5th report of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 3
5th report of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project

Where: Montecillo de Nieto Kindergarten
When: 18,19,20 & 21st January 2010 9am-1.30 & other times
Who: Elena & Laura (Rotary), Benigno (Cedesa) , Rafael & Jose Miguel Cruz (Los Torres Crew) + approx 12 others.

Purpose: Train the trainers demonstration, & instructional build of the 1st Cistern in the MdN water project.

Take a deep breath, there’s lots to read here!!!

A bit of background & how the day was saved!
The date for these training days was set at the previous assembly on 16th December.
During this assembly, Chela was very keen to set a date for the beginning of the training (ie the first actual action) since we had met 4 times with only talking meetings. We all optimistically believed the money would be well in hand by this stage, & I had thought to myself, well it’s only 1 cistern I could bridge it if need be...

Chela & us, would be meeting on the 13th January to nut out the details, & make sure everything was in place, so in December we thought we had it sorted.

On the 13th Jan (the supposed next meeting time for Traspatio workshop in Los Torres) it was pouring with rain!!! Great for the cisterns already constructed! – not so great for outside backyard training sessions – so we cancelled.

This had great ramifications, 1st. We were not able to get hold of Los Torres to cancel the session – so hoped they assumed like us that it was off, & left a message on the only cellphone they have... 2nd we didn’t get to plan the purchase & delivery of materials in time for the 18th or make sure the Cedesa technician was booked to appear that day!!

At midnight on the Fri 15th as I was climbing into bed, it suddenly hit me, Monday was the 18th & they had no materials or trainer!!!! I emailed Holly (our contact with Cedesa) & explained the issue, quietly hoping Chela (from Cedesa) had all of this in hand, since they always organised this side of things, & it was her that booked the dates!!. Luckily Holly was going to Cedesa the next day (Saturday) & was able to order the materials (for delivery on Mon. 18th) & book Benigno (the technician), & we put in an urgent call in to Los Torres to see if the LT Crew could come to train the MdN people on Monday.
Holly & the LT crew saved the day!!!

It snowed that night in San Miguel for the first time in more than 30 years!

What next?!
Elena & I headed to MdN on Monday morning, not really knowing what to expect. The day was crisp with blue skies.

We were greeted by Jose Miguel (one of the Los Torres Crew), he was there waiting with his bicycle!
We headed down the path to the kinder & found a few people milling around (whew, at least they remembered) & explained we were just waiting for Benigno & the materials.

Secondino – one of the men who had attended all meetings & was confident they didn’t need the LT Crew & that he knew how to do it all, was absent, he sent his son instead, who informed us his dad had a sore foot & couldn’t make it. The son said he could attend Monday & no other day, & Elena told him if there weren’t people there for the whole 4 days, they wouldn’t know the whole process. She mentioned if they couldn’t find the team in MdN we could move to another community that was ready. Within an hour 3 more men arrived! & a few more women.

The truck arrived at 11am, the MdN reps. Checked off the invoice, & then the rest of the team unloaded the truck, men carrying 1 bag of cement each & women, carrying 1 bag between 2. It was stored in the corner of the little classroom, (in case we happened to get any more of this unseasonal weather), & by the time Benigno arrived at 11.30 the metal mesh was laid out & the people were already binding it together with ganchos “metal crochet hooks”, under the LT crew’s instructions.
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MdN people bought tools with them, including a ladder that was too short, so Rafael stood behind it & held it vertical for his brother Miguel to climb onto the roof & begin the measuring!

We met the Maestra, Mireya Figaroa, very kind & accommodating, & she was happy for Elena to tell the kids what was going on in their playground.

When Benigno arrived he joined the work crew, & during a break explained more about the water situation & reinforced the purpose of building a cistern, & the beauty of solving their own issues!

We spoke with the LT Crew (in this case the Cruz brothers) & confirmed they were confident about what additional materials they needed to purchase - sand, Gravel, bricks, glue, wood & the door to the cistern, along with a couple of things missing from the delivery.

I asked their estimate for cost of these materials & after discussion decided $4000 should cover it.
We confirmed they were able to work the 4 days & complete the training & the cistern.

