Land of Trees - May 29, 2017

After our travel day, we arose in our splendid hotel to greet the morning sunshine and with joy and anticipation. After a lovely (3 course!) breakfast, we met the technicos in the parking lot of the hotel. It was at this point that Dr. Hallum brought to our attention that some of us would have to ride in the truck beds as there were not enough seats for all of us. Well, still bright eyed, we had trouble fitting all of the people who wanted to ride in the truck beds. And let me tell you, you have not “done” Guatemala until you have ridden in a truck bed up and down the side of a mountain. It was so overwhelming I had to take a nap on the way there.

            Our first stop was the AIR office where we got a tour and got to meet the staff. Dr. Hallum, who is our guide and has mentored many students over the years is the founder of AIR, but the real head honcho is the director, Ceci. She coordinates sites for the technicos from the office as well as keeps an eye on all of the various programs AIR offers, which are many and increasing. We were formally introduced to the “técnicos” who we had already trusted with our lives driving on the streets of Chimaltenango. They drive on motorbikes, a common form of travel here, to farms to help with the hands on planting and teaching of farmers and “members.” We also met Lydia, who assists Ceci in the office. All in the office were proud to claim her as a product of AIR. She graduated from high school with a scholarship from AIR and is planning to go to college.

            After our tour the staff also gave us a presentation about AIR. They began with reminding us that Guatemala means, “land of trees.” And beautiful and fertile land it is. The need for reforestation comes from Maya peoples moving outward into the mountains as the fertile land is bought up and used for commercial production. The slash and burn techniques used by farmers cause the soil to run off the mountainside in the heavy rains of summer and carries the nutrients with it. Planting trees amongst fields of crops ensures that good soil stays in place and continues to be fertile. These practices make it much easier for Maya farmers to own their own land and make a living. “But with AIR, we worry less and we work more.” The center of AIR are the tree nurseries. This is where trees are cultivated into saplings from seeds. About 70% of participants in this program are women. AIR also helps farmers plant those saplings in their fields. More recently AIR has also been giving out scholarships for children, like Lydia, to go to school. They also teach and grow medicinal plants that products can be made from to sell as farmers wait for their miracle trees to take root, and build stoves that use half the wood of commonly used stoves and prevent lung disease, which kills 8 times more people than malaria. AIR is a huge influence in Guatemalan agriculture and it even has a relationship with the Guatemalan Forestry service. 419,732 trees have been planted this year so far and 5 million trees total since the program began.

            After this we piled back into the trucks (and truck beds) and headed to a farm in Varituc to plant trees. This process, I am told, is usually quite simple but they saved the difficult project for us, the young group. The farm had very dry soil, so instead of digging six inches deep to plant the saplings, we dug about a foot and some inches to find the moist soil and then had to mix in bagged soil to add nutrients. For a workday that started at 11:00 and ended at 2:30, it was a very long and slow day. Lunch was cooked and brought to us by a few families from the town and was served to us in beautiful pottery. The food was a traditional Mayan meal of stewed vegetables and chicken in a corn meal broth. It was heavenly. They also passed around a bowl of crushed chiles to season our stew with.

            We called it a day around 2:30 and packed up and headed back to Chimaltenango. Interestingly, there was less excitement about riding in the truck beds now that everyone was tired and sore. Well it did start to rain on the way back, a joyous sight for the farmers who are hurt by climate change and can no longer depend on the rains to come when they used to. It also meant that the few of us in the truck also got watered like the crops. And I must say, if you have never ridden in the back of a pick up truck in the rain up and down the side of a mountain, then you haven’t done Guatemala.

-Bernadette