El Coquí Farm

 
There is an old Chinese proverb that sums up my feelings about Nicaragua nicely:

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”

I am not a fool. As much as I would love to be able to make the world into a much better place, I am realistic enough to know that one man working alone can never change the way of life of all those who live and work in Nicaragua. But despite this, I do believe that with a great deal of hard work, I can make a valuable contribution to at least some of the citizens of Nicaragua, and for that reason alone, I plough on with my quest to make a difference.

Nicaragua is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and the people there are wonderfully unique both in spirit and generosity, but poverty continues to be a huge problem and many of the people who live and work in rural regions of Nicaragua can barely manage to put food on the table for their families.

My mission is to create a kind of idyll on my farm in Nicaragua; it will become an ideal for how things could be if improvements are made to the working conditions for poor Nicaraguan people. I believe that if I treat my farm workers with the respect that they deserve, provide them with the means to improve their life, and offer them as much help as I can muster, then perhaps my small contribution to local life will be the start of something much better for many of the people living in my community.

Call it the “butterfly effect” if you will. If word spreads of the improved employment conditions I am implementing for my farm workers and their families, perhaps other plantation and farm owners in Nicaragua will take note and begin to treat their workers with more respect.

Although my farm in Nicaragua is primarily a business and is being run as such, my main reason for purchasing it was strictly philanthropic in nature as I wanted to help people living in the rural areas of this beautiful country. I bought the farm in Nicaragua because I fell in love with the country and the people and making a difference became a major priority to me.

Because my farm is a business rather than simply a base for my charitable work, I have chosen a .com website suffix rather than a .org as I think it is important to make the distinction between the two. The first two charity projects—my glass of milk a day scheme and my education program—are both based at the farm. The farm is currently the base for my work in Nicaragua, a place from which I can monitor the progress of my workers as well as help the people living in the immediate area, and I hope that in time it will become a regional headquarters for projects on a far bigger scale.

At present, all of the everyday running expenses at the farm, including construction costs of the workers houses, wages, seeds, fertilizer, tools, livestock costs, maintenance costs, are all funded by me. Hopefully, within a short time, the farm will start to pay for itself as there is a limit on how much I can continue to plough into the venture! One day, I hope that the farm will at least break even, and when that happens I can expand my charitable efforts into the wider community.

More information about the farm:

Finca El Coquí is only 1 hour away from the City of Matagalpa in Nicaragua, although it feels like we are in the middle of nowhere at times! The farm is situated between 1215-1250 meters above sea level and the size of the property is officially listed as 12.5 manzanas (21.75 acres), although I have been told that it is more like 14-15 manzanas (it was common practice to understate the size of farms in previous times in order to avoid land taxes).

My farm is mostly comprised of agricultural land, which I am using to grow crops and raise cattle for producing milk to supply my glass of milk per day scheme. There is also a 5 manzana section of untouched forest that I intend to maintain as a nature reserve to help the environment and provide oxygen to the world. Large swathes of forest in Nicaragua have been cleared for agriculture and as a result, there are far fewer regions of unspoilt forest than there were a century ago.

During the day, the temperatures on the farm are around 20 degrees Celsius and at night they fall to around 15 degrees Celsius, but thanks to the lofty altitude, the farm is blessed by a cool breeze throughout the day that takes the edge off the heat and provides some welcome relief from the sun. The farm is also blessed by peace and tranquillity, which for someone used to the buzz of city life in the United States and even Nicaragua, provides an excellent opportunity to unwind and get used to a totally different change of pace.