Where: Peña Blanca community
(beside Kinder)
When: 24.4.12 approx 10.30-12midday
Who: Holly, Laura, (visitors Mark & Margaret, Seth
& Christina) & 17 community members (incl 1 man) + 4 kids & 3 dogs
Purpose of the meeting: To informally meet
with the community to discuss possibility of running pipes from the kínder school
roof to the 10,000 litre plastic tank which has been supplied by Desarrollo Social.
& 1st
meeting at Peña Blanca re water cisterns
Summary of the visit:
Holly & Chela had previously visited this community
out behind La Tinaja, during the visit the lack of water was discussed &
the community mentioned they had a large Tinaco that is not currently hooked up
to collect water, it is to be filled by Pipa (water truck) deliveries.
The problem is the road is very bad (the worst road
any of us have been on, including Chela), the pipa truck had not been yet &
during the rainy season it is unlikely the truck would be able to make it.
The tentative suggestion was made re the possibility of
connecting the tinaco to a roof collection system & we were visiting on
this day to determine feasibility & talk more about possibility of a
cistern project in this location.
Holly had invited with Cedesa “volunteers” Mark &
Margaret (who live in Guanajuato part time) & they in turn had invited Seth
& Christina (who live in Gto & wanted to know more of the work of
Cedesa, they have started the “Tianguis Ecologico de Guajajuato”)
We met at the closest Pemex station, as the road is so
bad we needed to use Seth’s jeep & leave our cars to be watched by the
Pemex guys, we all piled in (literally) & headed off.
The road to Peña Blanca is off the road to La Tinaja, & travels
out behind LT. It is indeed the worst road we have travelled on with large
boulders, rocks, dust puddles etc.
We met with the gathered crowd at the Kinder & saw
that he Tinaco is up hill from the kinder, & outside the perimeter. Following
are some facts we gathered:
- Approx. 50 families in this community
- They are “tercieros” essentially share croppers, they get to live
on the land of the owner, for the price of 30% of their crops per year
- The landowner has irrigation well but the people have no wells
except hand dug wells & springs in the river which dry out during the
year
- The teeth of the people seem to be fine, no evidence among those
gathered of fluoride damaged teeth.
- There are 3 kinders & 1 primary in this community
- They applied for 2 tinacos from Desarollo Social, to be filled with
Pipas wkly to provide drinking/cooking only water for the 50 families, DS
gave just one.
- Today – coincidentally was the first day they had had water
delivered, a pipa with 10,000 litre capacity arrived as we were meeting,
& began filling the tinaco (the delegada accompanied the pipa, so her
husband spoke with us)
- We did not know if the 10,000 ltre truck was full, they were still
pumping when we left.
- They would like individual family cisterns & have begun the
process to join COCIRA (the citizens council) & understand that
participation & working together is mandatory.
- The roof of the kinder was peaked. It looked to be approx. 4mt x 4
mtr ie approx. 16m2
- The roof of the neighbouring church was much bigger, maybe 12 mtr x
4 mtr?
We did not run this meeting in the normal fashion,
rather as a q&a session, asking for their suggestions & answers to our
questions.
The possibility of moving the tinaco to the space by
the church was discussed, as it would fill much more quickly & therefore
provide much more water during the rainy season. Also it would not work where
it is currently & would have to be downhill from the kinder – with no
obvious spot.
They all agreed they would love to do a pilot training
session to construct 1 or 2 cisterns beside the church to capture water, we
explained we have no resources currently but will keep looking.
Ultimately they said, they were very keen to have
individual family cisterns like they had seen in La Tinaja & Villa de
Guadalupe, they had spoken with the people of these communities & knew a
little of what was involved, & were motivated to do what it takes.
We gave them “homework” to ask the Priest if he would
ok the construction of cisterns beside the church so that at the next
meeting/assembly they can begin planning.
Mark then headed off with about 15 of the women &
children to walk across the hills to La Tinaja to attend the Inauguration which
was about to start.
The rest of us said our goodbyes, agreed to make an
assembly time, & crammed back into the jeep for our bumpy ride to La
Tinaja.
Where: La Tinaja community (beside
Health Clinic)
When: 24.4.12 approx 12.30 – 3.50 pm
Who: Holly, Chela, Laura, (visitors Mark & Margaret,
Seth & Christina) & 45+ community members (incl 4 men) + 16 kids & 2
dogs
Purpose of the meeting: Inauguration of the
Water Cistern Project – Calgary Global grant 25437+direct grant – 1 pilot
cistern + 21 Family cisterns
Welcome balloons & a welcome poster guided our way
along the road to find Chela, who had driven directly & was there with the
community waiting for us… we all kissed & shook hands hello & then
waited for Mark to arrive with the women & kids from Pena Blanca arriving
over the “hill” (read rocky mountain!).
