Mexico Trip, Sept-Oct 2011

A trip to Mexico to Make an Assessment of the CP and Start a Transition Process toward a local Management of the Program

A Good Devotional for Today's Readers:
http://www.billygraham.org/dailydevotion.asp?ArticleID=7422




Emergency in Honduras:
http://tiempo.hn/index.php/portada/8870-envian-750-raciones-de-alimentos-a-colon

http://laprensa.hn/Secciones-Principales/Honduras/Regionales/Lluvias-danan-la-pavimentada-hacia-Trujillo






:::::::::Trip Log:::::::::

Attention:
All entries from Sun Sept. 25 to Thu Sept. 29, 2011
[Referring to the Assessment in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca - Mexico], can now be viewed in this link
http://misionesdelaguainternacional.blogspot.com/2011/10/salina-cruz-oaxaca-mexico-assessments.html

You will not find them here anymore.  Thanks and Blessings!!!

Monday Sept. 19-Wednesday Sept. 21, 2011.-

We, Leonel Ayestas and HAC, left Tocoa about 6am driving two Toyotas 4x4 since one of us is staying back in Chiapas to continue work for an extra two weeks to follow up work with WMI Chiapas technicians.  We drove to El Jaral project site in Santa Rita, Copan to make a quarterly visit to this project, where we left to the HN-GT border around 4pm.  

Due to heavy rains in western Honduras, the Copan river flooded the main road to the GT border and we had to choose a detour to El Florido border checkpoint

Once in GT, we drove to the city of Zacapa, GT where we stayed overnight at Torre Fuerte Hotel.  During our driving to GT we heard on the news about a 5.2 earthquake that hit the SE area of GT.  Next day, Tuesday 9/20, we left Zacapa around 5.30am, drove through Guatemala City to the village of Las Animas (Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango - GT) to make another quarterly visit, where we left to the GT-MX border around 4pm.

Driving through the Guatemalan country under heavy rains most of the road.  This slowed us down during our trip.

 

Arriving to the city of Coatepeque, Dept. of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala (above); then to the village of Las Animas.  Sister Cosby of the local Monte Olivos Presbyterian Church (holding her 1-year old baby girl, sleeping in her kangaroo bag) and her husband Pr. Luis Gomez standing in front of the LWTS water treatment system.

 

We arrive to the border around 5pm and made all paperwork to enter Mexico, which we did with no problems at all, and continued our drive to Tapachula Chiapas, where we arrived around 7pm to stay the night at Cavildo's Hotel.

GT-MX border town of Tecun Uman, on the Guatemalan side.

Entering the country of Mexico through the border town of Ciudad Hidalgo, Chis.

 

Next day, Wed. 9/21, we started driving to San Capuciano, our final destination for the first part of this trip, around 8am, went through the capital city of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, and finally got to SCDLC around 3pm.  Using our GPS system, we made it directly to the un-named place with no problem by ourselves and were received by Donkin Salatiel, who was kind to show us our rooms before him leaving to work, not before that showing us a nearby place to have some lunch/dinner, where we had some good Oaxacan Tlayudas! 
After this, we returned to the house and made ourselves comfortable, completed some unpacking, met with WMI technician Jonas Perez to plan some next day activities and other tasks, before going to rest around 12am.
(We successfully completed our trip from Tocoa to San Capuciano after 3 days on the road, four customs/immigration processes and 1,492 kilometers!!!)

From top to bottom: toll Mexican Highway 200 along the pacific coast of Chiapas; the capital of Chis., Tuxtla Gutierrez; toll road from Tuxtla G. to San Capuciano and our final destination in San Capuciano,  at Deut #1-17.

Thursday Sept. 22, 2011.-

We went out early morning to the grocery store to look for some food to prepare ourselves at home, but not before that going to the local bank to get us some 'pesos' and pay some due immigration fees as well.  We returned home early after afternoon and started planning a Meeting with WMI Technicians at 6pm and to complete/reply several emails referring this current trip.

Around 6pm all three technicians and Hernan Herrera were at the house ready for the Meeting.  Franklin Cruz had traveled from Jerusalem, near Palenque for about five hours to be with us; Juan Carlos Velasquez Santiz and Hernan Herrera traveled from Ocosingo for about two hours, while Jonas Perez lives in the neighborhood of Nueva Maravilla in SCDLC and had no problem getting to the compound for the meeting.

