Healthy food classes and training in Medellin

Hola! I'm very happy to report that we've finally been able to re-initiate some of our training activities! It feels great to have so many new and familiar faces coming through the training centre as we've started up our community cooking classes and monthly dinners with cooking classes in September. The plan is to keep them going with at least one of each per month for the time being as we look to add our other activities to the mix soon too!

For our first community cooking class, we repeated our classic pad thai and rice noodles experience, with 2 fully booked classes full of enthusiasts who were on our waiting list for some time. Our idea is to alternate each month between a newly developed class and one that we have run in the past, so that both new and existing participants can continue to learn everything we can offer.

And for our monthly dinner and cooking class, we shared Mexican cuisine with a focus on recipes from Oaxaca. One of my friends and chef mentors visited recently from Mexico City, and was kind enough to bring a number of ingredients that I was able to put to good use. And my friend Nayibe in Oaxaca provided her guidance as I was testing out the recipes in the days and weeks leading up to the big event.

We were also happy to have our longtime volunteer friends Tatiana and Diego back to help with the class prep and service. Tatiana had contacted me to ask if she could come back and continue to volunteer after spending some time abroad for her studies (which she got a grant for), getting an unsatisfying job in Colombia, and needing to take a break and go back to her passions to enjoy life again. This helped me realize how our project has another qualitative result with a number of participants and volunteers who continue to return year after year: mental health is an issue we don't tackle directly, however it is one that affects many people we share with. Working in our kitchen and gardens, sharing and learning together over delicious meals, and interacting with people from different walks of life continues to provide a space for people to clear their heads, enjoy their time with us, and express their gratitude for having a place where they can feel better about their situations and themselves. This realization motivates me to continue reaching out to our extended family, and to expand it as our activities grow.

Speaking of growing, the rooftop gardens are doing well, and though the heat wave didn't last long (I did manage to do some water-related repairs before the rain started up again), a lot of plants had the chance to sprout and are enjoying a combination of sun and rain while providing us with organic ingredients for our classes. You can see our first batch of bok choy picked by Jordan in the photos.

I hope you are well and enjoy our updates. I'll have another one soon enough with more positive news!

All the best,
Brian

This week in the Medellin news we were told that the 'El Niño' phenomenon has officially arrived until next year, which means very hot temperatures and a break from all the rain! That also means I can finally get more of the training centre's serious leaks repaired over the coming months, and start up more activities! The main roof leak I mentioned in our last report seems to be fixed, so fingers crossed!

I talked in my December report about our apprentice Santiago, who was aspiring to start a career in cuisine and eventually open his own business: unfortunately his parents' enthusiasm for his training wasn't as strong as his aunt's and his own, and he was forced to change course and start working with the family in a shop to earn more money for them. Maybe in the future we'll hear back from him, but for now he is busy at least until he gets accepted into a full-time culinary training program.

Our newest apprentice is Andres, who also works as a tour guide and actually found out about the project while accompanying a tour group to one of our cooking classes and project tours. He was inspired by the experience, and later wrote me to ask to come and learn here too. I have been working with him to get our spaces more organized and start planting food plants on the roof, while teaching him different recipes for lunch when he comes. This can allow him to make some money replicating the recipes for small groups of friends while he perfects his craft and organizational skills. Andres is also in a difficult economic situation right now, so he is starting a full time call centre job this week to pay off his bills and start saving for his own business, while continuing to come to the project centre on a more limited basis until things are a bit easier financially.

We were fortunate enough to receive generous donations from our new client friends Charmaine and David in Canada, and Leslie and Kevin in the USA, which has helped us with costs associated with Andres' training, the rooftop garden prep, as well as FINALLY getting our rooftop pizza oven functioning after about 3 years sitting dormant in the kitchen. The oven was an instant hit, as we had 4 activities over 5 days with it. We continue to perfect our skills before we start programming community classes for families to bring their kids and make their own pizzas, while picking the basil and other toppings directly from the gardens!

I'm looking forward to reporting more soon, thanks for taking the time to read and support us!

Brian