Healthy food classes and training in Medellin

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