FOG - Anneli's March 2001 Trip Report

A n n e l i ' s M a r c h 2 0 0 1 T r i p R e p o r t

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[The following letter was sent to Gretchen by Anneli in January 2001, to report on developments in the El Bosque library project.]

Hi Gretchen

I'm finally finding some time to share some of my observations and reflections from my recent visit to the library in El Bosque. Martha was not there the day I arrived but she had left the key with a neighbour who very kindly let me in and talked about the use of the library. The murals, painted by an Irish cooperant who's been living in Posoltega over the last few years, were beautiful and I was happy to see that she had involved the children in painting the flowers that run along the bottom.

In terms of furniture, I noted that all they have is just two small tables in the large library room with chairs. I think they could probably use some benches and maybe some large tables for work space. The front roof extension had not been constructed as we had planned to provide for more shade but Martha explained that this was because they put in the ceiling instead that also will keep the room cooler.
I noted that it may still be a good idea to construct the outside rancho to provide for a shady reading and meeting area. When I talked to Martha a few days later, she also brought this up and was of the same mind. It's too bad really that we couldn't get together in person to work out a budget for the things that are still needed but she assured me that this could be done by e-mail.

It was clear that electrical lines had been strung up, but still to be installed are the light fixtures. The two bookshelf units were located in the office part of the library building but they were still not very organized with many of the books still in boxes. When I visited Martha's home in Chichigalpa, her daughter Patricia said that she would work on classifying and setting up the bookshelves as soon as the holidays were over. Martha has plans to identify a librarian in the new year.

In terms of programmes, community members mentioned that a psychologist was coming twice a week to work with 30 or more children each time - reading them stories and getting them to draw pictures. The children that I met talked about this and the adults said that they also attend. At times, they said, there would be a group of adults at one end and a group of children at the other. This sounded wonderful to me. For now they said it was just the children from the MEC houses that were attending but they talked about bringing children from the Red Cross housing as well.

There were lots of ornamental plants growing behind the MEC house and I was told that these were to be transplanted by the library once it was completed. On a sad note, the children told me that this year there had been no Christmas party - no piñata.

When I went over to Martha's, I was accompanied by Dionisio, the man who lives in the house by the MEC office, as he wanted to talk to Martha. Along the way he talked to me about the land that had been given to them for growing garden vegetables and how the amount was not sufficient. He said that they could sell the vegetables but because of the high cost of electricity costs for the irrigation pump, hardly any profit resulted. Others who've received land, he said, are not working it. It seems that they've become too use to just receiving from the international organizations (and these have been many) and now they don't want to work (some organizations like Nitlapan warned about this creation of a culture of dependency early on in the process of emergency relief and reconstruction assistance). Dionisio also said that because he was the only one growing corn, some of it had been stolen.

He talked to me as well about the families in the Las Champas refugee camp and how the organizations are implementing strict regulations in order for families to qualify for the new Red Cross housing that has just been completed. One of the rules is that families must abandon any houses that they may be maintaining on the slopes of the volcano. I don't know if this is a security measure or whether they fear the families will move back to the old houses and sell the ones they receive from the Red Cross. Dionisio overall said that the families are doing very poorly as they are no longer receiving aid, there is no way to earn money and they have too little land to cultivate.

This is what I was able to learn from my visit to El Bosque this time. Please also let Carroll know that I asked Martha by phone, whether the books from her students had arrived. She assured me that they had but because things were not quite set up when I arrived, I could not witness this for myself.

I'll be writing next to Martha to ask for a budget for the remaining needs of the library, which I see as:

a rancho outside
a couple of large tables
some benches

Aside from these physical needs, I'm sure some funds for an honorarium for the librarian would also be helpful. I know that these are funds more difficult to raise.

Let me know if FOG still has some commitment to raising funds for this project. I'll get back to you with what Martha tells me.

I hope this was helpful.

Abrazos,
Anneli