At the community meeting this month, one of the leaders stood up to read a proposal by the Health Department of Guatemala. He was speaking in K'iche', but was using enough Spanish words for us to figure out that they were suggesting that the community clean their water at the source (miles away on the side of three different mountains) once a month with chlorine. This would help keep the water clean and reduce the green junk that grows in our pipes (due to no chlorine added to the water).
He mentioned that he was only reading the proposal to the community so that they could decide if they were interested. Just when we were thinking, "Yes! Of course! Please!", to our surprise the people shouted, "NO!" All we could figure out was that either they didn't want to pay the small fee that would be collected or they didn't want to take turns on work trips to do it. So there was another delay in the development of this country. There are so many ways that the people here are lacking education, and they just don't realize that sometimes their decisions are hindering their good health and progress.