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A couple of weeks ago we were invited to join the Christian Aid Project on a trip to one of the
aldeas (villages) to celebrate the end of the project. We´re not directly involved in the project work but supporting this is what we are really here for, so we like to take up the chance to see what has been achieved.
A trip to the aldeas involves going up the mountain in the back of a
picop. Well, we could travel in the cabin but the view isn't as good and somehow it seems less authentically Guatemalan. Most pickups you see around Jocotan have at least 20 people in the back, they are almost the only mode of transport up the mountains. Nothing else can make it up the steep inclines and rough tracks. In fact, with only four or five people in the back, it feels like luxury transport.
Today however we are sharing the back with a large turquoise
pila. A pila is a huge sink with three basins. The middle one is a reservoir about 3 feet deep where you store the water when it's running and on either side is a shallow basin for
washing. On the side of this one it says in bright pink letters "
Dios bendiga este hogar" - God bless this home.
Dios bendiga este picop. While we wonder how we're all going to fit in around the pila which takes up most of the pickup, Sister Juana squeezes in one side, and Oscar just gets right into the pila.
It's a hell of a ride. We bump around holding tightly to the side and to the pila. Sister Juana on the other hand doesn't even look like she's moving. It's worth being thrown around for the view though. The countryside around Jocotan and Camotan is hot, dry and deforested but these mountains are really beautiful.
I don´t quite understand Guatemalan timing. It has been suggested (by the Guatemalans themselves) that they are not the most punctual people. Indeed there didn't seem to be a particular time of departure and now we've arrived in Ocumblá we are greeted by just a handful of people, mostly kids. Douglas and the doctor chat about the radio budget while people slowly arrive, the women in brightly coloured pleated dresses and the men in jeans and cowboy hats.
We
We survey the pila filling
This is going to take a while, let's get some lunch. haven't sussed out shaking hands and saying
buenos dias or
buenos tardes yet. Sometimes people offer hands when they come into the office in the morning and when they leave at night, others just breeze in calling "
Hola!". Here it's the same. Sometimes when we've had our hand shaken by half a dozen people we offer our hand to the next person who seems surprised. Also when does it stop being
buenos dias time (roughly morning) and start being
buenas tardes time.There is no neat midday watershed and we don't have watches anyway, we'll have to mumble.
Eventually everyone has arrived and we head down the narrow trail to the church and communal area to get down to business. We are here to inaugurate a sink.
The project has built a well from a spring and diverted overflow from the stream and built a large communal version of the pila we travelled up with. It's a large reservoir with six shallow basins around it, painted in bright colours like the women's dress's.
There are a few speeches to get through before we cut the ribbon. Fortunately Guatemalans seem to be pretty
good at public speaking. In Scotland this would be the boring bit, we'd all be looking at our watches and shuffling uncomfortably. Of particular note is the villager who with 2 minutes warning delivers a flowing, eloquent 10 minute long blessing. Of course if you should find your attention wandering the occasional "mortar" being fired will wake you up. For some inexplicable reason, all celebrations round here are accompanied by loud bangers. As they can be heard for miles around and there is always something to celebrate they form part of the daily noise. It's still a bit alarming when they go off right beside you.
Speeches done, the doctor cuts the ribbon and some of the Ocumblá people head down to the pila to turn the water on and fill it up.We watch it for a bit - it's a big sink, it's going to take a while. Meanwhile we're going to have lunch. Laughing, David tells us we're getting a chicken for lunch. This seems pretty normal so we wonder what's the joke.
We see what the joke is when we sit at the table. We're getting a chicken EACH. This is a thank you lunch
The top of the mountain.
It's pretty and it's not completely roasting up here. We like it. for the Christian Aid project workers and this is how the people of Ocumblá show their gratitude. With a whole chicken. There is no way we are going to eat a whole chicken. "
Adios dieta!" calls Sister Juana. She is about 4 foot 8, she probably isn't going to manage to eat a whole chicken either.
It appears that what you don't eat you take with you. David has come prepared with plastic bags. This tradition is peculiar to Ocumblá but the Christian Aid guys have been thanked with a chicken before so they know to bring a doggy bag. David passes round the bags and the, mostly whole, chickens are packed away.
Lunch over, we head up the mountain to look at a community grain store built by the same project. As we pass, the pila is still filling up. I'm pleased to say that we get the full Guatemalan pickup experience as dozens of brightly dressed villagers pile in the back with us. A few kids who can't quite squeeze in ride on the bumper.
The grain store is quite far up the hill. Land is in short supply so no one nearer the main village wanted to sell land for it. We're so high up it's almost cool.
On the way back down we stop to pick up a curious rusty metal tube attached to a short length of C-section and drop it off at a house further down the hill. This mysterious object is the
mortero used to fire the bangers. It's clearly an item of great value. We also pick up a barrel, a length of wood and some more people. Pickups are fun.
Back at Bethania, We're windswept, full of chicken and exhausted by the day although we haven't really done anything. We've had a great time but it's a sobering thought that we've been celebrating the installation of something that we take for granted in the UK. Running water.
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Rhona MacKenzie
non-member comment
New experiences rock!
Yes somewhat humbling that communal running water facility receives such grateful thanks and celebration!! Enjoyed hearing the transport challenges ...reminds me of when I went to Malawi......no maybe not - it wasn't hot there!!xx