33rd Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Los Torres

Record of Event pg 1 of 4
33rd Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Los Torres

Where: Los Torres (Chucha´s house)
When: 2.12.09 11am – 3.40pm
Who: Chela, (Cedesa), Laura & Elena (San Miguel Midday), + Los Torres people 32 women, 4 men + about 10 small kids, + Annamaria Torres from Vivienda de Arriba, & Teresa Gonzalez from Cruz del Palmar. (+ about 5 people from those communities).

Purpose:
Planning session for phase III, water purification talk, additional issues for the community to begin work on, eg small business opportunity re Sue & Fred from Ann Arbor.

We arrived at 11.30 – there was some confusion as to when the assembly had been booked for, I thought 11am & so did some of the women & Chela thought 11.30 & so did some of the women. Chucha insisted we have a taco in her kitchen before we began, so the assembly didn´t start until around midday.

!. Reflection – led by Elena, Elena personally gifted 3 Joyce Meyer books to the community, 1 for kids, 1 for youths & 1 for adults. They are books on good core topics, morals, treating people with respect, self dignity etc.

Elena read a quote from one of the books for inspiration, Chela talked about responsibility, obligations & harmony.

Chela talked about the earth, & asked where Maize comes from, where milk comes from, where beans come from – to which the answer was – The Earth!
The earth is our mother, our life, our food, our health.
The water arrives & causes erosion.
When the land is fertile, there is no erosion.
When the land is fertile, the wind does not cause dust storms, ie no erosion.
What other problems are there with the earth?
“contamination”
What kinds of contamination – rubbish, plastic, diapers, tyres, bottles, organic, & fecal.

What can we do to help –
• Collect the plastic, reuse wherever possible, collect the organic & fecal matter in compost bins.
• Plant trees on the edge of rivers to prevent erosion.
• Protect resources, don´t let sand extraction happen in your area.
• Know your rights & your obligations.
• Cultivate, conserve, plant & grow – look after your earth.
• Don´t rely on the “give me, give me” attitude, learn how to do things yourselves.

She gave an example of one of the children eating “cheetos”, & discussed the problems with this “food”. Lack of nutrition, toxic chemicals etc. Discussed also the benefits of eating healthily, eg apples v cheetos…

There was discussion of “free toileting” ie pooing in the open, without digging a hole or covering it, & how this affects the whole community, & should be a question of conscience.

2. Agenda/ appointing a co-ordinator & records taker for the meeting
The meeting started proper at 1.10pm & a proposed finish time for 3pm was set.
Veronica was appointed Co-ordinator (she is the young woman that has co-ordinated before & is very efficient). Annamaria (from Vivienda de Arriba) was appointed record taker. (good practice for when it´s her community´s turn!).

Agenda items were proposed
A. Lomas de San Jose technical team (coming from Los Torres)
B. Bacteria/sodis workshop
C. Phase III update
D. Planning next steps for the next 2 communities, Vivienda de Arriba & Cruz del Palmar
E. Traspatio (backyard garden) & road issues (extra issues for community to solve)
F. Proyecto Productivo (productive project – ie small business possibility)
pg 2 of 4
Agenda items discussed

A. Lomas de San Jose technical team (coming from Los Torres)
In LT there is a team of 4 guys who are the experts on constructing the cisterns & water collection systems now. These guys – with some additional training on the social & ecology aspects of the technical implementation – are going to be paid as the trainers & technical project advisers for the Lomas & Montecillo projects.

The team is Miguel Cruz, Juan Alvarado, Guillermo Alvarado, & Rafael Cruz.

It was suggested they come to the first official planning assembly meeting at Lomas de San Jose on Saturday 23rd January at 4pm, to meet with the community.

This will also be the first meeting for Chela & Benigno in that community as Enrique & I have been organizing the community without Cedesa for the first 3 meetings.

It will be suggested the team attend the first day´s training with Benigno, to learn the social & ecology aspects, (they have the technical side down pat).

The full plan for the project will be made in conjunction with Lomas community on the 23rd Jan.

B. Bacteria/sodis workshop
We are aware we need to ensure the potential issue of bacteria in the water in the cisterns is dealt with.

We have done lots of research on the internet & have decided the most fail-safe & easiest method to purify the water is the Sodis method, ie leaving the water in the sun in plastic bottles for 6 hours kills all bacteria. (please see website www.sodis.ch for more info, & to answer any questions you might have regarding plastic leaching into the water, the issue is dealt with thoroughly on this site).

We have touched on this topic in previous assemblies, today we covered it thoroughly.

Elena translated for me.
First I asked who has been drinking the water from the cisterns - & they all replied they all had.
I asked if anyone had been sick from drinking the water, stomach, diarrhea etc No – no-one has been sick. They love the taste of the water & drink more of it.

I explained the potential for bacteria to get into the water from the dust on the roof, especially if there is a surprise rain outside the rainy season. In case there are issues with bacteria they should be aware of a simple technique to kill all bacteria, virus & cysts. (this does not remove fluoride or chemicals from the water, only biological contaminants).

I showed 2 example bottles, & said the label must be removed (& removable) & the bottle must lay on it´s side in full sunlight for 6 hours, & then be emptied into a drinking water storage container (eg a garafon/20 litre bottle). They should have 1x 2ltr bottle per person, & do this each day.

