So, I hear you want to start a Central American garden!?

Who hasn’t thought of starting a garden in Central America?  Below is a list of advice I have for you on breaking ground for your garden.  As of now, my idea is to have installments of this as we proceed with the garden, but we’ll see if anyone is still reading this that far along.  And a quick disclaimer: while it may sound like I’m trying to recruit an army of child laborers, this all takes place in a school as part of their curriculum and participation is purely voluntary.  And yes, apparently machetes are allowed on school property. 

1) First and most importantly, don’t be ashamed that the elementary schools kids that are helping you are much more efficient at clearing the land than you are.  They may laugh at your machete grass clearing technique.  If this happens hand the giant knife to the 11 year old to do it for you.  This leads me to my second point…

2) If you think that your machete is too dull, it most likely is.  That being said, once again, hand it to one of the kids.  Basically what I’m trying to get at is that a lot of these kids like working with, and are very skilled at using machetes. 

3) Playing charades can only get you so far.  Try to learn at least a bit of Spanish before you try and get kids to help you.  If you don’t, you’ll get a large crowd watching you, but not many helping.   Even if your Spanish is horrible, they tend to understand what you mean when you couple it with over exaggerated hacking motions when trying to demonstrate that they need to clear the grass. 

4) Be careful.  Too many kids (and volunteers) swinging machetes and hoes around a 6m x 7m plot can be a bit dangerous.  With this considered, bring more than 1 hoe and 1 machete. 

5) Entice them with candy.  Yes, I know I sound like that creepy guy who drives around schools in a windowless white van, but it really does work. 

6) If you happen to look down and see a large bug that may or may not be a spider, don’t freak out.  Remain calm and calmly brush it off.  Freaking out will lead to mocking laughs. 

7) As cool as they may be to watch, you don’t want to start a garden near leaf cutter ants.  I think this one’s pretty self-explanatory (we actually considered this one before we started).  

8) Try to time it while the drummers are practicing.  It is entertaining and provides a great beat to work to. 

9) As hard as it may be, accept that the kid wearing the Cubs shirt is doing more work than most of the other kids. 

10) If all else fails, talk about baseball, they love baseball.

Working on the huerto (garden)

The (almost) fully planted garden 

I hope this helps you in your pursuits of creating a school garden in Central America.