Where: Communities of La Tinaja, Cruz del Palmar & Guerrero
When: 15 Feb 2012 during Team meeting at Cedesa.
Who Laura, Holly, Saul, Chela
Purpose: During our usual Water Cistern Project team planning meeting Saul gave an update of the progress in the communities who are part of the Calgary Global Grant.
All Pilots have now been completed & all communities are working on their individual family cisterns.
Saul reported the following:
La Tinaja (22 cisterns) – they are working well, not slow or fast, but steady. Was difficult initially as this community did not have any access to tools, borrowed or otherwise, thanks to the agreement by Walla Walla & Tallahassee RC’s to use approx. US$300 excess from a previous direct grant on purchase of tools, they no longer have to use machete’s & rocks to cut the wire & malla.
There is one group with a lot of men working in it, & they are progressing faster than the other 2 groups. There has been no problems from a human relations perspective, no gossip issues etc, all are working in harmony & with respect.
They have also begun thinking about organisation of their backyards, cistern, garden, animals, dry toilet etc, they hadn’t previously considered this.
Someone (who had given up her spot as she had not yet built her house) asked about a 2nd phase in La Tinaja & Chela explained it is difficult to predict.
We discussed the possibility of doing a “cob” adobe workshop to teach the young people how to construct housing using the rammed earth method (essentially using the dirt they excavate to level their property to construct the house). There is a big issue with lack of skills & employment opportunities in this community, & a very large number of young people.
Cruz del Palmar – 41 Cisterns
This community is also progressing well, this is a 2nd phase community, one young woman Dometila is particularly well involved & helpful. The various groups are all working well & at different stages, some at malla weaving stage others at cement stage. The president of the Consejo is a member of the project & is very active & organised.
Guerrero – 20 cisterns
The pilot training session took longer than expected with delays caused by the rain as well as an “Oportunidades” govt training day, which if they didn’t attend they miss out on.
The pilot cistern is not connected since the classroom is brand new & the boss of the construction of the classroom did not want any piping attached until they have held their inauguration (education department).
There is one group which everyone is good-naturedly joking about as they are the oldest, many older women in it, but ironically they are advancing the fastest.
There was an issue where one of the women did not want to be in the original group she was assigned to but couldn’t change so she felt kind of “left out”. Saul organised a meeting with the group & the woman & they worked on their agreements & compromises/promises & she is now included. He essentially told her you need to work this out together & sort it out or give up your place/materials, this was enough motivation for her to work on the issue & she is now fully integrated.
Subsequent to this meeting, there was an issue re possible delivery problems in Guerrero as a man claiming to own the land of some of the members of the project (they dispute this & have been on the land as many as 6 generations in some cases), attempted to have Sapasma stop the project (he thought it was Sapasma funded). Deliveries went ahead unobstructed & they continue to work on their cisterns.