From left: Hernan Herrera and Juan Carlos Velasquez Santiz at the meeting to talk about the changes in the WMI Country Program changes.

From Left: Jonas Perez and Franklin Cruz at the meeting.

 For the records, Juan Carlos and Hernan belong to the Tzeltal indigenous group; Franklin to the C'hol and Jonas to the Tzotzil group.

We started the meeting with a prayer asking Our Lord for guidance and wisdom for all parties to convey ideas and concerns in a smooth, respectful and clear manner for the benefit of the advancement of the CP in Mexico.  We, Leonel and me, started then explaining to the Technicians the purposes of our current trip as well as the goals of the transition process going on with MX CP and, also expressed to them our gratitude for their efforts on behalf of the CHS staff as well as the HN CP.  Then, each of the Technicians had a chance to express their concerns and ideas, being Franklin who started talking about his experience with WMI so far.  He basically mentioned several concerns that the other 2 (4) technicians present at the meeting agreed to talk about, such as:

- Firstly he talked about some issues encountered while Nelson visited with them in March and we concluded after that that it is healthy and positive to talk about negative experiences as long as we learn from those experiences and each and everyone of us tries to make the best out of them so that in the future we find a better cooperating experience in a reciprocal way.

- How long would the MX CP be under the HN CP... To what we explained to them that it is not an issue we decide and that this would depend on a decision taken with our counterpart in the USA as well as on the type of person chosen as CD and his/her interaction and performance during a relatively short term period after the hiring/training process.  We made sure to let them know is not our intention to have a long presence in the Chiapas Program but to act as a support to the new CP, and that we would expect the MX CP to be an independent program as soon as possible so that they could report directly back to our main office in the USA.

- They agreed to continue working for WMI and made plans to travel to communities pending installation with Leonel starting next week, as well as to carry out any other visits while we are in Chiapas.

- When asked what to expect with the transition/changes in Chiapas... We explained to them that the ultimate idea is to basically 'replicate' the HN CP in Chiapas so, they will start to see many chances to improve the performance of the program, like: submitting reports as usual but with a thorough revision; we will focus in the 'sustainability of the projects without disregarding the importance of the 'Ministry' work in each community, making sure both components are likewise important to the long term impact of each project in each community; follow instructions to learn and understand the new flow phases of the projects; complete time sheets and expenses reports properly; etc.

- Part-time/Full-time availability... They clearly stated they are all available to work on a full time if required since they like working for WMI because they have the opportunity to share the living water message with the people.  The only disadvantage they have right now is that they do not posses any type of personal transportation and they have to move around using the public transportation so, if they were provided some type of vehicles, that will make it easier for them and in that way they could start working full time.  They made an effort to request 4x4 vehicles for each of them, but I explained to then the HN case, where all of the technicians are provided motorcycles for costs reasons, even though is as dangerous as in Chiapas, but we have not yet had any serious accidents in 4 years so, I promised them to bring their petition to the main office for approval.

- They also mentioned and requested the possibility of having area hubs for each of the three indigenous regions where they are currently working, with one truck for each of these areas.  I also could only tell them it was something I was going to mention CHS and analyze/discus and then decide if something like that was feasible.   I mentioned to them that there is currently at least one 4x4 vehicle assigned for the CP in the short term but that I was not sure about getting 3 more vehicles in the short term because that would depend on how much funding the current sponsor has assigned to the CP.

We concluded the meeting with another said by Franklin Cruz, who is a Pastor for a National Presbyterian Church of Mexico in a community called Egipto, near his town of Jerusalem.

We continued talking with them about several other topics, like: the role of Moises Ocampo in the current program; information they may know about getting NGO status; finding an alternate housing facility for our HN support staff coming in the next following months or for a permanent use once we have found and hired a new Country Director.  I also asked them the possibility of arranging a Meeting with the 3 Synods of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (IPNM) in Chiapas with the idea of proposing the sign of an Agreement to form a national partnership since we have about 40 Systems installed in partnership with local IPNM anyways, and we would like to work closer with the Board of the Church towards future projects in Chiapas.

