The Provider

Our second day started with meeting another community right down the road, Marichaj. The walk up to the town’s church took my breath away with its amazing view of the mountains, and the difficulty of the climb.

Once our team reached our destination we sat with the community to discuss the possibility of a water project and to build up trust with them and our team. It amazed me to see how quiet the community was while intensively listening to what ADICAY had to say. While I did not understand the language that was spoken, I fully understood that the people in the community cared for each other and want a chance to make life a little less difficult.

Once we left Marichaj, we headed back to Setimah for day 2 of the celebrations. Our team was once again greeted by the whole community that had been waiting for us to start their parade. The children quickly swarmed us and held our hands as we walked with the community following the traditional dancers. The parade lead us to the start of a hike to see the water source for the system. It is unbelievable the amount of work that was done in such a short time to provide water for this community. Myself, Kevin, and a few from ADICAY and the community walked back to the village by following the steel pipes held up by concrete columns. The pipes lead us to the 100,000 liter tank that stored the water for the community. Looking at this giant concrete box, I was in awe to see that there were crosses marked on the tank reminding everyone that it is God who truly provides all things.

The rest of the day was spent celebrating with the community. We were honored with the chance to see some of the kids preform a tradition dance symbolizing the pain of walking to get water that they will no longer have to endure and a routine from professional traditional dancers that tells their history. Some of the kids also enacted a skit of a child dropping the water for the day as she was bringing it home and her parents getting mad. The whole community laughed together with relief for that would never be an issue again.

As the festivities continued, we were brought a traditional meal which included the best soup ever, turkey, rice and tortillas. I felt so grateful to experience something so rare and beautiful. However, my favorite part of the whole festival was playing with the kids who stood behind me. The whole time we did handshakes that they taught me and made silly faces at each other. While we didn’t speak the same language, we understood the joy of community and laughing with each other. I loved getting to see how grateful the community was, but I love even more knowing that their lives would be forever impacted by this work that God lead us to.