The Drop: Santa
The hardest part about building an aqueduct is digging up a trench that spans the miles between community and water source. With water sources far up into the mountains, a trench will take weeks, even months to carve across streams, forests and open fields. The entire community is expected to help with this monumental task, but sometimes the locals lose steam and we struggle to stay on track.
On a scorcher of a day in July, you could hear the picks and shovels hitting the ground as the volunteers and locals inched the trench forward. I looked over to my right and saw a woman in her older age bent over the trench with a shovel in hand. She wasn’t playing around, either. She was wielding that thing like the water project depended on her persistence. I want you to take a pause right now and picture your grandma doing that……(pausing for imagination)……
Ok, back to the story.
Her name is Santa, and she’s 72 years old. She told me she had worked every single day on the project. As a widow, she was used to doing hard labor on her own. At this age, she continued to tend to her field of crops that provided her with food to eat. Tilling, planting, chopping. Repeat. Her machete was like an extension of her arm. This was not the type of grandma that bakes cookies for you. But the way she smiled at her grandson was like any sweet abuelita.
Day after day, I continued to catch Santa, literally, in the trenches. As a woman who spent her life walking for water, she was making sure she would live to see a faucet in her home soon. The trench was just one more act of hard labor. Only a few days later, the trench was done and an aqueduct filled with clean water reached her community. All the kids celebrated by dancing and playing under a pipe that was opened to commemorate this special moment. While most viejitas stood on the sidelines fondly watching the commotion, Santa didn’t hesitate to run under the rushing water and join the kids in getting completely soaked.
Seeing Santa put her arms up in praise, her perfect smile spread wide across her face, I thought, she’s the MVP. This was her moment of glory. No matter how many miles lie between you and your goal, keep inching forward. Don’t lose steam. When you feel like throwing in the towel, think of Santa, and get back in the trenches.