Seattle Rotary Clubs to visit Yuguelito Community in Mexico City

Rick and Stan met with representatives from the Rotary Club of the University District, Seattle and the Rotary Club of Ballard (Susan Sola, Marilee Fuller, Daniel Foe, Chistina Shimizu and Leslie Grace). They are leaving for Mexico City on August 19th to visit the Yuguelito community. This marginalized community in Mexico City is struggling to obtain adequate housing, water and sewage. The Seattle Rotarians will see, first hand, how the Yuguelito community and the Mexico City Rotarians furnished the community center (where children can safely study and play) that the Seattle clubs helped finance. They will also meet the community leaders and learn the details about their future plans. They want to leave with enough information to determine if they want to present proposals to their respective clubs about future projects for this community. Rick and Stan gave them their perspective of the community, its leaders and possibilities after their two visits to the community last month. This may be an excellent opportunity to introduce sustainable housing, rainwater harvesting and/or dry latrine projects to the community. The Rotary Club decisions may determine whether or not Water for Humans gets involved with this community.

Site visit to Tlahuac One of the poorest parts of Mexico City

Stan and I were up early again to meet Ulises, Lino Marquez (Centro Historico Rotary), and Ofelia A Hernandez from MexFam (like planned parenthood) to go to the community where they are working in collaboration with the Ballard and University (Seattle) Rotary Clubs. This part of the city is considered to be one of the poorest urban regions of Metro D.F.

This community is only about 12 miles from our hotel but seems like light years away in economic terms. MexFam has been working in the community for about 5 years now and a few years ago they realized they needed to take a more systems approach to improving the community.With the help of the the Ballard and University Rotary Clubs in Seattle and Rotary International, the Centro Historico Rotario is building a new community center (85 X 40 ft).

The community is very unique as there is a guard who controls access in and out of the community and there is NO drinking or drugs allowed.  Most of the houses are built in a connected row fashion. they are only about 6' high and only 15 x 15 ft in floor area!.  These houses are not "legal" in the sense that they do not have formal "rights" to the land.

However, with the newer housing (under construction) the owners have land rights.  There is no running water and all the water is delivered by water trucks into open top 55 gal plastic barrels. Each barrel is numbered with the family's house #.

We were invited specifically to look at the opportunities and challenges to provide rain water harvesting and dry latrine solutions.  In addition, they are interested in a community garden.

Like all opportunities this one presents its unique challenges and opportunities.  We look forward to collaborating with these Rotary Clubs to help provide innovative solutions.

From Oaxaca at noon on October 19th

The Rotary Club meeting was changed from 8 PM, Monday (October 17), to 9:30 PM and the day with Mara on Tuesday was cancelled because there was not enough room in the vehicle for all of us and the equipment.  Instead, we met with Juan Jose when they are off collecting water samples.

We arrived at the restaurant for the Antequera Rotary Club meeting at 9:15 PM, thinking that we were fifteen minutes early.  The meeting was already in session, however, so we tried to quietly join and wait for Nelly’s arrival.  The club though was ready to give us the floor immediately and we asked if they preferred us to speak in English or Spanish.  Since they decided on Spanish, we asked if we could wait for Nelly.  Nelly arrived before our 9:30 planned time and then we began.

Antequera Rotary Club with Nelly, Rick and Stan

We thanked them for their support and told them how that support had a positive impact on us obtaining the grant for the School Water Filter Project from the Bremerton Rotary Club.  We then gave them a status update about the project.  The water filter is for the Valentin Gomez Farias Elementary School in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.  The update included information about the school itself, the water testing process, the filter selection & purchase process, filter installation & testing and operations & maintenance.  Initial water tests have already been done.  Additional testing will be done by the university (UABJO) and, possibly, a commercial laboratory, if UABJO cannot run all the tests we need.  We are working with Industrial Mass in Mexico City and our Board Member, Dr. James Fox in Seattle, to make the filter selection.  It will be purchased from Industrial Mass.  Local community members will be trained so they can do the testing, operations and maintenance.  Club members asked a number of questions about this project and other things that we are doing in Oaxaca.  This gave us an opportunity to explain Secretary Cajiga’s initiative and our involvement with it.  They thanked us for our work in Oaxaca and told us that we could depend on them for any help that was needed.  They even said that we could bring receipts for this particular project to them and they would reimburse us.  That is good to know, in case our actual expenses run over our $500 grant.  They were very excited about our work in general.  Rick and Stan are scheduled to visit the school on Thursday.

Tuesday we met with Juan Jose at 11 to discuss how to proceed with Mr. Cajiga.  Nelly is in daily contact with Ileana Sotomayor, his assistant, to get us on his schedule.  So far, no firm date/time has been set.  INSO’s  year long initiative, A Common Plan for the Common Good, consists of a very general agreement with specifics added via addenda.  In our case, however, we all think that it should be a specific contract.  We will get some guidance from the secretary’s office.

