November 2001

Dear Friends,

In our bougainvillea trees we hear many new bird songs this time of year, as winter sets in further north. In this part of Central America we are now entering what is called "verano" or summer, the dry half of the year. Now we have a greater variety of birds than exists in all of North America. It is also the season for butterflies and the flowering of trees. Crops are being harvested after the rains of "invierno," or winter, and many flat spaces are used for solar drying of rice, corn, and beans. Whole families tend to the raking of these drying grains.

At the hacienda in Colima workers are also drying sugar cane bagasse, milling it, and making fuel logs. Every batch of logs is rapidly sold as the residents of the community know how well they burn—hot and almost smoke-free.

This week the first major harvest of organic tilapia fish will occur at the restored lake near the forest reserve.

The Colima youth crafts group is excitedly involved now in painting birds, flowers, and still life. Some of these young people are very talented. There work will be sold in San Salvador and at the hacienda for tourists. It is all part of a very important "re-framing" of their reality. Other youth continue making jewelry with local materials and will be learning how to make paper mache "cabezones" (full-head masks) for dance presentations.

We have been given access once again to the old gravel pit site that served as a sanitary landfill area for our trash program, but instead of depending on old non-cooperative co-op tractors to haul separated organic trash to the compost-making area and inorganic trash to the landfill, we are initiating a new effort with horse-drawn carts. We hope this will be less problematic. As with the fuel-log project, we hope this enterprise will soon be self-supporting.

The new sugar cane milling season begins this month, so Julie and I will be meeting with the new Colima mill engineers this week to assure access to the waste bagasse for the fuel log project, to place orders for the less processed sugar, to talk about the milling of organic sugar cane, and to tell them of the community’s new trash project.

We are also planning a work day with the members of the co-op who will come to the hacienda to work with us to build planter beds, paint, build steps off the front corridor, and then enjoy a meal cooked and served by the newly-trained cooks and young waiters. During the day we will be showing the co-op members slides of tourism activity in El Salvador, slides of the protected forest area, the restored lake and of the beauty of Colima, all in an effort to help them more fully recognize the touristic potential of their community, and the greater role they can play in the tourism project.

Julie and I have also been visiting other communities where Alfalit is involved in El Salvador. We will be accompanying them with craft projects, organic farming efforts, water delivery systems, and improved stove construction. This becomes more possible as more of the work in Colima is taken on by new staff and community residents. This progress has given us more of an assurance that the work will grow on its own steam and, though different in ways from what we might have imagined, be claimed by the people of Colima as their own. This is our prayer. We share this prayer request now with you, understanding that in this tormented land only with God’s help can such a prayer be answered.

On November 10th, we will fly to Atlanta to see our first grandchild, Taneli Marie. Julie’s mom will be flying from Portland, Oregon, to Denver where our son Damian will join her in the flight to Atlanta. Julie and I will return to El Salvador on the 17th of the month. Darien and Simone are enjoying Taneli very much. She is a quiet baby and very, very beautiful.

Keep in touch!

Lifting prayers for a more peaceful, healthier world, in faith,

Julie and Bob

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 240