In the dry season, a different kind of work:
The well project in La Canoa needs to be revised because the land owners do not want a well on their property. The alternatives are: to dig above this property or below it and hope to find water; to improve Medio Mundo; and finally: to add rain catchment materials to the school. The first choice has a relatively high risk of failure because the water tends to sink between the rocks and go down to levels beyond the reach of ordinary hand dug wells. Medio Mundo lies about six kilometers from homes in La Canoa and is extremely isolated. Any improvements in Medio Mundo could easily be damaged or the pipes removed and no one would have a clue as to who did it. That leaves the school.
Rainwater from the school:
The big advantage of catching rainwater is the closeness to children who need the water. The chief drawback is the uncertainty of land ownership. Some of the Catholic schools have titles for the land while others have agreements that could be terminated at the owner´s whim. La Canoa appears to be in the latter category.
Why did they not buy the land?
When the Catholic schools started in the mountains, no one knew for sure how long the immigrant population would remain in the area. Father Antonio began during a severe drought and the immigrant population was in movement out of the area in search of agricultural work with more reliability. In addition, the community faced increasing hostility from the military. So the schools began as simple structures with land agreements that seemed to cover the needs at the time.
The children with blue shirts:
The boys in the above picture attend morning classes in La Canoa. Their parents will encourage them to keep going with school, requiring long trips down the mountain to Los Patos. We observe a pattern of Haitian families moving closer to the towns in order to better serve their children´s educational needs. Thus we encounter mobility in our student population... another reason to use materials that can be moved from one school to another. We will go ahead with the idea of fixing the roof for rain catchment and purchase a large polyvinyl holding tank to store the water. This option seems to meet the most needs. How blessed we are with the funds from Elko to be able to choose a response to the water needs, especially of the school children!