Left to right: HAC, Juan Cralos, Franklin, Hernan, Jonas and Leonel.

Friday Sept. 23, 2011.-

We started the day with a meeting with Ing. Omar Sanchez Molina, Assistant to the State Secretary of Chiapas and grassroots activist with several local NGO's.  We have contacted Mr. Sanchez prior to making the trip to Chiapas through Jonas Perez, mainly to request his support to seek the NGO status for WMI in Mexico.  During this meeting, he requested specific information about WMI activities in Chiapas and other areas of the world, which we provided and finally he stated he was going to help us get in touch with people to give us more information about the required paperwork and process as well as sue his influence in the Chiapas Government to speed any initiated paperwork process towards this end.

Meeting with Ing. Omar Sanchez in San Capuciano. Juan Carlos Velasquez, Jonas Perez,  Omar Sanchez, HAC, Leonel Ayestas and Ing. Martin Castro.

Meeting with Lic. Adan Ruiz.

 In the evening we had a meeting with Lic. Adan Ruiz Guillen, who is a lawyer friend of Mr. Sanchez, who could be willing to help us work through the legal paperwork process to get the NGO registration.  At this meeting, we provided preliminary information to him as well as xeroxed copies of the legal paperwork made in Honduras to use as previous example of the possible process to follow in Mexico to get the registration.  We also made clear the statement that the reason WMI needs a legal registration in Mexico is basically to apply customs-tariff free introduction of donations to the country to be used as humanitarian aid for the communities in need in the country.

Saturday Sept. 24, 2011.-
We prepared all information and materials/equipment to take to our assessment trip to Salina Cruz the next day so we can leave early in the morning.  We also made some laundry.

 Sunday Sept. 25, 2011.-

- Attention:  
These entries have been moved to here: 
http://misionesdelaguainternacional.blogspot.com/2011/10/salina-cruz-oaxaca-mexico-assessments.html

Thursday Sept. 29, 2011.-

We got back from Salina Cruz about 3.45pm.  We settled back in our rooms at the HOTEL and started preparing for a meeting with all three Chiapas Technicians to give them another feedback and more detailed information about the changes in the Chiapas Program.

We received three quotes for three different type of motorcycles that we asked the technicians to get for us according to their concern for lack of transportation they are having to move around the projects more quickly and more efficiently.

We also collected monthly reports and information from them and also planned trips to the different zones with Leonel Ayestas.

After that, we conducted a personal interview to Hernan Herrera regarding his interest in the CD position, which resulted in raising some concerns about his suitability for the job: no English, no managerial experience, no strong leadership history and some undesirable 'peer attachment' to current technicians resulting in them bluntly 'recommending him' as their preferred CD...   

Friday Sept. 30, 2011.-

We went for the first visit and training to Chiapas technicians to one of the communities.  We visited Oxchux and Belen, Chinalo with Juan Carlos Velasquez.

We met with the SWC of Oxchuc and inspected the site where the 4-cage LWTS will be installed next November.  They were given instructions for the piping, electricity, drainage,etc.  Also, we explained to them the sustainability fee commitment they have to do to make sure the Project is sustainable on the long run.

They will try to complete the enclosure in the next two weeks.

Then, we continued to visit Belen, Chenalo.  There we just met some members of the local Church but no leaders or members of the SWC were in the community.  They have the enclosure almost complete and only need the door, window, fence, drainage, electricity and water connections.

Juan Carlos will meet with them again on Mon. Oct 3 in order to reorganize the SWC and also to talk with them about Sustainability of the project.

In the evening, after we returned from Belen and Oxchuc, we had the chance to interview one candidate for the position of Country Director, for about one hour. 


Saturday Oct. 01, 2011.  - Sunday Oct. 02, 2011.-

I prepared and send application documents to several churches in the Tuxtla and SCLC area so that they could spread the word about the job position with WMI with their local members.  We also discovered the DC we brought from a Bank in HN in order to pay our Chiapas Technicians was not working so, we started a long process to ask the bank to solve this situation online, as they will not work until Tue due to the Holiday this Monday.

