Record of Event pg 1 of 5
35th Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Los Torres
Where: Los Torres (Chucha´s house) & pre-meeting in El Cortijo & in the car on the way.
When: 24.2.10 10.30am – 3.35pm
Who: Chela & Holly + Jesus for planning of the water info day(Cedesa), Laura (San Miguel Midday), + Los Torres people 28 women, 5 men + about 10 small kids, + Annamaria & her husband from Vivienda de Arriba.
Pre Planning session
Purpose:
Planning session for phase III, discuss proposed workshops & water info day, reschedule bee project planning session.
Jesus has been working with Cedesa on the Camposino University plan, & Chela had asked him to put a plan together for the Water Info day planned for 5th March at Los Torres Primary School.
1st Item Water info day planning
The objective of the day is to teach the kids at the primary school, the importance of conserving water.
The planned agenda for Water info day is
1. for the people of Los Torres to talk to the children about the history of water in their area. Members of the assemblies have been tasked with interviewing their elders & reporting back regarding the change in the water/rivers since the oldies were kids…
2. Jesus has a very fun interactive learning experience planned for the whole school. It is to take the form of a ¨rally¨with 7 stations, at each station will be a Quiz, the station will be manned by a co-ordinator, a devil & an angel/or dwarf… the devil & angel will act as bad & good consciences trying to entice the kids to do the right or wrong thing at each station.
Topics for the stations will be for example Hydro weather cycle, global water situation, ie how much fresh & how much salt water covers the earth, identify water sources in their own community, how is water used in their community, define concrete actions to conserve H2o in their own community, etc.
They kids will be divided into teams, of mixed age & gender & each team will pass through the rally. Each successful answer will gain them a “marble” signifying a drop of water, in their bucket, at the end of the rally the team with the most marbles will be deemed the “guardians” of water in their school. This position will carry with it a responsibility to protect & conserve water in their school, they will be the ones to fill the garaphons with water, & make sure the taps are turned off & water is not wasted…
There will be prizes for all the kids, & then some sort of bracelet or identifier for the “guardians”…
We need to work on the details, ideally we would like to reward the kids with a drink bottle each, which they can fill from the garaphons each morning, instead of slurping water directly from the tap as they currently do.
There are approx 80 kids in the school, so we don´t really have the budget to buy a drink bottle for each, but are working on a creative solution to this problem.
We agreed there will need to be continued followup for these “guardians”, & we have yet to decide what form that follow up will take, probably a mini commission from the adults to keep checking with the kids & reporting back to assemblies.
We thanked Jesus for his excellent plan & wished him well with the balance of the execution of it!
The community will need to volunteer at least 21 people to help, & they will need to meet an hr before the event to co-ordinate the event.
Item 2 – Elena arrived to discuss when the next assembly would be held in Montecillo de Nieto (other project site), we agreed 17/3 should give us enough time to receive the $$$ (& 3rd wed of the Month has been set aside for assemblies for this community. She asked if she could visit to touch base with them & we said of course! Great idea…
Record of Event pg 2 of 5
At this point we ran out of time for planning & left for Los Torres. (& Elena went to Montecillo de Nieto).
Arrival in Los Torres, we were around 20 mins late & met with a very small crowd, only around 15 women, more arrived in the next 15mins until we had the usual complement of around 37 people.
Eventually we commenced the meeting at 12.40 (supposed to start at 12)
Item 1. Concha took the roll, (ie of attendance)
Chela described the importance of attending assemblies, “we all have to participate, we shouldn’t have to force you to talk, there is no knot in your tongue is there?” lots of laughing…
One woman said she is afraid people will laugh at what she has to say.
Another woman said you shouldn´t be afraid to briefly state your opinion.
There is no reason for others to be speaking while someone has the “word” (except Holly who sometimes has to translate for Laura … more laughing)…
If you want to speak, raise your hand.
If you put your foot in your mouth, you can always take it out tomorrow…more giggles.
No-one should make fun of anyone, alright to laugh with but not at…
3 things needed presence, respect & participation.
You are the focus of attention in the region, the impact of the cisterns is obvious, & all due to your hard work & persistence.
Item 2 appointment of co-ordinator & records taker for the meeting
Maribel (a young woman) was appointed co-ordinator
Concha was appointed record taker
Item 3 creation of an agenda
Maribel asked the assembly what points they would like to discuss today
The road/beekeeping/3rd phase planning/traspatio/water info day/health workshop/co-operation payments
Item 4 prioritise the points for discussion
After some discussion the points were prioritised.
Agenda item 1 The Road
Chela “what is the point – what does anyone have to say?
Following were various points raised
We were going to talk to someone in the govt.
My husband talked to the govt. pre election, & now we have to talk to the new govt.
Do we need a road or not – resounding “yes”
Who wants to work for it? – general mumble of agreement
Why is it necessary?
- of a person´s sick they cant get to hospital in a hurry
- so we can arrive more quickly (ie us, laura, chela & Holly) – lots of laughter
- so we can get to work on time
- so we can spend more time with our families & not getting to work
- often we don’t have time or $$ to make the trip
- we only stay out here in the country, & go into the campo to collect work, that´s what we have to resort to for fun! (roars of laughter!)
- sometimes need to deliver papers & go shopping, & it takes forever.
- No taxis will come here
- We have to carry shopping & babies…
What is the first step
- to organise a “solicitud”/make an application, to govt.
- there is not a majority here today so we can not make a decision on behalf of the community we will need to call another meeting & hope for a majority,
- 50 people would be a majority
- Need a space to meet – discussion about using the Ejido “salon”, they will need to speak to the Leaders of the Ejido to book a good time.
- There was discussion about making the decision at the next Ejido meeting, but Chela pointed out there is a lot of the community not part of the Ejido, so it needs to be a community initiative not limited to Ejido.
- They will need to invite the entire community & ask them to sign the petition/solicitud for the road…
Record of Event pg 3 of 5
Who can do this?
Plan to meet on the 5/3 (water info day) & write a petition, plan the steps etc.
Chela said they need 5 people for the commission
Action: Road commission Ofelia, Cruz, Chuy, Arturo, Gonzalo & Carmela volunteered.
Chela”it´s important you guys learn how to arrive at the presidencia, who to put your application to”.
Carmela, Cruz & Arturo will ask the Ejido leaders to use the “salon”
How will you inform the community? Someone yelled out “by phone” a big joke because no-one has them!, agreed to inform them at the water info day.
Chela mentioned Palencia (a community she has been working in for 22 yrs), they have a public meeting space & she suggested they need one here in Los Torres.
I suggested they use the school after hours, they said better in the Ejido salon because it is empty so there´s nothing to take! Apparently they have 29 chairs there so people will need to bring their own.
Agenda item 2 3rd Stage Planning
At the last meeting people in phase III were tasked with measuring the length of pipes they need & giving the list to the leader of their group.
No-one had done this, no good reason… Maybe they didn´t know how to measure it, but Chuy pointed out the experts live in their community & are happy to be asked for help.
Chela talked about responsibility, & commitment & sticking together in groups,
“will you advance without taking responsibility?” – no
It was pointed out the technicians can not place the order for the full project until all the lists are in.
They were urged to take charge, go to the group leaders if they do not come to you, & if you don´t know what to do, go & ask someone who does, you know who they are!”
Another person asked if there was a chance of adding another cistern to the list.
Chela said no, phase III was closed & $$$ had been budgeted for just 24, but there could be a phase IV if there was demand, & they could make representation to the govt. for assistance, & not always rely on funding from Rotary.
Agenda item 3 Water Info Day 5 March 2010
Chela asked the objective of the day.
Ofelia answered “for the kids to learn how to conserve water”
The commission at the last meeting was tasked with asking the Teacher if it was ok to hold the day at the school.
They forgot!
Action for the Ofelia & rest of the group, they said they will ask tomorrow.
Chela said they haven´t gotten off their butts, & used the responsibility again.
She asked “is it an education event” – yes
Then it should be fine to have it at school, but you just need to confirm.
More discussion & a description of the event as described by Jesus.
There are 21 volunteers needed.
Apparently 5/3 is the day Casa Diferente (a govt program) is delivering the materials for the houses, & they need to be present to receive the materials. 6 families were involved & therefore wont be able to attend.
There was a call for volunteers
Action: Chuy, Concha, Elena, Hilaria, Gonzalo, Dulce, Fabiana, Sofia, Saul, Juana, Carmela, Maribel, Cecilia, Maria Soria, Maria de Jesus, Orelia, Elvira, Don Cruz, Catalina, Jose Matilde.
They will ask the teacher to ask other parents to bring food to contribute & make it a shared meal event.
The commission to interview the elders, was supposed to meet & research & record the history of water in the region, Chuy had asked her parents but had not recorded it, no-one else had. Another reminder was made.