Rick suffered through the morning with nausea and an upset stomach.  He could not eat anything and took the rest of the day off to recuperate.  Stan and Nelly went to the Tuesday evening appointment with the head of the Villa de Etla.

L-R: Rumeriz, Stan, SDBBE representative

We arrived by our 6 PM appointment time, were warmly greeted at 6:10 and ushered onto a meeting room with Daniel Rumeriz Rumeriz, the head of Villa de Etla.  Shortly afterwards someone from Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla joined us.  He was Maria’s (the former administration head) environmental representative and the head of the committee that protected the dump from additional illegal dumping.  We had a very frank discussion about the possibility of selecting Villa de Etla as the pilot site for a constructed wetland in the Central Valley.  We explained about Water for Humans involvement with Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla since 2009 and Dr. Jhabvala’s involvement since 2010.  We then explained how the extent of the project has changed from a specific single constructed wetland for Villa de Etla to a pilot for the Central Valley and for the state.  We then explained that the selection process for the pilot site would be based on ideal conditions for the technology, the environmental impact and the social collaboration & impact.  We told him that socially and politically they had a long way to go before we would select them as the pilot site and that the selection would not be made for a number of months yet.  We also told him that the dump was a separate project and that because of it, more land may be needed for the project.

Mr Rumeriz said that they were very interested in being the pilot site and that he was calling for a meeting of the Elders in the Villa de Etla next Tuesday to discuss the matter.  We explained that we are looking at other locations but would monitor the social and political situation there from both Villa de Etla’s perspective and SDBBE’s perspective.  The SDBBE representative was cautiously happy about Villa de Etla’s ‘changed attitude’ and said that they would have to see if actions follow.

All in all, the meeting turned out well.  Villa de Etla seems to be genuinely interested in being considered as the pilot site and they know the important factors that will influence our selection process.

We returned to Oaxaca and Nelly showed Stan her favorite tamale place, a street vendor, close to the zocalo.  Stan bought two tamales for less than the price of one at our favorite tamale restaurant, ate them at home and gave them two thumbs up (at a great price).

Rick was doing much better and had zeroed in on the cause of the nausea:  lemonade. It turns out he is allergic to citrus, and this was compounded by consuming a lot of lemon-lime juice (at most meals).  After some strong antihistamine he is back “with the living.”

Later today we will meet with Jess Perry who is interested in doing a film project about water and sanitation in the face of climate change.  She  contacted us well over a year ago and we look forward to meeting her and learning more about her project. She is very interested to learn about INSO’s work, our collaboration with them and how our joint work could become part of a film. Following this, we will go to the HUB to meet with Megan, one of the founders, and Bravo Ahuja to see the ongoing work on their rain catchment systems.

News update as of 17 Oct 2011

Blog as of 17 Oct

The weekend could not have come soon enough! Last week was like 2+ weeks crammed into one. It seemed like most days started early and did not end until well after 11:30 PM. There was never a break or siesta! Many days lunch came well after 3PM, which was typically short and then back to work until late in the evening with a short break for dinner. Both Stan and I rejoiced in sleeping in and not having to get up and do much of anything. We did work a lot on the very long blog post (posted Sunday night). Both Stan and I agree the Blogger interface could really use some upgrades. Inserting photos and getting them in the correct place takes a really LONG TIME! In compounding the problem Google thought that because I am in Mexico the interface should be in Spanish. It was only after Stan figured out how to change it to English that the editing went better. For one thing the Spanish interface has even less functionality, which makes editing even slower and more difficult. We both agreed that the post is way too long, but so much happened in just a few days that we felt we needed to get as much of the story out to you as we could. We were both happy to be back at our normal lodging spot at Rosalinda’s. It is much lower key then the fancy hotel, and more our style. We are the only guests so we have the run of the place.

For me (Rick) the weekend was spent cruising the city, doing some shopping, hanging out at the zocalo and taking several siestas. On Saturday there was a large youth orchestra with well over fifty kids in it playing in the zocalo. I hung out and listened to them for quite a while as they sounded really good. In my shopping adventures, I did score a new leather brief case which holds my netbook in-style, and some very comfortable sandals, along with some groceries for breakfast. I also stopped by a glasses place to see if they would be cheaper here vs in Seattle. They would cost about the same as in the States so I did not bother with them here. I find it strange that some things are really discounted and other items are at US prices. The weather has been overcast with some light rain, but warm by Seattle standards. On Saturday it was mostly sunny and nice. On Sunday it was cooler and overcast. When I was downtown, I had a very lightweight pile jacket on (unzipped), and I saw several folks with puffy down jackets (all zipped up). This is the coolest part of the year. The weekend had its typical noises with many fireworks, loud bangs and marching bands. On Sunday it seemed like every time I would nod off during my siesta, I would be startled awake by a big bang!

