A contract of various generations

In our last blog entry we announced that we would soon write about our new years party. Well, it was stunning. Look at the picture on the side, the mood is caught in it better than a thousand words could describe.

The next morning, the first day of 2012, also came along well, but this time thoughtfully melancholic: ‚Pelayo’, an old, life-marked man from the town, came to visit us with his guitar to sing about his past- which had been tampered with, yet enjoyed. Eerie, yet beautiful enough to be swept away.

The generation 70 and up is being more and more tangled into lo tuyo anyway: our host momma is lovingly taking care of all the volunteers, and the sponsor of our well also came from this generation.

Now we are moving towards another connection.

A little digression: at the beginning of this millennium talk of the magical fruit noni (Morinda citrifolia L. ) was going all around- it was meant to cure cancer! Teodoro, a resourceful Spaniard, built a little noni juice factory in Las Cañitas, a little bit east of Panama City. Unfortunately, noni has one disadvantage: it tastes awful, and even the medicinal benefit lost its reputation. The pun No-ni se come, No-ni se vende (Spanish for no- can’t eat it, no- can’t sell it) spread like fire, and the little juice factory went down hill. On top of this came a flood, 2011 the water stood up to 10 ft over the roof tops of Las Cañitas.

Abdy, a food technologist that works as a consultant for lo tuyo, took Silke to meet Teodoro. Sympathy was there at first sight, and grew when Teodoro presented his latest and most important project: a residential home for the elderly, which he founded and kept up with the support of the episcopal churchof Panama. This, too, was flooded, and the damage can still be seen. Maybe that was Abdy’s intention in bringing us together - thanks Abdy!- a win-win situation is in sight! We are thinking about buying the fruit processing machinery from Teodoro for our young lo tuyo project. Teodoro wants to use the money to improve the residential home. And then he dreams to hand the management over to somebody else, so he can join the elderly at the domino table.

On lo tuyo the machinery will be used again, to conserve delicate, diverse tropical fruit for flavor friends from near and far. This way the circle will be closed: conserved fruit and vegetables will be secured for coming generations - with Teodoro’s machinery.

Only noni is not going to be worked with here!