on the road

Last weekend I voyaged solo into the northern stretch of the Andes to a little town called El Limonal. This quaint community northwest of Ibarra (about 4 hours from Quito) sits quietly in the middle of vibrant green mountains and a very important watershed for the greater region. What first drew me to the area was Bosque de Paz which hosts a growing agroforestry project run by Piet Sabbe. The humid subtropical climate boasts a wide range of fruiting trees, from papaya to guayabano and oranges. However, because of recent droughts, yields for farmers in this area haven't been as high and many have turned to different forms of agriculture = mass deforestation to make room for grazing patches.

Thanks to the Bosque de Paz, 15 hectares of land has been reforested and preserved in addition to many other local farms that have converted their traditional farmers into more sustainable fruit and forest gardens. Other projects include managing wild fires and man-made fires in the area and eco-tourism initiatives.

An impressive tree on the Bosque de Paz grounds


View of the surrounding mountains

After a mile walk from where the bus plopped me off in El Limonal I stumbled upon two German volunteers cutting bamboo columns for what I later learned would be their new living quarters come May. Both are volunteering for the farm for a year of civil service (aka the German gov't pays for them to do what I'm struggle to fund raise for - wouldn't that be nice?) and help with everything from construction to planting and harvesting. Lucky for me, they halted their work around lunch time and spent the rest of the weekend introducing me to friends, playing word games, and taking me on a 6 hour hike on Sunday morning. Although I would have been content reading in a hammock and wandering the grounds myself, they made the weekend much more enjoyable and exploratory, classifying each and every plant and picking me delicious fruit along the way.

Ron and Lukas pose on our hike

We found a friend, Angel, panning for gold in one of the waterfalls


Walking through the town of El Limonal


A plant nicknamed la lecheria oozes out a milky substance used to make glue

It was so refreshing being introduced to another type of volunteer work in a completely different environment than Manna and to share with them what we do in the Chillos Valley as well. And, as always, it was equally as nice to return to the house as everyone was just sitting down to dinner and to have the opportunity to skype my family in NJ afterward!

Me, Jen, Sam, and Mom most likely laughing at something ridiculous Sam (Jersey's newest driver) said

- Jackie

The future of conservation

I can certainly appreciate being in a country where it's infinitely easier to follow the food chain backwards from my plate to the ground it came from. Often times in the states, I find myself eating a packed lunch with an apple from Washington state, enriched bread products from Iowa, imported soft drinks, cheese from Wisconsin, deli meat from a CAFO in the Dakotas, and hundreds of other corn-based products hidden in the depths of each product's ingredient label. Here it's a bit simpler... although there are a myriad of processed foods, most imported from the US, 90% of what we eat comes from right here in Ecuador and can be traced back to the local farmers we interact with selling their products at the weekend market in Sangloqui.

That being said, Ecuador is a country of rapid development, from new hydroelectric energy to dozens of housing developments going up right here in the Chillos Valley. It's my fear that as Ecuador continues to develop, its children will move away from their love of the natural world and innate understanding of it's importance to their well-being.

As we began reassessing our progress from last year and re-evaluating our goals for the next 6 months, it became clear to me how important it is to focus on environmental education, along with my agriculture projects. I decided to delve into two bigger goals - exposing children to hands-on science and environmental education outside of the library and helping start a nutrition-based agriculture education program with a local school called Aliñambi. I've set to accomplish the first goal through monthly field trips to various science museums in Quito and nearby natural parks. To read about our first one, please see my entry for our MPI blog. The second goal involves colaborating with Haley and Krysta, two other health-focused PDs, to empower the 6th grade class that we work with to take control over their own nutrition and health. Research has shown that students who participate in class gardening projects tend to make better decisions about their daily diets because they feel connected to what they're growing and have a deeper understanding of where their food comes from.

Frank and I attempt to solve one of the interactive science museum's brain teasers

Vincio and Lesli follow the food cycle, from soil to dinner plate

Fellow PDs Krysta, Erik, Chet, Mike and Sarah helping clear the grass for our garden


Teaching our students at Aliñambi how much fun it is to make recycled paper

In a world where nature is disappearing and food ingredients are becoming unrecognizable, it is so important to foster an understand and appreciation for local and international ecology in our youth. As it is so well put in one of my favorite quotes, "in the end, we will conserve only what we love, we love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we're taught" (Baba Dioum, 1968).

Thanks for checking in!
- Jackie