A few weeks ago MCC helped bring a water-pumping system to another Guarani community, Aguaira Guasu, near Charagua. This will allow good water - for human consumption and agricultural purposes - to be pumped from an existing well. Mennonites from Pinondi Colony were contracted to build the system, which they loaded up for transport in the photo above. Below is the newly-erected system, informally called a "burrito," on location.
Aguaira Guasu is an interesting place-to-be. It is being planned by Guaranies as a model community for their own people. They are in a multi-year process of first clearing and cultivating land for crops (now sesame and sorghum). Eventually they want to do organic production, using traditional methods for weed and pest control. No one lives there permanently yet, but the plan is that 3-4 families will move there each year over the next ten years. Homesteads are planned following the Mennonite colony model of a main road with yards on both sides and land behind the yards.
MCC, together with a matching grant from a petroleum company, paid for construction of the water-pumping system. The community is responsible for a distribution system. We also hope to work with them further on dry latrines and perhaps other community-building projects.
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