The haps at the house

We have had some happenings at the house -- new visitors and visiting professionals, too. Catherine Moriarty is our permanent visiting professional this semester, a graduate from Smith College, and our superstar English teacher in the Education and Agronomy programs as well as the tourism English backstop. More about Catherine later.

The past month we also had a high school student here, Isaac, helping out on campus, as well as Marta, an education expert from Barcelona giving workshops this month to different groups on campus. Sarah's friend Kelly was visiting from Minneapolis, too. It was a full house in Carmen Pampa.


Photo: Sarah, Hugh, Marta, Isaac, Sister Jean and Kelly pose for a photo after Isaac's going away dinner of lasagna, prepared by Kelly with homemade ricotta.

Mario Choque

Friday was the defense of Mario Choque, a student who started at the College more than ten years ago. He researched the best time to castrate piglets, and discovered that it didn't matter if it were earlier or later, only that it matters (meat from uncastrated males is not tasty).

He joins his wife Elizabet Lluta, a nursing department graduate from the College, to form one more husband-wife team of professionals.


Photo: New graduate Mario Choque signs a copy of his research project as representative from Catholic University Ramiro Fernández looks on.

Liliana and Ferns

A student of mine, Liliana Condori, went to a workshop about ferns at the Herbario del Sur in Monteagudo, close to the Constitutional Capital of Bolivia, Sucre. It covered the usual: identification, ecology, biology. And she came back excited to research the ferns that grow on our mountain, Uchumachi. When I used to teach ecology at the College, I got really excited about ferns, too: they are so varied, and beautiful. Our forest is home to a few species of tree ferns, delicate ground ferns, bizarre climbing ferns, and more. I am excited about her project, and I am sure that she will make some interesting discoveries.


Photo: Liliana (in pink) sits with the workshop participants to examine their newly collected specimens.

Beautiful mass

We had a beautiful mass today in Carmen Pampa by Father Israel. The 4:30 p.m. Sunday mass is attended by students both from the high school and the College, as well as people from the community. What a gift the church is!

Today's mass was especially poignant because it was celebrated in remembrance of George Murnane, husband of past Carmen Pampa Fund executive director Fran Rusciano Murnane, who passed away this past Tuesday. Fran, you and your family are in our prayers here in Carmen Pampa.


Photo: Father Israel celebrates mass in Carmen Pampa.

Lettuce and carrots and beans, oh my!

There are many interesting techniques to produce organic vegetables: companion planting, double-digging, mulching, manuring. Student Rubén Quispe did a project comparing these techniques, and discovered that growing carrots, lettuce, beans, summer savory and basil together with double-dug beds, mulch and chicken manure resulted in big increases in production compared to the region's traditional horticulture techniques.


Photo: Rubén signs a copy of his thesis after his successful defense.

Rubén is a very quiet and humble young man, and very generous with his time. While he was (supposedly) writing up his project, I often found him helping other students with their projects, especially statistics. I joked with him that it took him so long to graduate because he spent so much time helping other students with their projects. But graduate he did, and we send one more professional off into the world to help all live dignified lives.


Photo: Rubén stands with his defense committee (L to R: Ángel Garabito, Desiderio Flores, Rubén Darío Gómez, Rubén Quispe and Hugh Smeltekop).

Pesticides

The other side of our mountain Uchumachi is the community of Trindad Pampa. Trinidad Pampa produces a lot of coca, and conventional coca production involves a lot of insecticides. Nursing student David Uria did his graduation project about the use of pesticides in this community, and found that over 80% of producers do not use these products according to the label, and none of them use significant protection when applying them.

Today David defended his project, and became our latest graduate! David currently works as the health specialist in the municipal office in nearby Coroico, and said that these data, and other research at the College, are very useful to the region as they make plans to help farmers take better care of themselves and their families. David is special for another reason: he is from the community next to Carmen Pampa, a "local boy" working to improve the health of his community and other communities like his in the municipality. Go, David!


Photo: David receives his diploma from Director Father Freddy.

A new species of passion fruit

Student Porfirio Kapa became the College's latest graduate yesterday, with a research project about starting two species of passion fruit from cuttings. (Passion fruit is named for the Passion of Christ: The vine resembles the whip used to flagellate Christ, the corona threads resemble a crown of thorns, the three stamens represent the three nails used to nail Christ to the cross, and the five anthers are the five wounds on Christ's body.)


Photo: Porfirio poses in front of his passion fruit nursery.

Both species grew from cuttings from the stem, with over 90% success with the known species, and around 60% for the unnamed species.


Photo: The unnamed species of passion fruit. Porfirio says that the only people who eat this fruit now are kids and monkeys!

Congratulations to Porfirio. We expect his wife Maribel Villca to graduate with in the next few months, as our family of graduates grows.

Sad news

We got the terrible news last night: the father of Janneth Mamani, the student in La Asunta that Sarah wrote about last week, died the night before last. Janneth's brother Nelson, is also a student at the College, in the ecotourism department.

Janneth's boss sent her in a truck that night from La Asunta to La Paz, a long trip, where her family was sitting with the body, distraught. The death was totally unexpected -- there were no signs that there was anything wrong.

I went to the house today. Uncles and aunts sat and talked and cried with the family, Janneth sitting at her mother's side along with her two brothers. The body will be at the family house until tomorrow when it will be taken to the cemetery around the corner, in the Río Seco section of the Alto, the sad, barren, cold and windy place where the city of La Paz ends and the Altiplano begins. Please keep the family in mind these days. We will, too.

Independence day in Coroico

Today the whole college goes to Coroico to participate in the Independence Day activities. It starts with a mass...



...and ends with patriotic speeches and everyone marching in front of the church for all the town to see. Here are our best three students at the College from Vet Science, Samuel Málaga, from Education, Rocío Adrián, and from Agronomy, José Luis Chipana.

Inaugural Mass

August 4th was the inaugural mass of the second semester this year. It is always amazing to see the whole school in one place.



Sister Jean always does something cool with the liturgy (check out the flower-adorned altar servers with smiles to beat the band).



Lidia Cuevas addressed the student body with an inspiring recollection of the nursing profession.



The mass also honored three graduates of the nursing department. Here is Sister Jean with these new graduates, Agustín, Concepción and Alexander.

Día del Campesino

August 2nd is the Día del Campesino, also known as Día del Indio, a day to celebrate being indigenous and preserving the culture and values of these rural areas.

The day started with a mass, then speeches, and then a parade with students from kindergarten through college.

Here are the students from the elementary school in San Pedro de la Loma, a small community near the College -- ready to march!




And here is the president of the town council, the subprefect, and our Director Father Freddy.



Here new graduate Policarpio Apaza*, also from San Pedro de la Loma, leads his fellow community members in the parade, with the Aymara Nation flag, the Wiphala.



Last in the parade are our students from the College. Here some agronomy students line up, ready to march through the high school grounds in honor of their roots as children of the land.



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*I didn't write about Policarpio's research project defense, July 13th, in La Paz. A "native son" of the valley where the College sits, he looked at chicken stocking densities, and found that less chickens per area meant better conversion of feed to meat, but that more chickens per area was more profitable (12 chickens per square meter). He plans to start a small community-run chicken farm in his community.