Report of 1st visit to Juan Gonzalez, Cinco Senores

Record of Event
Report of 1st visit to Juan Gonzalez, Cinco Senores
Where: Cinco Senores, out behind Vivienda de Arriba
When: 29.09.10 10.30 in Juan Gonzalez, 11.15 in Cinco Senores.
Who: Saul, Chela (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 20 adults incl. 1 man, 4kids, 2 dogs

Purpose: We were invited to visit these communities to talk about water issues & the potential of a water project in these communities.

A group of representatives of Juan Gonzalez, Cinco Senores & San Lorenzo, have attended several assemblies in neighbouring Vivienda de Arriba, as well as Capaderillo.

Juan Gonzalez, Cinco Senores & San Lorenzo are all within about 35 mins walk of each other.
They are in a little hidden valley with a small river running through it.

We met Saul on the highway & turned off on an unmarked dirt road just past the entrance to Vivienda de Arriba. We kept driving straight & down, past a few houses, & along a long potholed, dusty “road” & arrived at a river which we needed to ford. The River was deeper than expected but rocky so Chela just planted her foot & we ploughed through.

We rounded the corner through a bank of trees & discovered a little community, church, a couple of tienda’s. This is Juan Gonzalez, we were met by 5 women, who after much deliberation took us in the agreed best direction… we noted a few men on horseback & decided this was the preferred method of transport, especially after driving a little further!

We had to push our way through huge muddy puddles, through bushes overlapping the “track” & forded the river again, we drove at an almost 90degree sideways slant, with lower wheels on the road & upper wheels on the “other part of the road”… finally we reached another part of the river to cross, but were very perplexed as to us it looked like huge stony river banks with no crossing possibility!
We tried in one spot, & got stuck, so all the women jumped off the back & we pushed Chela’s pickup back out to solid ground, parked & walked!

We walked about 20 mins, scrambling under barbed wire fences, through maize taller than us, & along the river banks, much easier by foot! Eventually we arrived at the “meeting” house…

We had a discussion before beginning the meeting, here are some points
• Juan Gonzalez is Ejido (communal) land.
• Cinco Senores is privately owned.
• One woman visiting was originally from Shotolar – they have 6 families there, with no water or electricity (it is the furthest community of the municipality of SMA, they grow maize & frijoles same as Cinco Senores.
• Saul handed out forms for each of the communities to fill in (Juan Gonzalez, Cinco Senores & San Lorenzo – each received 1 for the community & 1 for each family wishing to participate in the project.
• There is lots of water in the river at the moment, so things are extra green, the river always has some water in it.
• It’s very tranquil & peaceful here, a little secluded valley (hard to find)
• Juan Gonzalez people all have bad teeth, from the water in their wells, Chela described the issues caused by Fluoride contaminations – bone problems, osteoporosis, brain, teeth, major organs.

The community insisted we eat first & provided a feast of calabasa casserole, garbanzo casserole, chicheron (pork skin), beans, rice, & the most delicious flour tortillas I’ve ever eaten!

Introductions
San Lorenzo
Humberto Alonso,Odelia Ramirez

Juan Gonzalez
Maria Gloria, Enedina Palma, Maria Elena Ramirez, Salvador Torre (represented by his wife!), Antonia Bocanegra, Marta Lanas, Margarita Hernandez.

Cinco Senores
Leticia Lopez, Beatriz Bocanegra, Josefina Herrera, Adelita Gonzalez, Maria Ramirez, Angelica Correr, Leticia Ramirez, Felisa Bocanegra, Ma Elena Bocanegra, Ester Lana, Valentina Morin (Ex Sholotar).

We then introduced ourselves too.
Laura from Rotary (& brief description of Rotary), Chela described Cedesa & the work they do to
Conserve traditions, Training of Campesinos in the region, 40 years working in the region, a commission from Presita de Santa Rosa had visited Cedesa to know more, Cedesa began work in SMA only 2 yrs ago, with Rotary.

