Tuesday, October 23

We Were Created for Community

AMC's land bank project, or "Los Bancos de Tierras"  aims to support communities to work together in order to get out of poverty. The banks are large chunks of land purchased by AMC and people in the nearby community may apply to be a part of the land bank. There are socios and associados and each bank has about 8 socios and each socio helps "manage" 2 associados. Overtime, as a community, the participants work to pay AMC back for the land. The community works together to grow crops, take care of animals, take care of the community, and build a latrine for each family. Also, the participants are expected to aim at achieving certain tasks/goals for example own two different types of animals (chickens, pigs, etc.), maintain certain crops, provided three meals for their household each day, volunteer each month on a bank, etc. I spent this past week working on and visiting the different land banks. Miquel and Francisco I am attempting to explain the land banks as much as I can using what I learned and experienced this week. There are 4 land banks.
1. San Benito (Esperanza)
2. Progreso
3. Nueva Jerusalem
4. La Bendicion           

1. San Benito (Esperanza)
The very first day I arrived to this area for my first time in August, we went straight away to the corn festival at San Benito and the place was filled with the families from the community. When I went this past week, the only other people present besides Francisco and I were Dona Zayda and three of her kids. Each land bank usually has a woman who is the main person in charge of managing the kitchen. If people are visiting or meeting at the land bank, usually AMC will provide a meal, which is then cooked by Dona Zayda. San Benito is located close to the rocky road passing besides the land and a large gate welcomes visitors. Francisco and I zoomed up the steep entrance on the motorcycle and as we pulled up to the front porch Elir, Dona Zayda's 12-year-old son greeted us. This land bank has a small covered front porch, which leads to the kitchen and two rooms; one room for storage and a bedroom. There is small covered walkway between the kitchen and other rooms leading behind the structure. As you exit, the first building you can see the meeting space or a covered and fenced in space. There are two latrines located a little further away from both structures. In front of, behind, and next to the structures are many, many plants. There is everything from palm trees to papaya to cafe. Francisco and I spent the day planting palm trees, pear plants, Lora de India's and some sort of vines with flowers (I always think of Jumanji when dealing with vines). Franciso and Miquel are in charge of helping to maintain the crops and plants located on the main property of the land banks. The area is sometimes used to train associados about certain techniques or good locations to plant certain plants. Before leaving Elir and Francisco led me down the path through many cafe plants and down into the wooded areas. We followed this nature trail around the back of the property and Francisco explained many times monkeys can be spotted from the path, but to my great disappointment the monkeys were no where to be seen. Our good looks probably intimidated them.  However, right before we left, we could hear the howls from the monkeys carried to us by the wind. The sound is eerie.  Finally, San Benito is also the oldest land bank and is often used as an example for the other banks.


2. Progreso

In order to reach El Banco Progreso, we parked the truck at the top of a steep, rocky hill and walked for about 20 minutes through muddy and rocky paths. Miquel opened a wooden gate and across a large open pasture sat the auditorium for Progreso. As we walked across the muddy field, Miquel pointed out the lines formed in the grass. Many times the community or socios use the land to play baseball or other large games. The only structure sitting on this bank is an open, yet covered and fenced in area where meetings are housed. Chairs for meetings are fetched from a nearby house across the open field from the meeting space. When we finally arrived to the meeting area, about 20 men and women were gathered at the land bank. I had the chance to introduce myself and share that I know God is here in the country and working with these people. Then, each person gave me a brief introduction about themselves and how long they have been working on the land bank. After the meeting, Miquel had to take some phone calls so I kicked around a soccer ball with three other young guys in the large field as the sun set in the background.

3. Nueva Jerusalem
I would say Nueva Jerusalem is the poster bank for all the land banks.  This is simply because Nueva Jerusalem has some pretty neat features. All the banks are equally important and great, but Nueva Jerusalem is just so pretty. It's also usually where groups go, if they want to visit a land bank. Once again in order to reach the land bank you must take a bumpy road, which goes up and down several hills, has several curves and leads through two different rivers. Along the way barbed wire gates need moving in order to pass through the road. As the truck nears the land bank, plants, some with blooming flowers, line the road and the road begins heading downhill. Then the road turns into the running river and right away the gazebo with a leaf covered roof and the building housing the kitchen come into sight. There is space to park in-between a small tin roofed office and a fenced in area housing several goats.  The river is heard in the background and a small waterfall exists on the land bank by a short hike down the river. I spent the day with a small group of the socios and associados re-roofing the leaf covered gazebo. Roofs using leafs need to be replaced about every 4 years. We used large palm leaves from trees related to banana plants. It was a joy to work with a small group and joke around with everyone. At the end of the day, I also sat in on a meeting with Miquel. At one point, Miquel brought up the issue of money and how as a group they are accountable for paying back AMC. He also brought up the fact there has been tension in the group and how they can best work out issues and problems as a team. I got to see some more of the tough parts for the participants.



4. La Bendicion
La Bendicion is the youngest land bank, only two years old, and the farthest away. It takes about a 45 minute ride in a truck and then either an hour hike or horseback ride to the land bank.  Miquel, Francisco, and I rode horses to the land bank and one of the local young men, Jose Maria, accompanied us on foot. I acted quite confident about riding a horse but I had a slight moment of panic when I realized really the only other time I've ridden a horse was when I was in YMCA Princess and my dad was also on the horse... I remained confident; however, and thought I've seen enough movies and heard enough people talk about how to ride a horse it can't be too bad. I did survive, although I did talk aloud often and to my horse named Satan. Yes, Satan. He was wonderful, though. The trail was really rough for him the whole time, too, with lots of deep muddy and steep slopes. I felt sad for him and they also strapped spurs to my boots but I pretty much refused to actually use them. Once we arrived to the land bank we "parked" the horses in the shade and headed into the large building on the land. Two women were working in the kitchen and they welcomed us with large smiles and kisses. After resting for a little bit in the kitchen, I received a tour of the second floor with bedrooms and a porch with a breathtaking view of the landscape. Then I went with Francisco to take inventory of the local pharmacy. The pharmacy for this new community is in two cardboard boxes in Dona Francisca's humble house. As we walked to her house, Francisco explained to me many of the socios live together in very temporary homes since the bank is so new and many people have only been a part of the land bank for a few months. Dona Francisca's house is fairly small with large palms for a roof and plastic sacks acting as walls. She gladly welcomed us into her home and as Francisco and her worked on counting the medicines, I played and laughed with the kids present in her home. Later that afternoon, there was a meeting with updates on the land bank and I had the opportunity of meeting each of the participants. They are a humble community, yet there is hope growing as the land bank grows. We decided to walk back and give the horses a rest for the day.

After this week I am blown away by the power and beauty behind a community working together to live and prosper. Each land bank consists from anywhere to 24 families (Nueva Jerusalem) to 12 families (in La Bendicion). These groups of people work hard and the growth is small, yet significant. I believe we are called, as God's children, to constantly be within our communities and "live" with one another.  The land banks are a beautiful example of God's kingdom here on earth.

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