At this point we were getting a little despondent about the lack of commitment to what people had committed to at the previous meeting. I asked Holly why they don´t write it down, & she pointed out many of people at Los Torres cant read & write, they simply rely on their memory…
Record of Event pg 4 of 5
I asked permission to make the Water Info day an open event, & invite the Mayor & Ecology director as well as Rotarians, pointing out it could be favourable for their representation re the Road if these guys knew the road first hand…They all agreed.
Chela discussed alternatives to foam plates, they talked about having tacos in serviettes.
Time for Water Info Day – start at 11am – finish 2pm, meet at 9.30 for planning session, & they will have to get up really early to prepare food to bring to the event. (Road planning meeting will have to be after the event.
Agenda item 4 Co-operations pending
3 people still owe money for their contribution to the building of the cisterns at the school. The community agreed those from phase III who couldn’t attend this demonstration build would have to pay for their share. The agreed price was $450 pesos.
There was much discussion about this, & I missed what was finally agreed.
There are also people who were supposed to contribute to the school project if they had kids there but were not part of the LT water projects. That contribution was $50, the teacher was supposed to be asked to help recover this money.
Action: It was agreed Maria Soria would go door to door asking for the contribution.
Agenda item 5 Traspatio (back yard) workshops (run by Cedesa, without Rotary funding)
Benigno ran the first workshop last week, they did not keep a count of attendance, but said lots of people were there. They were asked to make a design for their backyard, including moving things to better positions.
Chela had some seeds from prospective Rotarian, Kerry, that visited to the last assembly. She will give them to Benigno to work with.
Agenda item 6 Heath workshop (proposed, to be run by Cedesa, again without funding from Rotary)
Chela explained the woman that gives the workshops on natural health & nutrition, can not drive so it is difficult for her to reach Los Torres. There was talk of transport options, ie catch the bus to Cruz del Palmar & walk 15 mins.
They are not having their regular health topic meetings on Fridays anymore, they were having these when we first visited LT back in Oct. 2008.
Agenda item 7 Bee Keeping project (this is a potential small business project maybe funded by Ann Arbour club…)
Chela opened with “we can provide workshops but we need to know how interested you are, if no interest we wont come.” “lots of people are afraid of bees right?”
Yes – especially the africanised ones.
The bees can provide many valuable products but it requires a lot of voluntary work by you guys.
Response “you´re going to teach us how not to be afraid – right?” Yes, with protective clothing.
Chela explained they are pretty low maintenance, a well working hive only needs visiting mthly, but people will have to keep checking they haven´t been vandalized. There was discussion about this, since they need to be in the countryside, & not easy to monitor.
Chela said we will re-look at the bee project once we see how motivated people are with the existing workshops, ie back yard gardens, & possibly health…
Hence the 10/3/10 beekeeping project planning session is postponed, date to be advised later.
Misc. discussion
There was a written question submitted re resealing of the kindergarten roof. Apparently there are leaks that the nopal/lime sealant has not repaired.
Action: Chela will discuss with Benigno & get back to them with a suggestion for sealant that will not be toxic for the water collection.
Record of Event pg 5 of 5
Anamaria & her husband from Vivienda de Arriba asked to talk with us.
Anamaria mentioned she was concerned there was such a large attendance from a neighbouring community (Tierra Blanca) at the assembly just held at Vivienda de Arriba, 9 from TB & 27 from VdA. She asked if it would ok to tell TB that just 2 representatives should attend the VdA assembly, so the focus can stay on the VdA community.
We agreed, good idea. TB send representatives to each assembly to learn the process & report back to their community, then when they/we are ready to initiate a project there they will have the same knowledge VdA has by attending Los Torres assemblies.
Story of determination!!
We then said our goodbyes & headed back up the dusty, pockholed track loosely described as a road, home, on our way we say Maria de Jesus (a young mother part of phase III) struggling up the hill with a bike, her 18mth old & her four year old boys.
We asked if she would like a ride & she looked very relieved.
The story goes, she lives at Los Torres, but works in Montecillo de Nieto, she had forgotten about the assembly in Los Torres today, but saw Elena (Rotarian) visiting MdN & Elena reminded her it was on. She then loaded up her 18mth old on the handle bars, & her four year old son (with his school bag on his back) standing up on the pegs of the back wheel, & rode her bike with her shakey precious cargo all the way from Montecillo de Nieto to Los Torres. Anyone who has even driven that road knows how hard it is even in a car, up hill, down dale, & that´s just in the space of 20 feet!
It is a journey of more than ½ hr by car! & she managed it!
Needless to say she was extremely grateful to ride back in the pickup, & her children, promptly fell asleep in her arms… only to be off-loaded in their sleepy state at the destination! I am a pretty strong determined person, but I doubt I could have made that journey, she truly deserves her cistern!
Side note – I am glad the $$$ are almost here, I think the possible lapse in motivation may be due to lack of “concrete” (excuse the pun) action lately, they really are ready to roll up their sleeves & get the cisterns built, & am sure will be spurred on for the next issue they choose to resolve.
Water info Day 5th March 2010 9.30planning session, 11am commencement 2pm close (school)
Road Application Planning meeting 2.30pm 5th March (school)
Next assembly 24th March 2010 12midday
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
8h Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Lomas de San José Water Project
Record of Event pg 1 of 5
8h Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Lomas de San José Water Project
Where: Lomas de San José Community, at the church & Angelika’s lot
When: Saturday 13.02.10 (scheduled for 5pm start, started 5.40pm)
Who: Enrique Orvañanos & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Benigno (Cedesa), + 8 women & 1 man from the community (7 kids, 1 dog) 1more man arrived 10 mins before the meeting ended.
Purpose: To define the exact list of participants in the project, (last chance), & to begin planning of the next stages of this project. The demonstration build, & creation of work groups.
We arrived on time at 5pm, & since so few people were there, we decided to wait longer. During this time Benigno, Enrique & I discussed our strategy moving forward.
We discussed our commitment to the core few that come to each meeting (approx 4 people), but also that it is a waste to have the resources for this project tied up for just a few families when there are so many other communities wanting to be the next project site.
We discussed the possibility of using partial funds here & diverting the balance of the funding to the communities who are ready & waiting now for the project. Since it is the same mission, there should be no issue to use the funds in neighbouring communities.
If the few early adopters do manage to convince others of the benefits of this project, once the cisterns are constructed, we could do a phase II in Lomas at a later date, with alternative funding.
We started the meeting at 5.40 as no more people were showing up.
We carried some rocks over to allow seating in a circle, as opposed to some seating & some standing, as in previous meetings.
Item 1. Introductions
We all introduced ourselves again & explained why we were there.
Item 2. Random discussion
Since there were so few we did not appoint co-ordinator or record taker, Angelika had the records from previous meetings & these were updated with attendance at the end of the meeting.
One of the older women, who has been regularly attending but does not want a cistern (she is representing her son in law who “probably” wants a cistern), said that she & her son Emilio had been to visit Los Torres in June 2009 & so knows about the cisterns & likes the idea, she is also keen to be involved in organisation, although is very old, she is a regular attendee of the meetings.
Benigno described (again) the construction process, the need to work in groups, & that most of the work is able to be done by women, but there is a need for at least 2 abaniles (proficient builders/concrete workers). In the other communities husbands & sons have been there for this.
The final process of plastering with concrete is more specialist.
They raised the possibility of paying an abanile to assist them – since there are none in the group attending.
Record of Event pg 2 of 5
Enrique & Angelika had discussed that the situation in Lomas is different from the Rancho communities, here there are no real roots or sense of community, & they need to create that, that is the challenge.
They discussed some more the possibility of paying for assistance, & would have to work out how many hours was needed, & who could afford to contribute or not, & how they would all co-operate in some way, either by food or work, or money, or all three.
One woman at the meeting said she had a cistern already but was there to get a dry toilet!
There was discussion rethe small turnout yet again, & apology from 1 person that could not make it even though they knew it was last chance.
They have a new list with 16 people on it, supposedly definite but they are not here today so can not really say they are definite.
The man attending said he has no space to build a cistern but was here to help. He also said if he has more proof that it works he might consider taking out some of his nopal plants to build a cistern in that space. He hadn’t been to Enrique’s place to see a cistern (had only seen one in the booklet I take to each meeting to pass around), Enrique extended the invite again to all, they are welcome to visit his property any time to see the cistern in reality.
Some of the people there were still doubtful about the cistern, & not sure if they had space.
Item 3 firm list of participants
Since we had said at the 2 previous meetings they were the last chance to get on the list, we decided we needed to stick to our word this time, & make this the last chance.