Someone asked if they could use a coke bottle, & I said yes, as long as the label is able to be removed, & the plastic is transparent, so the UV rays can enter. They asked if they could do it using a garafon, I said no, must be a maximum of 10cm´s depth of water for full penetration by the UV rays.

Alejandro, Pofiria & Fabiana volunteered to go to the Kinder to demonstrate this method. The cistern at the kinder has a combination of water from the Pipa´s (trucks) & rainwater. The kinder teacher was very keen to learn this method. I gave the 2 demonstration bottles to Alejandro.

C Phase III update
I explained (with Elena´s help) the Rotary funding process has many levels, & we´ve just received final approval, & are now waiting for the actual cash to get to where it needs to go, to begin.
The next assembly at Los Torres is on the 20th January, & at this point I hope to have access to the funds to purchase the materials & begin the construction of the final cisterns.



pg 3 of 4
D. Planning next steps for the next 2 communities, Vivienda de Arriba & Cruz del Palmar
I updated the communities on our efforts to find funding for projects in their community.
We have spoken with the Ecology Depart director & also with the new Major – Luci, & are attempting to secure matching dollars through these avenues. I also mentioned we have another club - Walla Walla - who would like to work with us on a water project (or 2?) & we need to move quickly to write a grant for this.

We set community meeting times for each of these communities – on the 10th Feb. 2010.
Cruz del Palmar at 11am & Vivienda de Arriba at 3pm.

The women agreed to attend the next assembly at Los Torres on the 20th Jan. & report on their progress re arranging/organizing their assemblies on the 10th Feb.

Both of the representatives of these communities are very efficient, well spoken & excellent participators, if they can pull this together it will be a testament to them & the project in Los Torres, & is following the perfect model of a community project – ie one that grows legs itself, is replicated & motivates others. It is early days, but we are very excited about this development.

The visiting women thanked the LT assembly & left at this point.

E & F. Traspatio (backyard garden) & road issues (extra issues for community to solve)
Proyecto Productivo (productive project – ie small business possibility)

Chela led the discussion with a question to the community, what are they interested in learning about & what do they want to achieve?

They are very interested in being able to produce more of their own food, & were thrilled by the idea of being able to grow enough to be able to trade or sell.

A “traspatio” is literally a back yard garden, in which can be grown fruit trees, flowers, plants for food, & also to produce compost as a way of reducing waste & fertilising the land.

Chela also mentioned:
• A new type of oven they have just built at Cedesa, which is essentially a pizza or bread oven, made of bricks & adobe. For cooking bread, biscuits, baking roasts etc. It is very efficient in it´s use of wood, & burns hot with just a little wood.
• Some of the community are currently producing maize, frijol, calabasa, garbanzo beans, lentils & wheat, but only a few have parcels of land, most only have small back yards.
• Talked about bees, & honey & they said they would like to learn about how to use honey (lots have not tried it!!), & about beekeeping.
• Some of the benefits of pollen, good for your brain, & moto-neuron function, immunity etc.
• She asked what they know about bees – they knew that bees are essential for pollination & that without them the earth would likely die.
• She explained the potential to sell honey as part of the bee keepers union, or just in their own community. They were very interested & animated & want to know more.

There was no trouble getting a list of the following people who would like to be involved in a workshop to know more:

Concha, Leova, Hilaria, Lupe, Alejandro, Chuy, Fabiana, Carmela, Dulce, Cecilia, Marta, Vero, Consuelo, Cecilia (another Cecilia), Sofia, Juana, Juana (another Juana) & Caratina…

The first workshop/Project planning session will be held on Wednesday 13th January 12pm (& we expect to also to write up a draft project plan to submit to Sue Beutler of Ann Arbor RC as a result of this workshop).


Chela stated in a year they would have bees & backyard gardens, “1st produce for yourselves, thereby increasing your intelligence (re the pollen!), then produce enough to sell in the market of SMA.” (everyone laughed!!)

pg 4 of 4
Chela explained the first step for a traspatio is to clean their backyards, remove all the rubbish to one spot, & begin to collect organic waste in one spot. Bring ant poo to mix with the organic waste, & this is the beginning of compost production, necessary to enrich the soil they plan to grow plants in. They can bring other animal poo too, to help, eg donkey, sheep, chicken…

G. A visitor Saul Juarez Cabrerra ph 415 114 3156 asked about getting our help with other communities – Cienegita, Vivienda de Abajo (a long way from VdA)& Capadrillo(?) – we told him to come back to the next assembly with an update of who would like to be involved, names/numbers.

The meeting closed about 3.40 with everyone joining hands & giving thanks.

Dates of next meetings:

Wednesday January 13th 12 midday Los Torres
(Traspatio/Bee project planning workshop)

Thursday January 14th visit to Palencia with Georgina (president elect of the other SMA Rotary Club), Elena & Chela to Cedesa then Palencia (leave Sautto SMA at 10am, 11am leave Cedesa/Dolores Hidalgo for Palencia, 12midday at Palencia (site of potential water project for other Rotary Club).

Wednesday January 20th 12midday Los Torres
(community assembly)

Saturday 23rd January 4pm Lomas de San Jose & team from Los Torres, 1st Planning assembly



These records were made by Laura Stewart (San Miguel Midday RC – Community Service Committee)