Brisas del Mar

From start to finish, Brisas del Mar was a remarkable experience for all of us.  Trip Leader Aaron Banas, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who served two years in Honduras and two years in Ecuador, organized and coordinated the entire program together with SHI Field Trainers Salomon and Juan Carlos.  Aaron was tireless, insuring that every detail was complete, offering, each work activity and meal happened as planned, and gave Spanish/English translation any time it was needed.  His instant rapport with every farmer and family member was amazing.  He was the glue.  Unfortunately he probably won’t be around next year but SHI has hired another RPCV to fill his spot.  Salomon and Juan Carlos will probably be there and they too were very good both with the technical training and helping with our relationships with the farmers and host families.  All three were with us for the entire week.

 

Brisas del Mar was a special site because it was a community that probably never had a non-Honduran, let alone an SHI group, visit their communities before. According to Aaron they were anxious to have us come and see how they lived and farmed in this remote mountain setting.  He also said that our visit helped encourage and motivate the farmers to follow through with the sustainable agriculture training they are receiving from SHI.  It was clear from the comments from the farmers after each work day that our efforts had helped them develop or expand a plot and instill a sense of pride in their work.

Day One – the group split, four women and Remy going to help install a watering system.  This was the only work site during the week that didn’t go very well, the women feeling that they were ignored by the two older men farmers.  After lunch this group joined the larger group to continue to continue to dig and fertilize about 100-120 holes and plant plantains in between pineapple rows. 

Day Two – we stood on the edge of a steep slope which the farmer, Don Chepe, had recently clear cut with his machete in preparation for staking out contour lines to construct terraces for planting corn.  The hillside was so steep and littered with the clear cuttings that we couldn’t believe anyone could plant, or walk, on this site.  But six hours later we had completed eight long terraced rows ready for Chepe to refine and plant corn on.

Day Three – we picked coffee on the farms of our two host families, Don Chico and Don Esbin.  Before starting, Chico instructed us in how to pick the coffee beans.  He also described the challenges of being a single small farmer who when bringing his unprocessed coffee to market had little choice but to sell to middlemen or “coyotes” who had the cash on hand and set prices low.  At this point we could now see the advantages of a farmer’s cooperative like the one in Copan who avoid middlemen by processing their own coffee ready to sell it directly to buyers for big retailers.  At the end of the afternoon we watched the beans we had picked be run through a de-pulping machine in preparation for bagging and selling to the “coyotes” in the market.  A 100 lb. bag sells for $220 to the retail buyer but Chico only receives $110.  We roughly estimated that at the end of the day Chico would make about 40 cents a lb. in profit for his coffee that later might sell for between $5 - $11 a pound in the US.

Day Four – we arrived at a newly cleared slope even steeper than the slope on Don Chepe’s property.  Don Jose and his 14 year-old son were still placing stakes to mark contour lines where we were to dig holes and plant new coffee plants.  Salomon gave a short lecture on how the coffee seedlings were planted and raised over a three-month period and that it would be two years before coffee beans could be harvested.  Some of the group very carefully made our way down the slopes, avoiding occasional bee and ant hives, to dig holes while others even more carefully transported baskets of coffee seedlings down the slick clay hillsides and placed them at the holes.  After lunch we planted about 70 or more new coffee plants.  As we departed, the 69 year old Don Jose expressed  sincere gratitude for our help.  His family lived in a very meagerly constructed home without even bathroom facilities.  This small plot of new coffee would eventually be a big boost to his family’s income.  

Day Five – we split into two groups and went to two different houses to assist SHI field trainers Salomon and Juan Carlos construct fuel-efficient wood burning stoves with vented exhaust pipes that will greatly improve the air quality over previous cooking methods.  The stoves’ brick base, about thirty inches high, three feet wide and four feet long, were built before we arrived.  We helped build the stove top, adding three additional layers of brick held together with a mortar mix of thick red clay and water.  Three interior spaces were left open for heat chambers, one for the wood fuel, a second and third filled with large rocks and pebble-sized stones successively, which absorbed and held heat from the wood fire.  A large rod-iron top (about 20”x 30”) was placed on top of the brick and secured with mortar.   The students really enjoyed getting their hand dirty in the clay and setting the bricks.

Each of the hands-on activities gave students a real taste of farming and their homestays gave a taste of this very modest life in the mountain communities.   A real bond was established between the families and students.

Chuck Wattles