We got to the nitty gritty & took down the names of those at the meeting that were definite. They were still reluctant to commit but when pressed these are the names we have
1. Antonia Lopez Pina
2. Ansencion Rosales Ortiz
3. Teresa Bustamente Arana
4. Maria de la Luz Espinosa Alvarez
5. Angelika Ramirez Huerta (teacher)
6. Fidel Pina (not attending, but the son in law of the old woman, she thinks he wants one) ???
7. Juan Manuel Lopez Rodriguez (this man turned up just 10 mins before the meeting was ending, & added his name after looking at the booklet – this was his first time to a meeting) ???
8. Cristina Martinez Aguilar (has attended at least 4 meetings, but is still doubtful, she said she needs to check with her husband) ???
9. Jesus Martinez Aguilar (father of Cristina, he has doubts, not sure if he wants to remove his nopal/cactus to make space for a cistern)???
10. Ignacio ??? (Nacho is the english speaking guy at earlier meetings, he has not attended any meetings since June, Angelika looked embarrassed & said she had not informed him of the meetings, but thinks he is interested)???
Record of Event pg 3of 5
Item 4 decide 1st pilot build site
Benigno explained they needed to decide a site for construction of the 1st cistern. This construction would take place over 4 days (probably 5 since it is such a small group & not enough hands to finish in 4), & would be their training, & from there they would be expected to build their own family cisterns by groups.
There was discussion re the site, & we pointed out the church was not an option since it does not have a roof & all had a laugh about that!
Enrique suggested it could be at the school all their kids attend, the school is in a neighbouring community, there was no agreement on this, since they thought it would be hard to get others to help & better to help a family in Lomas. Perhaps the biggest family.
It was decided that Angelika’s should be the first, since she has been working hard to organize this & also her property is most central. We agreed to go there after the meeting to decide on the location & measure up for piping.
Item 5 all must attend the demo build
We reiterated all must attend the demo build as this is where the experts will learn.
These experts can then potentially be paid in other communities, but first must prove themselves in their own community.
All must help & attend the demonstration build, if they are physically unable to help they can at least learn the process & provide food & refreshments as their contribution.
Item 6 Dates for demo build ?
Benigno explained it is normally 4 days consecutively, since cement needs to dry in between stages.
Since the group is so small, they will more likely need at least 5 days.
Anscencion suggested Wed, Th, Fr, Sat,Sun .
What hours? Benigno said 9-5, at this there was some surprise at such long days.
He explained it was necessary to complete the tasks & get ready for the next day.
Dates were set – Wed 24th Feb, Th 25th feb, Fri 26th Feb, Sat 27th Feb & Sun 28th Feb.
Enrique called Juan at Los Torres to confirm these dates (& also the length of pipes needed for Angelika’s cistern after we visited her location – see below).
Action: Enrique will need to organize the delivery & payment of the materials (from Materiales Rivera) to the location. Juan knows what to order. Enrique to co-ordinate, & materials must be there (& securely/dryly) stored before the 24th Feb.
Item 7 Tools required
Benigno listed the tools required & asked who could bring any.
No one had any tools, not even a wheelbarrow, or shovel.
Benigno asked if we could buy them as part of the project, we explained that in other communities, they had borrowed them from neighbours, or had them themselves, we do not have a budget or facilities to store & look after tools for each of the projects.
We suggested they ask their husbands, neighbours, friends, family & borrow what they need.
Angelika took a list of what was needed.
Record of Event pg 4 of 5
Item 8 visits to each house
The Los Torres crew will need to visit each of the houses to determine the best place for each of the cisterns. The date for this day will be set during the demonstration build.
Action: Enrique, co-ordinate the date for the site visits for Los Torres. All the visits on one day.
The meeting concluded in the dark at 6.30, Benigno, Enrique, Angelika & I then went to Angelika’s location. (first via the tienda where she offered us something to drink).
Item 9 Location of the pilot/demo build
We met at Angelika’s family tienda & then went across the road to her “house”. This space is very centrally located.
Her husband is currently in the USA. She is living with her parents in the tienda across the road. At the cistern site is a metal workshop with a makeshift roof, & 2 rooms, one being used as the workshop storage, the other for her Grandmother to sleep in.
At the back of the property, there are foundations dug, with mounds of gravel & sand, as work is “in progress”, there is a makeshift toilet structure, & at the back there is more excavation, a tree, & a huge square pit dug, measuring approx 3 mtrs by 3 mtrs by 1.5 mtrs. We asked what this was for, & she said they were planning to build a cistern at some stage.
Construction in this situation is only completed when enough money is saved up from her husband’s efforts working in USA. She is a teacher so her salary is probably feeding the family of 4 kids & her, & relatives she is living with.
We asked where the cistern could go, the most ideal place could not be used as the are planning to build a room there one day, instead another spot was decided, in the middle of the excavation space.
It will need to be leveled out & lots of gravel etc removed before the demo build can begin.
There is no room to roll out the wire netting to begin the process but the road in front of the “lot” is wide enough to allow cars & work on the mesh.
I was doubtful of this location & asked lots of questions, I thought the better option would be where a family is currently living, & not where they might one day (with enough money) be living. They are living in the tienda, & there is no backyard space, the building takes up the whole lot.
I asked how they intend to use the water in the meantime, she said they would collect it from the cistern & carry it across the road to where they are currently living to use.
Enrique & I agreed this was not the ideal situation but possibly needed to compromise on this location as it is central, & had been decided upon. Angelika is a hard working mother of 4 & it would be very difficult to tell her she can’t have a cistern after all this planning & expectation.
Record of Event pg 5 of 5
Conclusion:
All projects are different
As we know, all projects & communities are different & have their own sets of challenges. Assumptions made in some communities can not be made in others. For example we never thought for a minute people would sign up if they didn’t have a) a house with a roof, or b)space to put a cistern, we now know we need to specify this in advance!
This community has the same issues (& more) as the rural communities we are working with, & would ultimately benefit as much or more from our assistance & guidance with organization. The question is - do we have the resources, ie time, money & energy to engage to this extent? Or is it better spent where we can get more leverage, momentum & flow?
Comparison water projects, we have experience now…
The other Water Project sites we are working with (at this point) appear to be prime candidates for not just Projects, but also Process, ie developing into much more than just the completion of individual water cisterns project, they are creating community, organization, mobilization, & connection/unity/bridges between communities.
In Los Torres & Montecillo de Nieto for example, we have been able to devote time during the scheduled assemblies to teach those gathered, about the environment, the watershed, health issues, benefits of self determination/organization & much more, at the same time as organize & plan for the specific project, here in Lomas it is purely project planning (albeit on a much smaller scale).
Budgetary considerations
The other issue is the financial budget, for example we have now had 3 visits from Benigno at a cost of $550 pesos each, he is well worth this money & we need his expertise, even to have gotten this far. The budget includes an assumption that we will be achieving certain things with each visit, & in this case it took visits to achieve what we expected to achieve (based on previous experience) in his first visit. Likewise, we may have to extend to 5 days, for the demo build (budget 4 days) & Benigno will need to attend 2 of those days, hence 2 more unbudgeted visits.
We believe we have achieved a cheaper materials price (see action below) so will likely still be within overall budget, but we need to factor the extra costs involved with the extra challenge of this community.
Action Enrique & Laura
We are currently in negotiation re prices of materials at Materiales Rivera.
There are many items that still need to be discounted to match even the single purchase of materials at Hierro Comercial in Dolores Hidalgo (previous supplier). Ie we are buying in bulk for the 3 projects so the prices should be significantly less than the cost of materials for just 1 cistern at Hierro Comercial.
We have had prelim discussions with the owner of Materiales Rivera, the prices need to be confirmed in agreement before we begin the project deliveries.
Next event:
Demonstration/pilot build 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, February at Angelika’s house (across from the tienda)
9-5pm each day, for demonstration build of the cisterns.
(2 people from Los Torres will attend as tech instructors, & Benigno will come on Wednesday & Saturday).
(Event finished 7pm)
8h Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Lomas de San José Water Project
Where: Lomas de San José Community, at the church & Angelika’s lot
When: Saturday 13.02.10 (scheduled for 5pm start, started 5.40pm)
Who: Enrique Orvañanos & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Benigno (Cedesa), + 8 women & 1 man from the community (7 kids, 1 dog) 1more man arrived 10 mins before the meeting ended.
Purpose: To define the exact list of participants in the project, (last chance), & to begin planning of the next stages of this project. The demonstration build, & creation of work groups.
We arrived on time at 5pm, & since so few people were there, we decided to wait longer. During this time Benigno, Enrique & I discussed our strategy moving forward.
We discussed our commitment to the core few that come to each meeting (approx 4 people), but also that it is a waste to have the resources for this project tied up for just a few families when there are so many other communities wanting to be the next project site.
We discussed the possibility of using partial funds here & diverting the balance of the funding to the communities who are ready & waiting now for the project. Since it is the same mission, there should be no issue to use the funds in neighbouring communities.
If the few early adopters do manage to convince others of the benefits of this project, once the cisterns are constructed, we could do a phase II in Lomas at a later date, with alternative funding.
