Earlier this week Ramont, together with my brother Willmar and Royden Loewen (Mennonite history professor at University of Winnipeg), traveled to Charagua. The main purpose was to assess the state of MCC water projects in the area, since MCC's fiscal year is coming to a close. The main project this year in Durango Colony was a village well for one of the new villages being carved out of the Chaco. Several years ago the colony purchased land adjacent to the existing colony, mainly to sell to landless, poorer families in 15 hectare chunks. Governmental permission to clear land for yards and some acreage has been very slow in coming. Families are just now starting to inhabit their land, so water for for household and livestock use is very much needed.
The rainy season has slowed many things down - well-drilling and driving, to name just two. The photo below shows the road from Charagua to Durango Colony and beyond to the indigenous Guaraní territory of Isoso. The men made it through, but encountered a vehicle loaded down with supplies and people that wasn't so lucky. They were Bolivians from La Paz, heading towards Isoso on a French-funded project to test livestock blood for the Chagas disease. About an hour was spent trying to pull them out, all to no avail. Such are the hazards of driving in rural Bolivia in February.
Here are the children of Isaak Hildebrand, checking out their own copies of Das Blatt, the MCC German publication especially for kids.
[Photos: Willmar T. Harder]
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