There were more people than ganchos, so one of the guys bought a grinder from home & cut some lengths of rebar, sharpened them with the grinder & bent a handle on each, then there were plenty.

As we were leaving one of the women arrived with 2 big buckets, one with food & the other with agua fresca... they insisted we have a snack before we left. We had tostadas with TVP, which was miraculously like chicken, with onion, tomato & cilantro, & horchata (rice drink), both delicious!

Day 2. Tuesday
We had Rotary Committee meeting from 10am, & midday meeting didn’t finish until 3pm, Elena drove out to MdN early morning & peaked through the fence, the cistern was already standing upright! Great progress! & bricks, gravel & sand were there, the Crew had done their ordering.

Day 3 Wednesday 20th Jan.
This was Los Torres Assembly day (see separate report), on the way back, at 3pm we “popped” in to MdN Kinder to see what was going on.

Again good progress, both men & women were working, & a group of about 5 very small kids were playing building games in the sandpit! They had their mini shovels out & were filling plastic containers with sand, & moving them to their own construction area! Everyone was busy!

Day 4 Thursday 21st Jan
Elena & I headed out to MdN about 12midday to find a hive of industry. The top of the cistern was being plastered, Cal (lime) was mixed in a big bucket with chunks of Nopal cactus, which adds elasticity, essentially “self heals” small fissures.

We collected the “receipts” for materials that had been itemised for us, & paid the LT Crew.
We also made arrangements to meet Miguel & Rafael Saturday morning at an alternative materials supplier here in SMA (the other one we have been using is in Dolores Hidalgo, which is too difficult for the LT crew to get to), Enrique (another Rotarian) will accompany us on Saturday, to negotiate better prices & put in place arrangements (for the LT crew to sign for & Rotary to pay) for the materials, in an effort to simplify the process.

Some other things that happened-
There was a small dead rabbit in the grounds, the kids had found, they were very carefully inspecting it with sticks, & discovered the cause of death was ticks that were still attached to it’s ears.
They discussed it amongst themselves & decided they should bury it under the tree where it lay.
They asked one of the mums if they could use her shovel, & the smallest boy tried to dig a hole, then handed it to the biggest girl. She dug the hole to agreed specifications, & the smallest boy then gently moved the rabbit into his final resting place with the shovel (they already knew not to touch it with their bare hands!). Then they carefully placed the dirt on top, & ran to the flower garden & returned with bunches of geraniums & handfuls of green weeds & decorated the grave!

We advised MdN of the forthcoming monthly workshops in Los Torres, to which MdN is invited. NB Cedesa is doing this with no funding from us, it is their own initiative! (again see Los Torres next report),
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1st Wednesday of each month is to be a Traspatio workshop (backyard food production)

3rd Wednesday of each month is Health workshop (natural health methods),

In March Cedesa will begin bee keeping workshop on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
There were some cups with bees trapped in them with stones on top, I thought this was a great sign, since bee keeping training is starting in March!
Miguel (from Los Torres) proudly mentioned that their cisterns were overflowing again, thanks to the unseasonal rain last week. The cistern at the school that was half full is now full!

The other model of cistern the Ecology dept. installed at the MdN primary school (across the road from the kindergarten) is still empty, despite the rains, & the school teachers both asked if there was a chance we could build one our ferro cement cisterns there!
We told them we might be able to as, so far we have budget for 26, built 1, & have names down for 24, & to raise the issue at the next assembly.

They asked when the rest of the materials could be purchased, I said still waiting on money to arrive to the right place, & hopefully should be 1 month.

They wrote a big schedule of the workshops at Los Torres & intend to attend! Elena organised with Benigno from Cedesa to bring a big van & stop in MdN on the way to the workshop each Wednesday, to collect anyone interested. They informed us the ones that go will spread the info to the ones that can’t.

3 of the women asked what happens to the materials for the families of the people who committed to attending but haven’t shown up. We explained it can easily be made available to the people that did turn up, & it would be discussed at the next assembly.

One cistern up, 25 to go!!

NB Next assembly will be scheduled by phone on confirmation of receipt of all funds into the Frost Account.