In 2013, I finally got to Managua, Nicaragua after waiting for many months for a firm date from my sponsor, Partners of the Americas. I was supposed to be picked up by Elisa Estrada, a Partners employee in Nicaragua. Elisa is my companion, driver, and translator for my three weeks here. She wasn't there but a man name Roberto was standing just outside the customs clearance area with a placard that read "Linda De Haynes". I felt that was rather close to my name so I asked him who he was and where he was supposed to take me. After an answer that didn't make sense, I asked him a few more to assure myself he wasn't kidnapping me and decided to let him take my luggage in his van. Elisa and I did meet later at the hotel and reviewed my itinerary... The project has some very great experiences in store for me ---I will be helping some cheese makers, organic growers and seed producers develop their Business and Marketing Plans . It promises to be a memorable assignment... I had forgotten how much fun this work can be! ... and I love my new name: "Linda De Haynes" (formerly known as Linda D. Aines)
During a few days of orientation in Managua, I took some time to check out the food markets and find the price of food here is as high as in the US. Even beans and rice here which is the local staple is very high. Yet wages here are at most $5 a day for the average worker. It is hard to conceive how Nicaraguans manage. Nicaragua is the largest country
in Central America, but it is the second
poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere (after Haiti). Unemployment
in the rural sector is 38,05% according to the Población Económicamente Activa (PEA). Thirty four (34%) of the rural population is under
paid and the minimum wage only supports 35-50% of the basic food needs. 
My first assignment is to spend 3 days with Leonardo (he is a Nicaraguan American and former NY City construction exec. ) He now lives in
Matagualpa, Nicaragua with his parents and also his wife who is about to give
birth. My task is to help Leo complete s business
plan as he is starting an artisanal cheese making project, in addition to operating a small farm. He is a new breed of farmers here, full of energy and excitement about making inroads into a new type of ecological and sustainable farming. He is growing a heard of dairy cows and plans to make artisanal cheeses such as Gouda, Eden cheese and also Camembert and perhaps Gruyere cheeses. We determined he has more demand for his cheese than he can
supply but he will be making very little
money for all the work he is putting in all year… so he has decisions to
make. At the moment, his supply of milk is low and he is working at increasing the output and quality of milk by his cows. He is working at reforesting his farm and putting in a lot of protein rich forage that will improve the feed he gives his heard. Reforestation is now a major government program
and they are donating seeds and inputs to provide incentives. Reforestation is also promoted for the farm
fields where cattle roam as it can provide shade for the animals. 
It can also
promote growth of native plants with high protein content that improve
soil (filter nitrogen) and provide good forage food for animals and provide
protection of local watersheds and creeks. 
He is also a town leader around here and like to get involved in
training people in new ways to do things… He will be interesting to watch. As he
showed me his small farm yesterday, where he is developing some new ways to
feed his cows, creating new sustainable methods of getting new feed for his cow
and increasing the protein value of his feed by return his land to original
plant growth. It is also where he is building his cheese making
factory, so he is increasing the milk
production of his herd. I became aware
of a neat waterfall on his property and the fact that his property is riddled
with gold tunnels underneath—the whole town has them. He is also sitting on
top of several old gold mines. I ended up showing him how to pan for
gold. No one around there knows how to
do that. So he was elated to have the
chance to learn. You never know what you
will end up teaching people around here
Every knowledge you have becomes a valuable asset.
I am in the middle of the country’s coffee growing country. Most farms in this region grow coffee and
right now, they are harvesting and drying the coffee which is spread on large
tarps along the side of the road. I took
great pictures of the coffee farms when traveling to this town.
Today, Leo’s mother took me
around town to some of the great coffee shops in town. That was to make up for my being offered instant coffee yesterday at my hotel’s
restaurant. I was stunned, as I had so been looking forward to some great
coffees with my breakfast and lunch. Café
con leche made with Presto, the local instant coffee… is the most awful tasting
stuff! especially when staying in the middle of one of the greatest coffee growing areas in Central America.
After my few days with Leo and his family, I spend a weekend at the Selva
Negra Eco Lodge in the mountains of Nicaragua which is also a Coffee Plantation. My host is treating me to a few days rest at
this great place with hiking trails , educational programs, lots of wild life wandering around the resort also ponds and ducks… but it is cold and I
didn’t bring sweaters. But this place is amazing with 1500 acres and grow everything they need for the Lodge, themselves, their
thousands of employees and seasonal workers who come in for various parts of
the growing season and to run the lodge and serve the owners… all is done
organically and in a sustainable farming method
that would be the envy of the US growers. The hiking trails , ponds, around here leave you speechless. I’ve just taken a tour of part of the working
farm ( a big part of it is just for
preservation). I could spend days hiking
this place and never have enough.
