They have water!

The community of El Espino has always had a soft spot in both Tristan and my heart - we love visiting the remote mountain community. No running water, no electricity, no church, and with a 1 year old, one-room school house. This coffee farming community of 18 families are hard working and enjoy the simplicity of life. We have been able to do some improvements at the school and form relationships through water filters, and conversations. One thing that came out of that was learning of their desire to have water reach their homes - the source of water was a 5 minute hike up the mountain, which meant for a lot of buckets hauled back to their home each day. The teacher drew us a crayon map of the community to get us started on explaining the water dream. For 5 years we've had that map in our office, waiting to do something about it.

A few years ago we met some incredible people that were willing to foot the bill to give this community water. After GPS mapping, engineer planning, and lots of time spent getting the engineer to finally gave us the plans, Tristan was able to run with it.   The community worked tirelessly as the road is treacherous and because material couldn't be delivered at the site, the men would meet the delivery truck at the bottom and carry up the bags of cement. They dug all the ditches,  cleared the land, collected the rock, and put in all the sweat labor - 310 days (among the workers) worked to be exact.. I'm so proud of them! - this built up the unity of the community as they worked together to make this project a success!

                                              

To the left is the protected source of water (the kids all followed Tristan up to the water tank).  The 3 ladies in the picture are washing clothes and dishes at the wash board.  The big cylinder behind is the storage tank.

Last week Tristan went to finish the project - the collection boxes are in, the storage tank complete, and tubes are run to 15 homes that now have water at their house for the first time ever! The other 3 homes live above the tank so they walk down to the tank and use the wash board to wash their clothes at a sanitary place. There is also a water connection waiting at the future site of the church they are hoping to build.

     

    

Having water accessible at their house will great increase their basic sanitation, hygiene, and health!

The town is SO GRATEFUL. In anticipation of the donor's arrival, the town had a meal prepared, banners and signs hung, and a plaque prepared. You will not find a sweeter, more humble community. When these community members come to our clinic, they always arrive with bags of their produce to bless the clinic staff with - oranges, banana's, etc.  

Their newly formed Water Committee presented El Ayudante with a thank you plaque.