Monday Oct. 03, 2011.-

Leonel Ayestas traveled to the Tzeltal area to visit some communities with JC Velasquez, especially the ones that will be installed next November.  Also, this visit with JC will be to reinforce follow up and quarterly report knowledge in our Chiapas Technicians so they can conduct these activities properly from now on as they have being doing things with no guidance and no reports.
I also tried again dealing with the issue of the DC with our Bank in HN.  They promised to help with this as soon as possible, but later that day, we tried the card and it was still having problems.

Tuesday Oct. 04, 2011.-

During the morning I sent application docs to some applicants in order for them to return the form filled in with their info.  I also contacted the in HN regarding the DC, which still, by the end of the day, was not working either, and our technicians are getting impatient due to lack of payment for their Sept work...!  
In the afternoon we headed out to visit the indigenous community of Pulum'Sibac (Charcoal shovel, in Tzotzil), in the Municipality of Mitontic, Chiapas with Jonas Perez, our technician and guide. We met with some of the leaders of the community who actually had a work meeting at the local primary school.

Meeting with local leaders of Pulum'Sibac, Mitontic to talk to them about the possibility of a safe water project through WMI funded by World Vision.

We talked to them about several aspects of the project if we were to get funding from an international partner such as World Vision.  We noticed they have a good piped system with water coming from a spring in the nearby mountain, a 50,000-gallon storage tank and an elevated tank of 5,000 liters which provides gravity feed by taps to each of the 80 houses in the village.  After talking with them about their 'sweat equity' and sustainability/micro-enterprise for their Safe Water Project for Drinking and Cooking, we really feel they are 'not willing' to work for the project,  since they are not used to paying any kind of fees and establishing a sustainability fee for the Safe Water project will be a challenge with them and for them...
A full set of photograph for this community can be found at this link:
http://s1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/maihonduras/ChiapasMX/PulumSibac/

Wednesday Oct. 05, 2011.-

This day I continued inquiring our Bank in HN for a solution to the problem with the DC since we are still not able to withdraw any funds at any ATM in SCLC.
I went to Hotel Los Morales in SCLC for a lunch/meeting with Omar Sanchez to plan a meeting next day in Tuxtla with an Officer from the Chiapas Registrar's Office to inquire about the right process to get our NGO status in Mexico.
After this, we visited several businesses with Jonas P. to inquire about several pending errands we have before heading back to HN:
- We went to visit Mr. Ricardo Diaz Ochoa to inquire about his proposal to get an LWTS as a payment for storage of the units for over 3 years in his facilities and donate it to community nearby his complex.  We could not get a hold of him though so, we could not complete our plan, which was to get the name of the community from him and plan an Assessment while we are in SCLC.
- We visited the Incomes Ministry to inquire about the required process to register a used vehicle in MX brought from HN if we were to do that.  We met with Mr. Martin Estrada (Regional Director) and he was very helpful to explain this process.  He mentioned we first had to go to the Customs Office to do an "Import Request", which they will approved or not, depending on the characteristics of the vehicle.  Once we get this Request approved, they will give a Certificate and we will bring that one to the Incomes Ministry here in SCLC to be legally registered.

The Incomes Ministry building in SCLC, Chis.

- We also went to several stores looking for 20-liter buckets with a tap.  We did not find any like that, but were able to find the buckets and the plastic taps separate.  We can get the buckets up to One Thousand through Panaderia La Aurora (used ones, but like 'new') and the plastic taps at Mercatol, for Mx$17 and Mx$20 each, respectively, that is, Mx$37 in total.  Then we will need to clean the buckets, make a hole in it and install the plastic tap so, we probably should make a budget of a Mx$40 in total for each bucket, including labor to complete this.

Above: The empty 20-liter plastic bucket we can buy from a local bakery and (right) a tap bucket we found in another local store but not to strong and not recommended.  Below: The two type of plastic taps we can buy locally to install with the buckets.  Technicians prefer the pink one, and we can get it for the thousands also.

Late this afternoon we were informed by the Bank in HN the DC could now work since they discovered the error in the card and that I could proceed and try using the DC.  I had previously requested a wire transference from HN through Banco Asteca so, I went to the nearest ATM and the DC finally worked...! But I had to request that wire transference first for it to work so, now I had more funds that required also in order to pay our technicians!

