All of this requires considerable human resources, and the plan is as follows, I will go accompanied by Natasha Robinson, Eric’s daughter who has lived for a long time in the community, brought food cargos and operated a business in the village to meet all the residents.  Working directly with Carmen Davilla, the principal, I will help develop curriculum in the first two weeks and begin work at the school while learning the local dialect from her daughter who teaches as well, in the evening.

  During this time we will finish the beds and bring in the trees and starts, an introduction will be made to the community regarding the community by Carmen and/or Natasha, and they will field question and answer sessions. 

Volunteers have already been established in the creation of a farm to feed the children. But volunteers are still needed to assist in the school garden and in teaching cooking to children, that the position will be unpaid, but that those who do volunteer will be given high quality cooking oil which I will buy locally for their time. 

This serves two purposes:

One it will get good oil out to the community, many older women suffer health problems according to Natasha due to the cotton-seed oil they consume.  It will also provide good oil for children who need positive fats for brain functioning, many of whom are malnourished. 

Second, it sets up a barter system at the school in terms of exchange for volunteer services which is much better than a cash economy and has more dignity in terms of the kind of work being performed.

Over the next two weeks Carmen and I will set up a math and science curriculum around the garden and the kitchen, and I will increase my language flexibility by working  with her daughter at night in the local dialect, for which I will pay her.   After the two weeks, I plan to move to the cottage five feet from the school for the remainder of this time there.

I learned from the University of Iowa coordinator's work that long terms at time of set up in the village can be exhausting, so will limit my time to six to eight weeks for intial set up, the following year I or someone else can go for a longer period to set up the acreage, and help in the set up the election of the caretaker position for the property which will go to a local unemployed and possibly homeless person or family selected primarily by Carmen and Eric.

While in Chaguitillo, I will work to set up a local network of families around the garden interested in putting in time and using the resource. Those people who are willing to do so just on the basis of cooking oil will be the most likely to be fully employed by the project.  An annual salary for a caretaker on site being $350-500 would be a valuable position and does not entail any heavy work, especially as it will include free rent in return for security and irrigation.  The school, though, will retain full title to all lands in the case of using a single mother with children who remarries, if her situation changes, she may have to give her position to another single mother in the community. 

Eric has built many houses for single mothers in the community, so doing one more on the school site, particularly with building materials financed would be simple for him, but a composting toilet or similar through Provendac would also need to installed to prevent the threat of dysentery on the site for children.