I had been down to Rio Bravo twice since Rob and I took over the Mexico Project from the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Association. He had a nice chunk of change in the bank in the account of our new non-profit, and he and I had winnowed through the information that I had come back to Austin with, trying to decide what we could get accomplished in the two working days of the upcoming first project run by Amigos de las Escuelas. There was an outlying school that needed new latrines badly, and another primary school that was situated right on the side of the high speed highway that looped around the perimeter of the city, that had no fence for the playground that abutted the highway. I had asked the headmaster how many kids had been run over while running after a ball, out into the highway. None so far, he said, but there had been some close calls. They definitely needed a fence. Those seemed to be the best projects for us to do for our first shot.

The projects were a 4 day commitment for the volunteers. Rio Bravo was about 6 or 7 hours drive from Austin, depending on how small the bladders were of the volunteers, and how long they stopped for lunch halfway there, and they caravanned in cars and vans to get there. One day to drive down, on Thursday, two days to work, and Sunday to leave early and head back stateside.

I had gone down to Rio Bravo 4 days early, and had talked with the school hierarchies about what we were going to do in each of their schools, and encouraged them to get word out in their respective colonias to encourage the locals to come and work with us. 

I had gotten a place in Austin to print up Amigos de las Escuelas t-shirts, in bright colors, and had a huge box of them on the back seat of my truck. I gave one to each headmaster. I had stopped by the Mayor’s office, and given him a t-shirt, and brought him up to speed. And one to the very cute receptionist who had greased the skids that got me into the Mayor’s august presence each of the 3 times I had visited, without an appointment. By then, the Mayor and I were good buddies.

I had also stopped by the Home Depot sort of equivalent in Rio Bravo, Materiales Sukasa. I had negotiated a good price for 10 rolls of chain link fencing and 73 posts, and cement and sand and gravel for the post holes, and arranged for it to be delivered on Saturday morning. I had given t-shirts to the owner, and to the 5 guys that worked the counter in front. Robert, the owner, was a terrific guy, and when I explained what we were doing, he was very supportive.

Back in Austin, I had picked up two cement losas, which were the cement slab that you place over the hole you dig for a latrine on which you build the structure, from Jim, which he had made 6 months ago for another project, but had never used. I took them out to the school that was way out in the campo, where they had no running water. With the help of a neighbor there, we had unloaded the heavy things, and placed them where we were going to build the latrines.

My truck was full of shovels and picks and posthole diggers, and hoes, and my circular saw and screwguns, and assorted construction-y tools. I had reserved rooms at the little hotel near the colonia where I had first worked six months ago before we took over the project. I had money to buy food for the volunteers. In all the years that I ran the projects, I never knew exactly how many volunteers were going to show up, until Thursday night when they arrived. I always hoped for the best.

Thursday night some cars and vans drove into the parking lot of the hotel, and it turned out that there were 15 volunteers. Dads and kids, some moms, and some RPCV’s. I got them settled into their rooms, and then we had the first-night meeting. In that meeting, I cautioned them about not drinking or brushing their teeth with the tap water, and to only use bottled water. I asked for a show of hands of anyone who knew how to dig post holes and use a tape measure. One guy raised his hand sort of hesitantly, so I put him in charge of the fence project. I asked for a show of hands of anyone who knew how to dig and build a latrine, and Jim raised his hand, so I put him in charge of the latrine project. I divided the volunteers and assigned 7 to each project, and told them to talk among themselves, and figure out how they were going to get to where the projects were the next morning. Then I gave out t-shirts to them, and cautioned them to walk around in groups of two or more, and stay out of trouble. Then we went out to dinner.

In those days, there weren’t cartels controlling the drug trade, and the town of Rio Bravo was a placid little town, where I felt pretty safe that the volunteers would not run into any problems.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Santa Fe, and Jim took his group and headed out of town to dig some latrines. I took my truck, and led the second group to where we were fencing the playground. Sure enough, just as we got there, the Materials Sukasa truck arrived loaded with fencing stuff and bags of cement, and a pile of gravel and a pile of sand. We all pitched in and unloaded it. I talked to the guy running this project, and we measured out the perimeter of the fenced area, and marked the post holes with spray paint. He seemed ready and able to get the holes dug, so I left him with a pile of shovels and post hole diggers, and headed out to the latrine project. On the way, I stopped by the lumber store and picked up the boards and plywood and hinges and roof tin that would be needed for building the structures.

