Comarca Tech Week, 2010

Here are some shots of the tech week that I just completed out in the Comarca Ngabe Buble in my friend Austin's site. It was a wonderful week full of great information and practice. A lot of the technical skills I felt I had already learned, but we did a lot of brainstorming as a group about how to strengthen the information channels and share the resources we've discovered independently of one another. A lot of Peace Corps in independent work, and it's easy to forget that there are other people in the country, in your sector, even in your province that are working on the same things and sharing resources and information would be easier than struggling through a project solo. There are often some issues with communicating that information, so we're trying to improve that situation.

On the technical side, we built a tap stand for Austin's house, installed a valve box and poured the cement for another one, and did some PVC connections for the water installation in Austin's house. We also worked on thermoforming, which is using hot oil to mold PVC tube, and talked about more efficient ways to make these things using the resources that we have readily available in our communities. Next month I'm going to experiment creating valve boxes using plastic buckets as the mold with another volunteer. She and I just don't have access or the technical skills to create these complicated molds for a valve box, so we're trying to dumb it down (or "campo" it up, as it were) so that it's more accessible for the average volunteer and community member. Hopefully we'll find some interesting and useful solutions.

We also discussed the water committee trainings and where we want to take those as a group. I'd love to train my water committee, but it does require that they participate, which I can't force them to do. I'm supposed to meet with my water committee this week, so I'll let everyone know how that goes.

Hope everyone is well. Take care.