Samox San Lucas

It’s been noted that my blogs are too long. So I will post only a short summary of my past two weeks in Samox San Lucas but I would be thrilled to talk about it more (please).

So, I left the beautiful, volcano views of Antigua for the rainy, rural, unelectrified, waterless community of Samox San Lucas in Alta Verapaz, approximately an hour outside of Coban.

I
I
V

Community

Samox San Lucas is a community of 86 families with about 500 people split across three zones. They came to their current land as refugees in search of farmland in the mid ‘80s. While the government was responsible for finding and supporting land for the refugees, the land is still owned by a woman in Coban who lets them live and farm there until they can figure out a way to officially buy it.

While some community members have stores or grow food animals, most of the community members are farmers harvesting corn, beans, coffee, and cardamom.

They are only crops to harvest between September and April. One amazing community member sold two cows in order to construct the towns first 'pescaderia' (tilapia fish farm).

The community appears to be super organized with their six community committees but that brings along its fair share of politics and chaos which I got to experience while I was visiting.

New committee: Comite Consejos de la Comuindad

Used a modification of the Logical Framework Analysis to list and prioritize community problems, potential solutions, and the necessary resources. Top three to investigate first.

§ Business/agriculture

§ Water infrastructure

§ Improved Stoves

My biggest challenge in Samox was getting the community to appreciate sustainability and not develop dependency. They just started receiving outside aid over the past few years from several organizations including CasaSito, FONAPAZ, Centro de Salud and Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’, the Peace Corps, Mi Familia Progressa, Euro-Solar, Rotary International, and Health in Action. They are starting to take advantage of these organizations and seem to be losing the energy to make change for themselves. The work I did with the committee aimed to reverse the growing paternalism by asking them to make their own goals and determine how to achieve them. By the end of the week, I think the message started to reach a few community members who had been frequently asking what HiA was going to bring to the community.

Telesegundaria

I went to SSL partially as a CasaSito representative to support the secondary school. A community committee of concerned fathers have struggled to get a secondary school up and running for their kids and others from surrounding communities. They have been fortunate to received support from CasaSito and a local man who has experience in school development projects.

CasaSito has helped to secure funds for the TV and DVD player that define a secondary school, teacher funding, some classroom supplies, and are currently in the progress of securing land and funds for a new secondary school and teacher salaries. They are struggling especially with enrollment. In order to receive funding from the government, they need to maintain a minimum of 25 students in each class.

Water updates

Back in February, HiA implemented some Biosand filters in the schools to encourage tooth-brushing and hand-washing with purified water. Since then, the elementary school has stopped using their filter because it started smelling like gas (that have students bring the influent and oftentimes water containers may be reused gasoline containers). The middle school still uses their filter daily but only for hand-washing since they don’t brush their teeth at school. It would be great to know if the filter is drinking quality so they could drink water after recess. I unsuccessfully tried to test the filters (I didn’t have the right Petri dishes for the test kits).

Since HiA was in town, Rotary International donated water filters for every classroom in the primary school. They consist of stacked buckets with 2 ‘candelas’ (activated carbon filters). The filters need to be cleaned at least once a month and the ‘candelas’ replaced annually. This is the reason they are unsustainable and not practical for this community…the community has been told that the candelas cost Q365 each (x2/filterx8filters=Q5840/year)…a ridiculous expense for a community of farmers that make about Q15/day.

Independence Day

On September 15, 1821 Guatemala gained its independence from Spain. Guatemalans go all out to celebrate their freedom. Two weeks before the event, street vendors took advantage of the patriotic season by selling Guatemalan flags for all purposes. The week leading up to I-day, SSL-ians started spending their entire school days doing patriotic art projects.

Finally, the I-day events started the night before with the Niña y Señorita de Independencia pageant. The men spent the whole day building and decorating a stage on the school grounds which would have a large stereo and lights powered by a generator for the special occasion.

The competition, the girls basically need to wear traditional clothing and do the slow, lonely Marimba dance up to the stage where they explain their message to the audience. I served on the judge’s panel for the Señoritas and my favorite (2^nd place winner) had a great message for the community, saying that women have the same rights and abilities as men.

The competition was interluded with performances from students in each grade including poetry, a Mayan futbol match (the kind where they light a soccer ball on fire and kick it at each other), dances, a reenactment of Guatemalan parties (with pushy millitary-men and police, drunkards, and all), and song...Samox is definitely not known for its Grammy winning singers...

The event was followed by some festive merengue dancing...

...and, much to my dismay, the slaughter of a one year old bull...

After the music stopped around 2AM, the children stayed up through the night playing fútbol in the schoolyard while the men started cooking the meat and chicharrones to share with the community the during the I-day festivities.

I-day itself was a big day for SSL because it would be the culmination of a month-long fútbol tournament where two SSL teams would compete for the trophy and pride. While miscommunication caused me to miss the game itself, the important part of that day was that people from communities all around SSL came to watch. With this, the telesegundaria had the opportunity advertise the middle school in hopes of increasing enrollment.

Following the fútbol game there was more music and the community chowed down on the 1000 pound bull.

