Report 2 on Vivienda de Arriba assembly, March 10, 2010

Report 2 on Vivienda de Arriba assembly, March 10, 2010
Report kindly written by Holly Yasui in Laura's absence.

We arrived at Vivienda de Arriba a Little before 3 p.m., and there was a small group of people from Tierra Blanca waiting outside the chapel, including Juana Granados and her son Fernando who attended the Water Day activities in Los Torres on March 5. They told us it was a 20-minute walk from Tierra Blanca to Vivienda de Arriba.
Ana Maria Torres, who has been our main contact in Vivienda de Arriba, arrived right on the dot at 3 p.m., saw that the gate was locked and went off to get a key. We entered the churchyard, and because it was very windy, decided to meet in a small room on the side of the chapel so that Chela could use the rotofolio without the pages flying around.

Holly passed her notebook around for a list of persons attending, and at 3:30 there were 14 people from Vivienda and 10 from Tierra Blanca. More arrived in the course of the meeting, see below the two groups formed for the training. Two weeks ago, Ana had asked us at the last Los Torres assembly if we could limit the number of people from Tierra Blanca at “their” (Vivienda’s) assemblies, and she made sure that the notebook that I passed around was signed first by people from Vivienda de Arriba, then the people from Tierra Blanca. (Note: after the meeting, in the privacy of her mother-in-law’s house, Ana told us that she felt that the people from Tierra Blanca were “troublesome” or “belligerent” - the word in Spanish is “conflictiva” - because at their water committee meetings, held in Tierra Blanca where the well is located, the Tierrablancans always steamroll over everyone else. As Chela and Holly were driving back to La Cieneguita, Chela explained that there is often conflict between large and small communities, especially as regards water for “newcomers” since the water committee is always a political football.)

Chela started the assembly off by asking the newcomers why they had come to this meeting, and then asking those who had attended the last assembly to explain the project. As in Cruz del Palmar in the morning, she discussed the difference between the government programs (only “Piso Firme” and “Oportunidades” have been promulgated in Vivienda de A) that owe the people attention, and nonprofit organizations like CEDESA and Rotary, which work with communities in solidarity. She emphasized that communities need to organize themselves in order to get the government to help them to solve their problems.

Chela also engaged the people at the meeting in a discussion of the contamination of water – whether or not it is contaminated, and why; also what they should use the water from rain-harvesting for (drinking and cooking only, not washing). She explained that there are three players in the rain-harvesting project: the community provides labor in mutual-aid groups (what they provide is: work, cooperation and participation in meetings and training), CEDESA helps the community to organize, and Rotary provides materials for the construction, and pays the trainers, who are men from Los Torres who learned how to make the cisterns during their initial project. She asked Holly to explain the training and construction process, which she did, starting with the weaving together of the two meshes, the raising of the frame, the application of cement, placing the spigot and water-level indicator tube, the door and connecting the pipes from the roof. Holly also mentioned the need for space next to their roofs for the cistern, and the number of days required to build them (4), as Laura had expressed concern that the people understand this clearly from the outset, since this was a problem at Lomas de San Josè.

Chela then focused on the people from Vivienda because, as she put it, a delegation from Vivienda has been attending the meetings at Los Torres since last October, so they have been waiting a long time for their project to begin whereas the people from Tierra Blanca have just begun the process.

The people from Vivienda decided to do their pilot project at the primary school (only 19 students there, but the kinder has only 6! It is a very small community), and split up into two groups as follows (names followed by asterisks are the team leaders):

GROUP 1
Ana Maria Torres*
Agripina Ramírez*
Lorena Vazquéz
Valentin (represented by his mother, Marcelina who lives in Cruz del Palmar)
Aurelia
Gloria*
Lorena Ramírez
Ana Isabel Ramírez
María de la Luz Ramírez
Alfredo Granados
GROUP 2
Ángela
Julia/Patricio Torres*
Maricela Granados*
Teresa Alvarado
Cristina Morales*
Irene López
Cirila Ramírez
María de Jesús
Natividad
Tomasa

The training will take place the week of April 5, concurrent with the training at Cruz del Palmar, if the Los Torres Consulting Team (equipo de asesoria) can do it then. Holly called Miguel Cruz in Los Torres to ask him to coordinate that with the other three on the team, and will call back on Friday, March 12 to confirm.

Next Assembly April 14th 3pm.