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MEXICO
-- We met Philippe at the Pochote
Market, where he was selling an assortment of vegetables grown
in intensive raised beds on a farm project not too far the other
side of Ocotlán. Philippe was born in Mexico, sent to the
United States for his education as a teacher, and he worked in the
public schools in New York City. Now he works in a larger school.
Philippe and a few of his friends developed the Instituto
Tonantzin Tlalli -- a land reclamation project in southern Mexico,
and sought funds. The Kellog
Foundation liked the idea, and contributed a sizeable chunk
of dough to get the project off the ground.
REAL MEXICO
Like many such undertakings, the project experienced
culture shock when it was transplanted to the real Mexico, and when
the on-the-ground guys changed with the changes, the money guys
decided to bail out, leaving them on their own.
Now, some months later, they are struggling but surviving,
mainly through a series of ad-hoc volunteer missions, personal reserve
funds, and a savvy about how to tap into the local tribal knowledge.
Getting there is not easy. The road is rough in the
dry season, and I can't imagine what it will be like when it rains.
We tried taking our trusty Tsuru up there, and decided instead to
drive into nearby Ejutla and hire a four-door pickup truck: a very
smart move as it turned out. Once you are there (Paraje Bonanza),
the vistas are beautiful, and the amount of activity is impressive.
The largest of the current projects involves building
a modern, cantilevered, "wall-less" cultural center --
out of bamboo! It is being constructed by a dozen or so architectural
students from Austria, following a design their teacher executed
recently in Guadalajara using steel.
Clearly, the project has gone beyond one of "land
reclamation" to include a school of ecology and appropriate
use technology.
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