Monday brings the bimonthly status meeting at INSO that lasts most of the morning and includes all of the INSO staff. The meeting is all in Spanish so Rick excused himself to start on this blog update. The meeting began by getting everyone’s input on Friday’s Water Forum to find ways to make future forums better. Other topics included the meetings with the Finance Secretary, the visit to Villa de Etla, an upcoming Expo on Sustainability at the end of this week and many other projects going on at INSO. By the end of the meeting, the entire staff was up to date on all ongoing projects.

Last week Nelly suffered from an infected wisdom tooth that is coming in. Friday, it hurt so much she did not attend the breakfast with us and the Minister, as she swung by the dentist to get a Novocain shot to calm it down for a few hours. Today, Monday, her tooth is better (the dentist can’t remove it until the swelling and infection goes away), however, she has a touch of a cold (I think last week was too stressful and long for her). Luckily for all of us, this week will not be so intense and stressful.

This week will include one or more meetings with Mr. Cajiga to hopefully finalize a contract for our work, along with meetings with community leaders and the Rotary Club. Tonight, we will meet with the Rotary Club to bring them up to date on the status of our school water filter project in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla (SDBBE). Luckily for us the meeting will start at 8 PM, not 10:30 PM, like the other club in town. Tuesday we will go with Mara and her students from Bard College to do some water sampling and then have a 6PM meeting with the municipality head of Etla. Wednesday has no meetings scheduled until 5 PM when we go to Bravo Ahuja to meet with Ines to see the ongoing work to install her rain catchment system. If we have the “day off”, we hope to go shopping with Nelly to get items for our upcoming auction. Thursday, we will meet the school administrator at SDBBE and perform a water pressure test for the filter system. Friday, is currently without meetings. Of course, this schedule may have to be rearranged once we hear back from Secretary Cajiga.

Upcoming Trip to Oaxaca Mexico

Upcoming Mexico Trip
Finally, after more than nine months, we have had a major breakthrough with the state government.

Water for Humans (WFH) will be traveling to Oaxaca to meet with Senor Cajiga, the Oaxaca State Finance Minister, on Oct 10th. The minister has agreed to meet with us (paying our travel) to discuss working on a strategy for water and sanitation, first for the central valley and hopefully for the entire state. This work will be divided between WFH and our partner NGO: Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca INSO. WFH will be bringing Dr. Firdaus Jhabvala (from Natural Systems International/Biohabitats) to help with contracting and municipal sanitation.

Our goals for the finance minister are to do the following:

• Secure a contract to develop a strategy for water and sanitation projects.
• Secure commitments/funding for pilot projects.

We will be in Oaxaca for two weeks working with the Senor Cajiga and following up on our other projects: school water filer and rain catchment.

Bremerton Rotary Club Grant to Water for Humans

Water for Humans (WFH) received a $500 grant from the Rotary Club of Bremerton (Washington) to further their mission in Oaxaca, Mexico. The grant will be used to provide for a water filter for the Valentin Gomez Farias Elementary School in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, twenty km northwest of Oaxaca City. The school initially came to WFH and INSO (Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca), our NGO partner in Oaxaca, for assistance in this matter. Money currently used to buy expensive bottled water will be used to purchase badly needed school supplies. Water for Humans will be working with the Antequera Rotary Club (of Oaxaca) to implement this project.

Our last formal meeting

We spent the past few days not in meetings; however we have been working hard rewriting all of our web copy, executive summaries and funding letters. We tried to take a siesta prior to our last meeting with the other Oaxaca Rotary club at 9 pm. We had corresponded with this club in the prior week, but had not been able to contact them about attending this specific meeting, so we just showed up and invited ourselves. From what I have seen of the Rotary clubs in the Seattle area this would be impossible to just show up. We sort of learned from our last Rotary meeting, and this time we showed up at 9 pm for the scheduled 9 pm meeting. Even then we were still “Gringos,” as we were early. Shortly after 9 several of the Rotary officials started to trickle in. Claire introduced us to several officials. They instantly knew who we are and welcomed us warmly.

