of making fuel-efficient stoves! This scrumptiously educational experience was supported by Stove Team International, which is an organization combating indoor air pollution and severe burns produced by inadequate stoves. Many people cannot afford safe conventional stoves and resort to open cooking fires. This results in burns, excessive use of trees, and respiratory illnesses that cause the deaths of around 2 million people! Stove Team International establishes locally-owned sustainable factories producing safe wood burning (Ecocina) cook stoves. The Ecocina reduces wood use by 50%, carbon emissions by 70%, and provides jobs for locals. After seeing how they make these safe yet portable stoves, we headed over to the cooking station where we got to try them out! Local women illustrated their culinary techniques of making empanadas out of corn (maiz), beans(frijoles), and cheese(queso).  After multiple (somewhat successful) attempts and developing our own unique styles, we sat down for a fiesta de felizidad!

            Willow

Well I think I speak for all of us when I say that Copan was a feast for the senses, a bath for the soul, and a fitness gym for the mind. We experienced a pleasant introduction into the culture and lifestyle of Honduras while the little seed of our community germinated into a small sprout (with no shortage of sunlight to grow of course).

For those of you who have not heard, Copan Ruinas is a picturesque little Honduran town with a big personality. The elegant central park and cobble stone streets attract tourists from all corners of the globe, while the countless rampant dogs and roosters crowing at 4:00 am remind us of the genuine, salty culture that is still very much alive in Copan.

While in Copan, we racked our brains in Spanish class 4 hours a day, visited an organic coffee farm, made empanadas with fuel-efficient stoves, toured a large vegetable farm, and suffered through 2 hours of soaking in the natural hot springs.

But even with all this excitement, the experiences that will stay the closest to our hearts is the unmatched hospitality we received from our host families. They treated us as if we were their own, and accommodated us above all others, including themselves. And I’m sure we can agree that most of the host families made us better food than our own (no offense guys).

However, we must all move on now to our next adventure with Sustainable Harvest International. We are all anxiously awaiting morning in the hotel when we will jump into pickup trucks and head to the remote mountain village of Brisas Del Mar. There we will work with local farmers on their coffee plantations and experience the life of a village that exists by simpler terms. Wish us Luck!

Hasta Luego!

Zach 

¡Hola de Copån!

We’ve been learning really hard, and you’ve been waiting really hard, so here it is: Our first blog entry! Our adventure begins in the Nordic climate of Rutland Massachusetts, where the crew spent a mystical few days at Heifer International’s Overlook Farms. The days were spent getting to know each other through conversation and games, taking in inspirational stories and videos, and devouring platefuls of delicious food grown right outside our windows (Happy Birthday Courtney whoot whoot 22!).

     After an early morning breakfast and 15 hours of travel, we arrived to the scenic pueblo of Copán, Honduras, a whirl of cobblestone hills and noisy mototaxis and children and dogs and un poco of trash.  We were graciously welcomed into the homes of our host families, and after the initial realization that we’re not in Kansas anymore, we found that it was easy to make an instant connection.  We spent the first two days getting to know the town and the Spanish language via lessons at Ixbalanque Spanish School.  If you were Tomás, the first days were spent being pensive and throwing up, while Willow enjoyed cataloguing a host of new fruits and explaining the term “gluten-free” to her host family. En español. Courtney, Leeann, and Zach are having a great time despite only being able to respond with “sí” and “gracias” (Hac helps), and Juliette is quickly becoming best friends with her mama Mimi.

    This weekend we explored the Mayan ruins, once the most powerful community in all of Mesoamerica.  Our spunky guide Saúl told us all about the mysteries of la Ceiba tree, the ancient equivalent of the Super Bowl, and the first congress build North of the Rio Grande. Katie and Tommy took multiple wrong turns during their walk in the rainforest, and Sammy enjoyed some extra time soaking in the atmosphere of the ruins. Lia watched her host sisters fly this way and that on their really, really, quiet ATV, and Remi got to chat it up with some Brits and discuss the intricacies of revolution.

   After a dip in the hot springs, looking up a few more palabras in our Spanish/ English dictionaries, a crash course in empanada cooking, and a tour of a local coffee farm, we’re off to Sustainable Harvest International.   ¡Hasta luego compadres!

Spanish lesson of the week: Repite por favor (repeat please);

¿Qué hondas muchacho? Neal es muy guapo esta noche, ¿no?

CELL Central America Sustainability through Community Program 2012

On January 15, 2012, a group of 11 students and 2 faculty begin an educational adventure focused on a theme of "sustainability through community" in three countries in Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica). During the semester program, students will:

*  Immerse themselves in other cultures
*  Learn how sustainability is achievable through community 

*  Learn through service to others

*  Wrok with inspiring community sustainability organizations and individuals

*  Receive 15 college credits while integrating theory with real-life applications

*  Take a leadership role in sustainability once they return home. 

Who are we?

The Center for Ecological Living and Learning (CELL) offers unique sustainability education programs for students who believe that they can make a difference in the world: students who would like to play an active role in creating long-term solutions to problems facing our local and global communities and environment. During the course of a semester program, students learn about the concepts of sustainability while living in home stays with village families and learning from internationally recognized partners who are modeling how a “small group of committed people” can make a big difference in achieving local and global sustainability. At the end of a CELL program, students develop action plans that empower them to return home and employ what they have learned in their own lives and through implementing sustainability initiatives in their own communities. This individual and collective action is at the heart of what CELL is all about!  

For more information on CELL's programs, check out our website at: www.cellonline.org.  Stay tuned for updates on our CELL activities.