We started the meeting at 5.40 as no more people were showing up.
We carried some rocks over to allow seating in a circle, as opposed to some seating & some standing, as in previous meetings.
Item 1. Introductions
We all introduced ourselves again & explained why we were there.
Item 2. Random discussion
Since there were so few we did not appoint co-ordinator or record taker, Angelika had the records from previous meetings & these were updated with attendance at the end of the meeting.
One of the older women, who has been regularly attending but does not want a cistern (she is representing her son in law who “probably” wants a cistern), said that she & her son Emilio had been to visit Los Torres in June 2009 & so knows about the cisterns & likes the idea, she is also keen to be involved in organisation, although is very old, she is a regular attendee of the meetings.
Benigno described (again) the construction process, the need to work in groups, & that most of the work is able to be done by women, but there is a need for at least 2 abaniles (proficient builders/concrete workers). In the other communities husbands & sons have been there for this.
The final process of plastering with concrete is more specialist.
They raised the possibility of paying an abanile to assist them – since there are none in the group attending.
Record of Event pg 2 of 5
Enrique & Angelika had discussed that the situation in Lomas is different from the Rancho communities, here there are no real roots or sense of community, & they need to create that, that is the challenge.
They discussed some more the possibility of paying for assistance, & would have to work out how many hours was needed, & who could afford to contribute or not, & how they would all co-operate in some way, either by food or work, or money, or all three.
One woman at the meeting said she had a cistern already but was there to get a dry toilet!
There was discussion rethe small turnout yet again, & apology from 1 person that could not make it even though they knew it was last chance.
They have a new list with 16 people on it, supposedly definite but they are not here today so can not really say they are definite.
The man attending said he has no space to build a cistern but was here to help. He also said if he has more proof that it works he might consider taking out some of his nopal plants to build a cistern in that space. He hadn’t been to Enrique’s place to see a cistern (had only seen one in the booklet I take to each meeting to pass around), Enrique extended the invite again to all, they are welcome to visit his property any time to see the cistern in reality.
Some of the people there were still doubtful about the cistern, & not sure if they had space.
Item 3 firm list of participants
Since we had said at the 2 previous meetings they were the last chance to get on the list, we decided we needed to stick to our word this time, & make this the last chance.
We got to the nitty gritty & took down the names of those at the meeting that were definite. They were still reluctant to commit but when pressed these are the names we have
1. Antonia Lopez Pina
2. Ansencion Rosales Ortiz
3. Teresa Bustamente Arana
4. Maria de la Luz Espinosa Alvarez
5. Angelika Ramirez Huerta (teacher)
6. Fidel Pina (not attending, but the son in law of the old woman, she thinks he wants one) ???
7. Juan Manuel Lopez Rodriguez (this man turned up just 10 mins before the meeting was ending, & added his name after looking at the booklet – this was his first time to a meeting) ???
8. Cristina Martinez Aguilar (has attended at least 4 meetings, but is still doubtful, she said she needs to check with her husband) ???
9. Jesus Martinez Aguilar (father of Cristina, he has doubts, not sure if he wants to remove his nopal/cactus to make space for a cistern)???
10. Ignacio ??? (Nacho is the english speaking guy at earlier meetings, he has not attended any meetings since June, Angelika looked embarrassed & said she had not informed him of the meetings, but thinks he is interested)???
Record of Event pg 3of 5
Item 4 decide 1st pilot build site
Benigno explained they needed to decide a site for construction of the 1st cistern. This construction would take place over 4 days (probably 5 since it is such a small group & not enough hands to finish in 4), & would be their training, & from there they would be expected to build their own family cisterns by groups.
There was discussion re the site, & we pointed out the church was not an option since it does not have a roof & all had a laugh about that!
Enrique suggested it could be at the school all their kids attend, the school is in a neighbouring community, there was no agreement on this, since they thought it would be hard to get others to help & better to help a family in Lomas. Perhaps the biggest family.
It was decided that Angelika’s should be the first, since she has been working hard to organize this & also her property is most central. We agreed to go there after the meeting to decide on the location & measure up for piping.
Item 5 all must attend the demo build
We reiterated all must attend the demo build as this is where the experts will learn.
These experts can then potentially be paid in other communities, but first must prove themselves in their own community.
All must help & attend the demonstration build, if they are physically unable to help they can at least learn the process & provide food & refreshments as their contribution.
Item 6 Dates for demo build ?
Benigno explained it is normally 4 days consecutively, since cement needs to dry in between stages.
Since the group is so small, they will more likely need at least 5 days.
Anscencion suggested Wed, Th, Fr, Sat,Sun .
What hours? Benigno said 9-5, at this there was some surprise at such long days.
He explained it was necessary to complete the tasks & get ready for the next day.
Dates were set – Wed 24th Feb, Th 25th feb, Fri 26th Feb, Sat 27th Feb & Sun 28th Feb.
Enrique called Juan at Los Torres to confirm these dates (& also the length of pipes needed for Angelika’s cistern after we visited her location – see below).
Action: Enrique will need to organize the delivery & payment of the materials (from Materiales Rivera) to the location. Juan knows what to order. Enrique to co-ordinate, & materials must be there (& securely/dryly) stored before the 24th Feb.
Item 7 Tools required
Benigno listed the tools required & asked who could bring any.
No one had any tools, not even a wheelbarrow, or shovel.
Benigno asked if we could buy them as part of the project, we explained that in other communities, they had borrowed them from neighbours, or had them themselves, we do not have a budget or facilities to store & look after tools for each of the projects.
We suggested they ask their husbands, neighbours, friends, family & borrow what they need.
Angelika took a list of what was needed.
Record of Event pg 4 of 5
Item 8 visits to each house
The Los Torres crew will need to visit each of the houses to determine the best place for each of the cisterns. The date for this day will be set during the demonstration build.
Action: Enrique, co-ordinate the date for the site visits for Los Torres. All the visits on one day.
The meeting concluded in the dark at 6.30, Benigno, Enrique, Angelika & I then went to Angelika’s location. (first via the tienda where she offered us something to drink).
Item 9 Location of the pilot/demo build
We met at Angelika’s family tienda & then went across the road to her “house”. This space is very centrally located.
Her husband is currently in the USA. She is living with her parents in the tienda across the road. At the cistern site is a metal workshop with a makeshift roof, & 2 rooms, one being used as the workshop storage, the other for her Grandmother to sleep in.
At the back of the property, there are foundations dug, with mounds of gravel & sand, as work is “in progress”, there is a makeshift toilet structure, & at the back there is more excavation, a tree, & a huge square pit dug, measuring approx 3 mtrs by 3 mtrs by 1.5 mtrs. We asked what this was for, & she said they were planning to build a cistern at some stage.
Construction in this situation is only completed when enough money is saved up from her husband’s efforts working in USA. She is a teacher so her salary is probably feeding the family of 4 kids & her, & relatives she is living with.
We asked where the cistern could go, the most ideal place could not be used as the are planning to build a room there one day, instead another spot was decided, in the middle of the excavation space.
It will need to be leveled out & lots of gravel etc removed before the demo build can begin.
There is no room to roll out the wire netting to begin the process but the road in front of the “lot” is wide enough to allow cars & work on the mesh.
I was doubtful of this location & asked lots of questions, I thought the better option would be where a family is currently living, & not where they might one day (with enough money) be living. They are living in the tienda, & there is no backyard space, the building takes up the whole lot.
I asked how they intend to use the water in the meantime, she said they would collect it from the cistern & carry it across the road to where they are currently living to use.
Enrique & I agreed this was not the ideal situation but possibly needed to compromise on this location as it is central, & had been decided upon. Angelika is a hard working mother of 4 & it would be very difficult to tell her she can’t have a cistern after all this planning & expectation.
Record of Event pg 5 of 5
Conclusion:
All projects are different
As we know, all projects & communities are different & have their own sets of challenges. Assumptions made in some communities can not be made in others. For example we never thought for a minute people would sign up if they didn’t have a) a house with a roof, or b)space to put a cistern, we now know we need to specify this in advance!
This community has the same issues (& more) as the rural communities we are working with, & would ultimately benefit as much or more from our assistance & guidance with organization. The question is - do we have the resources, ie time, money & energy to engage to this extent? Or is it better spent where we can get more leverage, momentum & flow?
Comparison water projects, we have experience now…
The other Water Project sites we are working with (at this point) appear to be prime candidates for not just Projects, but also Process, ie developing into much more than just the completion of individual water cisterns project, they are creating community, organization, mobilization, & connection/unity/bridges between communities.
In Los Torres & Montecillo de Nieto for example, we have been able to devote time during the scheduled assemblies to teach those gathered, about the environment, the watershed, health issues, benefits of self determination/organization & much more, at the same time as organize & plan for the specific project, here in Lomas it is purely project planning (albeit on a much smaller scale).
