Friday, July 23, 2010

9th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 2
9th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project


Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Fri 23rd July 2010 12.10pm
Who: Holly, Chela, Jesus, & Gerardo (Cedesa) Laura, Kerry, Walter, Enrique, (Rotary), Gary & Sue Reid, Manuel Agri(sp?), (Rotary Guests), Roberto Andre – (Presidencia, now subdirector of Desarollo Rural ), the film & photography crew of the Presidencia, the community of Vivienda de Arriba including the Padre of the church, & Victor – Maestro of the primary school

Purpose: Celebration of the completion of the project to construct 17 cisterns (1 at the school & 16 family cisterns) at Vivienda de Arriba.

Cedesa, Rotary & the Presidencia were invited by the project participants of Vivienda de Arriba to participate in the celebration of the completion of the water project in this community.

We arrived in convoy & it was pouring with rain. The community had strung up tarps across the courtyard & set up tables & chairs.

We were invited to view a Photoboard the teacher & his pupils had created to document the process of constructing the cistern at the school. The photos were in black & white & excellent. Anamaria (the young community leader) explained to the guests the process & answered questions.

The Padre then invited us to another room where we all discussed the project & the benefits to this community, way beyond just the completion of the cisterns, the organisation & solidarity it had created, & the willingness & motivation of the community to resolve their own issues. There were many “speeches” in Spanish, by Chela & the Padre & others, essentially explaining the ideals of development & the advantage of this “hand up” not “hand out” approach.

Roberto from Desarollo Social, now Rural, said they have only 5 promoters for a region of 500 communities & so welcomed initiatives like this one… Chela described the benefits of this development approach, from where it had started & what it is growing into (now more than 18 communities have requested a water project in their community!), it all started in Los Torres & has grown from the success there.

She mentioned Los Torres now has a team of 4 tech advisers & Vivienda de Arriba has 2, we also have identified 4 excellent potential community promoters from the leaders of the projects, Saul, Juan & Concha & AnaMaria (& others)…

Los Torres have now completed 2 phases of water projects & the experience gained from successfully executing those projects has enabled them to tackle other issues of importance in their community, for example they have petitioned the presidencia to mend their road & the petition has been accepted. They continue to work in the area of back yard production & are planning workshops in health.

Working together on positive issues, also creates a distraction from other less desirable activities, the teachers in the communities also provide an excellent way to continue the growth.

The community said, they have gotten to know others in their community, they now have experience & focus, & a can do attitude.

Record of Event pg 2 of 2

“more than a beautiful experience, now we have water but we also have good relationships with the people we have been working with” “we enjoyed working in groups it is much easier & faster, by ourselves it would have been too heavy, but with everyone working it was much easier & fun” “good helping eachother” “good sharing the workload”.

The community & team was congratulated, Rotary & Cedesa were thanked for the opportunity of this project. Members of the community were asked to describe how it was for them, & their responses were filmed by the film crew for local television broad cast, & update for the presidencia.

We then attended mass in the Chapel, & after were treated to a huge banquet… This is the smallest community we are working with, but by far the biggest “spread”, every family had contributed with huge pots full of delicious food, including corn on the cob, chicherone (pork rind), wild greens, barbacoa (pit cooked sheep), as well as the usual delicious rice, beans & home made & grown, tortillas… Walter exclaimed he didn’t like Mexican food, but that this was something different! He had never experienced the like of it in any Mexican restaurant in San Miguel, & proclaimed it to all be delicious!!

We were then given a tour of some of the cisterns, including 2 that had been decorated, one with 3 ceramic stampeding elephants on the top & a large drawing of an African elephant on the side, the other with a light attached to the top of the cistern, with electrics stringing back into the house, & a large picture of a shepherd & sheep on the side!!! You can see photos on the blog www.02h2o.blogspot.com in the Montecillo de Nieto slideshow.

We also visited the house of Lorena, where before the project she had a roof made of black cardboard & bamboo canes, now she has a tin roof & it is effectively channelling the water to the cistern now.

We said our happy farewells & bundled back into our cars, happy & full.

