Serrinha Part Two

(scroll down for the first part of this post)

I say “guy” because that’s all the people up here. This is the second tragedy of Serrinha. The government has a program to universalize education. Good right? The kids are in school, the parents get money. For Serrinha, it’s a different story. They only had grades 1-3 here, and afterwards the kids went to the bottom of the hill for education. The government decided that was not necessary and gave all the money they had allocated for up here to the schools down below. This left Serrinha’s community with no choice but to send all their kids to the bottom of the hill. Well, the other choice would have been no education for 5-8 year olds, and no money for the parents. Practically no choice. So, the mothers moved to the bottom of the hill with their children. During the week, the families are separated from Mon-Fri, then the women and children make the hike back up to Serrinha to be with their husbands and fathers for the weekend. It’s really very sad. A place that every night should be filled with the sound of children’s laughter is silent. Many families have already permanently left Serrinha. Some men make the hike up and down every day. It’s already taken its toll. One wife had a nervous break down, another never wants to return. There has already been several pre-teen pregnancies, and it’s been like this for years already. On many levels mountain people are different than valley people, and so it’s hard for people to understand why families would still choose to live here. It’s a hard life. They work every day from sun-up (4:30) to sun-down (6:30). I’m still working that out for myself. Part of me says “abandon this! Open a store below, find work where you can be with your family,” and the other part understands that the men are freer here than they would be anywhere else. What else could they do? Work in a factory? Cut sugarcane? Here they are their own boss, and the work together as a community. Some men here can trace their roots back hundreds of years to this land. Growing and creating is a beautiful way of life. It’s a culture that shouldn’t be lost. I don’t mean to give the wrong impression about these men. They’re intelligent and hard working. They installed and maintain the solar panels on their roofs. They’ve designed their own working drip-irrigation systems. It’s not like farming is all that they can do. It’s what they choose to do.
There is some small hope for the families. The government has promised to put in a road on a less-steep part of the mountain. With the road comes real electricity (they’re on solar right now, John’s project) and a school bus for the kids. It would be wonderful. Everyone could live together again. John firmly believes that once there’s a road people will return. It’s hard to imagine now, especially when the road is still 1 or 2 years away, but at least there is still that hope. John is trying to organize a mass for March 1st to “resurrect” Serrinha. It’s in the month of Easter, and will involve all the families and all the people in Sobral that work with John and are friends of the village. I think it’s just what everyone here needs.
We’re going to try and help in our own small way. We’ll be here to watch as they install an underground dam several meters down-flow from their main well. This will help keep it dry and full all year round by trapping the rain water once it comes. And it will come. March is usually when it starts. It always rains, it’s just an issue of whether it rains enough. The well needs to stay full because they’re installing water cisterns behind every house to catch roof run-off during the rainy season. But until that rain comes, the cisterns need to be filled via the well so that the cement doesn’t crack. Seven of 26 holes are dug (by volunteers from Serrinha’s community), and they’re hoping to fill them up entirely with this rainy season. Each holds 16,000 L. The water is supposed to be for in-house usage only, but since it’s just the men up here right now, they’ll be able to use some for irrigation too.
The other project we’re thinking about involves collecting runoff from the side of a nearby hill that’s one giant rock. We haven’t seen it ourselves, but apparently when it rains the water just runs down the side. If we can somehow bypass it into the cisterns there would be less danger of them drying up and cracking. I haven’t really thought about the ramifications of diverting so much water from the land right below that, but we’re still in the very planning stages of everything.
So, those are my impressions so far. I’m sure it seems like a lot to read, but it was amazing how effortlessly it was typed. Serrinha is a beautiful place. One worth getting to know, and one worth being passionate about helping.