This July we traveled to Santa Maria Cahabon to install two water captation systems in two villages. Once in Cahabon, we traveled in different groups to the villages to help with the installation as well as meet the families in the communities.
Chipajche
We took a drive up the mountains for about an hour to this community where around 90 people live. Our group was received warmly with a ceremonial welcome where the community leaders prayed for us and thanked our volunteers for the gift of water. We joined the children in different activities and games during the first day the installation was made for the rain water pipe that leads to the water tanks. The tanks were put in place on a cement foundation. The second day the volunteers connected the water tanks and the system was finished with the help of the community and our volunteers as well as the municipal workers. We would like to thank the Williams family, Craig Cleveland and Hans Gonzales, the community of Chipajche for helping the children and their families have a continuous supply of water.
San Pedro Marichaj
The second village is about three hours north of the main city of Santa Maria Cahabon, Alta Verapaz. Twenty three families and their children live in this village. The families had no portable water or a school house for the kids. With the help of Henkel, Guatemala we were able to build a water system and a school house for the children of the families that live here. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints provided pencil pouches filled with school supplies for the children and the Cleaveland family gave the children toys and games to play with. We would like to thank Engineer, Jose Manuel Flores, The Nelson family, the mayor of Santa Maria Cahabon and the many other family and volunteers that helped make this project a reality.
