A Healthier Mañana

Sam Schlesinger, University of Virginia engineering student, was an Intern with AsoFenix in Nicaragua in 2008 through the Engineer’s for a Sustainable World’s Summer Engineering Experience in Development (SEED) program. This post is from late August during the community development phase of a solar water delivery project in Sonzapote.  The water pump was installed in December.

Having left Managua at 10 in the morning, two hours travel on some of Nicaragua´s finer highways brought us to Teustepe, the sleepy municipal capital and gateway to the dry central region of Boaco where AsoFenix has concentrated its efforts for the last several years.

After a quick lunch at a comedor set up on the front porch of a family home, we set off into the country, five of us crammed somewhat uncomfortably into the cab of the AsoFenix pickup, with several new riders from the outlying villages standing in the bed (much to the chagrin of the 2 bus drivers who provide the only regular daily transport along the road). A bouncing 45 minute ride along the deeply rutted dirt road brought us to the town of Candelaria, a former AsoFenix project site where I and several other volunteers have been staying over the past few months. After dropping off my bags with my host family (and catching it for having come back two days late and missing my special welcome-back dinner), it´s back into the pickup for the last 30 minutes of driving to the even more isolated community of Sonzapote. We´ve got a full load in the truck now, between (AsoFenix director) Jaime Muñoz, myself, six other “gringo” volunteers stationed in surrounding communities, and several folks from Candelaria using the truck to make social visits.

Arriving in the shady clearing that marks the end of the road and the approximate center of Sonzapote´s 75 houses, we were greeted by Feliciano, the town´s alcaldito and our go-to contact for the village. Jaime has been working with the residents of Sonzapote for the last four years, helping them in find funding sources and appeal to government agencies in an effort to improve their standard of living. Asofenix´s efforts led to the drilling and installation of a new well by FISE, a Nicaraguan governmental organization this past June.  The hand-crank well provides a consistent, year-round source of potable water for villagers, a major improvement over their former reliance on surface water sources which vanish during Nicaragua´s long dry season, leaving less than 5 gallons of water per day for each family.  However, this new well was drilled with an even greater purpose in mind, a soon-to-be-installed solar powered water pumping system. This project has only recently been made possible by the Green Empowerment´s support of AsoFenix, and today´s community meeting is a vital step in the process of training and capacitation.

As the group walked uphill to the town´s primary school (our meeting location), we had to watch our every step on a road turned to mud by the past few days´ rain. Arriving at the school, we stood outside the gate, chatting with Feliciano and other villagers and watching students sweep and mop the school´s floors, a Sisyphean task considering the mud which caked our shoes today and which would surely coat theirs tomorrow. As more community members filed up the hill, we moved into one of the school´s two classrooms, stepping gingerly until we found seats in the wooden desks which had been left out for the meeting. Another half hour passed as the room gradually filled, each household had been asked to send a representative, and the crowd of men and women packing the desks and looking in through the windows indicated the eagerness of the community to move forward with the project.

Finally, having reached a quorum (not to mention capacity), the meeting began with Jaime serving as the moderator/presenter. Although the past success of AsoFenix/Green Empowerment water projects in neighboring towns has convinced the community of the promise of solar pumping, the idea of signing a covenant and agreeing to pay for water access (US $1-3 per month) is still somewhat foreign. Water meters will ensure fair pricing and encourage water conservation, and all money collected thru the water tariff goes into a community fund to provide for system maintenance. Predictably, the measurement of water usage in cubic meters caused some contention, but some quick math, done out on the school´s chalkboard, turned the arbitrary unit into something everyone in Sonzapote understands: 5 gallon buckets. Women and girls in the village typically haul several of these 40 pound buckets each day, balancing them on their heads as they make the tortuous 75m climb from the well to their houses. By bringing clean, running water to every house, the solar pump will save hours of difficult labor each day and allow  more time for study, leisure activities, and cottage industry. This concrete, visible improvement appeared to be the project´s greatest selling point, at least from the villagers´ perspective, and after a few minutes of questions to Jaime the room quieted, content on the payment structure.

Next on the agenda was defining and scheduling the sweat equity work the community will perform.  However, mere moments into Jaime´s description of the schedule, an older gentleman sitting in the corner shot up his hand to speak (this being a classroom and all). Antonio had been part of the group who had originally contacted AsoFenix and was concerned that the community´s water project committee meets infrequently.  Jaime proposed new elections to pick more willing and responsive committee members, and in the resulting storm of voices, I lost my tenuous grip on the Spanish language.  Once the excitement died down a bit, Jaime laid down some ground rules to ensure community ownership and involvement in the project, and we started in on the process of choosing a new water committee. Three men received nominations to be the committee leader, and after a round of ¨raise your hand for your candidate, choose only one¨ voting that mostly followed its own rules, a new chair was elected. However, in order to avoid pena (embarrassment), one of the most crucial aspects of any process in Nicaragua, the second and third place finishers were given other positions on the committee. Next, in order to keep gender balance on the committee (and because women tend to be the ones who attend regularly), Jaime pleaded for volunteers from those in attendance to fill the positions of treasurer and accountant. Eventually, Isabel and Carla stepped forward, Isabel grudgingly, only agreeing after being assured, to much laughter, that this would be her final term in office (having served in the same post for the last 4+ years).

With the new committee selected, we tried to set a schedule for the community labor, but after seemingly simple question of when the August harvest would be completed turned into a lively forum on whether to sow corn before or after the first rain of the season, it was decided to set only a general start date of early September, and to leave the details for a future meeting.

Having more or less completed our agenda, the meeting adjourned and folks began to file out of the classroom. Having been introduced by Jaime as the “project engineer”, I got a chance to field questions from some members of the community who noted with a mixture of pride and apprehension that their hill was significantly higher than those of previous project villages. While my assurances of the capability of solar pumps probably did little to allay their fears, seeing is believing, and as we hopped into the pickup for the ride back, the shouted ¿Cuándo Regresa? (When will you be back?) reflected the village´s hopes for a brighter, healthier mañana.