I offered to help wash the dishes in the pila with the women…only to realize that the job entailed scraping lard (which reminded me of the butter mixture they sell for popcorn) off of bowls.

A local family

During my 10 days in Samox, I gradually made myself at home with a local family and they were a good resource for a lot of community information. Olivia is a 32 year old mother of 5 very unique children ranging in age from 2 to 16 and wife of a sawmill worker who has attempted some international travel but was kicked out of Spain and never made it to the States.

And the dog...Ca'an (he was just a puppy when HiA came in February)

With this family, I learned to bathe in the river, wash clothes in the river...

...desgranar corn...

...and tortillear (make tortillas)...Sharing nearly every meal with Olivia and her family, I left SSL craving homemade tortillas and beans.

ABK-Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’/Ministerio de Salud collaboration

I met and worked with Rosaura (who happens to be the sister of Olivia), the field technician that offers monthly health classes to over 90 mothers in the community. The organization aims to promote socio-economic development in the country. Rosaura’s health lessons aim to teach the most basic hygiene and nutrition and the women seem to enjoy them. Some issues with the COCODE have made Rosaura threaten not to return. This partnership also brings a nurse to the Centro de Comvergencia in the community once a month to offer clinic services to mothers and children under 5 years of age. During the rest of the month, the associations keep the room well stocked with preventative medicines and antibiotics for the children. They have trained a community member on how to assess basic illnesses and distribute the free medications and conduct a monthly weigh-in of children under 2.

The association has also set up an emergency plan for the community including a fund where community members donate Q2/month and can borrow money in case of emergency.

SOSEP (Secretary of Social Works by the President’s Wife, http://www.sosep.gob.gt/perfil.php?codigo=11)

· Formed in 1991 to implement social development programs to benefit kids, families, and communities in general especially kids under 5, rural women, older adults, and the disabled. Colom’s wife and her team have developed new programs and re-vamped the old to bring a large scale sustainable and self-sustaining change to these populations to combat poverty and underdevelopment.

· SOSEP has two sectors: Hogares Comunitarios which provides home, education, and food for street children and Creciendo Bien which promotes improvements in health, education, and nutrition and opportunities for women through community self-management to be able to support the family.

· To use the programs offered by SOSEP, the community would need to take a written proposal for funds, materials, or education. We have considered requesting help from SOSEP for improved stoves but I really think the community needs to know why they need them first in order to write a powerful proposal.

Euro-Solar (http://www.programaeuro-solar.eu/eng/kit.php, http://www.mem.gob.gt/Portal/Documents/ImgLinks/2008-09/731/EUROSOLAR%20-%20INFORMACI%C3%93N%20GENERAL.pdf, http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/regional-cooperation/euro-solar/index_es.htm)

The program is funded by the European Union and the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines. The goal is to bring sun and wind energy to rural communities while supporting education and health. The participating communities (of which Samox is one) will receive:

· Electricity and communication

o Solar panels

o Satellite antenna for Internet connection

o Satellite telephone

· Education:

o 5 laptop computers

o Printer

o Projecter

o Lights

· Health

o Refrigerator for vaccines

o Water filter

o Lights

FONAPAZ (El Fondo Nacional para la Paz, http://www.fonapaz.gob.gt/)

Created in 1991, it’s goal is to develop and implement projects to eradicate poverty and extreme poverty. It aims to construct homes in rural areas, government buildings, community meeting centers, sport fields, develop educational and recreational programs, donate roofing material and accessories for rural construction, provide nutritional aid, build and supply schools, aid Peace projects, and other projects requested by President Colom or his wife. They serve as a direct link between COCODEs in the rural communities and the President of Guatemala because communities used to have to go to their local Municipality for support and would often be rejected because of the extreme racism and corruption on the regional government level.

In Samox specifically they have started donating something annually. The women’s committee secretary fills out the application and gets it stamped by the COCODE. This year they applied for pilas and haven’t heard anything back yet. They can only apply for one project at a time. In 2008, each family was given a gas stove and a tank of gas. (Alice told me that they often receive material donations from foreign countries rather than funds so FONAPAZ sometimes just hands out what they receive even if it’s not best suited for a particular community. However, when they do have funds to spend, they seem to do a good job.) Earlier this year, they donated hand mills.

Mi Familia Progresa (http://www.mifamiliaprogresa.gob.gt/)

A government program to bring financial aid to impoverished famlies so they may receive a primary school education, preventitive health care, and proper nutrition. The vision is ‘a nation where every Guatemalan man and women may have the opportunity for a better life.’ They are currently supporting 41/86 families in SSL with Q300/month for the children. The program requires that the children attend school and the money can only be used for schooling and medicine and food for the children.

Other achievements

Rode standing up in the back of a pickup truck. Climbed a tree in the river to pick guava-like fruit. Reprimanded older men for abusing a dog.

Ate meals with only tortillas for silverware. Wore traje típico...

Camped alone in a village with no electricity or running water, ate PB&J dinners by candlelight (Lit matches!)... ...lived side-by-side with the creatures who made their home near my tent (Herded a cockroach out of my tent).