Cara Piedras Guatemala: Water, el vital liquido

Water is commonly referred to as "el vital liquido" in the rural parts of Guatemala that are working to receive water projects. Living here has definitely made me appreciate, among many other things, the fact that one can turn a faucet and water comes out. My water has been getting cut off every day for the last few weeks, although luckily it always comes back at night and into the early morning. But the fact that I live in a house that even has a connection to water is a luxury here in Guatemala.

One of my biggest efforts during my service has been a water tank project for a rural community in my municipality. Basically, Peace Corps doesn't provide us with funds to do anything once we are set free in our sites, because the focus of our work is "human capacity building", or training people. However, there are funds that USAID sets aside for Peace Corps Volunteers to implement small projects, or SPA (Small Project Assistance) where we can apply for up to $3,500 for a project.

I knew that I'd want to do a SPA project to have the experience of seeing a project from start to finish - something that is unusual for a lot of PCVs. Together with my counterpart, we discussed what types of projects we'd want to do and where. Of the over 200+ smaller villages within my town, we chose el Caserío Nueva Unión because the womens group and community development council are extremely active and participatory, plus there were only 36 families and the school that would benefit (about 215 inhabitants), because the funds aren't enough to do a big project. The community told us that their biggest need is water - they have community faucets where they can connect a long hose from their house if they live close enough, or put the water into buckets to bring back home. BUT, in dry season, the wells that these faucets draw from become empty and the women have to walk one hour to the river to collect water, and then one hour back home. So the community leaders decided that they wanted a rainwater collection system project - even though the $3,500 would only cover about 50% of the project costs, between materials, construction, and transportation. These conversations took place back in August. FOUR MONTHS later, my counterpart and I finished working on the project proposal to turn in for approval. I drew from my proposal prep days back at Partners', but the application for this was complicated in a lot of different ways....having to open a bank account for the womens group, get price quotes from a dozen different hardware stores, put together a budget, and re-write the narrative of the proposal a million times. It took another month for the project to get approved, one month of corrections for the review committee, and finally, we began in January! The project incorporated a great deal of trainings on themes like how to treat water to prevent diarrhea and illness, maintaining good hygiene practices, and increasing citizen participation and gender equality. I felt really good overall about the sustainability of the project knowing that we were training the community members in areas that would help them to improve their quality of life, such as preventing diarrhea through proper treatment of their water. Also that the community was providing such a huge percentage of the project, making it more sustainable. It has unfortunately become very common for Guatemalan communities to have things "regalado" or "gifted" and that people aren't accustomed to fighting for their own development. Part of our job here as Muni Volunteers is to train communities on how to go about participating in development processes, but it has happened to me on many occasions that I visit communities and people think I've brought something for them, which can be very awkward. This expectation of help coming from the outside is mostly the reason why I've refused donations from friends and family from the States (although the desire to contribute to my projects here is very appreciated)! I don't want to continue the trend of creating expectations, especially for any future PCVs that serve in Chiantla...since Guatemalans are constantly comparing us, I wouldn't want another volunteer to feel like they had to raise funds from donations at home. And also, I knew that the community would find a way to make it work if they wanted this project badly enough. But thanks again to everyone who offered...I appreciate your support and enthusiasm!

The inauguration of my project was a really special day, with a very simple ceremony and the presence of Guatemalan and gringo friends, and representatives from Peace Corps. The community members offered very sincere thanks, and I was proud to highlight how much we have all learned and grown from the process, and how essential it is to have such a well-organized and participatory community. The schoolkids were asked to do a few presentations, and we were shocked by what they did: basically dancing and lip-syncing to reggaeton songs. It just goes to show the influence of television!! They had a lunch for us (sheep meat, which is a big specialty in this region, but they had chicken soup for me since they know that I don't eat meat) and then when we returned to Chiantla, we finished celebrating with ice pops. All in all, it was a really amazing process and we learned a lot from the experience, and the best part for me was forming such a close relationship with the people of this community. Thanks to people like them, Guatemala will become more a proponent for its own development!