Thanks from Peru

Sharon Stevenson (ssteve@amauta.rcp.net.pe)
Sat, 02 Nov 1996 21:21:58 +0000

Hi,
I just wanted to thank all of you who have replied both on the list
and personally to my post. The posts were all informative and give me
hope that our wonderful little email world and all its benefits can
eventually be extended to the campesinos. I will be taking a closer look
at the websites suggested and contacting the folks mentioned as well. (I
will be responding more personally to the posts as well.
To the gentleman from YankeePerum, I repeat that I am a journalist
whose ag experience is limited to gardens wherever I have had the space
and ground to cultivate and while I appreciate the admonition from you
that I spend more time educating myself and getting my fingernails dirty
before I deign to "help" the campesinos, I can only say that my desire
is to create the possibilities for them simply to have more informed
information at hand...just like the rest of us, not that I will be the
person to tell them what or how to do their farming.
I have tentatively called the project "Connections" for that is what I
see as missing.
While they certainly know a lot more about tropical agriculture than
I, they are having a terribly hard time for the most part due to living
an excruciating history of subversion, bad economic policies and
physical isolation, to name only a few ills that have beset them. I have
been putzing with building a website which would center on the problem
drugs here, i.e. coca growing, coca paste and base processing, and the
general problematical narco world (including the ever-growing problem of
corruption of govt forces be they police, army or judicial) as well as
the "white" side of alternative development which would help the base
campesino out of the problem of coca.
(By the way, my question about the pig manure comes because there are
pig farms in some places and peanuts can grow easily in these valleys.
Also there are people asking about how to successfully keep goats and
cows in stabled form, instead of free rangeing. And to some extent I was
just curious, being a pig lover from way back!)
Also my special thanks to 80-year old Mr. "BRateaven" (sorry, you
didn't leave your name) for his lengthy and rich post on organic
gardening with a wealth of areas to follow up on. By the way, I am
talking to the U.N. head of a project here for one problematic valley
which has worked closely with the German GTZ and I will be contacting
them.
Anyway, my heartfelt thanks again to all and I hope we can continue
to remain in e-contact. 
-- 
Sharon Stevenson
(51-1) 444-4749
Lima, Peru
----------------------
Our best hope for civility? The Golden Rule:
Treat others as you wish to be treated--for the good of all of us! :-)