And back at the campo --- Water and Mud

Remember I wrote that we walked out through all the water. That was the beginning of the rainy season and we are hoping and praying that it will end. Jake choose to remain in the chaco for the entire time and was one of the five or six residents. The woman and children moved to other communities and the men stayed either at their chaco or with their families.

The December flood was only the beginning. By the middle of January the road had been flooded five or six times and the worst was yet to come. In the end of the month all of Bolivia was deluged with rain, so much that it made international news and calls for relief. Our community is situated very close to the Yapacani River. There is a loop in the river and when there is a lot of water flowing the flat land surrounding it gets covered since the water does not make the curve. The water just covers all the land with water and silt. There is really no way to explain all of this -- pictures will do it better. Apologies to those who have a hard time uploading this.

In early December we thought that the road was bad. The night before the rains the cat had disturbed some of the clay and made the road very slippery and difficult. After this espisode we went to Santa Cruz and bought chains.

The water covers about 2 kilometers of road. It is a low spot and the water runs straight through one of our neighbour´s house and yard. The top picture on the left is the house in early January (forget the date on the pic) and picture on the left is the same place in mid March. The yard has not dried up.

Although the water was a serious problem it recedes rather quickly and is usually done within a couple of days. But what is left behind is more of a problem. There is about a meter of silt dunes that resember snow banks in the road. These also extend into the rice fields. Some of the rice has been ruined by the rain and the silt since the heads were covered with water. Other is ready to harvest but it is very wet and muddy in the fields making it difficult to get people to assist with the harvest by hand.

The other day they tried to get a tractor in to take in the combine but the tractor became stuck in the mud and the owner returned home, leaving behind a very rutted road.

The road has to be opened. Jake offered to hire a cat to clean the road but the owner of the cat said it was too hard to do and would take about 40 hours just to move the silt. I am sure that he thought that he would never get paid for all his time. There is also a problem because there is no convenient place to put all the silt.

So it seems that we are still at square one with the road. There is a layer of dried silt that seals the water underneath. The men of the community built a cordoroy road using tree trucks and branches to cover the silt. In the areas where there are the silt dunes they loosened them with a spade and then moved as much clay as they could by hand. It was remarkable to see all them working, laughing and talking, knee deep in mud. But my night they were much quieter and very tired. They built the road well enough for Jake to get the truck out, for which we are very thankful. The next job was to get the tractor and the combine in. The men were very confident that that could be done. The challenge would be hauling the rice out on the wagons through all the mud.