One man, ( Marcelano ) and his wife, fished for 2 weeks , gutted and dried his fish then at 5.00a.m. one day he and his wife, set off to paddle to Livingston. A 3-4hour journey, 2-3 hours to sell the fish and 3-4 hours to paddle back to arrive just before dark if they were lucky.
For that they received Q650.00 =£ 41.00 =Q50 per day.
Marcelano has 5 children aged 5 – 15 all at school costing Q7.75 per day each = Q38.75 per day for all 5 .
To grind the corn cost Q2 per day for fuel for the motor, so he’s got 10Q per day left.
Marcelano has 6 tallers of land, on which he grows corn and pineapples. His home is one room. In one corner is a bed in which he and his wife sleep, the 5 children sleep in hammocks. On one wall is a wooden structure with a stone on it on which they make the fire to cook. For fuel they mostly use corn- husks and the outer leaves of the corn. The inner leaves they eat. The only furniture in the hut is a Pepsi-cola crate that his wife sits on whilst she separates the corn for their food. He is building a second room next to his house.
He is worried about his oldest son who will leave school soon at 16. His only chance is to find a sponsor to send him to college. For accommodation, uniform, food, books etc. he will require about Q1,000 per month = £ 66.00 and it is required for 6 years. That is the amount that Rossi the teacher received from her sponsor in USA. She would love to go on to university but again she would need a sponsor.
There are other children in the village who Rossi, their teacher, says are coming up to leaving age and are capable of a college education.
Another family we know a lot about is Jorge’s, he’s the same age as Marcelano about 30-40, has 3 children. The youngest boy at 5 doesn’t go to school; he seems to have a problem. His oldest boy, 8 years, cannot walk, talk or feed himself, he just bangs his head. He is in a hospice in Antigua which costs Q800.00 per month, which they have to pay . They try to visit him once or twice a year but the journey costs Q800 and they cannot always afford it. (Q800. = £54. ) They also have a girl aged 6, but because they cannot afford to keep her at home she lives with her uncle in another town 4 hours away and goes to school there.
Like Marcelano, Jorge is a fisherman, grows pineapples and works in the forest/ jungle. He is also a very talented musician and plays the guitar and marimba.
Health
We have found a Doctor, an Israeli /Guatemalan, brought up on a Kibbutz, got to America worked as a washer-upper & cook whilst he trained as a Dr. and now works around the world helping poor communities, 8 months in Cuba, 3 years in Peru etc. But always when he can he returns to Guatemala. We introduced him to “our village” and like us he has fallen in love with these gentle, lovely people who are working so hard to help themselves.
He has examined all the children and says that due to their diet they are suffering from malnutrition. Through a contact in Malta he has arranged for powdered milk and other Food Aid which should arrive soon. He and I have discussed various ways to quickly give work and raise cash on an ongoing basis.
Becoming Self Sufficient
We have agreed to start a fish farm. He has visited Guatemala City government officials who (he says) have answered that there is no objection to a fish farm. He has obtained details of a project in Peru that raised fish from egg’s, which were incubated then moved on. Because we are in a lake with a good water flow we do not need expensive oxygenating systems, he says that young fish can be bought locally so our project can be done more cheaply. He has located the project manager who has agreed for a one off payment of $150.00 to visit the site to do a feasibility project. He has further agreed to oversee the project free of charge for up to one year.
We calculate we can be sending fish to the market in between 4-6 months. I have the print out in Spanish of this project and a partial translation. I have agreed to finance this project which we calculate that it will cost $3,000.00 for the materials with the labour coming free from the community.
I have personally guaranteed $3,150.00 If this is successful we will look at farming shrimp and blue crab. Both of these are produced or caught locally and command a good price. They have a `closed season’ which will not apply to our farmed product so will produce an even bigger profit and should be fundable from the fish farm.
Later we are going to look at Coney Culture, ie, large Australian rabbits. The skin can be used locally in craft production and the meat processed and sold in Guatemala City.
As part of the agreement between myself and the Association, witnessed and signed by all parties, it is agreed that there should be no visual pollution, ie the place should look pretty after the project is in.
I see yachties in Fronteras as another easy way to exploit a source of income.
I have left my yacht on their existing jetty and have paid in advance for 9 months storage. I have instructed one man on maintenance of batteries etc, and if successful he will receive further money on my return. With the local joiner and another man, who I have trained, the boat is having a re-fit which is giving skills and work to the village.
The village has agreed to extend the jetty and upon our return I can pull in yachties. By word of mouth alone I have had 6 yachties in during the last 2 weeks, all of whom have fallen in love with the place and the people.
The village has a fiesta once a year in June or July. Hundreds of Indians from other villages attend and they have fantastic costumes. These are used only once a year. I am sure that I can organise a monthly or fortnightly fiesta that can bring crowds in from the yachitie community, which will generate instant cash and lead to some possibly deciding to use the marina.
Marcelano has agreed, and the Association has agreed ,to give me ½ of his land and his house. He keeps the other half and I help him to build a new house. The Committee has agreed at a preliminary meeting that this is OK . A further meeting is necessary with other members who couldn’t make the first meeting to make it final. I will never own the land and everything will revert on my death or when I decide, to the possession of the Association.
My plan is to learn how to build a simple house for Marcelano that will have separate rooms for him & his wife, the girls and the boys. It will have sanitation via a septic tank jointly with his original house. Will have a potable supply of water by using the lake water pumped by pumps that they already have into tanks, already in existence by filtration, chemical treatment and sedimentation.
At the same time I will be altering his existing house to improve that. I intend to set up a public works department, PWD. There are 10 able bodied men in the village and I will employ 2 men each day so that after 5 days each man will have had one days paid work; Q50 per day. Costs Q500 per week or £ 33.33 = £1,733.00.p.a
This will result not only in projects being implemented but all the men will be learning new skills, and receiving income. The PWD will also employ several of the women, ie, the widow and her unmarried simple daughter who now have no income at all.
Water Supply
My first priority is to provide a secure supply of potable water . The population is mainly located in 3 locations, 4-5 families in the region of Marcelano’s home. There is a concrete tower with a plastic tank that feeds a washing area with 3 bowls and a tap, the tank is filled with ,rain water from a very small corrugated tin catchment panel. It has never rained once in the 4 months that we were there and the tank was empty. There are another 3-4 families on the opposite side of the lagoon and as yet I have no idea if they have any system but to collect water from the hotel as everyone else seems to do.
The main population of approx. 10 homes are around the edge of the football field which is the centre of the community and at the edge has the school , the church, a theatre and the hotel. There is a complicated system of water catchments from these roofs that is supposed to enter a pond and from there is should be pumped by a small mobile petrol generator to, I know not where. Once again since there has been no rain this system does not work.
Someone has put a fantastic amount of money into this village, and in all they have a concrete church, a concrete school room with a wooden annex. A concrete clinic with an operating table, microscope, shower area & toilet, but we don’t know if there is actually water in that building. An artisans area, a theatre; concrete steps for the seating area with a huge thatched roof, (at school playtimes I’ve noticed that the boys play football on the full sized football field and the girls play ball in the theatre area. A large wooden/thatched village hall, a joiner workshop area, and a small building that contains a diesel engine that drives a grinding machine for their maize. There is also an 8 bedroom hotel and restaurant.
Lastly there is a large building that contains a large petrol driven generator that is used to provide electricity to all the main buildings described as above. Adjacent to the hotel a well has been dug which appears to be deeper than the lake and allows lake water to seep in. A portable petrol pump pumps water into an overhead tank on top of the hotel, I repeat, this is the only source of drinkable water in the village.
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