The water project is concluded in this community, the assemblies are continuing with Cedesa (& Laura) attending, until a big picture plan is made which may include more planned development projects.

It should also be noted, that we have come in under budget on the combined Cruz del Palmar/Vivienda de Arriba project (which started out as Lomas de San Jose)…This was achieved due to many hours of comparative quotes & maximising the bulk purchases with other community projects in process at the same time. Economy of scale.

We are currently in the process of working with TRF to determine the best way to spend these funds.

Although the Vivienda de Arriba Water project is officially concluded, I will continue to update via mthly reports until the project is officially closed & financial reports provided to TRF as required.

Next assembly 4th August @ 12midday.

Report respectfully submitted by Laura Stewart

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

42nd Meeting at Los Torres 21.07.10

Laura was absent for the assembly on the 21st July.

The community of Los Torres has essentially completed their water project, & it culminated with a Fiesta/inauguration on the 11th June at the Los Torres Primary school.

Holly provided a brief summary to Laura, since Cedesa are continuing to work with Los Torres,(on other than the Cistern Project).

The Phase II/III cistern project is essentialy done (a few small loose ends, a few cisterns not waterproofed, but all are catching rain; a problem with lamina for one roof and one faucet on a tinaco) ... we talked mostly about the road project for a couple hours and traspatio design about a half hour. We are hesitant about an additional Phase in Los Torres (there were 7 new people interested) because Phase II/III has been a little problematic with people not working together as well as previous phases.

It seems the first phase of a community is generally the most enthusiastic & motivated, with the "slower adopters" being less motivated & less participatory. For this reason it is ideal to have a thorough saturation at phase I stage, & reach as many as possible for the first "push".

Next assembly for Cedesa/Los Torres (not Rotary water project)
August 18th 3pm

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

8th Cruz del Palmar community meeting, 14 de julio del 2010

8th Cruz del Palmar community meeting, 14 de julio del 2010

Where: Cruz del Palmar, casa de Domitilia
When: Wed, July 14, 11 a.m.
Who: Chela and Holly and Saul Juarez (Cedesa), 36 people including a number of children. 20 people from the first phase, 5 from the 7 families added in June, 5 new people (see list at end of this report).

Mere Banca was designated as coordinator of the assembly, Ana Laura took roll and added new people to the roll. Saul was introduced as a new promoter in the region. Chela asked the new people why they came to the meeting. Josefina said they want to cisterns in order to have clean water to drink and for cooking; Angela said they don’t want to have to buy water in garrafones. Holly mentioned that there is also a social objective, to work in presta-fuerza groups, to encourage community development and values. Ismael said he thought the idea was to have a good environment to work in, to help each other and his wife Catalina said that she wanted to participate but she was pregnant with the small baby she held – she participated in the training at the school but couldn’t continue.

Chela asked if the people in the meeting knew each other, and people said that now they know each other by sight if not by name. All but a few are from the upper part of Cruz [where there are more problems with the supply of water]. Chela noted that in large communities (comunidades, often translated “villages”) like Cruz there is less convivencia, less personal relationships between neighbors, like in cities.

Ana Laura and her aunt said that the people in Cruz are more friendly than in cities (they are from Irapuato). Mere said her daughters-in-law are from other communities (villages) and they consider Cruz to be a city (it is the second largest town in the municipality of San Miguel).

Chela explained how Yolanda, Lucia and Tere visited assemblies at Los Torres for several months before we started visiting Cruz del Palmar, and she asked Holly to explain how the Rotary grant was made. Holly explained that 50 cisterns had been approved for a Rotary project in a suburb of the city of San Miguel at the beginning of this year, but the people there were unable to make the commitment to work in mutual-aid groups, so the funds for the 50 cisterns got divided between Cruz del Palmar and Vivienda de Arriba. Saul explained the process at Capaderillo; how he first visited assemblies at Los Torres, then Vivienda de Arriba and how CEDESA and Rotary applied for a grant from the Fondo Verde, which was approved in May but the money was not available until a week ago. They are planning to have the training next week and start construction on family cisterns the week after. Holly emphasized that the fund-raising process takes several months, that the Rotary deadline for Nov-Dec projects is already past, that people who want to participate in a possible Phase II will need to help us to put together applications to other sources, such as Desarrollo Social (municipal department of Social Development) or SAPASMA (San Miguel water utility).

