Poverty Project International Stories

Maria is the mother-in-law of the guy who gave us the local tour of Leona Vicario on his taxi-cycle. (A taxi-cycle is a motor cycle with its front end replaced by a side-by-side, 2-seater bicycle) His name was Oscar. Our tour guide that is. He ended the tour with a quick stop at his mother-in-law's house and, it may have been the end of the tour, but it was the beginning of something wonderful.  We took a few photos of Maria and, a week later, we brought her the best one, printed and enlarged so she could display it. She was thrilled.  While we were there, handing out our photo gift, we saw a HUGE jack fruit hanging in Maria's tree. So, we asked about it. Maria said it would be ready in another week and, if we liked, we could come back (again) and eat some of it. We thanked her and arranged to come back the following Tuesday.  Right before we left, I remembered I had purchased a bag of powdery cafe-colored spice, but I didn't know what to do with i...

Maria with a guanabana ripe off the tree. Panama  Tell me please: What are SECRETS OF HAPPINESS? According to the Happy Planet Index , Costa Rica is the #1 Happiest Place on Earth!  I love this quote from the study:  People  living in Costa Rica have higher well being than the residents of many rich nations including the  USA and the UK, and live longer than people in the USA. Panama has repeatedly been the NUMBER ONE SPOT to retire overseas according to  International Living.  Check out this quote:  Internatio nal Living’s   Annual Global Retirement Index is hitting the presses. And in the top spot: Panama. I should say: Panama  again . Because this tiny powerhouse has topped this index more times than any other country. And this year, International Living is going over the top promoting Mexico as the up and coming best place to retire saying: The U.S.’s southern neighbor consistently makes...

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...

Naranjiots Its called a naranjito (pronounced nar an hee toe). It's a wild fruit that was growing in Anthony's back yard. You split it in half and squeeze the juice into a cup of cold water, strain and drink it. Everyone loves it and it has a lovely orange taste. We met Anthony--Roldolfo Anthony--on a walk out of town and up the hill that over looks all the islands. He called us into his yard after explaining to us about the very dangerous sleeping snakes that live in the area. He said they love to sleep all curled up and if you walk by too loud and wake them oooo, they will chase you and bite you and you will die. But if you carry a machete and use it to poke at the grass and the ground in front of you, the snakes will know the sound of the machete and will run away. He said they are very smart and he didn't know but he figured God made them that way. We vowed to always carry a machete when walking in the grass and then we followed him into his yard (minus a mach...

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...

This is where we ended up--on the beach. Our guide Sam brought us here. We met him just by chance when we were walking through the Ngobe village on Solarte. Its set on a hillside and smells of fresh cut grass. Small houses, simply built, stand between banana trees and towering mangoes. All now in full fruit. Sam knew us from town and when he saw us he waved and said hi! It was only  moment before he was running out of his house and offering to show us around, I am so happy he did. The view from up on the hill was amazing. We could see the mountains on the mainland across the bay. And when we left the village and entered the jungle, we found a hobo (ceiba) tree--very important to the native people here and considered sacred. We found these huge spiked fruits which were not quite ready. Sam didn't remember their name, but I think it might be jackfruit, a soft white and very sweet fleshy fruit that we tasted when our friend William brought from the Dark Land for ...