aaron sidlo, peace corps, guatemala Aaron Sidlo, Front Porch

Aaron Sidlo, La Cienequilla, GuatemalaFront Porch, friends, water catchment system.This is Aaron Sidlo, son of John & Bette Sidlo. I, John, am posting these images for Aaron who currently does not have regular access to the internet. Aaron, seen here on the right, is in the Peace Corps in Guatemala. This is the front porch of his one-room adobe house in La Cieneguilla, a tiny farming (coffee) village in the El Oriente region of Guatemala. La Cieneguilla has about 1300 people, and is at an elevation of 1700 meters (a little over 5000 feet). La Cieneguilla has no paved roads, no water, one phone and until recently, no electricity. The photos shown here are taken by Aaron, or another PC Volunteer. He sends them back and I develop them and send the prints back to him. Aaron has been trained in "appropriate technology", meaning building stoves, latrines and water catchment systems. The public water supply is a big issue, since the dry season lasts 6 months. There is a public water supply system, shown in the next post, but it only produces a trickle of water for a short time every day. La Cieneguilla is the fourth village on this line, and all the villages uphill have running water to houses. But by the time it gets here, it is mostly gone. In the photo you see a small water catchment system Aaron built to capture water from the roof. He has designs for larger, concrete block versions (1meter x 1 meter x 2 meters) that hold 500 gallons. These cost $24 to build. People currently use iron barrels that cost about half that and only hold 100 gallons. Aaron has been working on getting people to invest the funds to purchase the materials to build these. $24 is way more than these folks seem to be able to afford, since coffee prices have fallen to 70% of what they were a few years back. Aaron has applied for and received a Peace Corps grant for 24 of these systems, and is presently obtaining the materials to build these, and will soon start installing them. Comments on these photos, which are more in the photojournalistic vein, go to me, John. I'll be collecting them and forwarding them to Aaron (who gets access to email once a week).