The conversation then turned to other projects that can be implemented without the outside funds, such as traspatio design (backyard gardens). Chela asked how many people grow nopal in their yards, and nearly all said they have nopal but not all of them use it for food. Chela emphasized the importance of growing your own food, especially native plants like nopal which is very healthy. She asked how many people had vegetable gardens, and a few raised their hands; and one family has a farmacia viva (medicinal plants). Chela talked about rescuing the knowledge of our grandmothers, how to cure ourselves and not get sick, as opposed to depending on the clinic and doctors and expensive packaged medicine. She said people in the country are fortunate to have space in which to grow food all year round, and not eat food like Maruchan (instant noodles), which is full of artificial flavors and preservatives.

Wenceslada said that she used to grow vegetables, but her children wouldn’t eat them, they like junk food. Yolanda agreed, her children don’t like vegetables. Saul said it is important to get kids accustomed to eating vegetables from a young age, his 2-year old son likes fruit and vegetables and he doesn’t let him eat junk food. Chela said that if kids see their parents eating well and drinking fresh juice instead of refrescos (bottled sodas), we can escape the trap of eating and drinking what they sell to us instead of what we produce. Also now people are growing dependent upon government programs that provide cash to buy food, but what will happen when there is no more government money? People in rural communities have the possibility of growing their own food instead of buying it, so can be less dependent and more autonomous. That is what we call food sovereignty.

Chela said that CEDESA is teaching traspatio design (how to make plant beds, use less water) in Los Torres and Montecillo, and if Cruz is interested, can start a workshop here. Many people said they are interested in learning how to grow vegetables and medicinal plants in their yards, also nopal all year round.

Moving to the subject of the cisterns, we then reviewed the progress of the mutual-aid groups.

Group 1 – all the cisterns are finished and connected, and all but one of them is filling up with rainwater (there are problems with the connections)

Group 2 – three are done and collecting water, but one lacks the tubing.

Group 3 – ten are more-or-less working; one lacks the “cap” and several lack waterproofing paint and tubes.

Group 4 – five are done and collecting water, two need to be connected to the roof.

Group 5 – (split off from group 2) – two are done and working

In total, 22 are done and 5 are to be finished and/or connected. Mere said that the tubes are too small for the amount of rain that is falling on the laminas, the water doesn’t enter. Others agreed that the water is backing up and only a small part of it enters the cistern. Chela said that they need to contact their asesor (consultant – Rafael Cruz) to solve these problems.

The list of families that want cisterns in Phase II are:
1. Hermelinda Ramirez (rotoplas?)
2. Maria Dolores Ramirez Botello
3. Teresa Salazar
4. Adriana Patlan
5. Laura Ramirez Enfante
6. Catalina Melendez
7. Angeles Ramirez
8. Ismael Mendez
9. Josefina Ramirez
10. Emma Susana Orduña
11. Amada for Ana Olivia Torres
The first six people have attended a previous community meeting; the last five are attending for the first time. Chela emphasized that it is necessary that people participate in the meetings as a condition for receiving a cistern.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, August 11 at 11 a.m.

Report 6 Capaderillo assembly, 14 de julio del 2010

Report 6 Capaderillo assembly, 14 de julio del 2010

Where: Capaderillo primary school
When: Wed, July 14, 3 p.m.
Who: Chela and Holly and Saul Juarez (Cedesa), 35 people from Capaderillo, 29 from Viviendilla (aka Vivienda de Abajo or Vivienda Urbana), 4 from Presita de Santa Rosa and 2 from Rincon de Canal (on the road to Celaya)

Saul was selected as coordinator of the assembly and Elvia took roll. Of the Capaderillo Phase I people, three were missing, with excuses – Noema is working, Yolanda is planting, Ofelia is sick.

