Greenhouse at the Top of the World

In June, with help from a mission team from Onalaska, WI, and my son Sam, we’ll be building a new adobe greenhouse near Santa Ana, Bolivia. In the photos at right and below, left, note that the lake (12,500 feet elevation), is quite a bit lower than the site. Cerro (peak) Wara Wara, right next to the site, is 4492 meters – about 14,950 feet. Click on the photos to enlarge them and see more in our photo albums.

The new greenhouse will overlook an old stone road that’s still well trafficked by shepherds driving llamas, alpaca, and sheep. The road, made in pre-Columbian days, winds its way from one side of the Copacabana Peninsula to the other, linking Copa to Sampaya, where small boats depart every morning for Isla de la Luna, Island of the Moon.

Five miles west of Isla de la Luna lays the much larger Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, where, legend has it, the sun was born. There the first Incas, Manco Kapac, and his sister/wife Mama Ocllo, mystically appeared under direct orders from the sun. Contemporary Aymara and Quechua people of this region accept these legends as their creation story.

Triumph!

Jeff and I visited work sites to start planning for the team coming from Wisconsin. At Sicuani we were invited to share a welcome lunch of choklo and habas (corn on the cob and fava beans), boiled potatoes and homemade cheese. (See photo at right) Pastor Juan Paz and Coordinator Filipe Ramos, with whom we work closely, spoke in Aymara with the local folks about the mission’s projects. We could track well enough to catch words and phrases, including “business plan,” and “projects must be sustainable.” They were teaching the same concepts we’ve struggled for months to convey to them: They get it!! Hooray!

Chicken Co-op to Fly

We’ve been working hard with local folks to develop a business plan to start a chicken co-operative. By luck, the site is just a 30-minute walk from home for us. It’s situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Titicaca. Even after covering start-up costs, including construction of an adobe building, purchase of 200 three-day old chicks, food, light, medicine, and compensation for a trainer to teach best methods in chicken raising, we calculate that the co-op will generate money in its first quarter. We figure that by the end of its second quarter, it will generate enough profit to cover start-up costs of a second chicken co-op. All of us involved in this project see it as a learning experiment, with the hope of propagating the model in this region, and on the Perú side of the lake.

Look Who’s Coming!

We are enjoying making arrangements for quite a few visitors who will work with us in the coming months. First to arrive will be my son, Sam who’ll land in La Paz this week! From late May to the end of July, he will step off his path as an undergrad in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sam will be working on construction projects, helping to build a new brick church in Huacuyo, and the adobe greenhouse in Santa Ana, and to replace greenhouse roofs in Chani and Santa Ana. We. Can’t. Wait!!!

On June 10 we will welcome Allyson Zeedrich, a graduate student in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Allyson will do her practicum requirement here, working to identify and address priority public health needs in poor, rural communities. She will be working with the mission- trained Promotores de Buena Salud along with guidance from the Copacabana Ministry of Health. We are quite honored that she wants to do her field work here, and thrilled that UIC has been fully supportive, particularly in helping us jump all the academic and insurance hurdles.

Five days after Allyson arrives, we’ll welcome Team Onalaska, nine folks from Wisconsin, along with Susie Henry, from Baltimore. Susie and her late husband served for 40 years as missionaries in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. (Onalska United Methodist Church was one of their supporting churches). We are psyched and excited about this team, which ranges in age from 18 to 72. They’ll be with us June 15 through 22, sharing their collective skills and expertise to work on greenhouse construction and to work with mission-trained Promotores de Buena Salud to teach good-health basics such as first aid, personal and dental hygiene, and nutrition. A hearty, advance “Bienvenidos” to Team Onalaska!! We look forward to saying that next month in person at the La Paz airport!

In July, friend and Downers Grove native Ryan Kolegas will join us for four months, possibly longer. He’ll be teaching English, for room and board but no salary, at nearby Cusijata School, which we wrote about in recent newsletters. We worked with Ryan on mission projects in Reelfoot, TN, and an UMVIM Katrina relief mission in Mississippi. It will be great to work again with an “old” friend. Ryan has a degree in digital cinematography. He’s hoping to create a documentary about the mission.

From August 5 through 10, we’ll be hosting a group that’s now forming within the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. 

Help! We Need Your Recipes!

To date, we’ve received only a handful of recipes for the Lake Titicaca Border Mission Cookbook. Please send us 1 – 5 of your favorite recipes. We’ll be working on the book as time allows over the next three months. We hope to do assembly and production in August, and have the book printed and shipped by early November. But because we expect to be very busy with teams, individual volunteers, and construction projects from early June through early August, please, please send your recipes now!

And please keep your emails, prayers and support in all its forms coming! We love hearing from you!

Deb & Jeff