I am
drinking their wonderful coffee as I write this. It is nice black coffee but I
don’t like it as much as I have liked other coffee… here they use the Arabic
coffee beans or plants. It may also be
how they cook it. Although I have
enjoyed some really nice cappuccinos here.
I am at the Eco Lodge/Coffee Plantation for the weekend and it is a beautiful place in the mountains
but very cold here too. At night the
wind howls so I am wearing layers of whatever I came with which didn’t include
sweaters. This place produces
everything they need to live and make it a practice to be a model for
sustainable farming. It serves as model
farm for all others.
More like a hunting lodge in terms of style. Their main product is the coffee their
produce. But their second best product is tourism. The coffee industry here was started by 7-8
German Farmers who migrated here in the early 1900s . this
place is one of the original farms and is now
owned by one of their grandchildren.
I am taking lost of pictures.
They also provide work for some 800 migrants who come here to pick the
coffee beans for about 4 month of the year.
They provide lodging, food, and pay them quite well. They also have a clinic (medical care) on the
grounds and an MD who is here 6 days a week.
They also produce all the meat (
poultry, beef ) eggs and fruits and vegetable, all they need to live for them,
their guests, and their staff. They even
have a cheese making facility and
produce their own Camembert, Feta, Gouda, Edam,
and many other kinds of cheese. Even
wild animals are encouraged to come on the farm and integrate, and use what is
in the plants for them… I am told none of them are dangerous. Most are small , even the wild cats.
I haven’t seen any monkeys yet but they are here.
If you don’t want to do it
alone, there are group nature hikes in the morning, farm tours and Coffee
industry tours in the afternoon and for the very hardy, there are night-time
hikes to see nature and wildlife at night.
The night hike is not for me as the wind is howling out there. I will be happy to go get a beer and a piece
of cheesecake and call it a night.
I took a great tour of the
Farm /Coffee plantation 
this afternoon.
We are at an 850 ft above sea level in the mountains overlooking
Matagalpa. The coffee facility is very
small for the acreage of coffee plants that they have. The coffee has been almost fully harvested by
now and it is getting laid out in fields over plastic tarps and being dried a
readied for market. Silva Negra (Black
Forest) coffees are sold to Whole Foods in the US and a variety of other high end supermarket chains. Prior to this, coffee goes through several washes to take out
the outside skins. Those skins are then
put inside containers of red worms who eat and digest them. The excrement is then put back on the ground
of the new coffee that is now growing to fertilize the plants. Everything on the Farm is re-used in some way
for the next cycle, including the manure,
Manure is added to large tanks/ bio-digestor to create methane which heats and
supplies energy to the farm. Chicken
droppings, likewise is used as fertilizer.
Leaves of various plants that are high in protein are ground up and used
as a salad for cattle and livestock, increasing their health and the quality of
their milk and meat. Citronella is
grown, mixed with water and used as insecticide spray for plants.
I visited another small Nicaragua town because Elisa, and I and a seed exchange consultant had been asked to help managers of a nursery, small farm and a school for disadvantaged kids. The school was founded by a US lady named Rachel Greenwood. The school has about 75 students , from age 4 through 18… All kids come from either the streets or homes with abusive parents. The school is the best thing they have experienced in their life, they are clothed, fed, loved and learn how to read , write , make a living. Rachel also owns the farm and I was there to help her do a business plan for the nursery she has on the farm and needs to expand. She needs more income to help fund more activities for the kids or take in more kids. As it is, 75% of the money needed for these projects come from Rachel’s own pockets. She is trying to work it so she can make the project more self-sustaining. She is getting past retirement age, and won’t be able to fund it forever. She may even be running out of money as the economy has taken its toll on her holdings and she is paying a lot of salaries and taking care of these kids. I also spent some time also in helping to find an Executive Director for her US foundation that can help her get more grants and funding. Everybody that is involved with this project, is so impressive -- but all are overworked and overwhelmed. When I left , Rachel told me that I or anyone else would be welcome to Nicaragua and help her out anytime. If we did, we have a free room at her farmhouse for providing some steady help. Well that is a small sampling of the type of experience I have here. After my stay in this region, i did use my resources to find her a farm volunteer to help her operate the farm and put her in touch with several candidates for Executive Directors.
