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Getting off the bus from San Miguel we walked two kilometers to the ranch. I was overjoyed to see Valentin's mother again. She was by the kitchen door with her apron on and a white plastic bucket beside her. Her braid was loose and her thin gray hair fell over her shoulders down to her waist. She had begun watering her begonias. As I came close I noticed the three big round clay pots were nearly empty of water. I had seen her dip a cup into them many times, to get water to drink or for cooking. Below the pots was a shallow square stone to catch water. A mother hen was there sipping a drink with her chicks.
Whenever we went to the ranch, I had plenty of time to mosey around and do nothing important, because everyone else was busy. It didn't look like it at first, but gradually I noticed regular jobs were going on all day long. Cutting wood, stacking it in the kitchen, grinding corn, boiling the nixtamal (boiled corn and water for tortillas), shaking blankets, degraining cobs of corn, washing dishes, feeding the animals, (pigs, chickens, goats, sheep), and always, forever carrying water from the river to put in those big round clay pots.
I told Valentin I wanted to do something, and he suggested I go get water. Briefly, I remembered they get water from the river. Looking for the two buckets and the stick which goes over your shoulders, I went, unassisted; always thinking, how hard can this be? I walked down to the dry river bed where I had seen someone earlier walking away with buckets about the same size as my empty ones. As I arrived at the waterhole, I stood too close and a tiny bit of sand fell in the hole. I got down on my knees and reached into the water with a metal cup, scooped out the water, and put it into my bucket, again and again.
Things were going quite well but as I took the water out, I had to reach farther down to reach the water. Each time sand trickled into the hole, a few times a lot did. I continue to dip out the water until both my buckets are more than half full. I stood up, balanced them, and walked up the hill. They sloshed when I walked and each time I stumbled I lost a little water.
I arrived at the house quite proud of myself. Dometila, Valentin's mother, looked at the water and promptly emptied it into the begonias! She handed me the empty buckets and pointed to the river. I went again to the river and did all the same things. The water was now slightly cloudy from all the sand and debris that had fallen in. Each time I returned to the house my water went on the plants.
After the fourth trip to the river, she handed Valentin the buckets. We went to the hole together. He scooped out all the water without a word, throwing it to the side away from the hole. As we sat there, I was wondering, "Why did he do that? Now we have no water to put in the bucket!"
I watched the hole fill with crystal-clear water like magic. New water seeps in fast from the sides supernaturally. He dips out the clear cool water with the metal cup, again and again until the buckets are full. I carry one and he the other two. When we got to the house his mom poured his water into those big clay joyas for drinking. I realized later the cloudy water I had carried back up the hill was too dirty and only good for animals and plants. Hummph! So much to learn about ranch life.
Late that afternoon, around four, we crossed the river and hiked up a steep slope through groves of gnarly trees to the Santa Cruz for a spectacular 360-degree view. At the summit stood a simple wooden cross embedded in a concrete base standing guard over the ranch. The fields below were barren, exposing the rich black soil that lined the rocky river bed as it snaked through the valley. We had climbed up there for an annual community blessing and supplication for the harvest. The community members lit incense and said a few words of praise for the coming rain. There was a bit of singing. The families gathered wood and built a fire as the sun set. One thing I love about the ranch is the constant simplicity, these people knew and still know. Their lives are yoked to basic things like water, rain, the warmth of the sun, and time.
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