Emma announced that she came to this assembly to see if she could get re-instated in the project – she was removed from Group 1 because she did not attend the last assembly and did not send any excuse. She admits that she simply forgot but she wants to participate in the project and promises to attend the meetings or send a representative or a reason when she is not able to attend. Chela asked the assembly what they should do, since Joel was voted to take Emma’s place during the last assembly.

After some discussion, it was decided to let Emma back into the project since she was present at the first two assemblies, and put Joel first on the waiting list (Phase II). Holly said that Laura is making a Rotary application for Capaderillo Phase II, so unlike other communities that do not yet have funding for Phase I or Phase II, there are funds for Capaderillo/Viviendilla Phase II. [NOTE: On the second day of training, July 20, one person dropped out of her group – Marisela – so Joel was re-instated in her place].

The list for Capaderillo II (mostly Viviendilla):
1. Beatriz Alvarado Soria
2. Petra Ramirez
3. Puebla Morales
4. Maria Salud Ramirez Bautista
5. Maria Luisa Valdez Luna
6. Francisca Bautista
7. Imelda Ramirez Arriega
8. Isidra Ramirez Ramirez
9. Maria Elisa Ramirez
10. Rosa Ramirez Rivera
11. Amalia Petra Ramirez
12. Maria Guadalupe Ramirez Ramirez
13. Maria Isabel Valenzuela
14. Eusedia Hernandez Ramirez
15. Fedronia Hermandez Ramirez
16. Jaqueline Perez Herrera
17. Aurea Fabiola Valdez Ramirez
18. Maria Catalina de la Luz Hernandez
19. Berenicia Apoderado Ramirez
20. Silvia Ramirez Bautista
21. Cristina Hernandez Ramirez
22. Maria Luisa Luna Cruz
23. Concepcion Ramirez Ramirez
24. Maria de los Angeles Ramirez Ramirez
25. Juana Gonzales Maya
26. Maria Soledad Ramirez Patlan
27. Maria Lorena Reyes

Others present:

Presita de Santa Rosa (4 people, one has a daughter in Vivienda de Arriba – we told them to come to the Capaderillo assembly because it is closer). See info on the community in Vivienda de Arriba report.

Rincon de Canal (2 people) – next to Estancia de Canal, on the highway to Celaya. 20 families. They have to buy pipas (water trucks) or garrafones (jugs). Chela explained that CEDESA is located in Dolores Hidalgo and has been working in the region between San Miguel and Dolores; we will need to discuss with Rotary the question of expanding the projects outside of this region. We are very short on personnel.

Discussion then turned to the training, which the assembly decided to start on Monday, July 19. They will work from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. [NOTE: because of rains, work was cut short several days and the two school cisterns were not finished until Friday, July 23]. Holly phoned Alejandra of Talego to advise that all materials for 2 cisterns should be delivered before the weekend. A list was drawn up dividing the mutual-aid teams into two groups for training. [NOTE: Miguel Cruz will not be asesor for Capderillo since he was offered another job, Guillermo and Juan Alvarado are working, so a new asesor, Gerardo Gonzales, will take Miguel’s place).

Training group 1 (Gerardo)
Group 1 – Cruz, Saul, Enedina, Elvia, Emma, Reynalda
Group 2 – Timoteo, Estelo, Ma. Concepcion, Julia, Luz, Elena
Group 3 – Consuelo, Margarita, Juana V., Cristina, Ma. Guadalupe, Remedios

Training group 2 (Rafael)
Group 4 – Carolina, Lucia, Adriana, Nicolasa, Francisca, Marino
Group 5 – Juana A., Lucia, Hermelinda, Lilia, Martina, Noema, Joel*
Group 6 – Eva, Juana R., Marina, Alicia, Francisca G., Herminia, Salud*

NOTE: As of the second day of training, July 20, Joel took the place of Salud in Group 5 and Salud takes the place of Marisela who dropped out of Group 6.

Maestro Jaime Cruces Perez (415-114-7048) will receive all the materials at the school.

