Kat and I are still working in the
Plagas department, and there seems to be no end to the new information that Norma is passionately teaching us. Among many things, we've
learned how the micorrizas (fungi which aid plant growth) are cultivated on the
farm, and how Norma ferments and disperses different plant extracts at
different times of the day to increase their efficiency.
However, one of the things which has interested me most over the past few days
was talking to Norma and learning about her first few years at the
organopónico. The organopónico was founded in January 1997 and two years later
in 1999 Norma joined the small work force. Then, the farm was much smaller and
only occupied the space of the medicinal plants department (pictured below).
With only five workers employed the first year, outputs were obviously lower than they
are now but residents from the surrounding area would still flock to the
organopónico to see what was for sale. For a while, seeds were sewn in old beer
cans collected from the community and without a car to move any equipment everything
was done from the seat of a bicycle. Bit by bit the organopónico grew to what
it is today. There was considerable aid from a German agricultural program
named German Agro Action (Welthungerhilfe: http://www.welthungerhilfe.de/home-en.html),
which helped add to the infrastructure of the farm. Norma has an old photo of
the organopónico which hopefully we'll be able to see and compare to our
version of the organopónico. Everything seems so established now in a unique rhythm making it difficult to
imagine that is was ever anything different.
In other news, Kat and I were in
Santiago last weekend to check out the east coast of the country, see the
carnaval, the moncada barracks, and visit two other Canadian students working
on SFD internships. Matt and Elaine are engineering students (Elaine just
graduated) from the University of New Brunswick who have been living in Santiago for two months working at the
university focusing on medical imaging technology. I know very little about
both engineering and medicine so I can't explain in any detail what they are
doing, but it was fantastic to meet up with some other Canadian interns and to
talk about everything that's been happening over the past few months. Pictured
below the four of us are in a tiny book/photo/record store in Santiago, which
conveniently had a Canadian flag on the wall.
|
Kat, Matt, Elaine and I in Santiago |
We didn't see too much of the
carnaval, but what we did see was a giant street party. There were trucks
stationed at various spots along the carnaval route which were really just
giant kegs filled with beer. Vendors walked around selling hats, and cups for beer from the truck-kegs while small amusement park rides were located just up side streets entertaining the kids. The
four of us also walked around the Moncada barracks where 60 years ago Fidel
Castro and 138 others staged their first revolutionary attack. However, while
the revolutionaries were outnumbered and quickly defeated, the attack did give
Fidel his pedestal to deliver his famous speech "History Will Absolve Me" and
is seen as the beginning of the revolution.
While in Santiago Katherine and I
had to frantically look for a place to stay when our reservations at a casa fell through. We ended
up wandering around Santiago knocking on doors that had the casa particular
sign (Casa particulars are a bit like B&B's). However, due to the carnaval
and celebrations for the 26th of July everywhere seemed to
be full and it was getting late. Luckily for us however, we were rescued
by the kindness of a woman who would not let us leave her casa (which was already full with tourists) until she had
called all of her friends and had found us a place to stay. We then stayed with
Tatica (pictured below) one night, and Marbelis (pictured below) the second
night. These two women were some of the sweetest women I have met yet in Cuba.
Marbelis even called our Cuban Madre, Lily, back in Havana to tell her when we were on our bus, and when we were expected in Havana. If you're ever going to be staying in Santiago send me a message and I'll send you the contact info.
|
Kat and Tatica |
|
Tatica and I |
|
Marbelis and Kat |
|
Marbelis and I |
In the end it was a fantastic
adventure and it has left me looking forward to this Sunday when Elaine comes
to visit us in Havana!
More Photos:
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Ladybug containers which specify the amount of larvae and adults in each. (Larger storage containers in background) |
|
One of the many painted wooden blocks that decorate the department showing the various types of ladybugs, and other beneficial insects. |
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Pure plant extracts (Nim tree, Tobacco etc) that are diluted and used as pesticides. |
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From left to right: Roxana, Kat, Norma, and I |
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Norma showing us how she samples Nematode levels in the fields. |
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One sample from a field. (Small samples are taken at 5m intervals diagonally across a field then mixed and analyzed. The fields are tested once a year.) |
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