Arriving at the latrine site, I saw that Jim already had two people digging holes, and I had the other 4 help me unload my truck. There didn’t seem to be any local folks there yet, which was sad, but the volunteers seemed happy and productive. I told them that I would be back in a couple hours with lunch, and made sure everybody had a couple bottles of water.

Then back to the fence project. They had about 25 post holes dug already, and those who weren’t digging were playing games with some kids who had come by. That was almost as important as the fence. I was trying to build cross-cultural trust, as well as help improve the school’s safety, and playing games with someone from a different country is a great way to do it. The headmaster was also there. The guy running the project asked me if I had a wheelbarrow to mix the cement in. No, but I would get one. But not for mixing, you need the wheelbarrow for moving the mixed cement to the post holes.

I taught him the third world way to mix cement. You measure 10 – 5 gallon buckets of gravel and dump it in a pile on a bare piece of ground. Then 5 buckets of sand. You have people mix it up well with shovels. Then you cut open a 90 pound bag of portland cement, and dump it on, and again have people mix it up well. Then you make the pile into a volcano shape, and add water to the low center part, and then get to mixing that up, working sort of frantically all together with hoes and shovels, to keep the water from running off and soaking into the ground. Keep adding water until the mix feels right, then shovel some into the wheelbarrow and take it to the holes. It was not rocket science.

I drove back to the colonia near the hotel, to a man’s house that I had met while I was down there before the project. He and I had sat and had a couple beers one night, because he was curious who I was and what I was doing there. His name was Salvador, and I became great friends with him as the projects continued. I had noticed a beat up wheelbarrow leaning against his house, so I asked him if I could borrow it for the fence project. He said yes, I could, and asked if I needed help. I asked him if he knew how to build a chain link fence, and he assured me that he had built a dozen of them. I immediately gave him a t-shirt, loaded the wheelbarrow, and drove him to the fence project, and introduced him to the guy running that project, who smiled and looked relieved when Salvador told him that he knew the tricks to putting in fencing.

Back to the latrine project I drove, stopping by a grocery store, and picking up loaves of bread, and peanut butter and jelly, and bologna and mayo, and two dozen cold cokes. The two holes were coming along nicely, and deep enough so that you could not see the head of the person down in one of the holes. I dropped off half the food, and told them to knock off around noon, and eat lunch. Everybody seemed happy.

Back to the fence project. Things were going well there, and they had dug almost all the post holes, and a couple people were starting to mix the dry cement. I found the headmaster and asked him if he could run a hose from the school over to where they were mixing the dry cement. Yes he could. It was 12:30 by then, so I whistled everybody to a halt, and brought out the other half of the lunch materials, and put them to work making samwiches. I told Salvador and Larry, the volunteer that I had put in charge, that all I wanted completed today was to get the posts in and set in cement. And I would be back later.

Off I drove, out to the latrine project. They were all sitting in the shade of some trees, munching happily on samwiches, and drinking cokes. I made myself a bologna and peanut butter samwich, grabbed a coke, and joined them. I called Jim over, and on a napkin, I sketched my plan for the latrine structures, and described how I wanted them built. I told him that if he could have the holes completely dug, and get the losas put over the holes so nobody would fall in them during the night, that there would be plenty of time to build the structures tomorrow. He agreed. I thanked everybody for their hard work, and told them I would see them back at the hotel at dinnertime.

Back to the fence project. Salvador was running a cement mixing crew while Larry was getting the final holes dug. A couple teachers had showed up, so I gave them t-shirts, and bade them to help one crew or the other. I went and looked at the post holes. They were perfect. The soil was sandy, so the digging was easier than it is back in Austin where it is all rocks. Salvador had found some string somewhere, and they had used it to lay out nice straight lines for the posts. The fence was going to be beautiful. I gave Salvador my magnetic level, to use to make the posts plumb while they were dumping in cement. There was one volunteer who had not listened to my speech about water the night before, and had come down with diarrhea, and needed a ride back to the hotel. I loaded her into the truck, and thanked the volunteers for their help, and headed back to the hotel. I got her bedded down in her room, assured her that it would pass, gave her a couple bottles of water and told her to try and take a nap.

I was bushed. All that running around was tiring. I drove back to the lumberyard, and bought a chain link entry gate and hinges and threw it into my truck for tomorrow. I drove back to the hotel, and kicked back in the shade, and played my guitar for a while.

