Today was a busy day touching four organizations that Transformational Connections has partnered with. We had breakfast with a Women’s Coop (Ijatz) which had also been a former location of IMAP. From there, we traveled to Quixaya which is a slightly lower elevation. Quixaya was a former coffee plantation that went bankrupt, but hadn’t been paying the community that worked it. The community decided to apply the debt owed to them to the purchase price and approached the Catholic Church which lent them the money to complete the purchase. They have since diversified the agriculture of their area to watercress, banana, and other fruits and vegetables. The community has since paid off the loan and continued to expand their market. We visited with one person who had started ponds for raising tilapia and pools for people on vacation.
From there, we traveled to Goyo’s food forest that he has been establishing for the past 5 years. He has a seating area for discussion and we tried some of the harvest that he had collected from his space. We then traveled to a primary forest for a hike, exploring a space that has been undisturbed full of trees covered in lichen and air plants. We ended the day with a dinner with San Lucas Toliman Scholars which provides scholarships for students in the community to attend school. A busy day with many connections made!
