Hey friends! It's been a super long time, but rest assured that we are still here. Unfortunately, Robert has to maintain an actual job to fund our escapades and we don't get down there nearly enough. But life continues at the edge of the jungle.
When we were at the Anzu one of the hardest things to see was the poverty. When we first found Martha her diet consisted largely of fruit grown there on the finca, and rice. They occasionally butchered a chicken and must have eaten eggs, but the river had been poisoned and there were no fish. Once we got home the first time we would get calls from Martha asking for money so that she could go to the doctor, or pay for her daughters school uniform. One of the things we hoped to do by building our little cabins on the river was to give the Pauchis some financial stability. The Air BnB has brought in a few tourists, but quite inconsistently. What has truly saved them is the quail.
Finding Martha and improving her situation have been Robert's dream ever since he moved back to the states when he was twelve. While getting his Masters at BYU Robert researched ways to make that dream a reality. The answer had to be easy and inexpensive to implement, sustainable, and not take up very much room. The family couldn't afford to clear the land to make room for a sprawling enterprise as that is a main source of their food. Obviously they had no capital, and micro loans are basically just a one-time handout. Robert decided to set up a quail operation in our back yard to see how plausible that was as a long term solution. We already knew that quail eggs are sold as street food in Ecuador. That stupid back yard research project has changed Martha's life.
When we were down, Robert gifted Martha a flock of quail chicks. Quail start laying much sooner than chickens and take up much less space. We built a pen and some feed and left her to it. We found out the hard way that education is very important. I guess we assumed that since she already had some chickens that quail wouldn't be too hard. Not the case. The first time the feed ran out, she called and asked for money. But not the second time. She didn't know she could feed them plants and a bunch of birds starved while she was waiting on her check to come in. She also didn't know how big they would get and instead of culling and eating most of the males when they were full grown, they started killing and eating each other.
Anyway, they've got it down now and the flock pays for itself. Martha never calls for money to feed them(or anything else!), and she sells all the eggs she gets to a bakery in town. The family has a consistent source of protein and income. With a simple gift and a little education, she now has the ability to provide a better life for herself, her daughters, and her grandson.
We can't wait to get back and really get those cabins up and running for real!
