Dia 1: Gogorron - On Monday, we started in Gogorron where we were given a tour of a beautiful Hacienda where the movie Zorro 2 was filmed and had our first introduction to an ejido. There are what seems like hundreds of ejidos in Mexico which are basically plots of land given to communities all over the country with the responsibility to take care of the land. The government will pay them to take care of the land and is slowly but surely teaching the people how to do this. This particular ejido is in charge of desert land. Cattle run free through this desert and eat fruit right off the cacti. There is a mountain within the bounds of the ejido as well and the ejido owners take a trip up the mountain a few times a week just to make sure everything is in tact.
Dia 2: Comunidad km 58 - Tuesday we had the pleasure of visiting this mountain ejido, community kilometer 58. It has it's name from an old train passage; it was 58 kilometers from San Luis Potosi (the capital of the state) on the old train at the beginning of the 1900s. The train eventually stopped running but because there was a train station in this area, the people remained; except now without any transportation to their jobs and without a station to maintain. So what to do? It seems as if they've been trying to figure that out for the past 50+ years and just in 2000 decided to start reforestation with help from the federal government and start some other farm projects. This picture is of our guide Don Antonio who was very passionate about his land and the people of the ejido. He is worried because many people leave to go to the city or the US for jobs and he wants to create jobs in the area so people will stay. 2 volunteers from our group will be working with this small mountain community.
Dia 3: Medialuna & Agenda 21 workshop
At the beginning of the day, we had a chance to swim and have some fun for a minute. The ejido in Medialuna has the luxury of having this natural spring right on their land, so over the past 7 years, they have been developing tourist wonderland and people come from all over the world just to visit this little spot.
Later in the day, we got to go to a workshop in a town called Progreso (another ejido with a lot less to offer in terms of tourism) where current volunteers gave a presentation on sustainable development. The idea of sustainability is foreign so they started with the simplest and most direct questions: what would be the ideal community for you? What are the top 3 problems you face as a community? The following workshop will be a followup and will ask the community what they can do about it? It was really good for us trainees to hear what is important to the community and what moves them, not to mention the volunteers did a phenomenal job and are something to aspire to.
Dia 4: Desert in the middle of nowhere - La Montonera. This day was a change of pace. Instead of having a bunch of head honchos from an ejido tell us everything great about themselves and their ejido, we met one humble man and his family who live in a community of about 70 people. They have little resources and a hard time even getting water. Their biggest project is the cultivation and reforestation of an agave plant which has many uses which they hope to be able to commercialize in some way. The picture above is the elementary school.
Also on this day we were surprised to be treated to a feast by a neighboring community. Goat meat with mole. Delicious. We then heard about their project, a fish pond in the middle of the desert. They've been trying to get this thing going for the past 10 or so years and have run into quite a few stumbling blocks. The man in charge made it clear that they need the proper training to make this thing successful. They were very kind people and unfortunately we do not have any volunteers assigned to this site, so hopefully soon they will get the training they need.
Dia 5: A Cactus Cooperative near Matehuala. Friday, we got to meet these wonderful women who nurture these beautiful cacti. They have tons of varieties in different colors and sizes. They expressed their need for business help and appreciated all the gringos buying tons of cactus. They said a part of them was going home with us. They were so sweet and like the fish guy, I hope they get the help they need.
In conclusion, it was a fantastic trip. I did not mention this but we also got to see a couple SEMARNAT offices which is the branch of the federal government in charge of all these projects. So we got to see small communities like most of us will be working in as well as the offices to which we will most likely refer. If I had to sum it up (which is challenging to do) I would say that the people in these areas are more than grateful for our help and even for our visits. They love their land and the work they do and just want to learn how to do it better.
