Moringa, Katuk and Prickly Pear Cactus are on the menu at ECHO

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My experience at ECHO this week was very interesting. I had no idea really what ECHO was before we arrived at the facilities and watched the introduction video. After watching the video and seeing the pictures on the wall, ECHO’s overall reaching goal hit close to home for me. This project started in Haiti, which shares an island with the Dominican Republic, a place to which is like a second home to me, as I have done service work there working with children. My experiences in the D.R. are without doubt the most fulfilling and amazing experiences I have ever had in my life. So when I saw the children in the video, my heart truly went out to them and I realized that what ECHO is doing is seriously brilliant. One distinction that Vic our tour guide made is that ECHO is not by any means giving away free aid, rather they are developing and teaching, and there I thought, was a real difference. Not to mention it is a constant on going effort which is so vital for these families in these countries and most importantly the children.

When we actually went out to see the “Global Farm” I really was not expecting what I saw. For some reason I had this notion in my head that I was going to see perfectly manicure crops and gardens, with lush green everywhere and neatness and order. Which is I suppose, my view of “American Agriculture.” And though this was definitely the case in some parts, I was surprised to see that everything was laid out in a way that was actually the opposite of what I was expecting. I saw a lot of brown and dried up plants mixed into where they were growing new green plants, not a mixture you usually see working together. It also seemed to me that plants just kind of grew wherever, mixed with other different types of plants. I was expecting to see…ok this is Moringa over here, that is Avocado over there and so on.

I absolutely think that the work ECHO is doing is totally relevant to the developing world because, like it says in their mission, we are helping by teaching and doing…not giving away and going away. They are teaching these people the skills they are going to need to feed generations and generations down the road. Which I think is so spectacular and really humbling. Appropriate technology is technology that can be adjusted to the specific needs depending on the region you are working in. Being able to bring the right forms of technology in at the right time, and also considering the factors in the environment that make that technology useful.

I think I would want to volunteer for ECHO if I could go and actually be in a country helping. I would want to really feel the effects of the work, not to mention how connected I am to people (esp. children) and I think I would find great pleasure in doing service abroad with ECHO. The only think that turns me off a little tiny bit is how religiously centered they seem. I don’t know why but for some reason hearing “the work of god” or doing “his” work by the means of science and technology, just freaks me out a little bit, and makes me uncomfortable. I am not very religious and I don’t know why but it just seems unnatural to me to be “all about god.”

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