On September 24 and 25, I had the opportunity to stay on a land bank with a host family. A land bank is an area of land that is purchased by a company and sold in equal sections to families to live on and cultivate. This particular land bank is owned by the Fundacion San Lucas. The program, started in 2011, has given
farmers living in El Manatial the opportunity to purchase a piece of
land, making small payments over a six year period. Not only does
the organization give farmers the resources to fund their work, they
form a community of families that are there to work with each other,
grow together, and learn together. The program gives families the
physical, emotional, and spiritual tools that they need to succeed.
"In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."
Ephesians 2:7
My friend Karina and I stayed the
night with Juan Maria and his family. Although it was only 6
O'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at their home, we arrived in the dark because the
families of the land bank have no electricity. It was actually really
awkward at first. We arrived, set up our hammocks and climbed into
them to sleep without hardly talking with the family because we
couldn't see them let alone introduce ourselves to them. :-/
Fortunately, the morning went a bit
more smoothly. We were up by the crack of dawn introducing ourselves
and explaining where we are from and why we were there. We also asked
them questions about how they came to live at the land bank, how long
they had been there and their future plans for their land. One of the
most beneficial parts of our trip was when all the families came
together and showed us hand-drawn pictures of how their farms looked
in the past when they first arrived at the land bank, how they look
today in the present and how they hope to develop the land in the
future.
While staying at the home, we were able
to witness exactly how much work it takes to survive when you have to
farm in order to grow your own food and sell the extra food to make
money. All the corn, yucca, beans, etc. is planted and harvested by hand. After
less than an hour of working with our host mom shelling corn cobs, I
had blisters on my thumbs. I could not imagine having to do this for
hours on end to make money everyday.
It is surprising how easily we take
simple things like running water for granted. We are so very blessed
in the states to have all of our food provided for us prepped, packed
and sealed; to be able to drink water right from the tap, to be able
to sleep and not have to worry about being attacked by mosquitoes or
stung by a scorpion, to shower and not have to worry about running
out of water. After manually removing corn kernels from the
corn cobs for a number of hours, I will never look at a combine the
same way again. We are VERY blessed.
Only part of the corn that needed to be shelled.
This guy scared our socks off as we were working!!!
My bed for the evening!
Our host mom makes corn tortillas everyday after hand grinding the corn kernels.
