—Uncaster Famine, Saturday, Jan. 17. 1976
60
Lancaster Peace Corp volunteer
aids small farmers
In Costa Rica, where
Peace Corps volunteers have
served for 13 years, the
problem is not winning the
confidence of local residents,
says volunteer Bradley A.
Igou of Lancaster. Instead,
it's being sought out for
solutions to many more
problems than one can solve.
“One must honestly admit
that a Peace Corps volunteer
is sometimes viewed as a
‘special’ person, perhaps due
to more experiences and
chances for development
and education in the United
States,” says Igou.
“More or less current
knowledge or thinking there
may be very new and in
teresting here. Thus one
feels innovative, that he can
change things - change in the
sense of presenting other
sides or opportunities and
letting people decide for
themselves.
“In other words, one feds
more valuable and needed
here.”
Igou, 24, is a volunteer
agricultural extension agent
whose job is to teach im
proved farming methods to
poor, small-scale fanners.
Demonstration {dots, which
the farmers plant under his
direction, using seeds,
fertilizers and insecticides
provided by the agricultural
extension office, are his
favored teaching tools.
So satisfying is life in
Costa Rica that Igou hopes
to stay on after his two-year
term of Peace Corps service
ends in April. He’d like to
teach English at an
agricultural school and
continue his farm work on
his own.
“I like the spirit of a
country which is developing.
FARM s
improving and advancing,”
he explains. “In the UJS., it
seems we have ‘arrived,’
and I believe a certain spirit
has been 105 t... One reason
I want to stay is that I feel I
have more to give here,
knowledge I can share that
in the States might mean
Utile.”
Igou is sharing bis
knowledge of fertilizers,
insecticides, herbicides and
crops in order to improve the
production and income of
subsistence-level farmers
near the town of Nicoya in
northwest Costa Rica. The
main crops in the area are
rice, corn and beans.
He assists small farmers,
whose land may range from
only the plots around their
houses to nine acre. “Places
only a few miles apart can be
at different levels,” be
noted. In seme cases, he
helps farmers already using
insecticides and fertilizer to
determine proper amounts,
while only a few miles away
he may have to explain what
fertilizer is and does.
“The main problem is not
this, but the fact that once
the farmers are convinced of
the advantages of these
techniques, which they
generally are, the high
prices prohibit them from
buying and making use of the
product,” he says. “The
fertilizer price has doubled
since I arrived.”
Farmers generally work
for someone else five hours
each morning, earning less
than $1.50 for a morning’s
work, according to Igou. One
hundred pounds of fertilizer
costs about 10 days’ wages;
to rent a tractor, 20 days’
pay.
“For this reason, some
in Costa Rica
farmers find it safer and
cheaper to Just put the com
seed in the ground and let it
grow, come what may, doing
weeding with a machete,”
says Igou.
To plant com utilizing
proper fertilization and
insecticide protection, a
farmer would need a bank
loan, something un
sophisticated farmers are
often hesitant to seek, he
adds.
During the five - to six
month dry season, when
there is no farm work, the
men of the household may
leave to find jobs in another
region.
Igou also turns his at
tention from farming to
other areas during that
November to April stretch.
“I fill my time by showing
educational movies in small
villages, preparing and
beginning a survey of the
farmers and their problems,
doing some community work
and continuing to teach
English classes,” he says.
Igou teaches English
casually to Mends in the
evenings and teaches classes
of university students two
days a week. He also teaches
a class composed of three
priests and two school
teachers.
The volunteer uses part of
his Peace Corps living
allowance to pay for
materials used in the
demonstration plots. The
farmers keep the harvests
from the plots, paying only
land preparation and labor
expenses.
“I am doing this because I
feel the plots are im
portant,” be says. “First,
they give the farmer more
food than he would or-
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE JUST THE
TWO OF YOU FACING THE FUTURE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
CONTACT YOUR LOCAL COUNTY OFFICE.
dlnarily have. It gives him
the chance to plant without
risk and leam the methods.