Budgetary considerations
The other issue is the financial budget, for example we have now had 3 visits from Benigno at a cost of $550 pesos each, he is well worth this money & we need his expertise, even to have gotten this far. The budget includes an assumption that we will be achieving certain things with each visit, & in this case it took visits to achieve what we expected to achieve (based on previous experience) in his first visit. Likewise, we may have to extend to 5 days, for the demo build (budget 4 days) & Benigno will need to attend 2 of those days, hence 2 more unbudgeted visits.
We believe we have achieved a cheaper materials price (see action below) so will likely still be within overall budget, but we need to factor the extra costs involved with the extra challenge of this community.
Action Enrique & Laura
We are currently in negotiation re prices of materials at Materiales Rivera.
There are many items that still need to be discounted to match even the single purchase of materials at Hierro Comercial in Dolores Hidalgo (previous supplier). Ie we are buying in bulk for the 3 projects so the prices should be significantly less than the cost of materials for just 1 cistern at Hierro Comercial.
We have had prelim discussions with the owner of Materiales Rivera, the prices need to be confirmed in agreement before we begin the project deliveries.
Next event:
Demonstration/pilot build 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, February at Angelika’s house (across from the tienda)
9-5pm each day, for demonstration build of the cisterns.
(2 people from Los Torres will attend as tech instructors, & Benigno will come on Wednesday & Saturday).
(Event finished 7pm)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba potential water Project
Record of Event pg 1 of 4
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba potential water Project
Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed 10th Feb 3pm
Who: Elena Padilla & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Holly Yasui & Chela Martinez (for Cedesa) 37 adults, including 3 men, + 6 kids & no dogs!
Purpose: Preliminary Assembly re potential future water project in this community
History: Vivienda de Arriba (like Cruz del Palmar) backs onto Los Torres, the community we carried out the first water cistern project with. Los Tor res & Vivienda de Arriba (& Cruz del Palmar) are neighbours.
Some of the people in Los Torres have friends & relatives in Vivienda de Arriba.
VdA can see the white water cisterns in Los Torres, & were curious about them.
Some of the women from CdP visited their friends in Los Torres & were shown the cisterns in operation, & invited to drink the water & then spoke to their joint neighbours in VdA.
As a result some of the women of VdA were interested to know more, & were invited to attend the next assembly in Los Torres. This was in Oct 2009. Since then several representatives of VdA have attended each monthly assembly in Los Torres.
At the end of the first assembly Cruz del Palmar women attended they asked how they could get cisterns in their community. The attendees of the meeting explained the process to their neighbours & next month they came back with a list of families who would like to be involved in the project, & they also bought with them representatives from neighbouring Vivienda de Arriba, who had already compiled a list of people in their communities interested in participating! Anamaria is one of the young women representatives from VdA & has been very active in this process.
At the end of 2009 we were not in a position to promise funding, & so explained the process & that we could not promise anything but that they were welcome to continue attending the assemblies & we would work on a solution with them.
At the meeting in January we set a date for the first assembly in both CdP & Vivienda de Arriba, for 10th Feb. To meet with the community for the first time, & explain the concept & take it from there.
This is that meeting...
Journey to Vivienda de Arriba
We were accompanied from CdP to VdA by one of the women from CdP who has a son living in VdA. It was about 20 minutes by car since the roads are notoriously bad, on the way we passed 3 trucks filled with Sand & Gravel they had illegally removed from the riverbed in VdA (a separate, but related issue!).
Record of Event pg 2 of 4
When we arrived, all of the community was there waiting in the courtyard in front of the church as planned.
We entered the courtyard & Anamaria had the keys to the church so bought pews out & formed a circle for the meeting.
Another young man – Saul Juarez, had arrived there by bicycle from his community in Capadrillo (about 20 minutes drive away), he has been attending the assemblies since approx Sept. Last year, as he too is interested in bringing us to his community to introduce the process there.
He is an excellent orator, & has a great memory for things that occurred or were agreed in previous assemblies. More on Saul & Capadrillo later.
Item 1.Introductions & brief history
Chela asked us all to introduced ourselves, & then described her work at Cedesa (near Dolores Hidalgo), & plans for the formation of a university to train camposinos in many things pertaining to rural living, including organisation & mobilisation & community development, as well as practical courses on food production etc.
She gave a brief history of the Los Torres project & when we began working together.
She gave a brief overview of the lack of water in the region & touched on the topic of contamination. She explained we are working in LT, MdN, Lomas & now here in CdP & VdA.
She asked what the interest was in being here? & what motivated them to be here.
During this chat it was discovered that approx 9 of the people were from yet another neighbouring community interested in the projects, Tierra Blanca, they all stood & said their names.
3 communities are very close, Tierra Blanca, Vivienda de Arriba & Espejo, & they all neighbour Los Torres & Cruz del Palmar.
Many said they were hear because of organisation by Anamaria, Agripina & Erika.
They need water as they only have water in the rainy season & none after that.
This group had sent Anamaria & Agripina to Los Torres assemblies to represent them.
Chela asked them to describe their water issues,
• 1 well in Tierra Blanca for the 3 communities. (Tierra Blanca, Espejo & VdA)
• Each person repeated the same, the water in the pipes is brackish at best,
• sometimes the water is black or yellow or green, maybe when it comes from the bottom of the reservoir tank they don’t know.
• Approx 150 mtrs
• Not very good compression hard to get water in the upper community
• They don’t know the quality of the water, have not had it tested.
• The pipes have a lot of saro, so if there is lots of saro would have to assume lots of salt &/or other minerals.
• During the rainy season they can use water from the river for cleaning, but it dries immediately the rains stop. (due to over extraction of the sand & gravel).
• The upper part of the community can not have wells since the water table is too low.
Record of Event pg 3of 4
• the river is dry because they have been extracting too many materials, Chela asked why they hadn’t stopped the extraction, & they replied because they thought it was Federal & they had no control.
• More than 20 trucks per day are coming to take materials from their river bed
• The trucks cause ruts in the roads in the roads, & the community have been repairing the ruts to keep the dust down, ironically it was agreed they are inadvertently assisting the illegal extraction…
• All of the communities originally built by the river so they could benefit, but now the river is dry most of the year
It was agreed they need to learn more about the quality of their water.
One of the people said they had tasted the water from the cisterns in Los Torres & it was delicious. She had yellow teeth, was originally from Los Torres.
One woman said we come to give cisterns to communities, & Chela took issue with the word “gift” & said we are not giving anything, that it has to be worked for.
Anamaria described the Los Torres example where they worked in small groups to build the cisterns for all the people in the group.s
Saul, said it would begin with work in Cisterns but that Los Torres are now having workshops on backyard gardens & health & other topics, so the development is continuing.
Agripina said it is important to work together & not to fight if they were to achieve a solution.
Chela talked more about the history of the region, & the river created life for animals, plants & people. Now there is nothing, the water level has dropped way below the river because of the extraction, she asked who is in control of the river?
Response – the community, it’s in the hands of the people.
There was some discussion about extraction concessions & there are very few legal operators, most are operating illegally, some blatantly & some at night. It is destroying the river.
More facts:
•Only 4 or 5 were aware of the cisterns in Los Torres (we invited them to visit LT & find out more from the community)
•Approx 40 families in VdA
•Approx 36 on the list, maybe some families can share
•They need to do a census to see the number of members in the families on the list
Tierra Blanca asked when we can visit their community.
We suggested they continue to come to VdA assemblies but we can not promise anything as we are still working on funding & logistics, we can work together.
Chela
Reiterated it is important for them to show their motivation & interest.
Record of Event pg 4 of 4
The only way they can get help with materials is by persevering, it’s not a right, it’s a privilege of involvement & participation in your own solution.
They responded – when do you want us to come, weekly? Monthly? If we come daily will it come any faster? We all had a good laugh!
With working on this project you will learn many skills to solve your issues, like your road, you can involve the govt. in helping with resources when you have organization.
With unity you can solve many of your issues & transform your living conditions.
They asked if there was any cost to them, Chela said just your attendance of meetings & your work, & in Los Torres in one case they paid abaniles from their own community to work if they couldn’t. It’s up to the community, part of the process is to decide where the pilot cistern will be built.
For now it’s nice to get to know the community & their work, with volunteer work mountains can be moved.
We made a date for the next assembly
Every 2nd Wednesday of the month, in this case 10th March at 3pm, at the church
Next we were invited for food at Agripina (& her mother’s) house.
We had Gorditas, tortillas, beans & chicharon all cooked over a wood stove.
While there we noticed they were doing solar purification of water www.sodis.ch & had bottles out in the sun.
We left around 6.15 just on dark & drove Saul back to the entrance to his community Capadrillo.
We made an arrangement to visit Capadrillo/Guerrero/Vivienda de Abajo on 03.03.10 at 12 midday (meeting Saul at the Churros tienda)
Whew what a day!!!
