While it is no longer called this, there is a caserio (a smaller part within an aldea/town) within the aldea (town), El Carmen, called Toj-Wabil that used to be called Toj-Suj, which means "where there is vapor". It’s nice to see that memories of these original names in Mam are being kept alive, at least a little. Now, let's get into the need for safe drinking water!
The community need that Don Werner taught me about is the need for safe drinking water. In 1993, Don Werner became alcalde (mayor), and the greatest and most urgent health need he saw was access to drinkable water. Back then, only one aldea (town) had water aside from the center of Palestina, El Eden. Within the center and El Eden, however, not all of the caserios (neighborhoods) had water, and so the project of rural water and sanitation was born. This project included not only building a system to transport water to all of Palestina but also installing latrines (before this, people were solely using the bathroom in the outdoors), trainings on sanitation (how to keep your house and yard clean, animals and children separate, and dispose of waste in a way that keeps you and your neighbors healthy and safe), and some work with reforestation (however, we did not focus on this part in our interview). This project also included putting a chlorination system in place and teaching people how to check that the water is ready to be consumed by people. The system used to send water to all of the rural communities (aldeas) is called the sistema de bombeo (pumping system), which is a mechanical energy system used to transport water from one place to another.
