"Counting your Chickens, or, Why Chickens Count"

by Jose "Chencho" Alas

When I was a child, sixty years ago, I lived on my mother's farm where we produced plenty of milk and a variety of fruits. But in spite of being a well-maintained farm, there was no diversity in the diet. The village center, where you could buy meat on some days of the week, was far from where we were. You could only buy fish during Holy Week because of a poor understanding of penitence back then. My mom kept her chickens behind the house, where they would lay eggs for us every day. For me, a hard-boiled or fried egg was a delicacy. I would even tell mom that when I was bigger I was going to eat nothing but eggs!

When I was older, and was the priest of Suchitoto, I found out in my visits to campesino families that the egg has a very important role in the diet of our people. The egg is served with beans, rice, cheese, bananas, and helps to make a good breakfast or dinner. I have seen families that, at supper time, gather around the table (if they have one), and in the center is a pile of tortillas and an egg from which every eats a little bit, at least to give some flavor to the tortilla. It is a blessing from God if they can add an avocado.

During the six days that Hurricane Mitch assaulted the Bajo Lempa region, where our projects take place, most families lost their animals. For them, losing the chickens was a real tragedy. Because of this new and urgent need, the Coordinadora began soliciting funds to restore chickens to these families. At that time, because most funds were earmarked for agriculture, only $3,000 could be spared for 600 chickens. Unfortunately, 600 chickens fall short of the ultimate need of the region's families, which is 6,000 chickens. Nevertheless, we were off to a good start. We decided to give five chickens to each family in the hardest-hit communities, with the promise that as soon as the chickens started reproducing that these families would give five chicks to another family that had none.

Last April I had the opportunity to visit Chacastera, one of the poorest communities of the Bajo Lempa, with Ruth Messinger and Sharon Miller, the president and vice-president of the American Jewish World Service. We went to a house and found a family that had twenty chickens in their yard instead of five. Wanting to make sure that they were respecting the rules of the project, I asked the woman why they had so many chickens [the female heads of households are the recipients of the chickens]. Her answer was very telling: "The neighboring women don't have a rooster, but I do. The chickens need a rooster to lay eggs. So I let them keep their chickens here to help them out." One of the conditions of the project was that the family should provide the rooster, something that some could not do because of their immense poverty. The hurricane left them with nothing and they needed time and work to restore the most basic necessities of life. (Keep in mind that a good chicken costs $5.00, and a rooster $8.00.)

We've been very fortunate to receive $6,000 from one US donor, to buy 1,200 new chickens. With the help of Lincoln Elementary school in Washington, the wonderful people I met on my recent tour of Washington, and other donors, there will be roosters to accompany many (though not all) of these chickens. We are now a third of the way to our goal! With your support we can achieve that goal.

For me, as a child, eating eggs was a pleasure. For others, tortillas, beans, and eggs are the only food they have to stay alive.

(This article first appeared in the FSSCA Newsletter, June 1999).