Day Two - The Other Guatemala

Is clean water a privilege or a right? Today we visited some 20 families in Cerro de Oro across the lake. We were installing water filtration systems and checking on the status of others delivered about four months ago.

The range of wealth in this village of about 2000 families was wide by local standards. I'll try to offer the perspective of their world.

The first lady my team visited (Jon and Jorge) lived in a 12 by 8 foot freestanding room with her three children. Her husband was, well, not around.

Her home had a dirt floor and a corrugated roof. The walls were bamboo sticks and wire. Half of her home consisted of her bed that she shared with her children and chickens. She kept the hatch lings in an old, blue plastic laundry basket turned upside down to keep them save and from underfoot.

Before we arrived, her water source was from a community well about 20 muddy feet away. Guatemala is a beautiful country, but it is wet and the animals run free and share their space with every barefoot child and lost soul in the village.

Life is hard when your every effort is consumed by finding food and firewood everyday. The worries about health are always another moment away. But when you have a family as beautiful these young ladies would suggest, it would seem hard being a parent when you don't know where your next drink of clean, safe water is coming from.

The team is going to dinner now and debriefing on our efforts. I'll post a few more pictures and a video or two later this evening if all goes well.

Paz