Beans, Corn, and Moscos

This week I was lucky enough to spend a large amount of time in Lumbisi, the rural community about 20 minutes from where I live. For a photography project I decided to try and spend some time working and taking photos in the fields of Lumbisi. Our program director was nice enough to introduce me to a wonderful women, Nelly, who has lived in Lumbisi for all her life and was more than happy to take me around to some of her fields and show me how agriculture is done, Lumbisi style.

Nelly allowed me to accompany her to her various plots of land. In her fields we picked plenty of beans and corn and fought of plenty of Moscos, the Ecuadorian equivalent of mosquitoes.

(No they're not Jelly Bellys, just really cool beans)

I really can’t describe how beautiful these fields are, or the walk to the fields, but there is something very calming about going to a plot of land that has been passed down for hundreds of years and getting so see a master of agriculture at work. Over the last few generations, Nelly and her family have obviously perfected their growing system because everything I have learned about in terms of sustainable agriculture at U of I is done in Lumbisi. For instance, to avoid erosion each stalk of corn gets its own mound of dirt so that the ground is not level and Nelly also uses Multi Cropping, in which she grows a bean plant around a corn stalk.

To say I was humbled by all this is quite the understatement. How fast and hard Nelly works for a women with grandkids is unbelievable. Our walk back home can sum up her wonder woman like level of fitness. My bookbag was filled to the brim with about fifteen ears of corn and a bag or three of beans. Her bag was filled with about thirty ears of corns and ten or so bags of beans, so give or take she had roughly three times the amount of weight on her back that I had on mine. As we started our hour walk home, Nelly, roughly four feet tall, machete in hand, dominated the mountain paths with ease, while I the relatively fit, or at least I thought so, six foot tall American was ready to fall down and die. As we reached her house Nelly let out a little laugh as she threw down her hundred pound bag of vegetables and I fell down on the grass gasping for air.

It was an amazing week and I really feel privileged that I had the opportunity to experience a taste of rural life in Ecuador.

Oh yeah and my family is arriving in Ecuador tomorrow night for a week long spring break! I’m sure Peter, Annette, and Isaac will have some great adventures to share with you when they get back.