Conclusion
There is far more need (& interest) than we can feasibly accommodate with our merry band, we need to come up with a plan to be able to service this growing number of communities & still maintain the quality of training & development.
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba potential water Project
Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed 10th Feb 3pm
Who: Elena Padilla & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Holly Yasui & Chela Martinez (for Cedesa) 37 adults, including 3 men, + 6 kids & no dogs!
Purpose: Preliminary Assembly re potential future water project in this community
History: Vivienda de Arriba (like Cruz del Palmar) backs onto Los Torres, the community we carried out the first water cistern project with. Los Tor res & Vivienda de Arriba (& Cruz del Palmar) are neighbours.
Some of the people in Los Torres have friends & relatives in Vivienda de Arriba.
VdA can see the white water cisterns in Los Torres, & were curious about them.
Some of the women from CdP visited their friends in Los Torres & were shown the cisterns in operation, & invited to drink the water & then spoke to their joint neighbours in VdA.
As a result some of the women of VdA were interested to know more, & were invited to attend the next assembly in Los Torres. This was in Oct 2009. Since then several representatives of VdA have attended each monthly assembly in Los Torres.
At the end of the first assembly Cruz del Palmar women attended they asked how they could get cisterns in their community. The attendees of the meeting explained the process to their neighbours & next month they came back with a list of families who would like to be involved in the project, & they also bought with them representatives from neighbouring Vivienda de Arriba, who had already compiled a list of people in their communities interested in participating! Anamaria is one of the young women representatives from VdA & has been very active in this process.
At the end of 2009 we were not in a position to promise funding, & so explained the process & that we could not promise anything but that they were welcome to continue attending the assemblies & we would work on a solution with them.
At the meeting in January we set a date for the first assembly in both CdP & Vivienda de Arriba, for 10th Feb. To meet with the community for the first time, & explain the concept & take it from there.
This is that meeting...
Journey to Vivienda de Arriba
We were accompanied from CdP to VdA by one of the women from CdP who has a son living in VdA. It was about 20 minutes by car since the roads are notoriously bad, on the way we passed 3 trucks filled with Sand & Gravel they had illegally removed from the riverbed in VdA (a separate, but related issue!).
Record of Event pg 2 of 4
When we arrived, all of the community was there waiting in the courtyard in front of the church as planned.
We entered the courtyard & Anamaria had the keys to the church so bought pews out & formed a circle for the meeting.
Another young man – Saul Juarez, had arrived there by bicycle from his community in Capadrillo (about 20 minutes drive away), he has been attending the assemblies since approx Sept. Last year, as he too is interested in bringing us to his community to introduce the process there.
He is an excellent orator, & has a great memory for things that occurred or were agreed in previous assemblies. More on Saul & Capadrillo later.
Item 1.Introductions & brief history
Chela asked us all to introduced ourselves, & then described her work at Cedesa (near Dolores Hidalgo), & plans for the formation of a university to train camposinos in many things pertaining to rural living, including organisation & mobilisation & community development, as well as practical courses on food production etc.
She gave a brief history of the Los Torres project & when we began working together.
She gave a brief overview of the lack of water in the region & touched on the topic of contamination. She explained we are working in LT, MdN, Lomas & now here in CdP & VdA.
She asked what the interest was in being here? & what motivated them to be here.
During this chat it was discovered that approx 9 of the people were from yet another neighbouring community interested in the projects, Tierra Blanca, they all stood & said their names.
3 communities are very close, Tierra Blanca, Vivienda de Arriba & Espejo, & they all neighbour Los Torres & Cruz del Palmar.
Many said they were hear because of organisation by Anamaria, Agripina & Erika.
They need water as they only have water in the rainy season & none after that.
This group had sent Anamaria & Agripina to Los Torres assemblies to represent them.
Chela asked them to describe their water issues,
• 1 well in Tierra Blanca for the 3 communities. (Tierra Blanca, Espejo & VdA)
• Each person repeated the same, the water in the pipes is brackish at best,
• sometimes the water is black or yellow or green, maybe when it comes from the bottom of the reservoir tank they don’t know.
• Approx 150 mtrs
• Not very good compression hard to get water in the upper community
• They don’t know the quality of the water, have not had it tested.
• The pipes have a lot of saro, so if there is lots of saro would have to assume lots of salt &/or other minerals.
• During the rainy season they can use water from the river for cleaning, but it dries immediately the rains stop. (due to over extraction of the sand & gravel).
• The upper part of the community can not have wells since the water table is too low.
Record of Event pg 3of 4
• the river is dry because they have been extracting too many materials, Chela asked why they hadn’t stopped the extraction, & they replied because they thought it was Federal & they had no control.
• More than 20 trucks per day are coming to take materials from their river bed
• The trucks cause ruts in the roads in the roads, & the community have been repairing the ruts to keep the dust down, ironically it was agreed they are inadvertently assisting the illegal extraction…
• All of the communities originally built by the river so they could benefit, but now the river is dry most of the year
It was agreed they need to learn more about the quality of their water.
One of the people said they had tasted the water from the cisterns in Los Torres & it was delicious. She had yellow teeth, was originally from Los Torres.
One woman said we come to give cisterns to communities, & Chela took issue with the word “gift” & said we are not giving anything, that it has to be worked for.
Anamaria described the Los Torres example where they worked in small groups to build the cisterns for all the people in the group.s
Saul, said it would begin with work in Cisterns but that Los Torres are now having workshops on backyard gardens & health & other topics, so the development is continuing.
Agripina said it is important to work together & not to fight if they were to achieve a solution.
Chela talked more about the history of the region, & the river created life for animals, plants & people. Now there is nothing, the water level has dropped way below the river because of the extraction, she asked who is in control of the river?
Response – the community, it’s in the hands of the people.
There was some discussion about extraction concessions & there are very few legal operators, most are operating illegally, some blatantly & some at night. It is destroying the river.
More facts:
•Only 4 or 5 were aware of the cisterns in Los Torres (we invited them to visit LT & find out more from the community)
•Approx 40 families in VdA
•Approx 36 on the list, maybe some families can share
•They need to do a census to see the number of members in the families on the list
Tierra Blanca asked when we can visit their community.
We suggested they continue to come to VdA assemblies but we can not promise anything as we are still working on funding & logistics, we can work together.
Chela
Reiterated it is important for them to show their motivation & interest.
Record of Event pg 4 of 4
The only way they can get help with materials is by persevering, it’s not a right, it’s a privilege of involvement & participation in your own solution.
They responded – when do you want us to come, weekly? Monthly? If we come daily will it come any faster? We all had a good laugh!
With working on this project you will learn many skills to solve your issues, like your road, you can involve the govt. in helping with resources when you have organization.
With unity you can solve many of your issues & transform your living conditions.
They asked if there was any cost to them, Chela said just your attendance of meetings & your work, & in Los Torres in one case they paid abaniles from their own community to work if they couldn’t. It’s up to the community, part of the process is to decide where the pilot cistern will be built.
For now it’s nice to get to know the community & their work, with volunteer work mountains can be moved.
We made a date for the next assembly
Every 2nd Wednesday of the month, in this case 10th March at 3pm, at the church
Next we were invited for food at Agripina (& her mother’s) house.
We had Gorditas, tortillas, beans & chicharon all cooked over a wood stove.
While there we noticed they were doing solar purification of water www.sodis.ch & had bottles out in the sun.
We left around 6.15 just on dark & drove Saul back to the entrance to his community Capadrillo.
We made an arrangement to visit Capadrillo/Guerrero/Vivienda de Abajo on 03.03.10 at 12 midday (meeting Saul at the Churros tienda)
Whew what a day!!!
Conclusion
There is far more need (& interest) than we can feasibly accommodate with our merry band, we need to come up with a plan to be able to service this growing number of communities & still maintain the quality of training & development.
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar potential water Project
Record of Event pg 1 of 5
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar potential water Project
Where: Cruz del Palmar Community (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed 10th Feb 11am
Who: Elena Padilla & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Holly Yasui & Chela Martinez (for Cedesa) + 39 adults (incl 8 men) & 15kids & 4 dogs
Purpose: Preliminary Assembly re potential future water project in this community
History: Cruz del Palmar backs onto Los Torres, the community we carried out the first water cistern project with. Los Torres & Cruz del Palmar are neighbours, & many children from Los Torres go to school in CdP.
Some of the people in Los Torres have friends & relatives in CdP.
CdP can see the white water cisterns in Los Torres, & were curious about them.
Some of the women from CdP visited their friends in Los Torres & were shown the cisterns in operation, & invited to drink the water.
As a result the women were interested to know more, & were invited to attend the next assembly in Los Torres. This was in Sept 2009. Since then several representatives of CdP have attended each monthly assembly in Los Torres.
