Objective:
· Distribute 5,000 water filters
· Evaluate potential mission options
In November of 2020, several Central American counties were hit by two massive hurricanes that caused horrific damage to millions of people. One of the problems was the lack of pure drinking water. The streams and rivers were brown with contaminated water, so Welcome Hand, our family organization, raised over one hundred thousand dollars to pro vide water filters to thousands of Kechi people that were located in an area around Coban. Debora Fletcher played a big part in raising the money. The distribution and training were primarily in Cahabon – several hours North of Coban.
This is a training meeting at the city hall in Caha bon. They had to drill a hole in the side of the bucket in order to install the filtering device. These filters are supposed to last for ten years.
In additon to the training that day we went to some outlying villages and on one occasion we had to cross a very long swing footbridge that was over the Cahabon River (about the size of the Snake River). I was glad when we made it to the other side because we must
have had thirty people on it. This walkway on this bridge had boards that were missing and dilapidated. This was a harrowing experience for me. There were many people on the bridge, and it was swinging back and forth, and I was so sure that those little cables would not hold all the weight. After we got to the other side I realized that the only way to get back to the car was to cross it again. But it was well worth it because the people were ex tremely friendly, and they were so grateful to get the water filters. This was also the year of Covid-19 when we had to wear masks and be very careful.
Notice the chicken with her brood of chicks under the table and while were there a little pig came in. She was a very happy lady and gave us all a tortilla that she had just
cooked on her stove. The bin in the lower right picture contains their year supply
of corn. I imagine that it was very high right after harvest.
Hurricane Damage
As we traveled through the area we could see all kinds of devastation that was caused by Hurricane Eta. As we were leaving, Hurricane Iota was soon to arrive. See the flooding that occurred in Coban on the next page. The mall (that some of us stopped at) had four feet of water in it.
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