Hola from Oaxaca

I left Buffalo Monday morning for one week shoot in Oaxaca, Mexico for Floresta.

That night, I was in the historic colonial-era city square at a sidewalk cafe eating Mole Chicken, and meeting the Floresta staff in Mexico. Waiting for the food to come, the director and agronomists watched the footage I shot in Haiti for Floresta on their laptop computer, and then we planned the week's shoot.

We spent Tuesday night in a village in the mountains. Just returned to Oaxaca this evening. During the last two days we filmed a number of microenterprise and community development projects in small mountain towns:
-a fruit and vegetable stand and chicken farm business
-a tomato greenhouse
-a water cistern system
-a water filter system
-family gardens
-pine needle basket weaving crafts
-agroforestry farms
-tree nursery
-soil conservation (aka "living barriers")

Somewhere along the way, I had the best Huevos Rancheros of my life, and I think its because they cook the eggs over charcoal. Back in the USA, why do we grill every kind of meat, but never BBQ an omelette?

Comments

[Patrick Smith]

Dude! There's the product idea you've been searching for: the John Paget Egg Grill! :-)

Seriously, though, your trip sounds fascinating. You're traveling on Floresta's dime right? Any way you can talk about how effective you think their programs are? How are they measuring effectiveness, anyway?

Do they rely on local partners for program implementation? What can you tell us about their partners on this project?

And your loyal readers are asking - "When can we see clips?"

cheers,
P.

[Tex Martel]

Hey maing! Sounds like you are having a good ol time in my home country of Mexico! It seems really interesting, you have seen so much. I watched your great american moments video-- pretty stickin hilarious. Anyway, it's been good to hear from you...if you find yourself in Cali give me a holler ok? Keep on having awesome adventures dude! Oh i heard that you almost killed your friend by falling asleep at the wheel.....JOHN!!