mishqui-yacu, sweet water - IFAD

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Jenny Campoverde is a nurse who works for the CARC project in
Suscal. A gentle woman, she now says she does not understand how
she was able to act in the way she did back then:
It was a group of at least 100 persons, headed by a fat, indigenous
man armed with a machete. I did not know who he was. They
started to scream at us. We were drinking coffee and were totally
unprepared. The angry crowd rushed into the house, smashing
chairs and tables, taking off the feet of the furniture and clubbing
the men with them. It was awful. The house was crowded and outside
people were pressing to get in. They shouted: We want the head
of Luis Chimbo. One technician, Jacinto Caguana, was several
times hit with the flat sides of machetes. They dragged Luis Chimbo
outside. It was awful. Nasty. People were like paralysed by fear.
Several of the men fled, one woman fainted. Then I saw they had
carried with them a tank of gasoline. They were going to set Luis
Chimbo on fire! It was incomprehensible and I became infuriated.
I placed myself in front of them and shouted: How is it possible that
you come here in such a state of mind? Get out of here! They
became bewildered when they saw my strong reaction and most of
them calmed themselves down immediately. They listened to me.
Everything was very strange. For me it was some kind of illumination.
Both their and my reactions were a surprise to me and it
is still hard for me to believe what happened that night. 55
These dramatic incidents indicate the extremely complicated social
realities characterizing the Cañari area at the time. In order to
understand and judge the achievements of the CARC project, it is
important to comprehend some elements of the intricate web of
social interaction within the Cañar valley, including such thorny
issues as local patriotism, ownership structures, racism, religious
conflicts and political populism.
Trial and error has taught us, often in a painful way, that development
work in general and water management in particular, is
a complicated social activity. You have to be very sensitive to the
demands and way of being of the people you work with. Be careful,
listen and learn. 56
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Interview with Jenny Campoverde.
Interview with Pablo Arevalo, technician working with PROTOS (an NGO associated
with the CARC project).