Progress and Poverty

Today was a pretty good day in that we made some progress on the installation at la casita. It was also a very thought-provoking day because Arturo showed me around the poorest part of the community. More on that in a bit.

This morning Arturo and I arose early so we could get a jump on the day. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:00 because I didn’t hear Arturo and Maria until then. (I have a really hard time sleeping here because there are four Labradors right outside my window that like to bark, and growl, and play all night long... So you can imagine why I would stay in bed as long as possible.) After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, we were out the door a little after 6:30. We went to the university to pick up four maintenance men and took them to la casita. They were working on several different jobs: running the electrical wires inside the house and installing electrical boxes; taking out the windows so we can get the tanks in the building; digging a ditch and running a water line from the road to the house; and working on some concrete bases for the water tanks to sit on. You can see pictures of the progress on my Picasa site by clicking here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was exciting to see all of our planning and talking turn into some measurable progress!

While the men were working, Arturo showed me around the poorest part of Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is just a few blocks from la casita where we’ll be purifying the water. There are a few pictures on the picasa site above. In that part of town, there aren’t any paved roads and the people live in shacks made out of scrap metal and any material they can find. As in all of Emiliano Zapata, there are horrible-looking stray dogs everywhere you look. They don’t have electricity or running water in their “houses,” but they can get water (for free, I think) from the spigots near the dirt roads. The spigots bring forth the government’s “agua potable” which means “drinkable water” but the water really isn’t safe to drink. The water lines lie on top of the ground where a vehicle could drive over and break them. Then when they turn the water on, it would suck up any dirt or mud or sewage into the water line. We got out and talked to some people who were sitting outside their house made of scraps of metal. One woman said she and her children drink the “agua potable.” Arturo asked her if she and her kids were sick and she said no, not right now. It was really sad though that she was holding a cell phone and had her nails fancily manicured. Another woman said she buys bottled water from a name-brand company for 20 pesos for 20 liters. Twenty pesos is about half the minimum daily wage in Mexico. I asked Arturo why the people don’t buy purified water at the local plant for 6 pesos a bottle, and he said they don’t have confidence in the local plant. The big name companies spread propaganda that their water is superior. In fact, the slogan for the brand of water “Cristal,” a Coca-Cola product, is “el mejor agua” – “the best water.” This is one of Arturo’s big concerns for our project here, that the other companies will spread the rumor that our water is unsanitary and not as good as their 20-peso-a-pop name brand stuff. For this to work, it’s imperative that we do a professional test of the water we purify so that we can demonstrate to the people that the water we are purifying is just as good, if not better, than the water from the companies that are robbing them.

After he finished showing me around the poorest part of the neighborhood, we went by and talked to a man who Arturo holds in high esteem – I think his name is Grinaldo. He was wearing a big, baggy sweater and baggy pants with a hole in the leg so that you could see through to his bony knee. Horrible cataracts in one eye. He had a house of concrete blocks and had built four other houses for his other family members right next to him. His yard was full of beautiful, colorful flowers and plants. Everywhere you looked, you found something he was cultivating to feed his family with. He invited Arturo and me into his house to escape the rain while we talked (well while they talked and I tried to keep up with what they were saying). Arturo told him about our water project and he asked what brand our water is. Arturo says there is no brand, it’s water that we are purifying ourselves. Grinaldo seemed apprehensive to the idea, which I found interesting. Arturo promised to come get him and show him all the equipment and explain the process. After that, Grinaldo gave us a tour of his yard, pointing out the different plants and what kind of edibles they bring forth. I winced as he climbed a precarious looking ladder and reached high into a tree to give Arturo and me some small, round, green, acidic things that I can’t remember the name of. He also gave us some limes. A very nice man.

This short tour got me to thinking – a lot. There are people like the woman with the fancy nails and cell phone who just don’t seem to be helping themselves and their family in the smartest way. Can people like Arturo and me reach people like that and help them? Maybe or maybe not. People have to want to help themselves, and there’s not really much that we can do if that desire isn’t there. But on the other hand, there are people like Grinaldo. People who use every square meter of the land they own to make it productive. People who say they like to work. People who struggle and fight every day to provide for themselves and their families. Can we make the load a little lighter for these people? Absolutely.