More Involvement in Community Development

As we get more involved in the life of our village, Urraco, we've tried to offer creative opportunities for families to increase the quality and variety of their diet.  Our tropical climate allows many varieties of fruits and vegetables to grow that would never grow in my native Indiana.  Mangoes, avocados, oranges, and all kinds of trees can greatly increase the quantity of food a family has and improves the nutrition that parents can offer their children.  

We sent an invitation out with a couple of the young boys from our English class in the local elementary school.  They were excited to help and had a fun time.  

Our most recent effort to reach out to our community in this way was to bring a fruit grafting specialist who works with the local agricultural school, to improve the quality of fruit trees by grafting a desirable variety of fruit tree onto another tree that serves as the rootstock.  Basically you cut a small branch off of your best fruit tree or variety of fruit tree and "patch" it in to a tree that has a good root structure or other desirable quality.  

​We had about 20 people respond to the invitations, and they had the chance to listen to the grafting specialist teach about grafting mango, rambutan, and avocado trees.  Each of the participants got a chance to graft a tree, and then take that tree home and plant it on their property.  

In the past couple of months we've had the chance to teach English classes in our local elementary school, hosted a community fun day for young people in three villages, hosted a community movie night, and put on this grafting clinic.  All of these have been well attended and have helped us build relationships with our community.   Thanks for helping us reach out to our community that has so many needs.