Chela went on to talk about fluoride, how it occurs, it’s causes,
The women asked questions
• Is fluoride bad for you? How?
• How can we remove it?
• Is arsenic the problem in Tierra Blanca?
• How can we prevent this?
• Did you advertise on the radio?

Chela responded with these points
• When the water comes from the wells in this area it’s contaminated.
• Not just this area is affected also Dolores Hidalgo
• It’s damaging the health in this region
• It’s a problem with the watershed, which covers an area of 6 municipalities
• It is naturally occurring, leaching from the types of rocks in this area,
• All of the internal organs are affected by excessive fluoride.
• There is also manganese & arsenic in some areas
• The only way to prevent it is to stop drinking the water.
• This is why we started work in Los Torres, to help the people provide options for safe drinking water.
• Bacteria can be killed by the sun, but the water needs to be distilled to remove fluoride.
• That’s why we’re here today, people saw/heard about the cisterns in Los Torres & the word spread to different communities, & new project sites.
• The only information spread has been word of mouth, we have not advertised these projects on the radio.
• So far 52 cisterns in Los Torres, 30 in Montecillo de Nieto, 17 in Vivienda de Arriba, 27 in Cruz del Palmar, 40 in Capaderillo. Rotary has funded the projects in all communities, except Capaderillo, which was funded by the ecology department’s green fund.
• Chela briefly described the hydraulic cycle, in part explaining the process of distillation.

The women were interested to know where Laura came from – so there was a brief discussion about New Zealand & how long it takes to get there…

Chela asked
Why do you want to be involved in this project?
• Safe drinking water,
• Someone suggested it might be safer to drink coke! Then someone else responded then we’d all get diabetes!
• The pozos (wells) are dry when the rains stop.
• We have to carry the water a long way, if we need to get it from the river
• Some people upstream from this community have flush toilets & they are contaminating the river with fecal matter
• There are machines working in the water (to dredge out sand & rocks) & their oil contaminate the water
• “Sometimes the rocks in the river are clean, other times they are black, - can you imagine drinking this water?”
• we had analysis done – 4 tests for 600 pesos per test, I went to get the tests but they were not complete, we had tests done for fluoride, fecal matter, ecoli & bacteria (a promoter from Desarollo Social – Social Development – Helped us.
• San Lorenzo is only 4 families, so good idea for them to combine with these communities

Chela asked who wishes to participate from the community of Juan Gonzalez
They responded they were not sure how many people could come to today’s meeting so only sent representatives.
There was continued discussion re how many people wish to participate v how many people are attending the meeting today.

Chela suggested we can meet in each community separately, but it is more efficient to combine communities into one meeting, & meet in a central location, good for everyone, & with shade…

There are 17 from Juan Gonzalez on the list, 16 from Cinco Senores, & 4 from San Lorenzo.

Saul described the 2 forms, & how to complete them. The community form, describing the general water situation of the community, & the family form to list the people wishing to participate.

Chela described the meeting planned for 22nd Oct. in Capaderillo, an inauguration, but also a chance for a regional meeting, & to present requests of assistance to the municipality…

At the 22nd Oct meeting the date for the next meeting for this community will be set.

We also talked briefly about the ecocina stove project.
We asked about their current cooking arrangements, they showed us 2 kitchens, (with permission I took photos), these kitchens were blackened with soot from the open fires they use to cook their tortillas.

We also looked at the dry toilets some houses had, as part of a govt program.

The ones we looked at were not in use, the big bucket that was in place under the toilet to catch the fecal matter, had been removed & was in use as washing bucket. The toilets had been relegated to storage sheds.

I saw 2 toilets out in the middle of no-where, with signs proclaiming the program nailed to stumps.

The meeting concluded at 1.25pm, we began our “journey” back to the highway, & headed to Guerrero for our 3pm assembly.