Quite a few things happened in Salado Barra since Anna last
wrote to you! It is now the rainy season, and the workers of Falls Brook Centre’s
local project – Proyecto Mangle – have been restoring and planting in the past
few weeks. All of the plants in our nurseries have to go into the ground before
the dry season begins!
While Anna works hard in the kitchen and medicinal gardens
with the hope of improving food security in the community, my individual work
consists of monitoring and reporting the advancements and changes in the
Biological Corridor (a project with the multinational Standard Fruit/Dole) and
ensuring the success of the solar panel business that members of the community
have started. Together, Anna and I teach English and Environmental Education
classes to kids in the community, and tackle the challenging task to revamp
Salado’s ecotourism management plan.
A week ago, we were extremely lucky to have Dr. Ranil
Senanayake, a systems ecologist and founder of the Analog Forestry restoration
system, visiting us from Sri Lanka. Dr. Senanayake has been involved in this
project for a few years. His visit consisted of evaluating the progress of the
Biological Corridor, the demonstration and restoration sites. He also made sure
to collect epiphytes from El Cacao (where Falls Brook Centre holds other
projects), taught us how to put them back on trees to ensure their reproduction
and proliferation. Dr. Senanayake is an incredible source of information, and
gave us the honor to evaluate one of our analog forestry designs.
Members of our project also held a reunion between workers
of Salado Barra, Omoa and El Cacao, with the intent to share, learn and
evaluate each project’s successes, challenges and lessons learned. Anna and I
were pleased to see Brittany, the Falls Brook Centre intern working in Omoa,
and to learn from her project.
On a leisurely note, we celebrated the Proyecto Mangle’s one
year anniversary this past Friday. We played games, organized a talent show,
and were treated to a real feast composed of a freshly bought and killed pig,
rice and beans, yuca, tortillas, and chimol. Community members danced until the
wee hours of the morning, celebrating one year of hard restoration work!
Que le vaya bien,
Mira + Anna
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Mira loving the jungle
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Environmental Education with some of the kids
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Beautiful mangroves
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