A the end of the first assembly the women attended they asked how they could get cisterns in their community. The attendees of the meeting explained the process to their neighbours & next month they came back with a list of families who would like to be involved in the project, & they also bought with them representatives from another neighbouring community Vivienda de Arriba, who had already compiled a list of people in their communities interested in participating!
At the end of 2009 we were not in a position to promise funding, & so explained the process & that we could not promise anything but that they were welcome to continue attending the assemblies & we would work on a solution with them.
At the meeting in January we set a date for the first assembly in both CdP & Vivienda de Arriba, for 10th Feb. To meet with the community for the first time, & explain the concept & take it from there.
This is that meeting...
Journey to Cruz del Palmar
Although CdP backs onto Los Torres, you can not drive there easily that way, Chela, Holly, Elena & I all met in Cienegita (15minutes before CdP) & went in 1 car. This way we could make plans for the meeting on the way.
None of us was sure exactly how to get there, so we ended up going past & a long way out of our way & then returning, hence we made it to the meeting late, around 11.50.
When we arrived, all of the community was there waiting at “Yolanda’s house in front of the Telesecundaria” we all moved into the front yard of Yolanda’s house & organised seating, we made sure it was in a circular form, eyecontact is very important.
Record of Event pg 2of 5
Item 1 – Apologies for lateness
We thanked everyone for coming & explained what had happened & joked about driving almost to Gto before we realised we were in the wrong place.
Item 2 – Introductions & brief history
Chela asked us all for introductions, then gave a brief history of the diplomado (water studies course last year) & our relationship with Cedesa, & how we started working in Los Torres in Nov 2008.
She described the 3 regions affected by the greater watershed, ie 3 municipalities & how we are all linked by our sharing of the same watershed.
She asked the community how they came to know about the Los Torres project.
Teresa – went to Los Torres & saw the cisterns then went to a couple of assemblies in Los Torres.
Hilaria – is interested because of what Tere told her about the assemblies & the cisterns, & she told her about today’s assembly.
Item 3 – information exchange
Chela told the meeting – you need to talk with confidence, you don’t know us but you do know eachother, we are interested in collaborating.
Amada – has no cistern or tinaco & would like one.
Victoriano – interested in talking about the cisterns.
Chela asked if they were all here to talk about the cisterns or something else?
They all replied, “about the cisterns”
She engaged them with more questions about sources of water & water quality & also said, today she would co-ordinate the meeting but in future they would be co-ordinating their own.
Some facts stated
• Approx 240 houses (sometimes 2 or 3 families per house)
• 3 parts to community
• Upper part,
• no water they have to buy it (7 attending from this area), they just recently got electricity.
• One of the women captures water in big buckets, & uses it to wash & bathe.
• They only have trucked water
• No water source, not even contaminated water,
• Middle part
• Have water on tap from a community well, but not enough water in the dry season, they turn on the tap & nothing comes.
• (21 attending from this area)
• Lower part
• They have piped water but it is bad piping, small pump, not able to pump much or often.
• The water from the well has manganese contamination
• Often coloured, yellow or black
• There is a big buildup of “saro” blocking the pipes often
• Record of Event pg 3 of 5
• When you pour it in a bowl you can see the silt in the water
• They used to have family owned wells, but when Sapasma supplied a community well they blocked them up.
• The old wells were approx 17mtrs deep but there was only water in these wells in rainy season.
• A lot have latrines which have likely contaminated their old water source they believe.
• The community well is approx 100mtrs deep.
• Water was tested by Sapasma, but none of the water committee are attending today & no-one knows what the results were, they believe it was not safe to drink from manganese contamination.
• Almost all the attendees were born in CdP (except 2)
• All areas have to buy drinking water, no water is safe to drink
Item 4 – what can we do together?
Chela asked “is it a human right to be able to drink safe drinking water?” they all yelled yes!!
She explained they should be drinking about 2 litres per day & that the objective is for Community, Cedesa & Rotary to work together to provide a solution for clean water.
Community
It was agreed the community could get a copy of the water study, to see results of water quality test done by Sapasma.
Action: Victoriano agreed to get a copy
There is to be voting for delegado on Sunday, so may be a new delegado coming in.
Item 5 Explanation about the process
Chela asked who had seen the cisterns. 6 people had been to see them up close & taste the water. She explained they are made of ferro cement & better than plastic ones because they are cheaper, & last longer (more than 20 years) & are easy to maintain.
They hold 12,000 litres, & because they are above ground there is no need for energy to remove the water, you don’t have to haul or pump it out of the ground.
Fortunately the water in this area does not have industrial waste so there it is pure & good for drinking & cooking with.
Boiling water that is contaminated with minerals only makes it worse, as it condenses the minerals, boiling only works for killing bacteria, & there is a more efficient way to kill bacteria, using the sun, www.sodis.ch...
Yolande was asked to describe what she knew of the Los Torres Project,
“They did a demo at the school & with unity, force & community spirit they united to acheve the solution... They divided into groups & the 1st stage was training at the kinder & they worked in groups of 7 to build all their cisterns”
Record of Event pg 4 of 5
Chela spoke -
Rotary provides help with the materials.
Cedesa is interested in the integral development of the camposinos, you shouldn’t have to buy drinking water, it is a basic right, you can work on this & build your own cisterns, what you’re spending on water is better spent on other things. You should only have to buy it in emergencies...
Lack of money causes a lot of problems, what are they “stress” “People not drinking enough water” were some of the answers yelled out.
1ST you can solve your water issues & then you can work on other things like backyard production.
“What type of roof do we need to catch water off?” (Yolande)
Almost any roof is fine, & if we need to we can seal it with a natural sealant using cal & nopal...
“what about dirt going into the water”
You need to divert the first rain, ie make sure your roof is clean before you start catching the water, there was talk about keeping the cats off the roof, & we explained we would teach a simple method of water purification, (sodis) at a later date.
“there are more people interested that couldn’t come today, can they join the project?”
Yolande has a list of people & there are others here today that are not yet on the list.
There needs to be some reconciliation.
We can begin to work in stages, Stage 1...
Chela asked “is everyone here interested & feel free to say no, we are definitely not pushing?”
They all said yes.
Chela explained what ‘s expected, she talked a little about obligation & responsibility.
They need to attend meetings & be prepared to work.
She described how to construct a cistern, some specialist plastering at the end, but most of the work can be done by women & children, it’s not heavy work, The satisfaction is great when you have a cistern at your house with safe drinking water & you know you built it yourself!
Chela – Should we start a new list today?
Reply – some people on the list have a good reason for not being able to be here today, they should stay on the list.
Reply – maybe we should deal with the people who have the biggest need first.
18 people here today are not on the list.
Yolande said she didn’t advise people on the list of today’s meeting, it was Tere’s list & she expected she would do it. We checked off the list that Yolande had.
On the list was 50 people, present were 25, & then there are 18 people here who want to go on the list, therefore approx 68 families interested.
Chela explained the process, yes everyone is interested in solving the problem themselves, & we are all here at the first assembly but we need to begin showing motivation, Rotary needs to gather funding & this takes time, & if you are interested you will need to be involved for the whole process to resolve your issues.
Record of Event pg 5 of 5
“when will we know if we have the money or not?”
Good question, I described the process, but that the important thing was until we have the $$$ to prove the motivation.
Action. It was agreed a committee will put together the definitive list (Analaura & Yolande).
I reiterated there was a lot of work involved & not to put your name on the list unless you are prepared for that.
Chela said 1st phase lots of people interested
2nd phase, less when they realised they had to work (& these are the early adopters)
3rd phase more people want to join now they see the results the early adopters achieve!
We asked when it suited them to meet next, they responded, they will work around our schedule.
Telephone contact
Yolande – Land line 415 155 9482
Gerardo – 415 155 9438
AnaLaura 415 114 0929
We finished approx 2pm & Yolande insisted we stay for some lunch.
Tostadas, tortillas, beans & soya/onion dish! Very delicious.
We also spoke about the community political situation with the impending change of delegado, the current delegado does note ven live in CdP but lives in Celaya 1hr away.
Then we headed to Vivienda de Arriba – neighbouring community – for our 3pm meeting there.
I also asked for permission to take photos, so that we can record the events & to publicise it for funding purposes & so our partners feel part of the process.
They agreed.
Next Cruz del Palmar assembly was set for
2nd Wednesday of the month at 11am – in this case 10th March
1st Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar potential water Project
Where: Cruz del Palmar Community (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed 10th Feb 11am
Who: Elena Padilla & Laura Stewart (Rotary), Holly Yasui & Chela Martinez (for Cedesa) + 39 adults (incl 8 men) & 15kids & 4 dogs
Purpose: Preliminary Assembly re potential future water project in this community
History: Cruz del Palmar backs onto Los Torres, the community we carried out the first water cistern project with. Los Torres & Cruz del Palmar are neighbours, & many children from Los Torres go to school in CdP.
