Report of 2nd recorded visit to Corralejo 24.1.12

Report of 2nd recorded visit to Corralejo

Where: Corralejo, under big tree in the centre of the community

When: 24^th Jan 2012

Who: Chela(Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 12 women (no men) 3 kids, + 2 dogs

Purpose: To plan the water cistern project in this community.

History – approx. 50 families in Corralejo, majority of the men are in the USA working, the age of the community is uncertain, approx. 2 generations.

Pre-meeting discussion: I had mentioned the case of a 12yr old boy in the community of Don Francisco, who is unable to walk & has never been to school – to Chela on the way to Corralejo. She in turn mentioned it to the women gathered & 2 of the women had heard of this case where the child is left to his own devices sitting in his own pee etc during the day. They agreed it was sad that he was not a priority for his family & contrasted it with another story of another young man unable to walk, but whose mother has carried him on her back every day to & from school, this young man is now in Secondaria.

Chela opened discussion by asking about finances & security v too many children, ie family size. She explained that in most of the “developed” countries people choose to have 2 or 3 children, but in Mexico people keep having kids. She asked why they thought this was –

Answers were

• Lack of care to prevent pregnancy
• This generation mostly have 2 kids (replied one young woman)
• Grandmothers in the group agreed they have 5 or 6

We moved into general discussion comments were:

• Some husbands are here & some in the USA,
• Although there is a well, there is still a scarcity of water as often no electricity for the pump for example they have had no electricity for 8 days now & hence no water for 8 days.
• There has been 3 visits to this community (one which I did not attend & report)
• Corralejo was at the 1^st big regional council meeting in Capaderillo in Oct 2010.
• They joined the consejo in Nov (?)
• They have been working with the consejo to obtain dry toilets

Chela asked them to explain why they were here today –

“to learn about water cisterns & back yard production”

There are a total of 12 people wanting to participate in the water cistern project.

The groups were defined – 2 groups of 6.

There was discussion about the pilot & where it would be held. They decided they would like 2 pilots, one in the kinder & one in the Primary school.

I explained there was only money in the budget for training on one pilot, they discussed this & said they would contribute to payment of another tech assistant for the 2^nd pilot.

They could pay $250 per day x 4 days = $1000 /12 families or the 24 families at the primary for example would be $52 pesos per family.

I raised the point that 6 people is really insufficient for a pilot, eg in Vivienda de Arriba they struggled because they had only 16 people, & we had said from that point, that 20 would be minimum size.

The women argued they are young & fit & determined & can do it.

I did not continue to argue (but parked it) this as it was unproductive & my Spanish is not elegant enough!

Note: Holly was not at the meeting but agrees, 6 is too few for a pilot, we are moving to suggest they do one pilot, & then as a community build the 2^nd cistern at either the kinder or primary.

Date for the pilot(s) will be after 1^st March – once we receive delivery of the special order of materials.

We advised at least 1 abanile is required for each group, ideally more, the women said it was difficult to confirm this far out as they don’t know if their husbands will be working/have jobs at this time.

Contact point will be Marlene (Community Co-ordinator) 415 107 0341 (with backup from Hilda & Reina)

Next meeting will be determined after delivery of materials, to firm up responsibilities & determine tools etc.

Dry toilets – Leonida spoke about the dry toilet situation as she has been attending the meetings, the next meeting on this subject will be Friday 3^rd Feb at 10am (Consejo meeting).

Health & Back yard production workshops: There are 13 currently on the list to attend these workshops.

The women had bought makings of tacos & meal for us, Chela explained we had just eaten, so a takeaway plate was prepared, beans, rice, casserole & tortillas! & We headed off up the stony mountainous track to beat the dark!