I'm practically a local now. From this visit, I got the impression that the desires and actions for healthy and sustainable development of the Uyaraipa Community are gaining momentum. This time, the sense of my presence and collaboration there is clearer and stronger due to the interest shown by many young people over the past five days. I'll only mention Steven (Stephen Filipiak - alohagambia.wordpress.com), who has extensive experience farming in arid regions of Gambia, Africa, and whose steps I had to follow, observe, and record. He was brought in by the Colombian sustainable organization Organizmo ( www.organizmo.org ).
There's much to say about this third visit and the many young people present, but I'll stick to my task. What I do want to emphasize is the sense of interest and concern for the progress of this project, which, in my view, rescues the cultural values and traditions of this part of the world that are slowly fading. From my perspective, the goal is to establish a healthy and autonomous position for this community in the face of the demands of a globalized world, for the survival of its valuable culture and environment as part of a nation and the world .
The first few days were spent in a large meeting of all the representatives from the Uyaraipa community's ranches. The goal of this meeting was to gather information and gain a clear vision of the desired progress and the different projects necessary to achieve it. The main objectives were made clear. In this way, the investments obtained through the textile work produced by the communities would be focused on these goals. While guava and coffee pieces were offered to the representatives of the different ranches present at the meeting, some were surprised by the large seeds that made it difficult to bite into the fruit (although guava is a typical Colombian fruit, it was the first time they had eaten it). Meanwhile, Steven was already taking notes of his future actions, which I was to observe and record. He didn't understand much of what was discussed at the meeting, but he could manage quite well in the foreign language, considering the short time he had been immersed in it.
STEP 1
Ana María Gutierrez of Organizmo and Steven examined the existing water sources available to the community: a windmill that only extracted shallow saltwater (this is what the goats drink from to develop a big belly) and a water tank that is half-filled by the water truck once a month.
From this analysis came Steven's first move, an experiment to see the possibilities of desalinating water through evaporation of the sun's heat: a container of salt water from the mill and an empty glass in the center were covered with a piece of plastic he found nearby, creating a greenhouse effect that would evaporate the water and leave the salt behind. By placing a small stone in the center of the piece of plastic as a weight, he would create a conical shape with the piece of plastic. The evaporated water would stick to the plastic and slide down to fall into the empty glass.
The next day, Steven went to check the desalinated water in the glass. I asked him if his experiment had gone well. He told me the water had been desalinated, but not enough to use as drinking water, but enough to irrigate plants and crops. I teased him about the many holes in the piece of plastic, which supposedly created the greenhouse effect. Steven, with his American sense of humor, told me: apart from the little worm he found in the glass (due to the poor hygiene of the plastic bag), everything is fine.
STEP 2
We needed to visit the Wayuu families who are part of the project but live farther away, to explain the organizational and development process of the project we had in mind. In one of these families, Ana María, Steven, and Konrad were surprised by a solitary plant, curiously full of green leaves, standing in the middle of the desert. As we approached it, we were amazed at how the plant could reach such a lush state. Next to it hung an upside-down water bottle, slowly dripping water over the course of hot days to keep the plant always fresh with drinking water, thus achieving its lushness.
Steven would repeat the example he had discovered the next day, improving it, trying to rescue a weak little plant hidden behind a fence of dry branches that tried to keep the plant safe from the sun's rays. But what was the point if the rain had forgotten about it for three years? In this case, Steven got rid of the empty plastic bottles he collected from the wind-scattered trash in the surrounding area. He made small holes in the plastic bottles and placed them around the little plant. Some bottles stood upright with holes drilled in the bottom. These bottles are placed at different depths that slowly release water throughout the day. In these bottles, the tightness of the cap regulates the amount of water released. Other bottles are hung upside down on sticks, dripping as much water as the size of the hole drilled. In this way, the little plant would receive water slowly but steadily during hot days.
STEP 3
For the community to reach a self-sufficient and sustainable state, they would need to return to planting cassava, watermelon, squash, cantaloupe, and corn, as they used to do before the rains stopped. Stevens' step 3: making the compost, is directed toward this goal. Many were present and collaborative in this step. A large metal trash can missing its bottom lid was buried in the sand. The trash can would then be filled with a series of layers. Each layer is composed of three specific components: 1) +/- 10 cm of fine, dried sticks and leaves (made fine because they decompose easily); 2) +/- 3 cm of manure found in the goat shed; and 3) +/- 2 cm of charcoal collected from nearby house fires and broken into pieces "as fine as corn." The charcoal reacts like a sponge when water is added to it, a key reagent in the compost-making process. These three components form a layer that is repeated until the trash can is full. At the top end, covering it with clear plastic could speed up the composting process, or if left uncovered, the chickens could feed on the larvae that grow there, and at the same time, the chickens could contribute to the composting process with their droppings. The layers should be turned every two weeks. After three or four months, the compost should be ready to be used on crops.
SPECIAL NIGHT
That night, feeling the need to broaden the communities' understanding of the world and wanting to motivate their desire and participation in the projects, an improvised theater was set up to screen the documentary Baraka. This film narrates, with images and music, the evolution of the Earth and the relationship between humankind and its natural environment. 
STEP 4
Step 4 is executed after observing Stevens' movements for four days, by your humble narrator. With the mission of following Stevens' steps and recording them as evidence of the actions the community must take in collaboration with the foundation, I immediately begin following Stevens' example and repeating Step 2.
A month before this visit, Organizmo was there, making its first visit to the community with Lina María Castro. Lina was there that time, showing the community how the trash dumped around the Rancherías could be reused. One day, Lina ventured into the desert with a group of children. After a couple of hours, they returned carrying all kinds of plastic bags and empty plastic bottles they collected from the land around the Ranchería. They then filled the bottles with the plastic bags using a piece of broken branch. In this way, they created solid objects that could be used as building blocks, like bricks. With the building blocks Lina and the children made, they would use them around the plants and trees as a kind of outdoor flower vase.
That time, they were able to build one of those outdoor vases around a beautiful tree called Dibidibi, but they didn't have the opportunity to fill it. Now was my chance and the perfect place to put my observations into practice. I would use the components used for a compost layer to fill the outer vase (dried leaves and thin sticks, goat manure, and charcoal). The outer vase was large enough to plant some chia seeds that someone had brought on one side. The seeds were brought by a vegetarian boy named Francisco. He came on this visit representing another organization. He ate the seeds as a healthy and strong supplemental source of protein, distinct from meat. Over the chia seeds planted in the outer vase, I repeated Stevens' step 2, hanging a drip bottle upside down and burying others at different depths. In addition, three large white rocks from a nearby construction site were placed for their qualities in maintaining the humidity of the drip bottle (Drawing 3 - Dibidibi).
I felt proud when I finished copying Stevens's example, so I showed him what I had done for his feedback. At the same time, a turkey arrived and started drinking water from the leaky bottle. Steven said, "Life gives life."
