Mixing cement in a sun trap

“I’m volunteering in a women’s rights organisation”: there’s a phrase that gives nothing away. So I figured for those of you vaguely interested, or slightly confused, about what I’m doing out here, this blog post’s for you! (Afraid no photos, I’m getting a CD of pictures the day before I leave Mexico, so not sure if I’ll have time to upload them before I leave, we’ll see).

I’m actually volunteering on one project, which focuses on discussing women’s rights, the environment and works towards increasing resources. The project is taking place in Huizachera, a very poor colonia on the outskirts of Guadalajara. Life is very difficult here, and everyone has a pocketful of heartbreaking stories.

The idea was it would be a big group of women from Huiza, with a few of us from IMDEC, building things, raising autonomy and having a nice time. In reality, there’s 4 of us from IMDEC, and 4 women from Huizachera, with the odd husband and child tagging along. From IMDEC there’s Carmen (she likes to bring articles along about teamwork and the suffrage), Sandy (from France, is French), Sandy’s husband Javier (laaaaaid back) and Moi. The Huizachera ladies are: Mary (building at her house, my Mexican mother, loves to be right in the middle of things), Ana (hilarious, around 50 and has a lunatic 4 year old), Lupita (smiley, always brings the two kids along) and Queta (amazing feminist, her husband threatened to leave her because she’s a member of too many women’s groups and committees, she told him to go ahead. He left, her life stayed the same, he came back, still didn’t change a thing).

What we are doing, other than chatting (there’s a lot of chatting, we have a nice time), is building a waterless toilet, kind of like an outhouse, as it’s ecological, plus there’s no running water in the Colonia. So it’s a little bathroom with a loo, built over a part housing a big bucket with sawdust and other stuff in. It sounds so much simpler than it is, however it also should not have taken us 5 months, but it has, and to be honest I don’t really mind, it’s kept me occupied, and everyone is really lovely (have I mentioned we have a nice time?).

We can only go to Huizachera a couple of days a week, and between 10am and 12 noon because the women run the households (Ana and Queta are single mothers/grandmothers), so after 12 they have to go home and cook and look after the little ‘uns. Also, IMDEC decided to have end of year meetings the whole of December, and beginning of year meetings most of January, so only a couple of days work in those months. I have really enjoyed my work there though, mixing cement, laying bricks (I am not skilled at this), putting up wooden structures, plastering with mud (I am very skilled at this). Plus it was really great how into it everyone was, building, sawing and drilling, it was really good fun doing the things that are generally seen as male tasks.

A brief rundown of what we did: built a compost heap full of holes for air circulation for the loo waste and everything else to go in, built the base of bricks that the bucket goes in, treated all the wood, built the wooden loo cubicle structure, cut bamboo, filled the loo walls with bamboo to support the plastering, plastered the walls with a mixture of earth, water and hay (actually it was alfalfa, we couldn’t find hay, but that’s not important), put on the roof  which is a fibreglass ridged sheet thing, got doors, put up the doors, put up other bits around the doors, made steps up to the loo and DONE! (Actually, we haven’t finished the steps yet, but hush now).

We’ve also talked about rights a lot, and the importance for caring for the environment and things like that. I’ve heard a lot of sad stories, and things that have upset me, but also these women are great, and they really are changing their lives. Mary’s husband, Nacho, always seemed lovely, but I heard conflicting things about him as to confuse me quite a lot. When Javier was around (he was in Haiti for the last month or so of the building) Nacho was always happy to help though clearly exhausted from work, yet as soon as Javier wasn’t around Nacho ardently refused to help. One day Mary wasn’t there and Nacho refused to let us in until he heard Carmen’s voice, who he sees as the 2^nd in command of the project. He is apparently quite macho, and didn’t agree with the project being run solely by women once Javier wasn’t there, especially as we were building things and doing things that men traditionally do.

Another girl who sometimes came along but couldn’t really help was Estrella, 15 years old and heavily pregnant gave birth 2^nd March to a little girl), she has a sad, option-less life, and has witnessed so much violence and pain – and she’s 15! Another day Queta told us how she has 7 children but has given birth 9 times, one child died from eating some of her husbands work stuff (he made bricks). Ana’s husband decided to go to America for a better life, she’s never heard from him again. Then you get the random off hand comments about how their husbands beat them, or don’t give their permission for them to go and do what they want. All of this just makes me glad that, for example, Queta is an ardent feminist and this group is raising awareness about women’s rights and what women have done in the past to get us where we are. Previously I’ve only really discussed and experienced feminism in the University situation or with people who have been to university, so to experience feminism in a completely different setting was really great. The 8^th of March is International Women’s Day, which equally celebrates how much we’ve achieved, but also focuses on how much more we have to change, and I think that really sums up the situation in Huizachera specifically and obviously the world in general.

I have greatly enjoyed working in Huiza with the ladies, and I’ll miss them and their ridiculous banter. Sorry I got a bit feminism-y at the end, but hey, you know what?: WOO, WOMEN!!!

E x