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Latest News about the Choguita Village Food Project
The trip to Mexico by District 5300 Rotary Group was a huge success despite getting snowed out of the village of Choguita. Another trip is planned for July. More details later. Contact Charlotte Leas at cleas1013@cox.net if interested.
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Group meets with 8 of the 9 Rotary Presidents
of Chihuahua, Mexico to investigate ways of cooperating and sharing information
to provide food to the Tarahumara Indians. |
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The Rotary Presidents of Chihuahua are looking at the bag of dehydrated food. |
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Charlotte Leas and Annette Hardy in Chihuahua City-The City was shut down for the day with less than 2 inches of snow. This delayed our trip to the mountains but gave us an opportunity to see the city and visit again with the Rotary Presidents of Chihuahua City. |
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(Right to left) Ted Holder, Charlotte Leas and Shawn Holder ( Ted's son). Ted Holder, Past Assistant Governor of District 5730 of Levelland, Texas is the current International Chairperson for that District. Ted has assisted other Rotary Clubs to complete their projects in Mexico. District 5730 has provided solar panels for the Village in Choguita as well as a greenhouse to start plants. They have also provided Cabbage and Carrot seeds to start in the greenhouse. The Tarahumara Indians main grain source is Corn, but because of the drought the past few years, they have been unable to grow an adequate supply of corn. The Cabbage and Carrots make a welcome addition to their diet. They also need more farm/garden tools to work the ground. District 5730 has also provided school desks in Madera, Mexico. They have helped other districts set up one room schools and clinics. District 5730 has been involved with Mexico projects with the Tarahumara Indians since the early 80's. |
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The City of Juarez Mexico. The town square has a Rotary Symbol with Paul Harris standing in the Center. Rotary is a very important part of the lives of the Mexican Communities. Rotary is a very highly respected Service Organization. |
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This is the landscape along the road to Creel. This is a very depressing area
called Bocoyna.
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Charlotte, Ted Holder and Rosa Alverado, President of the Rotary Club in Guerrero, Mexico, District 4110. This Club is made up of women only. Rosa is the town Dentist. This club will assist in monitoring the Helping Grant that is being prepared for an additional project |
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Charlotte, Sister Amparo Velador Delgado, D.P. Annette Hardy. Charlotte and Annette are shown presenting Sister Amparo with "gifts" from the North Las Vegas Rotary Club. We brought coffee, instant tea, tea bags, 35mm film, disposable cameras, lotion, Spiritual Books, note paper, 100 pencils for the school and 100 plastic pencil sharpeners donated by Office Depot in Las Vegas. Sister was delighted with the gifts. She said it was like Christmas. Sister Amapro is a member of the Divine Shepherd order. She has been in the convent for 17 years. Sister was born in Zacetechas, Mexico and is the 4th of nine children. Her parents came to the United States in the 1970's and currently reside in San Bernardino, CA. Members of the Divine Shepherd Community came to the Copper Canyon area to ministers to the needs of the Tarahumara Indians in 1983. She has been at Choguita for the past 2 years. Sister Amparo is like a Spanish Mother Teresa in her compassion for the Indians. She wants to keep them fed, but she also wants them to learn to feed themselves on the land that they have been forced to retreat to. The mountain area where the Tarahumara lives has been ravaged with drought and it has been very difficult to raise enough crops to feed the 75 families with children that live there. Because we were unable to get to the village because of the snow, Sister Amparo was able to get her truck down the narrow mountain roads. She brought with her three members of the Indian Village. |
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Juan helping Ted Holder load the dehydrated food into Sister Amparo's truck to take to the village. |
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Four cases dehydrated food from Breedlove Company that we took for the village. The rest of the food will be delivered within a month or 6 weeks. The Rotary Sign will be placed on the outside of the School. Since we could not get up to the village itself, we are planning another trip to the site in July to see that all of the food got delivered in good order and to find out what the village leaders have decided would be most helpful to assist them in the ongoing provision of food for their families. A water project has been suggested, as well as corrugated metal roofing, nails, hand farming tools, fabric for sewing. Material to repair the Church in the village. |
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Charlotte and Sister Amparo writing down the names of the three members of the Tarahumara Indian Village. Juan Fuentes Palma-28 years old. He is a farmer with 3 children. He came with Sister Amparo because he had a tooth ache. It was found that he has an impacted wisdom tooth and they will have to arrange for him to go to a larger town that has an oral surgeon available. Jovita Arraga- 15 years old, she came along for the ride. Amiceta Morales -56 years old? She wasn't sure. She was one of the first people in the village to open her home to the Sisters of the Divine Shepherd when they first came to minister in the Village. |
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Dehydrated food being unloaded by Governor Elect of District 5730, Don Shinn. Don is from Odessa, Texas |
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Charlotte, Ted, Ron and Don in back row. Juan, Sister Amparo,Palma and Amiceta posing with the food. |
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Sister Amparo, Juan, Palma,Annette,Amiceta and Charlotte after the acceptance of the food. |
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An opportunity to eat at the tourist hotel in Creel, the Indians did not join us because Sister Amparo had gotten them some food earlier. There was no source of heat in this dining room other than the fireplace, thus our table is very near the heat. It was very cold that night in Creel. |
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Amiceta Morales. Hers was the first Indian household to offer hospitality to the Divine Shepherd Sisters when the arrived in Choguita in 1983. |
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Juan, Palma and Amiceta showing their full native dress. |
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The kitchen of a typical Tarahumara House. |
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Men in the village working on shelves that will display the pottery that the women have made. Note the notch and fit rather than nails. |
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The Community Center where a sewing teacher spent a week teaching the women in Choguita how to sew with the donated Sewing machines. |
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Learning to sew on treadle machines donated by a Service Organization from Italy. It was not Rotary, but we could not understand the name of the organization. |
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Feeding the children who have gathered in the Community Center where the sewing is taking place. |
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Displays of the clothes that the women have just completed |
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Yes, that is a baby on her back. Probably about 2-3 months old. She was weaving baskets in Divisidero. This is at Copper Canyon. |
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Another woman weaving baskets. Note how intent the baby is. No noise, just sitting patiently by Mom eating squares of corn bread. We asked how old the baby was and we think that he/she is one year old. |
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An older woman weaving baskets, also selling other handmade purses and stoles. |
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The map shows Chihuahua, Cuauhtemoc (where the warehouse is), Guerrero where we
met the Rotary Club of Women. San Juanito where the one room school house is,
Creel, where the hospital is and where we met Sister Amparo. Divisadero, where
the Indian women weave the baskets. Choguita, the village that
we were headed to and Norogachi which is the route we would have had to take to
get up the mountain to Choguita if we had not lost a day being "snowed
in" in Chihuahua.
Chihuahua is about 4-5 hours south of Juarez which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. |
Last update, Monday, March 05, 2007
