Life on Ometpe

I have been on Ometepe now for just less than 2 weeks and things are going well (& now I am actually in the States for a week).

Basically Laura, Nelta and I are helping in an already very fruitful garden, thanks to Roberto (top right)! So for we have begun a large compost pit (dug to about 1.5 ft - 2 ft deep) (right, before it was full), another above ground compost pile (piled up about 3 ft). For composting, one of the best methods is to layer one in the following order:

1. Dry organic materials (ex: dried weeds, dried corn stalks, dried banana leaves)
2. Fresh green organic materials (ex: food scraps, freshly pulled weeds, banana leaves, etc...)
3. Any kind of manure - fresh, dry, whatever is available ... preferably goat, chicken, cow or horse ... not sure about dog dump?  - This is vitally important as a nitrogen source.
4. A light layer of soil for the introduction of soil microbes to increase decomposition rate
5. Water each layer a little bit, to aid in the beginning of decomposition ... then repeat the layers! 

Typically a good compost will take 4 to 6 months depending on the environment and climate (Wet & humid climates will be faster, dry climates slower). We have as well employed a soil improvement technique called a fertility trench, with a terraced bed on either side of the trench. The terraced beds are raised several inches above grade. In the top most bed we just sowed radish (back terrace in picture), in the trench we sowed carrots (middle in picture), and in the lowest terrace we sowed lettuce (1st in picture)!

The children help us in the garden for about two hours each day before they go off and get ready for school ... school starts at 12 pm. We have about 3 or 4 children a day helping us, and they rotate throughout the week. Here are a few more pictures...

  

1. This is Darrell (left) ... watering the compost pit after piling on several layers one day
2. This is Jefferson, Jimmy, and Darrell (top right) ... posing after working one morning ... Jimmy is just like this picture portrays him ... kind of a punk, but I love him. He has had a very difficult life.
3. This is Marjorie and Dunia (bottom right) ... Marjorie is my age and grew up at the orphanage - CICRIN, and Dunia is 2 & hilarious!

As for life on the island, its hot and dry! We live in the shadow of a very active volcano ... Concepción. It has spewed ash at various times ... and it is always looming pleasantly overhead. I want to climb it, but with as active as it has been it is closed to hiking/climbing. Within the last week it spewed ash about a mile into the air! The picture does it no justice ... but I was speechless ... yet there was no noise to accompany such a display of power! One my favorite parts of CICRIN is that we are on the west coast of Ometepe, meaning we get to watch the master Painter create a new masterpiece every evening as the sunsets ... and He never disappoints!

Now as for future projects in the garden, Roberto and the three of us want to implement several other appropriate technology demonstrations. Well, one is not so much AT, but just a learning or demonstration garden for the children to have fun with. The main garden is too important to "play in," but we want the kids to develop a liking to gardening, because for most of them it will be a mains of feeding themselves later on - like most of the rest of the world, which we Staters know very little about, but that is a different subject for a different time. So, we want to design and begin a demonstration garden were the kids can explore and experiment with different crops, which will also provide them with a sense of ownership, because we don't want to be the gringos that started something for them that they will not maintain when we are gone, thus ownership is of great importance!

Another project is called vertical gardening or a multistory garden. Basically, take chicken wire and form into a column and fill the column with rocks, this is the center of the garden ... about 3 - 4ft tall. Then, using some kind of durable material, such as landscape fabric, or the black erosion control fabric seen around construction sites and wooden stakes, create a circle with these material around the rock column. In between the rock column and the fabric outer wall, fill with a soil and compost mix. Use a 5 gal bucket with holes drilled in the bottom to be your watering source. This is set on top of the rock and as it drains that rock pulls the water outward so it is absorbed by the soil+compost mix. On top around the rocks a nice root crop like radishes or carrots can be planted, and then along the out wall, cut little slits in the fabric and sow various green leaf type crops - lettuce, various herbs etc ... which provides one with all the vertical wall space to grow plants too. This is good in settings where soil is very poor, space is limited (like in the city) and it also conserves water.

There is more we hope to do, but our time is limited so we will have to choose our undertakings wisely! I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into my life!