Where: La Tinaja Community – outside Health Clinic
When: 18 January 2012
Who: Holly, Saul, Chela & Laura + 20 community members (including 2 men) + 12 kids
Purpose of the meeting: To plan wáter cisterns Project re the Calgary Global Grant.
Everyone shook hands hello, & we proceeded to form a circle (or as close as poss) to ensure full participation by all…
Chela asked for nominations for co-ordinator & records taker for the day & explained the roles of each & that it is normal procedure for every meeting. People were shy to volunteer & Saul joked that the co-ordinator role was the easiest (not to have to keep records) & just to keep order & appoint speakers.
More discussion about the role of co-ordinator, to encourage people to participate & say what they felt, as well as maintaining respect & harmony, to ensure a productive meeting. He explained first task was to créate an agenda & then encourage all to have their say on each point.
Saul described the role of secretary, to ensure all actions/decisions are clearly recorded for future ref.
More time was needed than usual on this topic as this community is less experienced than other communities we are working with & they are keen to learn.
Still no-one volunteered! Saul explained how important it is for people to participate, without fear or embarrassment.
Chela asked “have you had experience in this?” the response was No!
She asked how many years they had been working with government programs for example (more than 20 apparently)”& yet you have not learned how to organise yourselves – or run your own meeting?” “you have left it up to the govt. to execute your programs, I want to make it clear this is not a government program, you are expected to be totally involved & learn the process of organising yourselves – of determining & resolving your own issues. You need to learn how to do this, simply raise your hand & take turns to speak, if you all speak at once, no-one hears anyone else”
Esperanza was volunteered to co-ordinate, Chela “if you wish to speak, raise your hand & she will keep order”.
“a puebla who is quiet will never be Heard – you need to have a voice”
Today we are working on the cisterns Project, but you have many other issues to discuss, work on & resolve.
The Agenda was created:
Esperanza asked what points they wanted to discuss
- Construction of cisterns
- Sanitarios Secos (dry toilets)
- Fertile soil/Health/Food Production Training sessions
The roll was called – 2 participants were absent.
One of the women was able to recite what was discussed at the previous meeting as a review – the formation of work groups, the groups were read out, Chela asked if there were any changes to this, did anyone want to change or dropo ut “NO” was the resounding response.
The numbers of 21 participants + 1 Pilot were confirmed.
Chela then talked a little about Rotary & their role in this Project – the length of time & hard work that has gone into finding the resources to carry out this Project. I asked for permission to take potos & the subject of the wáter cistern Project blog came up. She explained they would all be “famous” as the potos would be on the blog & she gave out the blog address so that if anyone was able to go to an internet café in town they could view it. We joked that there were people viewing the Project who lived in Russia (which is true, for some reason there is a lot of repeat viewing in Russia).
Construction of Cisterns
Each group has 2 co-ordinators & 2 abaniles, each co-ordinator confirmed their roles & agreed to their tasks. (ie to ensure all are working together smoothly & report any issues back to community co-ordinator, either re materials or lack of harmony etc.
Chela asked a couple of them to describe their role
“that everyone Works well & the same”
Others giggled & said, & work with harmony & without gossip.
Chela reiterated, the better they work together the better the work will be, she mentioned if they were unable to find abaniles in each group they could consider contributing to pay someone. They also need to respect the hours they agree to work.
One of the men asked “do all the cisterns need to be the same size?” there are issues in this community with very small land size. He had seen cisterns in Vivienda de Arriba & had thought they were filled by the well. Saul explained no, these were filled with the rain captured from the roof & so the bigger the capacity the better, in extreme cases if there is no rain there might be the need to fill from another source, but the point of the cisterns is to not put further strain on an almost “drained” aquifer, & also to drink rain wáter as it is pure & not contaminated.
Chela described the satisfaction they will feel when they have completed their cisterns & have wáter stored. The same way they feel when they have some beans or corn in reserve for future plantings.
“At the end of the Project I want to see you with happy faces & have love for your ‘sister’ not unhappy faces”.
Another person had a question “I have a roof that slopes into the Street” Saul said no problem, as part of the Project he goes house by house with the tech assistant to help determine the best position of the cistern & where the piping needs to go from & to.
The day of the pilot was set for 23rd January, 5 days.
The discussion ensued on what hours would be best. Saul mentioned the starting time needs to be agreed & the finishing time will vary depending on how hard everyone Works, how fast everyone learns.
