November grads

November 20th brought two new professionals into the family of graduates at the College. In the morning, Juan Carlos Ballivian defended his research project analyzing a survey of families in the municipality where the College is located (Municipalidad de Coroico). His results showed that most families have from 4 to 6 members (though some had as many as 12!), and that families on our side of the mountain make on average 29 bolivianos per day (about $4/day). 63% of heads of households have not finished elementary school.

His results also showed that farmers with less land looked for more opportunities for courses about better farming techniques. Juan Carlos explained that farmers with less land need to be more efficient to support their families, and so they seek out information.

This research gives us information that helps us develop more effective extension strategies. Gracias, Juan Carlos!


Photo: Director of the College Father Freddy poses with the morning graduate Juan Carlos Ballivian.


In the afternoon, Carmen Pampa native Lucila Cama presented the results from her project looking at the production of stevia, a plant that serves as a natural sweetener. She showed that using an organic foliar fertilizar called biol lead to increased production, and more profitability. Bienvenida a la familia de titulados, Lucila!


Photo: (L to R) Research advisor Manuel Chino, René Villca, College Director Father Freddy,new grad Lucila Cama, Desiderio Flores and Agronomy Director José Luis Beltrán (photo from Sarah Mechtenberg).

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for here in Carmen Pampa, but the thing that I appreciate the most is the opportunity to do something meaningful with my life that I also love to do. And surrounded by wonderful people!

We celebrated Thanksgiving early this year, on last Sunday, and invited the Franciscan Sisters, the priests from Coroico, and some friends from along the way. We were going to have one of the free-range turkeys that our neighbor was raising, but it was too skinny (lucky him!), but we did get a picture out of it (Thanks, Lee). Here is our T-day crew (photo from Sarah Purcell).

A place for professors

Our professors who teach on Campus Manning (vet, tourism and nursing professors) were living in an old building from way back, when the Franciscan Sisters and Xaverian Brothers ran the high school. This year, we are adding a second floor and remodeling the whole thing. This is how it looks so far:



One of our "indispensables" is Donato Monrroy, our Campus Manning maintenance man and keeper of Carmen Pampa history: he was invited by Sister Damon to help at the high school in Carmen Pampa long ago, and has supported the College since its conception. Three cheers for this incredible man.

More Todos Santos

The second day of Todos Santos, November 2nd, people go from house to house, visiting and praying for the souls visiting from the Other Side. Tara Nolan and I did some visiting Monday in San Pedro, a nearby community where some students at the College come from.

We prayed for the souls of the Mamani family, then watched as kids came in to pray. Around noon, the souls leave the house for the cemetery where they hang out.



The next day we went to the cemetery in Carmen Pampa where community members were saying their goodbyes to the souls departing for their world until next year. Here some community women rest after the souls had gone.



Later Tara and I went up to the little cemetery at the Puerto del Viento where the community members of Choro were dispatching the souls of their family members. Here a family stands with the t'antawawas (bread people) and phasancalla (puffed corn) that is given to people who pray for the family souls. (Tara and I went home with two bags full of bread people!)



Thank you, Tara, for your photos!

Todos Santos, Part 1

Todos Santos, All Saints Day, is a special time for the families around Carmen Pampa. The souls of departed family members return to the community once per year, and visit their living relatives. Last night I went up to the neighboring community Chovacollo to see friends and pray for the souls that were at their houses, visiting.

At one compadre's house, the family was up baking bread for the family altar they were preparing for the parents and other relatives who no longer lived on Earth.



At another house, the mother had made an altar for her daughter who died this year ("She just wasted away," the mother explained). I sat for a few hours talking to the farmers that had congregated there.



It is a nice time to slow down, reconnect with old friends, hear stories about the past, and contemplate our lives and the time we have left to make a difference for our brothers and sisters, wherever they are, however we can.

Javier Alvarez

Sister Damon Nolan's niece Tara Nolan and I went to see Javier Álvarez this weekend to chat about the College's coffee project. Javier used to organize the coffee purchases from communities around the College. When Tara asked about what he is doing now, he told us part of his life story.

Javier and his wife studied at another campus of Catholic University on the Bolivian Altiplano, and Javier graduated with an associate degree in Agribusiness. Then he went to work for an organization that helped farmers near Carmen Pampa. Sister Damon encouraged him to get a licenciatura degree to have more skills and credentials, and make a bigger impact. helping farmers be more profitable and improve their quality of life. She offered him a job at the College while he studied.

He took her advice and worked on an agronomy degree. However, half way through his studies, he got in a motorcycle accident and was in the hospital for a year and a half. Even this could not discourage him from his dream: though a limp reduces his movement, he continued working toward his degree and finished in 2007, researching how the coffee plant water treatment works.

"Sister Damon was like a mother to me, and never let me get discouraged," he told us as we sat with his wife and daughter in the shade of a tree near his house. "Her vision carries us far, and will carry us into a future of dignity and understanding."



Sarah writes about what Javier is doing now on her blog Uchumachi.

More grads

Last week the College had two more graduates, both in the agronomy department.

First was Rosemary Gutiérrez who compared 5 different varieties of beans here in Carmen Pampa, and discovered that two of the five were good producers, especially when inoculated with a bacteria that helps the plants get the element nitrogen from the atmosphere. Beans are important because they can improve protein intake, especially important for growing children.


Photo: Rosemary stands with Father Freddy after her successful defense.

The next day, Wednesday, student Daniel Choquetarqui defended his work with Beauveria bassiana, a beneficial fungus that kills coffee borer, a coffee pest. We grow it in the laboratory to bring to the field and apply in coffee fields. His laboratory trial of production of fungal strains from different communities at different temperatures showed that the strain from the community La Asunta produced the most spores, and that 24ºC is the best temperature for growing the fungus in the lab.


Photo: Daniel poses with his parents.