For our Service-Learning week, Hannah, Jesse, Andrea, Kiren and Keith chose, to work with Centeotl, a community organization, located in Zimatlan, about 45 minutes south of Oaxaca city. Our work week would be spent in the Sierra Sur mountains, within the hidden village of La Soledad.Upon arrival in La Soledad on Monday we were expected to give a presentation to the La Soledad community and the focus has something to do with water. We were all a bit uneasy at we were going to be doing in the coming week. Following weeks of working with Gustavo Esteva, the idea of a bunch of American college students trying to help a community through a development organization (Centeotl) seemed to go against everything we had been discussing and understanding. We arrived in Zimatlan, where we would be spending our nights, and went to bed unsure of what the week would bring.
Monday morning (and then every morning!) we arose and headed to the market, a block-long gymnasium type building with pigeons roosting in the crossbars of the high ceiling. Navigating our way through the stalls of veggies and fruits, which at this time in the morning were just opening, we sat down at a counter and ordered hot chocolate y pan dulce (sweet bread for dipping), a common way to start the day off around here. After eating some eggs (huevos rancheros and huevos mexicanos) and feeling quite stuffed, we walked across town to the Centeotl headquarters, passing through the large and newly renovated zocalo, a hub for social interactions throughout the day.
Arriving at Centeotl, we were greeted by Nicandro, our guide for the week. Nicandro and Chuy, the director for Centeotl, gave a Power-Point about Centeotl and its commitment to conserving natural resources in villages and helping them build community autonomy and solvency through different projects.
After the introduction, we all piled into a silver camionetta (pickup truck), and we left for La Soledad. Winding up along the river into the mountains, the air dusty with the red soil kicked up by the truck, it was clear that this was the height of the dry season; the trees were bare, gnarled, and sparse, the cornfields were fallow with last years dry stalks standing up at angles, and the river was barely flowing. After winding back and forth up a hill, we arrived at on a concrete platform built into the hill and surrounded by small, mostly one-story houses, a medical center, a community jail (empty), a store, and some other buildings. This was La Soledad, nestled along a fairly steep tributary running down to the river, with homes extending far up the mountainsides, connected by footpaths."The group", the community members working with Centeotl, had been expecting us, and came to greet us as we hopped out of the truck. Fifteen women, all very short with deep tan and tough skin, wearing teal blue aprons and skirts with jelly sandals, and two men, also short with cowboy-style hats greeted each of us with a hand shake and a “Buenos dias”. Nicandro told them that we “don’t eat people” and everyone laughed.
First we toured their community and the projects that they have been working on. Dodging burro poop on the winding paths, we noticed many composting toilets (dry bathrooms), one of
the Centeotl projects. We came upon a field planted with amaranth, a protein rich grain, another Centeotly supported project. Fish ponds were also constructed to raise mojarra, a type of bass, used for their own consumption as well as a source of income. The community also has a reforestation project complete with a shade house to grow tree seedings. Many of the trees have been lost to clearning to grow crops or harvested for firewood. Finally, we stopped at the taller de jugetes (toy workshop), where children and adults alike make and paint wooden birds and butterflies to sell.We spent the rest of the day and the next day split into two teams with the villagers to explore and document the water sources of the community or “ojos de agua”, the eyes of water. We took
many pictures of the “ojos de agua” and the surrounding area. Upon arrival back at the hotel, we debriefed and talked about how the people were very aware of what was going on with their water, the importance of keeping it clean and the impact of deforestation.The two groups visited a total of eight springs, in some cases bushwacking down steep slopes in order to find the springs. Many time during out long hikes, we would sit and rest and chat – there was no hurry. Through this, the villagers' hospitality became more and more evident.
As we talked, began to recognize that through our presence in the village and our interest in the community projects, we were shining a light on how much the people had already accomplished. We realized that what we thought would be a “presentation” would now be a conversation with the community. Through conversation two very different cultures could learn from each other, a necessity for peace and understanding in this increasingly globalized world.
Wednesday is market day in Zimatlan and the streets are closed for blocks and villagers come from all over to set up stands. We did not go to La Soledad because the entire village came to Zimatlan for market day. We spotted some women from La Soledad, who were bursting with excitement to see us.
We spent the rest of the day and deep in to the night working on our “presentation” for the community the next day. We created a poster with all the pictures of the 10 different springs we had visited with a topographical map of the area in the middle. Reforestation in La Soledad is of the utmost importance in order to keep a steady supply of groundwater, but due to soil conditions, villagers only had a narrow window of time in which to plant. A second poster was created illustrating the use of compost from the dry toilets to produce healthier and stronger trees that could lengthen their growing season.As we talked about our “presentation” we came to see our role in the community as a reason for the community to come together and talk about their water and the future. Although conditions were not dire right now, there was an overwhelming chance that they will only get worse.
On Thursday we learned to make tortiallas. Evidently, when you are able to make a tortilla that puffs up while cooking, you are ready to be married. Then we entered the toy workshop and painted
birds and butterflies for 4 hours. After comida, it was time for the community meeting. Our role was to share what we had seen and to get the conversation going. We spoke about what we heard from the community members, what we saw, and about our experiences. We also shared with them our visit to San Andres Huajapam, a reforestation projects that reinvigorated their wells in only five years. As the discussion came to a close, Tia Rica, a woman in the village, stood up and spoke passionately about the need for La Soledad to come together and start planning and implementing these projects right now. Nicandro did a wonderful job of connecting everything together and spoke about identifying next steps with the community. The atmosphere was moving, and after we were done one of the women asked if she could keep the "Abono es Bueno" poster to share with other community members.
We returned for our last day in a whirlwind of tortilla making, painting the birds and butterflies and shared a huge feast with fresh mojarra fish from the community tanks. We were invited to return the community and will attend a communion there March 15th.
On top of the beautiful experience of getting to know the people of La Soledad, our time in this community was the perfect end to Gustavo Esteva's class. We learned about a different form of development. Organizations like Centeotl worked to develop community autonomy, as opposed to developing integration into the "globalized world".
Some more photos:
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