We also proposed a plan to Joe Willson in order to get more adequate candidates to apply for the position we want to fill in our Chiapas Office.  We will design a new newspaper ad, all in English and more specific to announce the job and get some more candidates as what we have gathered so far do not meet our minimum requirements as we would like to have in and ideal person for this leadership job.  We will plan to advertise it for two weeks, pre-screen applicants via email/Internet and then comeback to SCLC in couple of weeks to interview qualifying candidates in person.  We are PRAYING this new strategy will work...! 

Thursday Oct. 06, 2011.-

This morning we went downtown San Capuciano in order to show Jonas Perez the use of the DC since it is now working fine as a means of payment for the Chiapas technicians and he got the remaining balance of this Sept. stipend.

We also made the paperwork to withdraw a wire transference we had ordered form Honduras due to the negative situation we were having with the DC.  We made a bank deposit to pay the remaining Sept. stipend balance to both Franklin C. and JC Velasquez as well as an advanced payment to both towards Oct. of Mx$4000 each.

After that, we headed to Tuxtla Guttierrez with Omar Sanchez and Jonas Perez in order to meet Mr. Fernando Jose Franco (Legal Director of the Property and Commerce Public Registrar's Office of Chiapas).  This entity is in charge of Registering any legal act and document and we were looking for answers as to the right process we should follow to register WMI in Mexico as a legal NGO.

He mentioned we basically had to do the same process as we did in HN and that actually, no Lawyer was necessary to this process (???).  We want to have a second opinion from a Lawyer/Notary, which we will look for in the next couple of days before we head back to HN.  Another issue we'll have to consider in order to properly do this and progress with the process, is to find a suitable and trustful Mexican individual to 'act' as representative of WMI...

We also made an appointment for a 15,000km maintenance of our vehicle as required at the Toyota dealer in Tuxtla to bring it in Fri morning.

Friday Oct. 07, 2011.-

I traveled early morning to the capital city of Chiapas, Tuxtla, for an appointment I had with the Toyota Dealer 'AutoChiapas S, de R. L.' for the 15,000km maintenance of the vehicle we are using in Chiapas.  I left the vehicle for maintenance and then I traveled downtown Tuxtla by public transportation for a meeting with Lawyer Sonia Siman Morales, who we were referred to by one local partner in Oxchuc who had gotten their AC/NGO Title through her law office.

Mrs. Sonia Siman Morales Law Office building, located in 9A. Poniente Sur Street #153 - Col. El Centro - Tuxtla Gutierrez - Chiapas

I got to her office and explained to her the purpose of the visit was actually to get a 'second opinion' about the proper or best process to follow in order for us to get us registered status in Mexico as an international NGO.  She explained she could do the whole process by getting us a registration as a completely new organization for a certain sum or money.  Even though she neither approved or disapproved what Mr Franco explained to us about this process the day before (that we really do not need a Lawyer to get a registration), there seems this option is also viable, obviously she is in the business and could not tell me by sure this was correct, unfortunately...!
She seems open but, as any lawyer, is difficult to predict her behavior...  She mentioned that we could actually do the NGO registration as a branch office from the main office in the USA or from the office in HN since we already have a registration there.  She asked to get a copy of all the paperwork we have for HN so she can go over it and get back to us with comments and/or recommendations about the right process to follow, which we did.  We hope to get in touch with her to follow up about the NGO status in the near future.

On another topic, Leonel returned to SCLC from his trip to the Tzeltal area with Juan Carlos Velasquez and this is a summary of his trip:

Bachajon- Belen (Chilon, Chiapas - MX) :

They have the enclosure under construction (door, window, water, electricity pending), they need to update the SWC.  They already signed a Pre-Commitment Agreement to the project for sustainability.

Oxchuc (Chiapas - MX):

They are completing construction of the enclosure, have updated the SWC but need to submit the Pre-Agreement

Lacandon:
They have just started the enclosure and have the SWC.  They need to sign the Pre-Agreement

Jol Ichbatil:

They have the enclosure under construction (door, window, water, electricity pending), they need to update the SWC and sign the Pre-Agreement

Luis Espinoza:

Enclosure almost complete and they signed the Pre-Agreement and formed a SWC

A Good Devotional for Today's Readers:

http://www.billygraham.org/dailydevotion.asp?ArticleID=7422