The volunteers straggled in about dinnertime. After they showered and changed, we went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed a pleasant repast. Afterward, some decided to walk around town, and some went back to the hotel and crashed. Once I was sure that they had all gotten back to the hotel safely, I followed their lead and went to my room and kicked back for some Z’s.

The next day at breakfast, I offered the volunteers the opportunity to change projects if they wanted and a couple people did. I drove out to the fence project and dropped off the gate, explaining to Salvador where it would go. The fence posts looked great, nice and straight up, and ready for fence wire. I gave a short course on how to use the wire ties to attach the chain link fencing to the posts, and gave them the tools to do it with, collected all the shovels and my level, and walked around and took pictures of the posts and the volunteers working, with my digital camera.

Then back out to the latrine project. On the way I stopped at a paint store and bought a gallon of chartreuse paint and some brushes. When you are the boss, you get to choose what color the paint is. The latrine crew were constructing the structures side by side on the ground next to the holes they had dug. I had given them my saw and screwguns, and some screws and they were moving along nicely. I took some idle volunteers and gave them the paint and brushes, and told them that they were in charge of painting the structures after they had been erected. I took some shots of people and the work with my digital camera. Everybody looked happy, so I headed back into town.

I stopped by the Mayor’s office, but because it was Saturday, he was not in. But the cute girl, Esmerelda, was, and I asked her if they had a printer with digital capabilities there, and surprisingly, they did, I took the chip out of my camera and we went into the back room and printed out copies for the Mayor, of both projects. Esmerelda said she would put the copies on his desk.

I left and went back to the grocery store and bought lunch supplies. Cheese samwiches this time, and potatoe chips. And apple sodas. I went back to the fence project and they had about a third of the fence mounted to the posts, and a couple of them were mounting the gate. It was looking great. I called a lunch halt and gave them half the food. The headmaster had not come back, but there was a larger group of kids, some helping with the fence, and some playing games. Larry assured me that they would be done before dinnertime, and he would see me back at the hotel.

I drove back out to the latrine project, and from half a mile away, I could see the one chartreuse latrine that had been painted. They were working on the second structure, and it looked like they would be done well before dinnertime. I gave them lunch materials, and sat in the shade and ate with them, telling stories of my projects in the Peace Corps in Africa.

Later when they all got back to the hotel, and showered and changed, we went out to dinner en masse, to a nice restaurant where I had made reservations for 18 people. We took up the whole restaurant. I gave them a thank you speech, and told them how proud of them I was. And I was. They had done it all. They had come of their own free will, and risen to the challenge of doing things that they had never done before, and I was happy to buy them a nice dinner.

Sunday morning most people were up early, packing and eating breakfast of yogurt and breakfast rolls that I had brought for them. The last of them headed north about noon. I checked all the rooms, made sure everybody had paid the hotel, and packed up my own stuff, and went out to the colonia, and spent the afternoon drinking beer and talking about life with Salvador. He let me sleep on his floor that night, in my sleeping bag.

Monday morning I drove back out to the projects. The fence looked so great! The headmaster was pleased as punch. I had him assemble the faculty and students in front of the gate, and I took their picture with the nice straight fence running back towards the highway in the background. Then he took a picture with me in it. At the latrine project, the students and teachers were there marveling at their new chartreuse latrines that had appeared over the weekend, as if by magic. They were so bright that you probably could have seen them from the space station. Again I had the teachers and students pose in front of the latrines, and got a picture with me in it as well. Everybody everywhere was happy. I was too. I had pulled the thing off without a hitch, and I was proud of me.

I swung by the Mayor’s office, and had Esmerelda clandestinely print the two photos with me and everybody in them, and asked her to let the Mayor know that I was out there, requesting an audience. He asked me right in, and laughed with delight when I gave him the photos of the completed projects with the teachers and students in them. He thought chartreuse was a great color for latrines. I shook his hand and thanked him for letting me put my volunteers to work for him. I told him that we had another project coming up in the fall, in 6 months, and I would stop in then to let him know what we were doing next. He kept chuckling and shaking my hand and patting me on the shoulder. I think I made a good friend of him.

I got in my truck, and made the long drive back to Austin, singing along with my CD of Shakira at the top of my lungs, and feeling 10 feet tall. That was the first of many projects that we did over the next 12 years.

You might be asking why the title is, The Saga of Casa de Katie. I will introduce Casa de Katie in part 3.

Like the title says, with a little money, and a handful of volunteers, you can accomplish miracles in two days. 

Autonomy means never having to ask permission.