New home

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A week and a half into things and we’re feeling surprisingly settled and at home in our new surrounds. We seem to have found what we were searching for in our time of exploration. A community that is working hard to place itself in balance rather than at odds with nature and who has not mislaid its humanity and been distracted by materialism. Sabana Grande is a community that still bears the scars of recent hurricanes and less recent conflict. The family with whom we’re staying have been fantastically welcoming. Jorge (27) works as Warehouse Manager at the nearby Solar Centre the physical epicentre of Grupo Fenix’s activities. Yelba (27) quite literally runs the home and the family and she is a potent champion for progress within this small community. Scarleth (11) is the calm and somewhat retiring eldest child. Angel (5) fills his role as the junior of the household admirably with his endless energy and chatter.

Our home was constructed from adobe as part of a housing project last year. The nearby well is the main source of water which we have been told to use carefully as it would take about three days for the appropriate individual to come and fix it. Running water is something that only exists in one house in the community enabled by a solar pump. We have a latrine outside the back of the house and nearby a private walled area where we wash. The interior rooms are free of fixtures and fittings and the appliance less kitchen has a wood burning stove in the corner. There is mains electricity, not the case for many of the other houses, although it is hindered by fairly regular outages. Most of the next door houses built as part of the same housing project remain empty as locals have not wanted to claim them or could not manage the monthly payments through the barren dry season when work like the land completely dries up. It is indeed a very modest set up but seemingly a happy one.

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