One woman said, I can come on the 23rd, but if I have an appointment on the 24th can I send a representative?” It turns out the govt. Opportunities program meeting is on the 24th, they dont specify a time in advance, people just have to be present for the day. We agreed that they could send the old relatives & younger relatives on that day, just as long as someone represents them so they can report back what they learned that day.
Chela asked them to make sure they eat well on the Pilot training days, it is hard work (physically & mentally) & they will need good fuel in their bodies, not junk food.
There was a lot of discussion about what time they would begin each day & finally they decided on the late time of 10am.
Delivery details were discussed, that the truck would bring all the materials for the pilot to the school & the wires & metals for each house, so they would have to accompany the driver to deliver house by house. The cement & cal will be delivered the following week.
Families will need to be there on Friday to take delivery of the materials. Adela agreed to organise this.
I asked if there was a possibility they could provide their own gravel (as some communities have) to cut down costs & enable more materials to be purchased for additional cisterns. This was very difficult for them so I agreed we would deliver the gravel. It would be delivered in 1 central place & people will have to move it either by organising someone with a pickup or by wheelbarrow loads.
Tools
The tolos needed were listed. This community is much further from San Miguel than others with whom we work, & it turns out has much fewer Abaniles (carpenters) & almost no tools!! Normally we rely on the community participants to bring or borrow tools & this has always worked out, in this case there were none to borrow. Detailed description of each of the tools took place, ie the levelers & the trowels etc. & no-one had any. This community derives it’s income (very little, if any!) from Agri work, ie working for big agribusinesses, they bring in pickups, fill them with Young people & pay them just $500pesos per wk, (less than US$50) to work very long hours in the fields. Consequently no-one has money but more importantly no-one has saleable skills, or the option to work for someone else.
Subsequent to this, I asked our good friends in Tallahassee & Walla Walla if they would agree to spending excess funds of $3000 mxn from a previous direct grant, on tools for Cedesa to own & manage & loan out in these cases.
Of course they agreed, & not too soon, as the Pilot took an additional day as the people were having to cut the metals with machetes & rocks! We now have a few tools for them to borrow a they are currently in the family cistern construction stage (at the time of writing of this report). Who knew what a difference a pair of wire cutters would make?!
Sanitarios Secos
A number of members of this community have been working with the citizen’s council (Consejo) to gain resources for dry toilets, there is a Regional meeting tomorrow – Chela said they would discuss the latest update there.
Workshops/Training
Chela asked who knew what capacitación (training) meant
Some answered , to learn, to understand to orientate.
Chela responded it was to provide you with the skills to resolve your own issues.
Eg, do you know how to treat your family when they get sick, vommit, have fevers etc?
How often does the doctor visit? “once a month”. So it is important for you to know some basic information about how to resolve health issues, also, Nutrition is another important factor in health & this community, ie what is tood to produce & feed you family.
Lack of nutrition affects your ability to think & learn – you are a long way from the market so it is important to know what to grow. Water, massages, herbs are all natural methods to improve health, all good things to know to be able to treat yourselves & your families.
Also, how to retain & regenerate your soils, (this área is largely eroded – actually looks like a moonscape!). How to ensure wáter is retained, to have better soil for food production.
Nopal, herbs, veges, fruits production, is important to learn, do you want to stay the same or improve your life?
Chela asked for 2 volunteers, she described Josephina as knows a lot but has no money & Rosaelia as knows nothing but has a bit of money, & asked them who would they rather be… The answer was Josephina.
Chela “the situation is very difficult in many aspects but if you really want training we can offer it once a month, but you really need to prove you’re interested & wish to participate – little by little you can improve your life, cisterns dry toilets, food production, soil regeneration, etc are you interested?”
“SI ¡!!” they agreed they were very interested.
(Side note, Cedesa specialises in this, integral development, they do it - & have done for 40 years – without charge to the participants & as their mission. This is not part of the Project, but is a bi-product for the participants).
Chela announced they need to have a separate assembly to determine how they wish to proceed, either nopal gardens, health, soil etc, which first. They will work also on terracing to attempt to retain soil against the major erosion.
We concluded the meeting at 1.25 & had some tacos which the women had bought to share with us.
Next event in La Tinaja : Pilot Training Prog 23.1.12
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