4th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 2
4th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar Water Project


Where: Cruz del Palmar Community (40 mins from SMA)
When: Thurs 25th March 10.30-12.20
Who: Laura Stewart (Rotary), Rafael Cruz (trainer from Los Torres) & approx 19 adults (about 50/50 men/women).

Purpose: Day 4 of the Pilot – building a cistern & collection system at the Cruz del Palmar Primary school.

Record of Event
I arrived to find a huge buzz in the playground. Kids were eating their mid morning meal (prepared by mothers – I think it’s a feed the hungry site), & there were men inside the cistern plastering, men outside, plastering, & attaching the hose & women mixing plaster & feeding people.

The top was on, the door in place, almost done...

I embarrassingly thought Rafael was his brother Jose Miguel, but that’s a whole other story, could be one of early alzheimers.

I was invited to eat with Rafael, the women feeding the kids had extras, we ate beans & rice & tortillas with a papaya water drink. Rafael thought it hilarious that I’d confused him for his brother.

I wanted to confirm the process with Rafael, re the ordering & checking of measurements etc. So did that, as part of that process we talked about Sand & they would order that direct from supplier in CdP, not in Materiales Rivera.

I asked about the gravel, & he responded something I didn’t understand, I thought there were 2 options, order from CdP or from Materiales Rivera, but neither were correct, I exclaimed in frustration, ahhh, anyone speak English? A couple of women rushed away, & they came back 5 mins later with a very well dressed young man, who apparently spoke English. He translated the simple question I had about gravel & it turned out Rafael was suggesting, since it was such a small quantity required, approx 5 wheelbarrows full, each family could provide it themselves! Ahhh – no wonder I didn’t get it, I was stuck on 2 options, so it was agreed, the families would provide the gravel themselves in Cruz del Palmar.

I thanked the young man (& women who had bought him) & we went on to chat a little more, it turned out he used to work for the Casa Diferente program a program run by DIF, in which community recipients receive materials from the govt. But must build their own house, to the exact design of the DIF program.

He now works in another program to do with schools, but offered his assistance to source cheaper materials, he gave me his email address & (Alfredo Ibarra alfpipo@yahoo.com & said if I sent him a list of materials, he would access a quote for me & email me back...

I thanked my good fortune at not speaking Spanish fluently, & thanked Alfredo again.

(I have since emailed him, but no response yet, maybe because it’s easter, maybe...)

I marvelled at the length of piping they had used to connect both roofs to the cistern, the closer one, & another classroom with a bigger surface area, Rafa & I agreed just a little rain will fill it a lot!!
Record of Event pg 2 of 2

I tried to get a photo of one of the young guys helping in the cistern, he kept bobbing down like a jack-in-the-box, to loud bursts of laughter from all the women watching. Ramon was cajoled & coaxed & “told” to pop his head up for a photo, but refused, so I climbed the ladder & tried to take one from the outside looking in, the result was not very clear, so one of the women volunteered to get in the cistern for the shot, but turned out she couldn’t fit, so got one of her half in half out, then I pretended to go & stayed to take the shot, but somehow Ramon knew, so just popped up a little & whipped back down.... By this stage the whole team was watching this & laughing...

I said goodbye & headed off to hide in the shade of the near by classroom, hoping to get a shot, when he finally believed I had gone, he slowly popped up & looked around, didn’t see me so stayed up, at which time I engaged my zoom & took the shot, I yelled out “gracias!” & he looked over to where I was & couldn’t believe he’d been outsmarted! he whole playground erupted in fits of laughter & I headed off...

Here’s the rub
People were told at the assembly prior to the pilot project, that participation in the pilot would enable them to get on the list of people to get cisterns.

The list now stands at 33 definite families.

We had 39 cisterns for Lomas now divided between Vivienda de Arriba & Cruz del Palmar, we took 2 off for pilots, leaving 37 cisterns, & needed to use the funds from one more cistern to fund the extra consulting in Lomas & the extra pilot not budgeted for, hence we have 36 cisterns available.

That was to be split 18/18 for each of these neighbouring communities.
Since VdA have just 16 on their list, we may have 20 for CdP, but that still leaves us short by 13 cisterns!!

Ideally we need to find the extra $10k to get these cisterns constructed at the same time (ie before these rains), these people have proven themselves, have all stepped up & volunteered & all think they are in the running for cisterns... what we don’t want is to have to split the community we’ve just spent this effort building, & have to leave 13 families out of this round!

Ahhhh – somehow a solution will present itself, we are working with local govt. & maybe they will come to the party... I hope so!!!!

Next assembly is April 14th at 11am – Yolande’s house


Photos can be seen (including the one of the blue hooded head, popping out of the cistern) on this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lauramex/CruzDelPalmarWaterProject?feat=directlink