A Little Luck and a Lot of Hard Work By Todd Bauer

Do a Catarina Domingo Hernandez, resident of the La Vega Colotenango, whose daughter along with her husband, received one of three trial bicibombas. Do a Catarina is a widower who raised her children, 2 sons and 6 daughters by growing vegetables, mostly onions and wild greens. On her property there is a small spring where, year after year during the dry season, she would draw out bucket after bucket of water to irrigate her raised beds of vegetables. After seeing a bicibomba at her daughters house, she decided to talk with the Pastoral Social Agricultural Promoter about the possibility of her own bicibomba, but with a hand crank rather than a bici (bicycle). The promoter talked with Jorge, who is in charge of such water projects. He then talked with me about the project and Do a Catarina’s request. We visited her to talk with her and her family, test the spring and design the irrigation system. The next day, the digging began to improve her existing spring and well. With a little luck on her part a water vein was discovered and the water quantity tripled in her well. The final storage size is about 1000 gallons with a recharge of less than 24 hours. An available water supply and difficulty to irrigate is no longer a limiting factor. Do?a Catarina is now able to plant the amount of land that she and her daughters can cultivate. I hope you enjoyed this small success story. Its stories like Do a Catarina’s that show us how, with a little assistance and hard work on their part, positive changes can occur in peoples lives. Many of her neighbors said how lucky she was to have the well and this project. Its true, she was lucky to have a spring on her land, but she had the determination to use her resources to survive and make a living. She told me she had been struggling for years irrigating her vegetables bucket-by-bucket, as a way to support her family. Now she will be able to plant more land and have a greater variety of crops which will improve her family’s diet, while at the same time adding to her income. Trees for Life Ģ 3006 W. St. Louis Ģ Wichita, KS 67203 Ģ (316) 945-6929 Ģ http://www.treesforlife.org www.treesforlife.org July 07?