Thursday in Texoxingales

What a day! We’ve been to the end of the road at the top of a mountain to the village of Texoxingales an hour and fifteen minutes away from home base. Coffee and cardamon are the cash crops.

As with many other villages, this is a very poor village. The closest town with commerce and middle and high schools is one hour away by car. Horses are used as transportation here but I have no idea how long it would take by horse to get to town.

Their number one need is another source of water. The source that they are using now is drying up. The tank that holds the water fills so slowly that the water is turned on only for a short time in the morning and again in the evening. There is another source of water on a different mountain but they are in need of pipe to bring it down to the holding tank. This village is lucky in that they do have electricity.

Dental kits were given out to the children followed by deworming and the fluoride treatments. Over 125 doses of the deworming medicine were given to the children and adults. Plastic spoons were used to measure out the doses. We ran out of spoons and had to have one of the women take the used ones home to wash them. I knew that at the end of the day that I was getting tired as I spilled a spoonful down the front of a young mother. Fortunately, she laughed along with us and accepted my apology.

For lunch we were invited to have lunch with one of the families in the village. We dined on their best tablecloths and dishes with the menu of chicken, chicken soup, tortillas and coke or water. The chicken soup was made by boiling the whole chicken in the pot and then removing it, putting it on a spit and roasting it. Zounds, we have chicken and chicken soup! The chicken was definite free range and was tough as an old inner tube!
We visited several homes to view the types of stoves being used and the problems that are present when the stoves are not properly vented. Those houses whose stoves were not vented were full of smoke, just like when you light the fire in your fireplace and forget to open the damper. Needless to say, we did not tarry long in those houses. No wonder there are so many respiratory problems with conditions such as these. Some of the houses had vented the stoves to out side so there is a recognition of how to eliminate the smoke.
The children, of course, were cute and adorable, but there is no future for them after the 6th grade as it would be an hour’s ride by car to get to the closest town that has a middle school and high school. In addition the parents would have to come up with enough money to pay for their school fees, uniforms and money for room and board if they have to live in town.. Therefore, what the future holds for these 12 and 13 year olds is to have a baby and maybe marriage and more babies year after year. Between having so many babies and the hard life that they have, the women are old before they are 30.

We feel that God has led us to a village that has many opportunities for us to work with the people in showing them God’s love for them and to help improve the quality of their health.
Maxine