Above is a shot of my homestay mom Lucia's canasta. Beautiful design, colors and technique. She's selling it for between $150 and $200, but to give you an idea what they're worth in a gallery in the states, check out this link to Michael Smith Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. It's actually a fair trade gallery, but it'll give you a better idea of what this kind of high quality, indigenous art is worth on the private market. There's also a gallery called Rain Forest Baskets that showcases some lovely work, and is worth it just to look at the incredible photos of some massive baskets, but also has some really good information on the Wounaan people an the process of basket weaving.
Okay, that's enough for canasta for the time being. I pour myself into that particular project mostly because my women make my Peace Corps experience so rich. It's definitely helped to provide me with a sense of purpose and direction in my community at times when all my other efforts come to nothing. There are times when I just want to give up on everything related to water and sanitation and just work on this project, but the water and sanitation projects are so important and so vital to the health and wellness of the community, that I just can't give it up. Speaking of water and sanitation, I'll give you an update on what's going on with that.
IDAAN (the agency that provides potable water to communities of more than 10,000 people) has been working on this huge project in the Darién for almost 6 years, and they've finally finished it and are laying the connection tubes. I talked to a contractor that's laying the pipes, and he told me that they have projected completing the project by October, which means that my community would have totally potable water, 24/7 beginning in October. If they agree to the IDAAN contract.
Turns out that "if" is a big one. I had a conversation with my women's group about the possibility of having this water by October, and I anticipated modest resistance, but I was met with outright refusal to accept this water. Their reasoning was that they want "their" water (as in the water that passes through cattle grazing lands about a 3 hour walk from the community), and that they already have chlorination tanks, so why couldn't they just use those and let Arimae and La Lomita (the neighboring communities currently using the same aqueduct) have the IDAAN water? I understand their desire to keep control on their system, but it's essentially rooted in a fear that someone is going to cut them off if they're delinquent on their payment.
On top of that fear, there is also the more problematic issue of their limited understanding of water borne diseases, and the dangers that come with having contaminated water. They also have no idea what a parasite is, and what makes it different from bacteria or a virus, and, most importantly, what's so bad about having them floating around their system. There are definite health issues related to constant infections by amoebas, parasites and bacteria, especially in children. But a lot of the adults in my community have probably developed a pretty healthy resistance to the bugs floating through my system, so the difference for them would be pretty minimal. The difference for them would be availability of water (no one would have to run up to the house and fill all the buckets when water finally comes back in the pipes) and they wouldn't have to ration bathing and drinking water. Furthermore, they would have more time to do their own work, or things they want to work on because they wouldn't constantly have to have meetings and entreat people to go out and fix the line where it has various breaks and punctures. Man power, money, and time would all be saved if they switched over. Even after I made all these logical, totally brilliant and articulate arguments in favor of the other system, they were still pretty set against it. La lucha.
I'm in the city for the next five days. If you have time and want to Skype, let me know what time and I'll make some time to get a hold of people. Much love to all!
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