lista y caballo mio

Hey All!
Its been awhile again I suppose. I'm the capital right now, came in to check on my proposal for my chicken coop project. The money will be deposited in our account next week, ojala. It's crazy to think that we really will be doing a project. I'm glad that this got off the ground, but at the same time I do have some reservations. For those of you spanishisly inclined I will attach the proposal, but for those of you not so spanishly (if that's even a word) I will explain a little more in detail the objectives and goals of this project.
But before I begin to explain, I want to share a few things. There is a picture of me holding a rather large rooster during training with a very scared and shocked looked on my face, I don't I had ever held a chicken as large in my life (maybe I've never even held a chicken ever, mom?). Needless to say I was not enthusiastic about a chicken project that involved the slaughter and delivery of fresh chicken meat. But from the very beginning I told myself that whatever they wanted to do in my site I would offer the best help and support I could. Keeping in mind that because I am the first volunteer in my site I am there more to introduce the idea, feel out the community and access the needs and abilities. Today I was told that first site volunteers are not really expected to get projects off the ground. This is not acceptable to me, I came to offer support and if I didn't get busy I might have gone mad sitting in my hut with out light. I know if I didn't begin somwhere there would have been a chance that we never would have begun, and now that this has started and my spanish has improved 10 folds I hope to do things more proactive for the people's lives (laterines, water storage, environmental education, ect.)
So low and behold, one of the first projects someone approached me about was pollos engordes, or chicken meat. OK I said, lets have a meeting and figure this out, see who else wants to join and move on with it. Shortly after I talked to my boss, and he suggested a different approach. The project that we learned about in training was done in an area that had access to a large market where they could sell their chicken meat without exhausting the market. In San Isidro the only market available is in the mountain surrounding us because of transportation and on top of that not that many families can afford to eat meat every day. So the project turned into an individual family project.
About 20 families, 20 women, will have their own chicken coops and will responsible for maintaining their chickens that they have right now in their patio. After we have constructed all of the coops we will grow baby chicks so each women will have 15 chickens (these will be of a different species, not the "indos" as they are known in the mountain).
The idea is that each family will then have enough eggs for the entire family to eat daily and more than enough to share to make a nice small profit (about 500 limpiras a month) and the meat will be better tasting and more for the families to kill every once in a while.
Two women will be raising chickens only to sell which will earn them more money but will not flood the market. At one of the introductory meetings I asked all of them women if anymore than 2 would like to participate in this aspect of the project. And none of them did, because it is true, more work, less money at the beginning.
And so, right now we have had 2 workshops that have gone fairly smoothly, especially considering my Spanish and my knowledge of chickens. May 5th we will have our 3rd and pretty soon after we will start constructing the coops.

In other news, I bought a horse. The name is still up for grabs. Right now the favorites in my site are Capitain or Caballo Bayo. But I've noticed when it comes to naming pets Hondurans lack creativity so I know if I name him either of these, I will find 30 more with the same name. Attached there is a picture of him.
Also attached is a picture of my puppy, who no longer is a pup. Lista is her name and she is almost 4 months old.

Going to cut this short, hopefully I will be able to write more about everything later. Going back to site tomorrow I think. Hope all is well in the states.

Paz,
Bridget

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Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084