More Visitors!

We were honored to have our friends Anita, Michael, Caitlin and Ian from Chicago Community Mennonite Church come visit us in August. Again we spent time relaxing, drinking tea, and talking. We also spend two days in nearby Chiaucingo with friends and learned how to make tortillas and the traditional mole sauce. It was a two day process - drying, roasting, grinding. While cooking we also played cards and soccer.

Mistake. O sea, Chance to Learn.

So I made what felt like to me, a big mistake this week. I've written about Aqulina before. She and her husband Placido live in Chiaucingo and are major promoters there. Aquilina helps us with all kinds of things, organizing meetings, contact person for projects, I could go on and on. Placido makes the toilets for the dry latrines and is also very helpful with the projects. So recently Aquilina helped get 100 bags of cement from the municipal president for 36 dry latrines in Chiaucingo. She continues to help out all the time, even though she already has her dry latrine. She has mentioned a number of times recently how much work it is, looking for funds, organizing groups, distributing material, helping with the construction, answering questions etc.

Well another group of people in Chiaucingo would like to build 40 cisterns. Aquilina helped them fill out and turn in the forms to us awhile ago. Last week I had a meeting with the group, and I told Aquilina that she didn't have to come, I could work with the group and the group could elect a committee and, well, we'd see what happened. (Aquilina already has a cistern.) I thought I was giving her a way out. I thought I was helping take some responsibilities off her plate. I thought it would be a good opportunity for other people to take on more responsibility and share the load.

But after the meeting, Aquilina pulled me aside and told me how much I had hurt her, that she felt like an old dishrag tossed aside and forgotten. (While I had the cistern meeting, Aquilina was at a garden meeting nearby. She was listening with one ear to the cistern meeting and one ear to the garden meeting. Both meetings were at the local clinic.)

I felt horrible. Later I was able to celebrate the fact that our relationship is such that she was able to tell me that I had hurt her. She said that she should have been at the meeting. Last year's committee should have been there to "hand off" the responsibilities to the new committee. She said she wants to keep helping out. Yes, it's a lot of work, but she wants to do it.
So we talked and talked. And cried and cried. And hugged.

Later at the office I talked with my coworker Manuel and together we came up with the idea to invite Aquilina to work with the group in a different capacity - as a "bridge" between the group and MCC. Manuel talked with Aquilina. She said she would think about it. Then I talked with her, and she said yes. Together we made an agenda for the next meeting and we co-facilitated the meeting. A new committee was elected. So now the committee from the community, Aquilina, and me - all 5 of us are working to find funds for the cisterns. And so the learning continues.

Dry Latrines in Chiaucingo

The first load of block for the dry latrine walls was delivered on Thursday. Everyone is anxious to finish their dry latrines before the big festival the first weekend of May. There are 36 dry latrines in the works this time around.

Poverty Sucks

So I just got back from a parent meeting at the primary school in Chiaucingo, a nearby community. Earlier in the year we helped build 55 dry latrines there. Last year we supported a garden group there as well. What do I want to write? I was at the meeting because the school has 8 dry latrines - well, they modified their pit toilets with our special toilets that separate the urine and the excrement and it's not working. It's not working because the students don't have access to toilet paper, there isn't any dry material (lime mixed with dirt, or ash mixed with dirt) in the bathroom to sprinkle on top of the excrement. That's how the dry latrine stays dry and doesn't smell. Also, some people aren't being careful and poop in the front part which is only for urine, and thus plugging the tube with poop. yuk. Yes, this is what I do now, "human waste management" Martin calls it. I go to community meetings and help people get over their "caca fobia". We talked about how to improve the dry latrine situation at the primary school. Next I will have a meeting with the parent committee, a group of 8 parents, and we'll assign specific tasks.

I stayed for the rest of the meeting, curious to hear what else they would discuss. So many memories and emotions swirled about inside. To name a few, whatever I do next (after MCC) it needs to include speaking lots of Spanish, remembered my time student teaching in Cuernavaca - 40 first graders and no supplies (NONE), students in Pilsen, how hard it is to teach when students come to school late, unkept and without their supplies.

I was impressed with the parents at this meeting. Many of them spoke openly about how they as parents need to do a better job, take more responsibility, be better examples.

The principal ended by telling the parents that he would let them know next week if the teachers were going to participate in the strike or not. Teachers in the neighboring states of Morelos and Oaxaca have been on strike - school never started. Now teachers here in Guerrero are trying to decide if and how they are going to join.

I guess I didn't really write specifically about poverty. I'll just say that sometimes the poverty that my friends live with everyday stands out, impacts me, moves me. And sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it did and I came home with a heavy heart. Thus the title of this post.

Chiaucingo

Chiaucingo is one of the nearby commuities we work in. Last week we visited a family whose mud stove needed some tender loving care. (These are the stoves we are promoting because they use less wood, the chimney carries the smoke out of the kitchen, and because the fire is completely enclosed, there is less risk of burns.) While Enrique (our co-worker), Martin and I repaired the stove, the boys hung out. I took some pictures of Micah "hanging out".

Chiaucingo

We went to Chiaucingo again this morning with a group of community development students from Cuernavaca. The students talked with a number of people who have worked with MCC in the past and have built dry latrines and stoves. The students had a questionair with them to fill out, to help us evaluate our projects.
Our family went to the preschool to eat breakfast - to celebrate Mother's Day. We went with our friend Aquilina, one of the MCC promoters in Chiaucingo. The food was wonderful. This town KNOWS how to do hospitality! While we were waiting for the Cuernavaca students to finish their evaluations, Micah and Martin helped our friend Narciso go get water. Micah loved it! Narciso and his son walk 5 blocks with two donkeys every day to get their water. They make 3 or 4 trips each day.
The pictures above are Micah on the burro, local landscape, and Aquilina and I. If you look closely, you can see that Aquilina and I have confetti on our heads. That is because we are celebrating Mother's Day here. We continue to build relationships and make connections.