Monday, May 17, 2010

Ugh, setbacks.

SOOO, I was supposed to have a water committee meeting last weekend, and it looked like it was going to happen, until tragedy struck on Friday. My water committee president's son was killed in a car accident on Friday night, and his body was brought back to the community on Saturday. Obviously, we didn't meet, and probably won't meet this week either. So I'm going to try to do some small training sessions and repairs with the plumber of my aqueduct. We'll see how that goes. He's the one person that's kind of resistent to having a gringa help out.

It's been freaking HOT here. I know what you're all thinking, "Isn't it always hot there, Molly?" The answer to that is yes. However, there's hot, and there's HOT. Right now we are experiencing the latter. I'm kind of stuck in the house when it's really hot, because I melt (literally, just like the Wicked Witch of the West sans water) when it's hot like this. I went out to the Embera-Wounaan Comarca to visit a future community with my APCD and my regional leader last week, and that was amazing. The community is really organized and excited to have a volunteer. They seem really pulled together and I just got a really good vibe from them. If it weren't for the 50 chiggers that I pulled of my legs and stomach the next day and the ungodly heat (I had soaked my shirt, bra, jeans, underwear in about 10 minutes), I'd want to move out there. I'm kind of frustrated with the standstill I'm experiencing in my community, so I'm prone to romantacizing other communities. They have problems too, I know. I just thought it was a really great community.

Other than that, I've been hanging out with my neighborhood kids, collecting rainwater (there's a major leak in the system somewhere, so our aqueduct hasn't had water for a week; don't worry though, Mom, we've had plenty of rain!), and plotting ways to engage my community. It's such a wierd thing to feel like I'm not making progress but not actually ever be at a standstill. Very confusing.

That's all for now. Hope everyone is well!

Monday, May 10, 2010

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.