Turning Tequila into Comida!

Saturday 24^th November

In the day: 13 families, 2 communities, 26 bags of food, 39 gallons of water, 4 water filters, 15 blankets and 20 bags of nappies

In the night: 1 fundraiser, 130 guests, Q15 entry, Q5 shots, Q2000.05 raised in total!

Setting of at 6.30am we made our way to the Xela bus terminal, where we met up with Krystal from Community Enterprise Solutions, one of the organisations we have teamed up with here. The camioneta (chicken bus) to reach San Marcos takes about an hour and a half if you make it the whole way. About 15 minutes away from our destination we ground to a halt and the engine refused to allow us to go any further. So off we hopped and found a taxi to take us the rest of the way. At our destination we met up again with Juan Carlos Morales and Erick Navarro who had helped us with the previous delivery. Our left over supplies from Wednesday had been left in the INTECAP office in San Marcos to save us the cost of hiring a vehicle to transport it from Xela. So again we loaded up the pick-up truck provided by Erick, made a quick pitstop to purchase another 24 gallons of water and headed off to the Municipality of San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta.

Juan Carlos's Office in San Marcos (Grupos Gestores)

One of the products that Community Enterprise Solutions trains local entrepreneurs to sell is water purifiers and as we were headed specifically to two villages with water problems this was a brilliant opportunity to take advantage of. Each water purifier cost Q170 at a discounted price (about £13.40) and lasts for a year before changing the filter at a cost of Q100 (£7.90). There was enough stock in Xela for us to buy two for each village, which should in the long term save a reasonable amount of money from not buying packaged drinking water. Rebuilding homes over the coming months will now be the priority, and even saving a little money over a long period means it can be put towards this instead.  

Our plan was to visit an village called Chayen with an adjoining caserio called Las Palmas, but on arrival into San Rafael town (just before reaching the locations) we were greeted by a church leader who insisted we visit two families living on a hill in damaged homes, in need of supplies. This is another town where little government or organisational aid has been received, however not being able to help on a wide scale we need to prioritise what we have on places where it will have an impact, as difficult as it is to make the decision.  

After a lot of discussion, lists of families being produced, new names of affected villages being brought up and all the while being very aware of the time we agreed to continue on to Chayen.

One of the lists produced was for a village about a 20 minute walk up from Chayen called Nueva Libertad. In this community there are 6 families who at present have no water supply. Each community is provided with water through a pipe at certain hours of the day which fills up a concrete storage tank. Following the earthquake many of these pipes suffered damage and water supplies to certain areas have been cut off, as in this case. The majority of the water we brought with us was distributed to this small community along with two water filters for the future, blankets and food for each of the families living there. Hopefully this water will last until the pipes can be repaired.

Members of the Nueva Libertad community with boxes of water

In Chayen the secondary school is being used as a shelter, temporarily housing 7 families. There are a total of 40 people living in one room, with not even enough beds for each family to have one. Some are sleeping on a sponge layer and many of the parents on a thin layer of cardboard. 

Despite this, the community here was one of the most friendliest and welcoming we have been to, one of the last things I expected to be doing was learning Arabic from a woman called Maria who had learnt it from a friend in America!

One of the women wanted us to come and see her house up the hill and sometimes it can feel too invasive to be entering homes especially when they have been so badly damaged. However, at the same time to be warmly invited into a family’s home at such a difficult time and to be able to see a glimpse of real Guatemalan life is a great privilege.

The house itself contained 3 beds where 7 members of the family sleep, the walls had crumbled and the roof was completely unstable. This is why they have had to relocate to the shelter. Another women from the community accompanied us and became teary when looking at the destruction; it was a very sad moment. Had the earthquake happened at night with everyone asleep in their beds, it could have been a very different story.

Back at the shelter we offloaded the remaining 20 bags of food, 9 blankets which hopefully will be a bit more comfortable than cardboard (at least in this area it is not too cold at night) and the remaining water and nappies. At this point Krystal explained to a few people how to use the water purifiers. When the school is finally returned to its original purpose and people return to their homes (who knows when this will be), the filters can remain there and provide the children easy access to drinking water.

After spending a few hours in the village we said our goodbyes and headed back to San Rafael for a quick lunch. We made it back to San Marcos at about 4pm, still an hour an a half away from Xela. With only a few hours to go until we needed to prepare for the fundraising event in the evening we hoped for a swift getaway! Naturally the chicken bus waited around for about 40 minutes for it to fill up (here there is no such thing as a full bus, even with 3 people to a seat, sometimes 4, and the rest crammed into the isle there is always room for one more). We eventually arrived back home with an hour to go. Enough time for a shower and to nip to the shop to buy limes – the key to a successful evening when there is tequila involved.

The fundraising party at ‘Pool and Beer’ went really really well, again better than I could have imagined. So many people came and showed their support, drank vast quantities of cheap shots (with not too much persuasion) and donated generously for crispy cakes on the way out! So thank you to everyone! Our final profit from the night was Q2000.05 which to put it into perspective, is enough to buy bags of food for 30 families.  Also thank you to Joel the owner for letting us have the place for free and for helping us out throughout the night! Finally crawled into bed at a ridiculous time in the morning after a very long but productive day.

 

So aims for the week – Monday tomorrow, we will go to San Pedro to meet up with another contact who works with local women’s groups in the area. We plan to do all the shopping in San Pedro, leave the provisions there and return on the bus on Tuesday to distribute. Will let you know how it goes :)