Building Trails in the Cloud Forest

For those of you out there who are keeping score at home, my last blog post was about how schools were closed for more than a month because of a teachers’ strike. So, I basically spent the entire post explaining (okay, call it complaining) why I haven’t been able to do part of the work I wanted to in my town because of things that were way out of my hands. (And hopefully those roaring political storms have calmed for a bit and I can soon restart work at the school). But I found it unfair that I didn’t talk at all about the work that I have been doing in the past couple months: so here it is, four brief overviews of solid projects that have been happening around here:
1. Database system at the coffee co-operative

2. Total trail system make-over in the cloud forest

3. Construction finished on community center

4. New project: improve health center

1. Database system at coffee co-operative

In February I teamed up with a fellow business volunteer, Carrie Purdue, UVA grad and good friend, to design a new database system for my coffee co-operative (see picture of us on a hike in a national park outside of Teguz). The administration was looking for a way to digitalize their receipts, to get up-to-date inventory reports, and to be able to track the production and credit trends of coffee farmers who sell to the co-operative over time. So Carrie shared some of her extensive Excel know-how and we sat down and put together a new program that, I’d like to think, is very simple and intuitive to use but that will hopefully be a helpful tool for decision-making.

Up to this point, we’ve been finishing up this coffee harvest using both the old, inflexible and stale database, and the new one, as they’ve been getting used to the new processes. The dream is that this new system will make it easier to manage the co-op in general, using information and technology to be more successful.

2. Total trail system make-over in the cloud forest

Alicia, the PCV who’s working with me on developing ecotourism, got one of her former co-workers in the Seattle park service to come down to Honduras for a month to help us work on our trails. His name is Jack and he’s got years of expertise designing and maintaining trails in the Seattle area.

We held a trail building workshop for fellow PCVs and for their counterparts, as well as members of our communities, a couple weekends ago. About 25 people showed up, which for us, felt like a great turnout. In the training, Jack talked about the three main components of trail building: the grade (or slope/inclination) of paths, water drainage, and the “tread” (or path). Many of the current trails in my town are used by workers and by pack animals getting to and from coffee farms and are basically straight up the sides of hills. That’s not ideal for tourists, however, because it’s a lot more tiring to walk, and when it rains, the paths basically become muddy creeks.

So during the weekend-long training and since then, we’ve been building “switchbacks,” which are zig-zag paths that wind up the side of hills to avoid the steep straight-up paths, and “water bars,” which are rudimentary drain canals perpendicular to the trails. We also have been working on taking out roots and widening the path wherever possible. In the picture here, one team is working on installing a rock-step bridge across the river (which only has water in it during the rainy season). It has been frustrating work sometimes, logistically speaking, but it’s a lot of fun being out in the woods. We saw a coral snake and have heard quetzals and howler monkeys. I think the trails will end up great and hopefully will be a boon for our marketing efforts.

3. Community Center

One of the first things that I did in my site last summer was meet with the Patronato, the local town council, every week. It was a good way to meet the leaders in my town and to see what sort of initiatives were big. Well, instead of big development initiatives like business training or children’s nutrition programs etc, they had prioritized the construction of a community center. The idea was to have a place to hold town meetings, weddings, wakes, political events and, of course, dances. This is the perfect example of balancing the community’s desires with our own ideas and plans as volunteers: although I didn’t think it was priority number one, they asked me to help out, so I said yes. We made a work plan, vetted a foreman and wrote the budget to be presented to the municipality.

Anyway, the good news is that construction was finished in February and they held the inauguration dance for Valentine’s Day. I admit that there was a certain sense of accomplishment upon seeing it finished, though a new building doesn't necessarily mean "development." I will post pictures one of these days. Also, I think helping community members on this project gave me a leg up in terms of their trusting me in the future. Now with my foot in the door, hopefully, it will be easier to work on new project (see number 4 below).

4. Health Center

To finish up, I’ve been meeting with a group of people in my town who wanted to "do a project." Alicia is building a library in her town, using one of the PC grants available to volunteers, so people in my town wanted "something" too. So we met for a couple hours a week for a month and a half in order to analyze the needs/problems of the community and then brainstorm possible solutions. What ranked as the highest need for the community according to my committee was working on the Health Center. Although it wasn't my first choice of projects, the cool thing about service in the PC is that we can respond directly to the desires of our communities. Thus, we are going to be looking at physical expansions, new equipment and getting a doctor. Although this doesn’t specifically have to do with my business project, it may be a good side project.

I must admit that I am highly concerned with sustainability. I.e. we could spend a lot of time and money on fixing the building and getting new equipment, but if the management of the Health Center doesn't improve, it may all be wasted, having little positive impact on the community. For me, the ideal would be to work on fixing the root causes of poor health: lack of education and lack of income generating activities for families. Will continue updating on this…