Poverty Project International Stories

My time spent living with the poor and the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America has turned up some interesting correlations. You understand that your life is full of stress in the Western world and I am sure you have been exposed to the idea that people who live simpler lives with less things seem to be happier. But do you know WHY? Is it just a mental thing? Is it because they don't know what they are missing? I believe it is much more than that. I lived in an impoverished community in Panama. Many of the home were square wooden boxes that were partially open to the outside. There was no plumbing, no running water or electricity. There were no beds nor any furniture. Families slept on the ground and cooked over an open fire outside. They had no refrigeration (and neither did I for nine months). They collected rain water in buckets which they used for drinking, cooking and bathing. They often went without shoes. They ate very little meat and instead a lot of th...

We crossed a swinging bridge in the mountains of Costa Rica and climbed the hill to where the Watsi village spread out among the trees. Thatched roofed homes greeted us, and simple people opened their hearts wide and took us in. The Watsi are delightful. They live close to the earth and in connection with a sacred chocolate forest.   ​ “Cacao is the Mother of us all,” the daughter of the village medicine man explained as she led us past stone statutes of warriors and crocodiles guarding the entrance to the ancient cacao grove. We entered a dark hut where a tiny wrinkled woman was roasting dried beans over an open fire. She scooped up the hot beans and spread then out on a well-worn stone. She rocked another stone back and forth over the beans until they were crushed into a warm paste which she formed into a ball. ​ “This is the cacao,” she explained in heavily accented Spanish. She let me taste it. It was bitter. ​ Theobroma—Greek for God Food—is the ...

This is the cacao market. The white bags are full of cacao just picked from chocolate forests in the wild. These people are Ngobe farmers. They are bringing cacao to market to sell it for almost nothing to make a few dollars to buy the things they need. I want to talk about a few things here. First, the value of the cacao. It is coming to the attention of many that chocolate, in its purest form, is actually good for you. That is so true, in fact more than true. I spent some time in Costa Rica with the Bribri. A woman there who was in her late 70's told me she never puts any chemicals into or on her body. She eats only things that are natural and she drinks 5 or 6 cups of raw cacao a day. Its unsweetened and boiled in water and tastes nothing like what your mother made. The native people in Costa Rica are some of the longest lived people on earth. In fact, the little old lady climbed a noni tree right in front of me to pick some noni leaves and show me how to make tea. Bu...

CHOCOLATE! real, raw, organic, as close to nature as you can get chocolate! Fully ripe cacao pods are picked from the chocolate trees (called theobroma cacao) that grow wild everywhere in these islands. They are split open and the seeds are washed. If you like, you can suck the white, licorice tasting cotton candy covering from the seeds yourself. It tastes fantastic! After the seeds are washed, they are laid on flat beds in the sun to dry.  At this point the dried cacao seeds are great to nibble one. We like to cover them in chocolate and eat them that way. They are not sweet, but slightly bitter, almost like a coffee bean. The locals here then pound the seeds into smaller pieces called nibs. The nibs, like the whole seeds, are great to just munch on. They also make a fantastic tea! Just steep in hot water and add a little honey to taste. You can mix it with peppermint for a chocolaty mint tea or, if you come visit me, I will pick ginger flowers from the rain fores...