There is a reason that I have not been writing as much as I should be lately. I've been a little busy. That and lately people have been stopping by, calling me just to chat, and dragging me to the island to hang out. I'm not complaining about that. I love talking to my fellow volunteers. I'm just saying that when I have someone to talk to I forget about my little blog and all its followers.
Anywho, Charles and Emily came by and together with a couple community members we made what is called a ferro cement tank for the artisan house. This type of tank that is used for water catchment is ideal for areas such as these as they are cheap to build and can be done by a community member. They are great. They do take time. Of which many people here have a lot of so that really isn't a problem. Our tank turned out pretty well and I would say that a community member could make it. We will see if the people that we taught will actually have the drive to do it.
I ended up hanging out with Charles for about 5 days and it was nice. He is a fellow upper west coastian (Ashland) and we get along really well. He is also wicked smart when it comes to sustainable water and sanitation so it was great to see him in action. I've also been in heavy communication with the Engineers Without Borders people which is exciting as we are talking about doing a micro hydroelectric system here to power our chocolate grinder. As far as communication goes, they seem to be on it and this gives me hope that we are actually going to get this done. As of right now we have $2,500 raised for our electric needs and with their help and a small amount of funding from them possibly it is looking like we will get this thing done.
Our group finally had the long over due meeting about what to offer the farm owners for using their land. The group spent 2 hours talking about who's fault it was to come up with the beginning numbers and then about 30 minutes deciding on a new number. After the meeting something unexpected happened. Another community member that works with the large chocolate co op in Almirante that exports large containers of cacao happened to come to the meeting to present a something to the group. In short the artisan group is being presented with the chance to choose one women to be part of a program that sends her and others like her from every Central American country to El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize to see how people in these countries make chocolate. Only one lady from each country can go and it has to be an indigenous female that works with chocolate and this person has to put together a power point presentation and be able to speak about her own chocolate project.
It is pretty amazing to me that at this time last year we had just started to come up with the idea to sell chocolate to the public and now we are talking about representing an entire country as far as chocolate goes. Of course it will be stressful for me and for her as I will have to teach her power point and even just how to use a computer and also how to speak in public. My only fear is that whomever we choose will have too much fear and drop out. We shall see. I really need to be at the meeting when they discuss who should go as to make sure they know the importance of this opportunity. This person would get the chance of a lifetime and could possibly bring back new ideas for our own artisan group to try and to make our products better. Exciting.
More posts coming up about 'raw chocolate' which is non fermented and is starting to create chatter about its health benefits. Until then, peace...
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