There were tarps strung to the shelter structure to créate
more shade (in the desert!) & a large sound system set up, chairs all
arranged, people waiting, children chasing eachother around… Photos of the
participants had been placed on a large sheet of ply (which had served its
original purpose as reinforcement for the cistern construction process).
Mark arrived & the music started, with a line up of Young
teenage girls doing a cultural dance…acting as woman & man…The dance had
obviously been well rehearsed & despite the extreme heat & shy glances
to eachother, we all enjoyed it.
The Delegado(?) introduced us all & today’s agenda,
there were people attending from Palmita II, Corralejo, Pena Blanca, San Lucas
(& obviously La Tinaja)
Audelia – the COCIRA rep. & co-ordinator of the Project,
made her speech, thanking all who were accompanying them today, on this
important day as they conclude their first community Project. She thanked
Cedesa & Rotary for their contributions, & for heping make this a “work
of develpment – we are lacking much but together we can work together for a
better way of life for our community”…
She spoke eloquently & without hesitation.
Alicia (another prime organiser in the Project) said she wanted
to describe the process, how it had come about & how it went. She said they
had first heard of & seen wáter cisterns at Vivienda de Arriba, that they
had gone as community reps to visit Cedesa & Rotary & had asked for our
assistance. We had told them yes, if they bring a “solicitud” & Saul had
helped them to créate one, for dry toilets initially, since their houses are so
close together there is no “wilderness” to go to the toilet in, & they dont
want to continue to pollute the river (when it is actually running) as that’s
where most people go to the toilet.
They also later asked for help with Cisterns. The
cisterns came sooner & “it is a
dream to have these cisterns at our houses, I didnt think this would eer be , it
arrived in reality, we got “organised”
& worked & nothing came for about 2 yrs , then 21 of us were still
working & now we have cisterns – we are still working to get dry toilets.
We enjoyed working in groups, some were faster than others but we all got
there.
Interestingly Mark, as an aside, asked me if Alicia liked
to talk as she seemed to be going on & on (especially if spanish is not
your 1st language), & I pointed out that, actually no, she is very shy, she
would have been stressing about this moment for days, but that she was giving
it her all to describe to everyone how positive the experience had been. This
is something we keep seeing, young women gaining confidence in themselves after
proving to themselves they can do it…a very big bonus of the Project/process.
Chela spoke then – as some of the communities had come to
today’s event to learn more about inaugurations but also about the process of
joining the Citizen’s council. She asked one of the older communities to
explain to the new communities the process to join. Including holding community
assemblies, collecting lists of names & signatures, delegado’s stamp –
presentation of the soliitude to become part of COCIRA etc.
She asked them all to call out names of the communities
they knew that already made up COCIRA.
All of the communities were listed (22 of them) + the new
ones in process, hence reinforcing the connections of everyone present. Some of
the new ones in process are La Joya, San Lucas, ex Hacienda Pena Blanca, &
Ejido Pena Blanca.
Chela involved everyone in discussions about their
prioirities in life.
What’s important to you? She asked
The families/people
Their land
Their customs/traditions & way of life (&
devotion & dances)
Organisation/taking decisión by assembly
She explained that the Project was an important step to
bring them altogether to work in groups & learn the benefits of
organisation.
“we visit the región with eachother to see how we can
work together to improve our way o life”
For example – the road to Pena Blanca is really bad &
is the only access for this community, at this point someone joked that it was
so bad that Mark had chosen to walk rather than ride in the jeep with us –
everyone laughed at the irony.
The representatives from the community of San Lucas were
given the op. to speak, they also wish to join the efforts to receive
assistance with finding resources for cisterns & toilets through
participation on the citizen’s council. Ex Hacienda Pena Blanca, Ejido Pena
Blanca, Palmita II echoed this.
Corralejo was asked to explain the process they have been
following to join the council, including attending assemblies, they organised
meetings within their own community & appointed leaders who can speak about
their needs, “take agreements” & requests to communicate at the regional
meetings & exchange info back to their community. Part of it is to work on
economic help together, but mostly to worktogether to learn how to organise.
They needed to advise everyone of the upcoming meetings, write an Acta
(essentially an application to join), have it authorised by their delegado
(elected community representative), they are learning the process with Saul
& Chela.
It was the new people learning from the older hands, the
process of organisation/belonging to this citizen’s council.
At this point there was a mass exodus & the women
& men of La Tinaja quickly returned carrying very large buckets of tortillas (blue & normal) all wrapped in
brightly embroidered cloths, huge pots of rice, beans, mole, nopal etc &
garafons of agua fresca…
After the feast we made our way to several completed &
brightly festooned cisterns for the ribbon cutting. When we commented how
straight & fine these cisterns were, many women blushed & said they had
made them themselves (without the men!)…
We needed to leave the procession early & headed back
to the cars, only to be told of a special cistern with Guadalupe painted on the
side, back we went & found Guadalupe emblazozned on the side of the
cistern, beside the barbed wired washing line…
Crammed back into the car & headed back to the
highway.
Submitted by Laura Stewart