Little did we know that this would turn out to be a very important meeting for both the local Rotary club and us. First, there were close to 30 members there. This meeting was special because, it included many old and returning members. Because we were had not heard back from them, and they were excited to hear what we are up to, they squeezed us into the agenda to present our wetland project. The meeting opened with the formal “ringing of the bell” followed with introductions from everyone. The Rotary officers read their reports; we all stood for the saluting Mexico’s flag while the national anthem played. A fellow member presented a thorough presentation on geriatric injuries. Then Claire presented for us. Personally I was intimidated by the large group. I was concerned how they would receive our idea and request to support our efforts. As usual, my fear was ill-founded. The club was excited to hear that we are working on a new approach to the defunct and nonexistent sewage treatment plants. Several members asked clarifying questions and how they could help us with our project. After several more short presentations and introductions the formal meeting was closed. After the formalities, several members came to talk to us and stress that they would be proud to help us however they could. They realize the sewage problem is a systemic issue; one member stated it would be great to have a solution to show the “engineers” that there is a better way.

We left the meeting both tired and charged up. On one side we were tired and glad to have our last scheduled business meeting finished (and on a good note). On the flip side we were wired with excitement that we have another key partner to add to our team.

Many-Meeting Martes

Tuesday, July 28th was another busy day for us, with three major events scheduled. “Mango Lady’s” several trays of fruit (mango, pineapple, watermelon…) got us going as we made our way to the patio office below INSO.

Event #1
We packed up our bags and joined Nelly for a trip up to INSO’s permaculture demonstration site, El Pedregal. The site rests in the foothills SE of Oaxaca, only accessible via a steep, bumpy road meant for 4-wheel drive vehicles only. Arriving at the entrance, we enjoyed a panoramic view of the greater Oaxaca valley; the ominous clouds had yet to roll in and obstruct our view. The site is about 3 hectares (7.5 acres) in size, and was donated by a local land owner. INSO has been improving the site for the past 5 years, turning an arid, rocky mountainside into an arable, green and healthy land.

A major part of INSO’s work is centered on reforestation. The old growth forest, once extending to the valley floor, now starts another 300 ft up the hillside. In performing reforestation one must “slow the water down” while it flows down a treeless hillside. This is where the techniques of permaculture come in to play. One of these techniques is “terracing” of the hillside, in which trenches are dug along the hill’s contours. In these new trenches (area #7 on the map) they have planted grasses to slow soil erosion. (Please see the site map showing the major features below for the major features of INSO demonstration site.)















We spent several hours hiking around the site as Nelly explained each of the major features and how they contribute to the overall system, as well as pointed out many local plants and birds that have begun to inhabit the area again. Main features include water catchment systems, hillside stabilization-re planting and green houses. The two main water catchment basins hold over 3.3 million L. combined.











The black “green house” is really a big bird net to protect the 1,000+ tree seedlings, while the big white “green house” grows tomatoes and other produce (recently yielding over 5 metric tons from just this site!).



















Specially designed composting latrines also play an integral role in the project. These latrines are designed to directly produce compost that can be used to grow food crops without any contamination, INSO has another ongoing latrine project in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, and have used the compost on corn fields for outstanding yield.


Event # 2 "The Oaxaca Hub"
We arrived back in town just in time for a short siesta before the next two meetings of the day. At 5pm we met with the “Oaxaca Hub.” Started by Mark Beams and Sten Maldonado who are modeling this project after the “Hubs” in Europe, the “Hub’s” premise is to be a shared office space for small local NGO’s that work in the country and need a central place to call home. More importantly, it is a place where everyone can collaborate for the common good. The “Hub” is in its infancy. We met at a local restaurant and talked about our common goals and challenges, and devised ways to collaborate to help each other realize our dreams. After an hour and a half, we walked back to our casa for a second siesta before meeting with a local Rotary club at 9pm.




Event # 3 Rotary Club
We were typical gringos as we arrived at the meeting place about 8:45, and the first Rotary folks showed up about 9:15. It seems like either folks here in Oaxaca are really prompt or they are on more of a Mexico time schedule. By 9:30, the bulk of the group had arrived and we began with introductions. This meeting was called especially for us, and the rotary president rang the honorary bell they received on Rotary International’s 100 Anniversary (in 2005). In typical Rotary fashion the meeting was formally called to order, and we all saluted the flag of Mexico. Then Claire described what we were doing in Oaxaca and what we hope to accomplish. The club members asked many great questions about how we have built the relationships with INSO, the University and the communities. As the questions and answers flew back and forth, they became increasingly supportive and interested in what we are trying to do. Then the formal part of the meeting ended and we all shared a meal while small-talking and stories about ourselves. We staggered back home and arrived well after midnight. Luckily, Wednesday was a “no meeting day,” and boy did we need a rest day! I (Rick) was suffering from a “gluten hangover” from some wheat I ate on Tuesday. I am Gluten intolerant and when I eat gluten (wheat) I get a big allergy reaction that manifests itself by zapping all my energy for a day or two. Good thing there’s gelato!