Water!!!

My community is pretty awesome! Yesterday once again confirmed that for me when we had a meeting to celebrate the aqueduct that was put in. The previous volunteer who was here Adriana spent two years walking down to the river every day with buckets, filling them up and walking with them back up to her house. No easy task I can assure you. Especially since during the drier periods of the year the water gets particularly low in our little río. Then a few years ago the community decided it was high time they had access to potable water, so the community leaders started making some inquiries and found an organization that would provide the engineers to help design an aqueduct and help them get it installed. Then they found some other organizations that were willing to donate some money. Then the men and women of my community spent the next three years volunteering days up in the mountains clearing a path, digging trenches, crossing rivers, laying tubes, and cooking for the crowd of people that came to help. The culmination of which was yesterday in a really long meeting that started 3 hours late. But it was cool to hear the story of how my community banded together and worked to get this project done which has made a huge difference in the community. It was not an easy process and just when they thought everything was good they had some tubes break up in the hills. So we were back to carrying buckets and jugs of water from the river to the house, and bathing in the river (which I actually like better because then I had an excuse to go to Macoca every day) for about 6 weeks while they tried to resolve the problem. This, of course, became more complicated because the son of the guy who had donated land suddenly decided he wanted to be paid. This guy ended up trying to put handcuffs on the leader of our Catholic Church and they threatened him with a machete and he had to run and jump into a moving car to get away. But gracias a Dios, as they say here for everything, the water is finally up and running again. They are installing the llaves (taps) and hopefully things will be good for awhile, although with hurricane season coming up you just never know. Here`s some pictures.


Nivin working on the form for the cement that goes around the base of the tube that has the tap on it. (You´ll get it when you see the last 2 pictures)


Francisca talking to Nivin while he`s working on making stakes to mark the spot for the form.


Who knew running water from a tap could be so exciting! But let me tell you it was. Thus why I had to take a picture!


The pigs were happy about it too!