Some of the people in Los Torres have friends & relatives in CdP.
CdP can see the white water cisterns in Los Torres, & were curious about them.
Some of the women from CdP visited their friends in Los Torres & were shown the cisterns in operation, & invited to drink the water.
As a result the women were interested to know more, & were invited to attend the next assembly in Los Torres. This was in Sept 2009. Since then several representatives of CdP have attended each monthly assembly in Los Torres.
A the end of the first assembly the women attended they asked how they could get cisterns in their community. The attendees of the meeting explained the process to their neighbours & next month they came back with a list of families who would like to be involved in the project, & they also bought with them representatives from another neighbouring community Vivienda de Arriba, who had already compiled a list of people in their communities interested in participating!
At the end of 2009 we were not in a position to promise funding, & so explained the process & that we could not promise anything but that they were welcome to continue attending the assemblies & we would work on a solution with them.
At the meeting in January we set a date for the first assembly in both CdP & Vivienda de Arriba, for 10th Feb. To meet with the community for the first time, & explain the concept & take it from there.
This is that meeting...
Journey to Cruz del Palmar
Although CdP backs onto Los Torres, you can not drive there easily that way, Chela, Holly, Elena & I all met in Cienegita (15minutes before CdP) & went in 1 car. This way we could make plans for the meeting on the way.
None of us was sure exactly how to get there, so we ended up going past & a long way out of our way & then returning, hence we made it to the meeting late, around 11.50.
When we arrived, all of the community was there waiting at “Yolanda’s house in front of the Telesecundaria” we all moved into the front yard of Yolanda’s house & organised seating, we made sure it was in a circular form, eyecontact is very important.
Record of Event pg 2of 5
Item 1 – Apologies for lateness
We thanked everyone for coming & explained what had happened & joked about driving almost to Gto before we realised we were in the wrong place.
Item 2 – Introductions & brief history
Chela asked us all for introductions, then gave a brief history of the diplomado (water studies course last year) & our relationship with Cedesa, & how we started working in Los Torres in Nov 2008.
She described the 3 regions affected by the greater watershed, ie 3 municipalities & how we are all linked by our sharing of the same watershed.
She asked the community how they came to know about the Los Torres project.
Teresa – went to Los Torres & saw the cisterns then went to a couple of assemblies in Los Torres.
Hilaria – is interested because of what Tere told her about the assemblies & the cisterns, & she told her about today’s assembly.
Item 3 – information exchange
Chela told the meeting – you need to talk with confidence, you don’t know us but you do know eachother, we are interested in collaborating.
Amada – has no cistern or tinaco & would like one.
Victoriano – interested in talking about the cisterns.
Chela asked if they were all here to talk about the cisterns or something else?
They all replied, “about the cisterns”
She engaged them with more questions about sources of water & water quality & also said, today she would co-ordinate the meeting but in future they would be co-ordinating their own.
Some facts stated
• Approx 240 houses (sometimes 2 or 3 families per house)
• 3 parts to community
• Upper part,
• no water they have to buy it (7 attending from this area), they just recently got electricity.
• One of the women captures water in big buckets, & uses it to wash & bathe.
• They only have trucked water
• No water source, not even contaminated water,
• Middle part
• Have water on tap from a community well, but not enough water in the dry season, they turn on the tap & nothing comes.
• (21 attending from this area)
• Lower part
• They have piped water but it is bad piping, small pump, not able to pump much or often.
• The water from the well has manganese contamination
• Often coloured, yellow or black
• There is a big buildup of “saro” blocking the pipes often
• Record of Event pg 3 of 5
• When you pour it in a bowl you can see the silt in the water
• They used to have family owned wells, but when Sapasma supplied a community well they blocked them up.
• The old wells were approx 17mtrs deep but there was only water in these wells in rainy season.
• A lot have latrines which have likely contaminated their old water source they believe.
• The community well is approx 100mtrs deep.
• Water was tested by Sapasma, but none of the water committee are attending today & no-one knows what the results were, they believe it was not safe to drink from manganese contamination.
• Almost all the attendees were born in CdP (except 2)
• All areas have to buy drinking water, no water is safe to drink
Item 4 – what can we do together?
Chela asked “is it a human right to be able to drink safe drinking water?” they all yelled yes!!
She explained they should be drinking about 2 litres per day & that the objective is for Community, Cedesa & Rotary to work together to provide a solution for clean water.
Community
It was agreed the community could get a copy of the water study, to see results of water quality test done by Sapasma.
Action: Victoriano agreed to get a copy
There is to be voting for delegado on Sunday, so may be a new delegado coming in.
Item 5 Explanation about the process
Chela asked who had seen the cisterns. 6 people had been to see them up close & taste the water. She explained they are made of ferro cement & better than plastic ones because they are cheaper, & last longer (more than 20 years) & are easy to maintain.
They hold 12,000 litres, & because they are above ground there is no need for energy to remove the water, you don’t have to haul or pump it out of the ground.
Fortunately the water in this area does not have industrial waste so there it is pure & good for drinking & cooking with.
Boiling water that is contaminated with minerals only makes it worse, as it condenses the minerals, boiling only works for killing bacteria, & there is a more efficient way to kill bacteria, using the sun, www.sodis.ch...
Yolande was asked to describe what she knew of the Los Torres Project,
“They did a demo at the school & with unity, force & community spirit they united to acheve the solution... They divided into groups & the 1st stage was training at the kinder & they worked in groups of 7 to build all their cisterns”
Record of Event pg 4 of 5
Chela spoke -
Rotary provides help with the materials.
Cedesa is interested in the integral development of the camposinos, you shouldn’t have to buy drinking water, it is a basic right, you can work on this & build your own cisterns, what you’re spending on water is better spent on other things. You should only have to buy it in emergencies...
Lack of money causes a lot of problems, what are they “stress” “People not drinking enough water” were some of the answers yelled out.
1ST you can solve your water issues & then you can work on other things like backyard production.
“What type of roof do we need to catch water off?” (Yolande)
Almost any roof is fine, & if we need to we can seal it with a natural sealant using cal & nopal...
“what about dirt going into the water”
You need to divert the first rain, ie make sure your roof is clean before you start catching the water, there was talk about keeping the cats off the roof, & we explained we would teach a simple method of water purification, (sodis) at a later date.
“there are more people interested that couldn’t come today, can they join the project?”
Yolande has a list of people & there are others here today that are not yet on the list.
There needs to be some reconciliation.
We can begin to work in stages, Stage 1...
Chela asked “is everyone here interested & feel free to say no, we are definitely not pushing?”
They all said yes.
Chela explained what ‘s expected, she talked a little about obligation & responsibility.
They need to attend meetings & be prepared to work.
She described how to construct a cistern, some specialist plastering at the end, but most of the work can be done by women & children, it’s not heavy work, The satisfaction is great when you have a cistern at your house with safe drinking water & you know you built it yourself!
Chela – Should we start a new list today?
Reply – some people on the list have a good reason for not being able to be here today, they should stay on the list.
Reply – maybe we should deal with the people who have the biggest need first.
18 people here today are not on the list.
Yolande said she didn’t advise people on the list of today’s meeting, it was Tere’s list & she expected she would do it. We checked off the list that Yolande had.
On the list was 50 people, present were 25, & then there are 18 people here who want to go on the list, therefore approx 68 families interested.
Chela explained the process, yes everyone is interested in solving the problem themselves, & we are all here at the first assembly but we need to begin showing motivation, Rotary needs to gather funding & this takes time, & if you are interested you will need to be involved for the whole process to resolve your issues.
Record of Event pg 5 of 5
“when will we know if we have the money or not?”
Good question, I described the process, but that the important thing was until we have the $$$ to prove the motivation.
Action. It was agreed a committee will put together the definitive list (Analaura & Yolande).
I reiterated there was a lot of work involved & not to put your name on the list unless you are prepared for that.
Chela said 1st phase lots of people interested
2nd phase, less when they realised they had to work (& these are the early adopters)
3rd phase more people want to join now they see the results the early adopters achieve!
We asked when it suited them to meet next, they responded, they will work around our schedule.
Telephone contact
Yolande – Land line 415 155 9482
Gerardo – 415 155 9438
AnaLaura 415 114 0929
We finished approx 2pm & Yolande insisted we stay for some lunch.
Tostadas, tortillas, beans & soya/onion dish! Very delicious.
We also spoke about the community political situation with the impending change of delegado, the current delegado does note ven live in CdP but lives in Celaya 1hr away.
Then we headed to Vivienda de Arriba – neighbouring community – for our 3pm meeting there.
I also asked for permission to take photos, so that we can record the events & to publicise it for funding purposes & so our partners feel part of the process.
They agreed.
Next Cruz del Palmar assembly was set for
2nd Wednesday of the month at 11am – in this case 10th March
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