The next assembly will be Wed, August 11 at 3 p.m.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Report 8 Vivienda de Arrba Assembly. 7 de julio del 2010

Report 8 Vivienda de Arrba Assembly. 7 de julio del 2010

Where: Vivienda de Arriba Chapel
When: Wed, July 7, 11 a.m.
Who: Chela, Holly and Saul Juarez (Cedesa), 27 people from Vivienda, 2 from La TInaja, 4 from Presita de Santa Rosa and 2 from San Lorenzo.

Ana Maria Torres was designated as coordinator of the assembly, she also took roll. There were four new people from Vivienda de Arriba at this assembly, Marta Maria Ramírez, Azucena Ramírez and Irene & José Luis López. They are interested in phase II.

Saul Juárez was introduced as a new CEDESA promoter in this region.
The progress of the current cistern construction was reviewed – all are finished except a few need to be waterproofed and connected to the roofs. Roofing materials has arrived for Lorena, but there are two more roofs that are problematic – very rusty lamina (Tomasa), and dirty clay shingles (Andrea Granados). They asked if they could also get lamina, but Holly said she thought the project was closed, she would have to confer with Laura.

Chela asked: What was the experience like? It was hard work! “We enjoyed working together even though it was hard, especially putting the ‘hat’ on the top of the cistern.” “I liked it a lot, we got along well. Gloria is really good with the shovel!” When someone couldn’t come to a work-session, they sent someone else in their place, or doubled up before or after their absence. “I had to miss a day, but the next day I made my husband come with me.”

“How do you like the cistern that was made by all the old people? Did you see how the cap came out, all crooked! But it’s only that one came out badly, all the rest look nice. Each cistern is different and some of us have decorated our cisterns.”

“Many thanks to Lupe, who helped with the cuchara (skilled masonry work), and also Don Carlos, Don Felipe y Andrés. We now have technicians who can help in our second phase and other communities. We all know how to weave and make the cement mixture now.”

In Group 1, everyone went home for lunch, “that gave me a chance to feed the pig!” said one woman. In Group 2, the “host” of the house where they were working provided meals, almuerzo around noon and comida at 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

“We are happy to see the level of water in the hose. It was worth it, even though we had to postpone planting in order to finish the cistern.”

“We had fun, laughing and talking together. We worked really hard. But now, every morning it makes me so happy to see the cistern. The water is really delicious, it tastes better than the water you buy in bottles.”

Some people asked about disinfecting the water and Holly explained the SODIS process, and promised to bring a sheet on maintenance and SODIS to the next assembly.

Ana announced that the people of Vivienda would like to celebrate the finishing of their cisterns with a “convivencia” including a reflection on the importance of water, a mass by the priest from Cruz del Palmar, a tour of some cisterns, and lunch. She asked when Laura would be back, and Holly told them July 20 so they chose Friday of that week, July 23. Holly was asked to invite the Rotary Club and government officials.

Chela in turn invited everyone from Vivienda to attend the “Food Sovereignty” event at CEDESA, which would also include a reflection upon community development work. A list of 10 people wanted to attend; Holly agreed to arrange for transportation (it turned out that 17 people from Vivienda attended – the largest turnout at CEDESA from any single community!)

A list of names for Phase II was compiled (after some discussion about whether or not people who are in the U.S: qualify .- the decision was to give priority to people who live full-time in Vivienda, but to keep a second list of people who are in the U.S. but have representatives who will work for them – in a later conversation, Ana told Holly that if neither of her brothers-in-law are included in Phase II, she cannot volunteer to be the community contact any longer):

People living in Vivienda de Arriba:

1. Gloria Arreiega (also helped in Phase I)
2. Luisa Vargas
3. Rogelio García
4. Francisca Ramírez
5. José Guadalupe Ramírez
6. Marta Ramírez
7. Ubaldo Granados
8. Irene & José Luis López
9. Cristina Morales
10. Leovardo Ramírez

People who are in the U.S.:

1. Juan Carlos Ramírez (represented by Nicolasa)
2. Gerardo Ramírez (represented by Acuzena)
3. Frederico Ramírez (represented by Azucena)
4. Adelino Ramírez (represented by Azucena)
5. Santos Torres (represented by Bernardo)
6. Noe Granados (represented by Alma Lorena)
7. Valentin Ramírez (represented by Marcelina)
8. Salomon Ramírez (represented by Ernesto)
9. Elias Ramirez (represented by Fili)

The next assembly at Vivienda de Arriba will be Wednesday, August 4 at 11 a.m.