Other farmers sec the
production, which is
hopefully better than theirs,
and have an interest in
learning how they can do
likewise."
Because he wanted to live
in a "family situation," Igou
boards in a comfortable
home with a widow, her
daughter, a niece and a high
school student. His room
faces the street and, since he
usually has the door open,
students and friends
frequently drop by.
Igou has developed close
friendships with many Costa
Ricans in the neighborhood.
“One of my friends invited
me to cook the meals at his
house for Mother’s Day, so I
cooked typical American
foods for his parents and 14
brothers and sisters,”
recalls Igou. “I am friends of
the family, and my friend
writes to my parents in
Spanish and they to him (in
English).
“On weekends, I do some
reading or studying, and
always spend a great deal of
time with my Costa Rican
friends. We’ve visited
volcanos, gone to the
beaches nearby, to the
movies and soccer games.
I’ve learned that very simple
things can be a lot of fun. We
especially enjoy the local
festivals and holidays and
bullfights.”
Nicoya is a fairly large
town in the province of
Guana caste, known, because
of the cattle raised there, as
Costa Rica’s “Wild West.”
The town has may stores, a
park, an old colonial church
VI
The needs of your family are never-ending. Equipment.
Home appliances. Feed and seed and fertilizer. Doctor bills.
College educations. Trucks and tractors. Remodeling the
bouse.
The people at Farm Credit understand farm families and
their special needs. After all, they've been working with
families like yours for years. They work with you to help you
reach your goals. And it's good to know that they believe in
constructive credit. . . the kind that helps you get further
ahead instead of deeper in debt.
So the two of you don't have to go it alone. Not when
there's a Farm Credit man who's a real professional when it
comes to helping farm families like yours.
FCS The Go Ahead People
«nd a movie theater, Igou
reports.
Costa Rica, which is
located between Nicaragua
and Panama, U usually hot
all year.
"During the dry season,
everything drys up, and it is
hot and dusty, with tem
peratures In the 905,” says
Lgou. "In the wet season,
things turn miraculously
green and beautiful, with
rain nearly every af
ternoon.”
The language of the
country is Spanish, a
heritage of 299 years as a
Spanish colony. With both
high school and Peace Corps
language training, Igou finds
he speaks Spanish so well
that a visiting American,
who asked Igou directions to
the beach, commented,
"You speak English very
well.”
Costa Rica is the tiniest
country in Central America.
Its nearly two million people
live in an area half the size of
Virginia.
Igou graduated from
Ithaca College in Ithaca,
N.Y. in 1973 with a
bachelor’s degree in
sociology and anthropology.
CLICK'S
Distributor for
ROOFING & SPOUTING
BAKED ENAMEL TIN ROOFS
Colors: Turquoise, Red, White (only)
FULL SERVICE DEALER
SALES & INSTALLATION
SAMUEL B. CLICK
R.D.I, Kinzer, PA Ph. (717) 442-4921
Please call before 7 A.M.
or after 6 P.M.
No Sunday Calls
CREDIT
The son of Arthur C. nnd
Betty Jane Igou, 752 Hershey
Avc., Uncastcr. i KO u
graduated from J.P. Mc-
Caakey High School ui
I juicsslcr in 1969.
He la one of about 12^
Peace Corps volunteers
working in Coata Rica in
agriculture, rural
development, education and
health programs. World
wide, about 6,500 Americans
arc serving as Peace Corps
volunteers and trainees in 69
developing countries.
The Peace Corps is part of
ACITON, the federal agenev
for volunteer service
established in July, 1971 to
administer volunteer
programs at home and
overseas.
Divide Time
Since three-fourth’s of the
earth’s surface is water, and
only one-quarter is land, it is
obviously very clear that
man’s time should be
equally divided—three
fourth’s for fishing
one-fourth for work
TRY A
CLASSIFIED