Lek oy...ja jech

We began construction Tuesday, and it is going pretty well so far. We´ve laid the 3 firmes and almost completed all the cámaras out of cinderblock. Tuesday was actually the first day since we´ve been in Chiapas that is hasn´t rained! Maybe that´s a good sign (many people in Mexico are very superstitious...why not join in?).

The three people we are constructing the dry toilets for are Salvador II, María, and Domingo II (I am calling them II, not because that was their father´s name...but just because I am trying to avoid confusion with the previous Salvador and Domingo that I have mentioned). They live up on the top of the hill, in what I believe is the northern border of Damasco, and have a wonderful view of the town center below. The family plots of land are covered in peach trees, and all the kids will get long sticks and knock down the fruit and come sit and watch the construction. It seems like some of the kids are predisposed to smiling, while others I haven´t seen smile once...they just kindof sit there with a blank stare on their face. I can only really talk with the ones who are old enough to attend school, because the young ones haven´t learned any Spanish yet. One particularly mischevious one saw that we were taking all the organic matter out of the sand for the concrete, so he went and got a handful of leaves and started throwing tiny pieces in to see if we were watching. Other frequent vistors to the construction site are the chickens. Both the families of Salvador II and María are raising chickens to eat, and we´ve had several instances where the chickens flew the coop and the family had to have an emergency rescue mission. They would all surround the chicken, with arms extended, and converge in and grab the chicken. I imagine that raising chickens like that is about the equivalent of having a bank account with wings.

For the construction, we hired an albañil from the neighboring community of Belén, because we want to have a local worker so that the technical knowledge of how to build the toilets stays within the community. The one problem I found out about hiring a local worker is that when he is talking with the family members, he only speaks in Tzotzil, since that is both of their first language. I end up feeling left out of the conversations and decisions most of the time, but it is better that the families participate in the decision making.

One thing I´ve noticed is that the American Dream is something very real in the community of the Damasco. It has come up in conversations with multiple people in community. It might just be because we are from the United States and is something in common we have, but everyone seems to have dreams of that perfect job in the U.S. Today, I ended up teaching the albañil and the family of Domingo II a course in English. Many of the questions were things like ¨How do you say ´I am looking for work´ or ´Do you have any work?´in English¨ The son of Domingo II had actually lived in Virginia and Florida for 7 months, but he said that he wasn´t able to learn any English while he was there.

The other son of Domingo II is mute, and Domingo II said that he has two other daughters that can´t talk either. I was wondering if this might be genetic, but I heard later that many indigenous people become mute because they are born without the proper medical care and when they are born, they have phlegm in their throat that causes muteness if it isn´t treated correctly.

For the project, we are still in the process of deciding on the level of participation that we can expect in this project. I think that community participation is out as far as deciding who will receive toilets this summer, but we still have participation on the family level. As of now, I sortof see that we have 3 directions the project is going in terms of family participation:

The original intent of the level of family participation for this project was that each family contribute sand, gravel, and water, as well as contribute mano de obra (i.e. labor). The first person to receive a toilet, Salvador I, is a shining example of this level of participation. As I explained earlier, he´s put in all the materials and done all the work that we have asked from him with a surprising enthusiasm. He is even putting in the mano de obra for the toilet of María, the single mother next door...since she can´t do the heavy lifting (although she has provided us with some delicious cokes).

However, we have had some difficulties with his other neighbor, Domingo II, which is taking another direction of participation. To begin with, he doesn´t speak spanish, is somewhat deaf, and is, as Salvador II described it, ¨mal de cabeza¨ which I guess I would translate as mildly retarded. He came back to us two weeks ago and said that he couldn´t afford to pay for the sand and gravel and didn´t want a toilet because he couldn´t take off work for the mano de obra. This was against our rules for participation...because without an investment in the toilet, the chance of it being properly maintained is slim to none. But Salvador II was telling us afterwards that Domingo II changes his mind a lot, and will say one day he doesn´t want something and will say he does want it the next. The mano de obra part is unnegotiable, but we felt like there should be some leniancy regarding the mentally handicapped as well as those unable to afford sand and gravel. So we came to him last week and said that we could pay for sand and gravel, but that he would still have to contribute mano de obra. This time he said that he would agree to do the mano de obra, so we are now contructing a toilet for him now. This isn´t really a direction we wanted to take in terms of participation, but I think this should turn out fine as long as he keeps his word to contribute the mano de obra...I personally wasn´t wanting to give up on someone just because he is mentally handicapped or too poor to participate.

The third direction we have towards participation is Juan, who approached us and asked us to build him a toilet, saying that he would contribute lumber and blocks in addition to the sand, gravel, and water. Now this is even more of a degree of participation than just sand and gravel...and I think that he would definitely maintain and use his dry toilet correctly. If we took this route for more toilets, there would be more of sense of pride in the toilet and more use (and not to mention saving the meager funding that we have). My only problem if we took this approach, and this approach alone, would be that we would leave all the Domingo II´s in the community behind, only building for those that can afford some of the materials. Its so hard dealing with poverty like this. I know that handouts aren´t going to fix the problem...building Domingo II a toilet for free isn´t going to miraculously bring him out from being the poorest of the poor, nor is it going to change his way of thinking or living(except for being less sick). However, just ignoring him and focusing on those that can afford it doesn´t seem like a solution either. I guess at this point, I would like to see this project take on a combination of these approaches for participation.