12:30 p.m. - La Tinaja
Two representatives from that community, north of Vivienda off the highway to Guanajuato (about 30 minutes drive), Adela Ramírez and Maria Candelaria Mosqueda.
There about about 250 inhabitants, 50 families in the community, it is near the ejido de Peña Blanca. The water there is good, that’s not a problem, but there is a group of about 35 people interested in dry toilets.
They have seen different models. Chela: “The ones in Rancho Nuevo de Guadalupe are very expensive, we would need to do a more economical model, and you will build them in mutual-aid groups, we won’t send someone in to make them for you.”
Fili knows where the community is, he will guide us there. Meeting set for Thursday, August 5 at 12 noon.

1:00 P.M. – Presita de Santa Rosa
Four representatives from that community, near Banda, also off the highway to Guanajuato – nearest community in which we are now working: Capaderillo. Rita Gabriela Hernandez, Jose Luis Ramirez, Antonio Vazquez and Rosalia Ramirez.
There are about 200 inhabitants, 40 families. They share a well with 5 other communities, so there isn’t enough, we are the ones who run out. The other communities are Banda (ejido), Bandita (small property owners) Rancho Nuevo de Banda, Artesano de Banda, and San Isidro Bandita. Before the well was drilled, we had artisanal (shallow hand-dug wells) – observation: their teeth are stained.
They have done some community work before, they built an extra room in the school with a small loan, with the local people providing the labor. They will attend the July 14 meeting at Capaderillo to see how the cistern-building project gets organized.

1:30 p.m. - San Lorenzo
Two representatives from this very small community – actually just four houses belonging to members of the same family (Umberto Ramirez Lanas and Audelia Ramirez Lanas), across the river from the community of Juan Gonzales (about 50 families, 200 people). A friend of theirs, Doña Antonia from Vivienda told them about the cisterns. In Juan Gonzales they have only hand-dug wells that dry up during the dry season. In San Lorenzo they don’t have any tap water, they have to haul it in.
It was decided to put the four families of San Lorenzo together with Vivienda Phase II.

2:00 p.m. - San Isidro Capadero
At lunch with Doña Teresa, Jesús Rico of San Isidro Capadero arrived with a list of people from his community. San Isidro is located between Cruz del Palmar and Vivienda and has a primary school and kindergarten. There are about 150 inhabitants, 30 families, and they have no water on tap. No arrangement was made to visit the community, but we later discussed visiting San Isidro Capadero on the same day as Cruz del Palmar.
List of persons from San Isidro Capadero (I think this is a complete list of the community compiled by Jesús; we have not visited there yet):
1. Jesús Rico Franco
2. Antonio Rodríguez
3. José Rodriguez
4. José Ramirez
5. Remijo Ramirez
6. Francisco Curato
7. Trinidad Rodriguez
8. David Rodriguez
9. Javier Rodriguez
10. Rafael Ramirez
11. Troncito Ramirez
12. Roberto Ramirez
13. Leonardo Ramirez Pérez
14. Mario Ramirez Trejo
15. Luis Rodriguez
16. Yolanda Rodriguez
17. Yolanda Ramirez
18. Santiago Banca
19. Cirilo Reyes Ramirez
20. Galdino Reyes Tellez
21. Lorena Ramirez Colunga
22. Faustine Reyes Tellez
23. Miguel Banca Luna
24. Guadalupe Banva
25. Francisco Rodriguez
26. Roberto Reyes
27. Jesús Cerrafa
28. Cirilo Rodriguez

Tierra Blanca meeting. 7 de julio del 2010

Where: Tierra Blanca churchyard
When: Wed, July 7, 3 p.m.
Who: Chela, Holly and Saul (Cedesa), 33 women, 2 men, 15 children and various dogs.

