Don Vincente Most Significant Change (Abstracts)

...Abstracts from Most significant Change interview. Download the entire interview txt

2^nd Interviewer: Do you cultivate vegetables? 3^rd User: Yes, as you can see we have vegetables here (the other user asks: before Scampi?) no, before Scampi no, this program has helped us a lot in the strengthening of our community because before we had so many weaknesses because some people said that they wanted to quit because it is a hard job, it has helped our vegetables and plants to be more nutritive for all the things we put in them, because they work different in our system comparing them to meat which takes a longer process inside our body so I prefer the vegetables, and for me it would be better to continue cultivating more vegetables and I hope this group continues to do so because sometimes it is hard but we have to keep working to reach a better development as farmers.

 2^nd Interviewer: Why didn’t you cultivate them before? 3^rd User: Well, we did not cultivate them because we thought that we needed a larger land to cultivate but at the same time we realized that we didn’t need so much space in order to cultivate vegetables we can use small land getting a lot of harvest there is no need of larger acres, for example in this area we harvested 5000 radishes and before we could not imagine that this amount was able to be harvested in this place, we thought that maybe in larger acres but now we see that it is possible here, and also with the tips and help of the engineers and experts which have been helpful we were also able to put a lot of seeds in another part for example the one that we have here as you can see are more, there is the space from the ones we have harvested and now we realized that vegetables do not take a lot of time to harvest it is also fast to get and it is also easier to reach more incomes for example here we have coriander, it was cultivated for business and as you can see it is growing and we have more, and you are not asking me this and I am not doing it just to take more time but for example here in this 2 meters of land we have 25 quetzales in 40 days (someone asks in the back and he replies yes in 40 days) and for us this project has been really helpful and we hope to be able to keep going.

 1^st Interviewer: Since the arrival of Scampi what do you think is the most significant change in your family?   3^rd User: Well since the program came I believe it has been the nutritional part which has been more balanced because we not only eat vegetables, we also have drinkable water, we have filters to kill the germs in the water, and we are healthier, before we suffered several diseases like flu and diarrhea, well and those have been some of the positive changes we have faced because before for example we ate radish which we used to buy and took the herbs away and now we eat them.

2^nd Interviewer: How is the work organized in the group in this farm? (He repeated the question)   3^rd User: We are organized in 5 people who know the place, we studied the land because it had a yellow color and did not produce anything but thanks to the effort of the group we prepared the land, fertilized the ground, put manure of cattle, hens and other types, we strained the soil to have different types for example the prepared soil called this way because it has been strained and mixed with cattle manure it also has fish bones and egg shells and ashes all very good mixed and we put them in bags all the manure which we always use, each time the group come to water the land each person brings their own manure and put them little by little in the ground after being strained and we also tell the people to bring bones so we grind them and have better results in the nutrition of the plant because we have better harvest in this case bigger radishes.

2^nd Interviewer: Was it difficult to organize the group in the beginning? 3^rd User: Yes, it was difficult because we had to face several weaknesses because some people wanted and other did not want to be part because some thought it was too much work, and for that reason communities like ours have many difficulties among the people because they don’t always like to work and for us that is a problem because the ones who want to improve and fight like us against our worse poverty which for me is the mental poverty the one we have to fight because it is hard for us because we are not prepared sometimes it is our own fault for our lack of desire to improve because when opportunities like this come we have to use them and I would like to invite the entire group to keep working hard because it is the best way to have a better life.

1^st Interviewer: After Scampis what do you plan to reach in a near future? 3^rd User: Well for me if we had the opportunity for now it is only a dream if we could have a better mechanism to use water so we do not have to waste it and use it as much as we could and be able to use it for our harvest because as we can see here the family is washing things and wasting water and I think that there is a way we can use it or even having some kind of watering system more advanced to use and even to commercialize it because right now it is only for consumption and with that system we could have a better result that is a dream a better watering system but who knows if God helps us I believe we can have it if we continue working hard. 

2^nd Interviewer: Thank you so much for your time.