Saturday, February 19, 2011

3rd Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda Urbana Water Project (part of Micro Region 2)

Record of Event

Where: Casa beside Kinder, in Vivienda Urbana, Salud’s house in Guerrero, 1st Visit to Corralejo
When: Saturday 19.2.11 9am – 2pm
Who: Saul (Cedesa), David Gillis (Videographer, recording the process/project), Jim Johnson, Steve Stevens, Pedrito Maynard-Reid, Nancy & Larry, (all visiting from Walla Walla Rotary Club), Laura – San Miguel Midday RC, + approx. 7 group 1 people from Vivienda Urbana, & approx. 15 people at the Corralejo Assembly.


Purpose: Multiple:
1. For the Walla Walla visitors to know more about the project & participate in the construction of a cistern
2. To take water samples from the family well of Salud in Guerrero
3. To have a community meeting in Coralejo
4. To video the events of the day, to potentially include in a video about the project.

Vivienda de Urbana
We arrived at approx. 9.30 as planned, & Saul was waiting for us, he took us to the house where the 1st cistern was being worked on for group 1. The wire hooking tools (ganchos) were being made with a grinder & off-cuts of wire mesh.

Saul demonstrated to the Walla Walla crew the process of weaving the 3 layers of wire together. Everyone had a go, & found it to be more difficult than it looked, especially in the hot sun & on your knees!

It was pretty funny hearing Saul speaking in Spanish & the Walla Wallans responding in English, saying how difficult it was, & Saul disagreeing saying it was simple…& try again… & again…

Guerrero for water sample:
Larry was very determined to get it & stayed to work while the rest of us piled in the van & headed to the community down the road – Guerrero, to a location where one of the families had constructed a cistern as part of the phase I project in Capaderillo. We were there to take a sample of their well water (we know this area has high concentrations of fluoride – around 4.3mg/l) & wanted to take film footage of retrieving the sample, & will later show it being tested at the Laboratory at Cedesa (in Dolores Hidalgo).

The well is approx. 15 mtrs deep (pretty shallow as it is close to the “lake” (Presa, or Muddy Puddle as I refer to it!)…Pedrito insisted on pulling another bucket of water from the well to show how it was done, & we almost collapsed from laughing too hard, when his bucket first came up empty! He lowered it again & this time pulled it up full! David got some video footage of the hilarity & an interview with Salud & we thanked them & were on our way again.

We got back to find Larry diligently working beside his new Mexican friends. We explained we had to take Saul to Coralejeo to a community meeting, & people could stay & work, or come on the excursion.
Larry chose to stay & work, the rest of us headed off.

Corralejo de Abajo – community meeting
We drove to Coralejo, approx. 15 mins up Gto highway, & then supposedly close to the highway, but seems different people have different definitions of “close” & we are glad we didn’t accept David’s offer to walk the rest of the way, when we crammed the waiting community members in to show us the way… he may never have gotten there – it was a good 10 mins driving on a pretty “hairy” road.

We arrived to find a few people waiting for us, & more gathered.
It is a little community actually just round the river bend from Cinco Senores, but accessed by a different “road”.

The community looked comparatively pretty prosperous – finished houses, established gardens, & we lost Pedrito for a few minutes, but turns out he had discovered a very rare beast – a flush toilet! There were also a few more recent model pickups! After a short while we discovered that there were no men here in Coralejo, they are all working in the states. Some have been gone for 2-3 yrs, one woman mentioned her husband had been gone for 5 yrs… This is the catch 22, either you have your husband here & family unit complete, but less money, or husband absent & (hopefully) slightly more money!

We introduced ourselves & then Saul spent some time explaining what a community assembly is & why we were there, ie to invite them to become part of the Consejo (citizens water group – that has currently 18 communities)…he explained the benefits of becoming organized, & that they would then be able to meet, discuss, analyse & ultimately resolve their own issues.

He also talked about their water situation, they have a Sapasma supplied well, & piping to each house. This was put in about 9 yrs ago, they had to pay 7000 pesos per family. The well is guessed to be approx. 200mtrs deep, & they have never had it tested for Fluoride… Some people had damaged teeth but not many,

There were jokes made about the lack of men in the community, & the pro’s & con’s of this situation, including the very first private flush toilet we have encountered!

We were invited to “share a taco” & were taken to the house near the center, they fed us well with beans, rice, tortillas, & chicheron, washed down with Guayava water. I encouraged the Walla Wallan’s to partake in the food, explaining that I had never been sick the next day from eating at a community.
Everyone had a little rice & tortilla, & we thanked our gracious hosts & left to find our way back to Larry…

Back in Vivienda Urbana
We arrived back to find Larry had been working very hard, he’d also been fed (thankfully or he would have blown away!), we spoke to 2 of the older women who were separating beans from chaff, & rubbing maize off the cob (for grinding into flour to make tortillas)…

More photos were taken, & farewells made…
A hot dusty, exhausted but satisfied bunch of Walla Wallans were deposited back into town (for more interviews by David!) & a good day was had by all…

Next Event in Vivienda Urbana planned for 9.30am Mon 21st Feb 2011