Vivero La Esperanza - San Juan Tecomatlan - Watch Us Grow!

Things are growing at our nursery/vivero in San Juan Tecomatlan....we even have angels in the garden.  Our dear friend and teacher Martin Meza brought along his youngest son, Angel to help us grow.  Everyone wanted to hold and take care of Angel...who wouldn't?

 Angel in the garden

Every time we visit we are presented with new surprises....this Saturday our 1st squash.

Our 1st sunflower

Our acelga/swiss chard keeps giving and giving...this is our 3rd harvest from these generous plansts.

In the middle of our gardening morning we heard a shout from the corner abarrotes.  "Someone was having a heart attack" was the cry.  The Brigadistas rushed over to see what was happening and to see how they could help.  The gentleman in question was actually having convulsions, so we told him to stay where he was and not move.  The Brigadistas began gathering info from the neighbors and found out he had had a history of convulsions.  While I called 911, the townspeople went to alert his family.

The gentleman had injured himself when he fell at the start of the convulsions.  The Brigadistas saw to his cuts and bruises, cleaned the wounds and bandaged them.

Soon the Cruz Roja arrived to take over. 

It was an emotional morning at the Vivero.  Our Brigadistas, still in training, did a stellar job.

The Cruz Roja soon was on its way, the patient taken to his home and we returned to the Vivero.

Aside from practical education, we also bring garden books that we think will be of interest and use.

Another 1st harvest were our Cebollines.  Anita holds them up proudly.

Our friend Felipe took great comfort in being able to work with his hands, 

as his daily work is highly cerebral.

Our teacher Priscilla is always with her side kick, Lulu.  Everyone seems to get along beautifully.

Our morning meetings are a great place to update each other on the week's progress

and all things of importance.

Martin makes a point.

One of our goals is to rescue any existing fruit trees in the Vivero.  Today Mino, Barbara, Douglas and Paula decided to focus on our Naranjo.

Before

 After

The crew did a great job...so much so that the beautiful Naranjo looked like a totally different tree.

 Priscilla teaching

With a generous donation of shade cloth, the sewing of the roof cover piece is in progress and 

should be installed this coming Saturday. 

Dona MariElena

The newest member to our crew is Sra. MariElena, who lives across the street from the Vivero.  She is our guardian angel, keeping watch over the nursery during the week, giving us water when needed.

This Saturday we were told that there had not been any water in the area for 3 days.  The usual water availability fell from all day to just in the afternoons about a month ago...this due to the dry season.  This time the water had not flowed into the town's homes due to a malfunction of the water pump at the town well site.

Always resourceful, Martin suggested we load up our empty barrels and head to his place in San Nicolas, to fill the receptacles.

Lickety split, the crew was gone and back with water for our garden.  We face daily challenges such as these...and we continue to grow.

See you in the garden!