THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

The last thing we want to share with anyone is our defeats, but I would be painting a false picture if I only sent home 'feel good' stories about my time here.  So I have to tell you guys that my first planting of red beans has ended in failure.  Soon after they sprouted they were swarmed by white fly--one of the worst crop pests in the world.  I didn't want to spray insecticide hoping they would move on but they didn't, until they left it in ruins.  I finally had relented and had them fumigated but it was too little too late.  I had primarily planted them so I could turn the plants into the ground to improve the soil.  Still I was hoping to be able to harvest some beans before I did that.  Now I will have to incorporate them into the soil while I still have something to work with.  Right next to them I planted a few yardlong beans and those vines are as healthy as can be.  For some reason the white flies didn't like them.  I will plant more of those in the future.  But will the kids like them?  This is the essence of agriculture, experimenting to find out what works on your farm.  However, I didn't come down here to run experiments.  I know there are tried and true vegetables that will succeed and we have all those planted now: local squash varieties-ayote, pipian; local sweet pepper-chiltoma; corn; yuca.  I also saw the entire crop of tomatoes planted by staff before I arrived get destroyed by the white fly while they had little effect on the chiltoma, which are still producing.   So I still expect to succeed. We now have planted in 19 beds onions, beets, cabbage, radish, carrots, cilantro, yuca, cucumber, garlic, lettuce, ayote, pipian, zucchini and flowers.  I also have tomato seedlings ready to be transplanted. I'm leery about the beets and lettuce though with this hot sun but we're giving them a try.  If they don't do well we will just try again in the cooler rainy season.  I've also thought of growing large quantities of crops that I'm told don't get bothered much by insects, such as yuca and taro root.  We could then sell most of it and buy the cooler growing crops that don't do as well here.
That was the bad news.  The good news is I found an organic pesticide made up of the seeds of the neem tree.  Insects ingest the liquid and their hormones get skewered.  They lose their appetite for food, as well their ability to reproduce.  I pray this will do the trick.
This early loss has shown me that this will not be a walk in the park.  I will be on the lookout for potential dangers and act before it is too late.

The first beds are starting to take shape.

Happy New Year!!

I see it's been a long time since I posted my last update.  Christmas and New Year have come and gone and now it's time to get more work done.  As far as what's growing so far we still only have the beans we planted in the first beds.  They are filling in the beds so it's nice to see some progress.  We had an invasion of white fly so we had to spray a pesticide in order to not lose the whole crop.  On Christmas Eve, Don Hilario and I planted yuca in three beds.  It was probably the hottest day since I've been here--not what I wanted for Christmas.  Right after that I called it a day and got ready for our Christmas dinner.  I wanted something sweet of course so I went on line and found Mimi's Cafe carrot-raisin bread recipe.  No molasses so I used pancake syrup.  Not bad.  We ate beef rolled with a chicken vegetable filling with cheese, mashed potatoes, diced carrots and chayote with lots of Numar (Central American fake butter), purple cabbage/apple salad.  It was good but I really missed tamales and turkey.  After dinner we all received our presents in front of the Christmas tree.  I bought the two youngest boys remote control cars and they had a blast racing them.  Then they found out that they can control each others cars.  I wonder how many fights they've had since I left.  Early the next morning I was on my way to Costa Rica.  All the kids leave the orphanage for New Years so I went to stay with my friends.
 I've been in Costa Rica since Christmas day and I'm still trying to get back to the island.  I arrived back in Nicaragua on January 11 but because of the high winds no ferries are crossing the lake to the island.  Meanwhile I'm staying at the home of a missionary couple from South Carolina.  Mike and Joan Vilasi have been in Nicaragua for almost seven years.  They were the first people I met in Nicaragua when I first came four years ago.  I bought over 30 flower and vegetable seed packets from Costa Rica because so few choices are available in Nicaragua.  I also brought over homegrown seeds of squash, frijol de arbol (gandules) and a tuber called papa Chiricano (Chiriqui is a province of Panama), naranjilla  (lulo), and red ginger plants--all hidden in my backpacks.  I prayed that they wouldn't be taken from me by Nicaragua customs.  They didn't even give me a form to fill out or send me to check my bags.  I got my passport stamped, paid to enter the country and jumped in a taxi--home free.
Now I can't wait to get back to the orphanage and get back to work.
I hear things are cold up in the northern hemisphere.  I wish I could feel the cold, but I can't complain.  When I got back to Nicaragua it was the coldest I've ever felt here.  Some of that cold wind is blowing all the way down here.  I hope it stays cool for a while, but if these strong winds keep blowing they will become a problem for growing crops.  Please pray that the winds will calm down.  I will write again soon to show you how things are going.  Thanks for reading all of this.  I won't try to fill in for so much time again.