We waited for over a half hour for Jesús, since he was to report on the various projects we discussed during the last meeting, but since he did not arrive, we started the meeting at about 3:45 p.m. Lucia was chosen to coordinate and take roll. All who attended last month’s meeting plus four more people were present.

A delegation of five people from the community of Cinco Señores came to find out about the community development projects in Tierra Blanca. That community consists of about 15 families, 80 people, across the river from Juan Gonzales. We were going to discuss their concerns at then end of the assembly but the meeting was cut short by a major downpour.

Pending from last meeting: Jesús was going to help Tierra Blanca take a census in preparation for government and ONG applications regarding 1) a health diagnostic 2) a bridge 3) cisterns and 4) dry toilets, but he was unable to do so on the previous Monday that he came because of afternoon rains. He did get a water sample from the well but it has not yet been analyzed and he did some preliminary interviews with some families and was able to draw some preliminary conclusions about the incidence of cancer in certain family lines (see attached report).

While awaiting the arrival of Jesus, Chela mentioned some investigations we have been doing with the Instituto de la Mujer (for breast cancer examinations) and CASA, which does health work in the communities. Several people mentioned that there are more men than women who are dying of cancer in Tierra Blanca. We then mentioned the Secretary de Salud and the Midday Rotary Club (Holly said that Laura is in touch with several MD doctors about various symptoms and conditions). Chela emphasized the need for hard data, not just hearsay evidence in order to deal with the health problem.

We discussed doing genealogical research for the health diagnostic at the same time as the census, and promised to bring a questionnaire within two weeks with which to start the process.

At this point it started to rain, and we all huddled under the tree but within a few minutes it started to pour. We ran into the chapel but it was a very hard downpour and Chela was worried about crossing the river. We jumped into her truck and started down the hill toward the river but got stuck in a rut in the middle of a torrent and could not see the road. After several attempts, we got out of the rut, and with wheels spinning and the truck lurching over hidden rocks and holes, we headed toward the ford, even though we couldn’t see it. At the bank of the river, Chela just aimed toward what looked like a shallow part with plants growing above the water, and we made it across! The rest of the way was easy in comparison.

We did not have time to schedule the next assembly, but we will set the date and time (August 4, 3 p.m.) when Saul and/or Jesús take the genealogical questionnaire to Tierra Blanca within the next two weeks (by July 21).

It turns out that Jesús’ car got stuck in the river near Cruz del Palmar, and he could not reach us by phone since Telcel does not have coverage in Tierra Blanca.
So, rainy season has really begun. It appears that we will have to use the footbridge to get to the next assembly at Tierra Blanca – we can park the truck in the community of Espejo (next to Vivienda de Arriba), walk across the river and then to Tierra Blanca. Saul will investigate the location of the footbridge.

We also want to look into getting USAcel telephones since all the phones in Tierra Blanca and Vivienda are USAcel, which has much better coverage than Telcel in the rural communities of the region. Several contacts in Los Torres and Capaderillo and our suppliers (sand and herreria) have USAcel, which provides free calls among USAcel phones, though the rate for fixed lines and Telcel is higher. Holly agreed to investigate and consult with Laura and John about getting USAcel phones.


SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT on Tierra Blanca Health Issues
On July 15, Chela, Saul and Holly met with Jesus Guiterrez at CEDESA. Jesús reported that according to his informal investigation (questionnaires filled out at the June 2 assembly), going back three generations, there are 14 distinct families in Tierra Blanca, of which ten have a high incidence of lung cancer, and two have a high incidence of other types of cancer. He also mentioned that there is a carcinogenic spore that is known to be associated with tombs that contain mummified remains – thus the legends of “curses” befalling tomb-robbers in Egypt and other places. We started work on a questionnaire that would enable us to trace genealogical incidence of cancer (family trees) but ran out of time and Holly agreed to work on it on the weekend so that we can test it, and Jesús and/or Saul can deliver it on or before Wednesday afternoon, July 21.