This Sh*t is Going a Long Way

This morning was phenomenal...We feel elated and priviledged to have experienced firsthand the epitome of a sustainable community program...Dom, Doreen and Santiago have created a fantastic program that promotes education, community bonding, responsiblity and recycling of resources:

1. Most importantly, you must send you kids to our school (a free education and guaranteed sponsorship in the National School up until college)

2. Your family receives 6 bags of organic fertilizer to use to enhance your plots of farmland, and better your crop

3. In return, your family must give one bottle of oil, one can of beans, 2 bags of sugar and 4 bags of pasta to the ¨Grandparents´fund¨

4. Once a month, we ration out these basic foodstuffs to the elders of the community (whose grandchildren are in our school)...this gives the elders a chance to meet the teachers, to interact positively with the children, and to be included in the community´s cycling of resources

5. Next year, when your kids return to school and you donate a relatively small portion of your years´ crop, you will receive another 6 bags of fresh organic fertilizer and in the long run, make Santa Maria´s soil more and more fertile for the entire community

When we arrived into Santa Maria on this beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, we were greeted by literally most of the community...hundreds of smiling and patient men, women, children, and babies...Our kids´heads peaking shyly around their dad or mom´s legs...The crowd parted for Dom, Doreen, Ross, Irene, and the 5 of us ¨seños,¨ with a wave of ¨buenos dias¨ as we made eye contact with as many parents as we could.

We entered the school, which was completely filled with 800 kilos of bags of organic fertilizer that was to be distributed to each family. We all stood up on the ¨stage¨with the fertilizer while Santiago introduced us to the community...most already know Dom and Doreen from the first run of this project last year...Hundreds of smiling eyes studied us, and we received countless ¨muchas gracias¨...our money really does go directly to this place and to these grateful people...

A ridiculous feat, especially to us First Worlders who really heavily on mechanics to do our work for us, these 800 kilos of fertilizer were counted out and rationed out to the correct families (after their contribution to the Grandparents´fund), in one and a half hours, and solely by man-power. And as Dom said, it really should have been a logistical nightmare. Pretty incredible teamwork.