Water Committee Seminars

The role of a volunteer in development work

is not

paternalism 

gifts

quick

is

capacity building

sharing 

long term.

Some of our most important work as environmental health volunteers is training the people who use and take care of aqueducts. The training ranges from basic clean water practices, how diseases spread, design, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure, water conservation, to laws and regulations. If we can successfully instill this information in the aqueduct beneficiaries then our work creates a group of people who can speak to their own environmental health. I like the idea of working myself out of this job.

Here are some photos of an informal water seminar for the people in my friend Carolyn's community. Our low tech presentations include lots of conversation, goofy games, and of course, food. 

Babies in Things- Part Dos

Newborn baby in hammock

Baby eyes in the cracks of my house... watching me, always...

Latrine Luck

Part of our work as environmental health volunteers is promoting sanitation by education about disease transmission and encouraging the use of latrines. I've been helping my friends Carolyn and Kayla with latrine building projects in their communities. The projects provide interested and dedicated community members with resources to construct latrines for their families. 

The day I returned from hiking around the mountains of the comarca between our sites my latrine building skills were put to the test. My next door neighbor was 2 meters deep in a hole he was digging for a new latrine. He had the materials to build a reinforced concrete platform but told me he wasn't confident in how to set it up and of the concrete mix proportions. It just so happened that I was a latrine building expert after those past few days. To me, this is my ideal work: community members using their own motivation to do projects and drawing on my technical resources. 

We built the platform or plancha and a few days later I used a mold to make a toilet seat or taza for the latrine.  I had some help from a visitor friend. Hopefully I will be able to assist more of my community members in a community wide latrine building project in the next year. 

The plancha, with rebar handles so that when the latrine is full, it can be moved and placed on top of a new hole.

The center and sides of this taza were removed and it was moved on top of the plancha, creating a toilet seat.

UFO

One evening I was spending time at my neighbor's house. Her husband had come home from working in another town for the night and I always make sure to go by and say hello to him. Their family is so nice to me. The woman, Gillermina, while lounging in her hammock, was looking for insight on a very strange occurrence she had witnessed the night before. She told me about a peculiar light, like a star but not, that was oscillating repeatedly a short distance in the sky. "About the size of that jug..." she said and pointed. That didn't help me. I tried to explain shooting stars but that didn't fit the bill. I then explained people living in outer space, aliens, and sometimes they will come visit earth. She remarked that those those people were my family. Verrry funny. We all were still confused but the family told me they would come get me in the night if it happened again.

Sure enough, at about midnight I was woken up from my sleep. "Erica, the light!", the girls urgently cried. I didn't grab my glasses and hoped whatever light was out there was bright enough to be seen by my foggy vision. Another neighbor also came, comparably more annoyed at being woken up. I was curious. When I saw it in the sky I immediately knew what was happening. You see, their house faces out of the mountains where we live, towards the city of David. Right now in David there is a fair. How do you say "search light" in Spanish? I struggled to describe. The other neighbor confirmed my hypothesis. We all went back to bed. I was disappointed it wasn't a real UFO. 

Dorado the Squirrel

Like a proud mom I'll give you all an update on my cat. Dorado is spastic, to say the least. The past few days he has turned into my 6 AM alarm clock, only this alarm clock playfully (and painfully) attacks me while I'm trying to sleep. If I don't respond he goes for my face! I repeatedly throw him off my bed, which he apparently takes as playful as well. Other than that he is a model-kitty. He loves to be the center of attention, playing with the kids. He runs fast where-ever he goes and the people constantly refer to him as an ardilla or squirrel, with his long tail whipping behind him. Overall, he's pretty fun to have around.

Cabbage, Corn, Beans.

Frijoles Follow-Up


Since I talked so enticingly about the beans we have right now in a post a few weeks ago, I thought I should include some photos to back up my description. Even my most flowery language couldn't do justice to beauty of these beans! During a recent bean de-shelling session with my neighbor-grandma and the kids, grandma took a call on her cell phone and the kids and I messed around taking pictures for awhile.

Finished!

Maiz


Corn. I've already raved about the corn here, how beautiful and tasty it is. I decided to make popcorn. Healthy snack, fun to make - right? I got some dried corn from my neighbor and tried to pop it in oil on my stove. No success, it burned and didn't pop! Neighbors inquired about the smell coming from my kitchen and I tried to explain to them what I was doing. I think there was a mis-communication, though, with the word for popcorn. First, I don't think anyone has actually ever eaten popcorn. Second, the word my dictionary gave me for popcorn is palomita. The root ("paloma") of which means bird in their vocabulary, and -ita means something small. They all thought I was cooking little birds of corn. That's cute, right? A literal descriptive translation. One women suggested the solution was to toast the corn, then cook it in oil. I had my neighbor-grandma toast it for me and I tried again. No better success. I'm about to Google it, but does anyone have any experience with making home-made popcorn? I don't understand what form of corn it takes to "pop!".

Cabbage Rolls

One night while thinking about what to make for dinner, I realized I had all the ingredients necessary to make cabbage rolls! I leaned how to make them last year, honing in on my German heritage. I improvised only a little (Enchilada seasoning? Sure!). They tasted a little like home. 

Arts & Crafts

Kra

One of the crafts of the Ngabe women is to make chakras, or bags. These bags are looped from any sort of string. The traditional way uses a hand dyed plant fiber. The bags come in all sizes- from large enough to carry firewood, to bitty-sized for a cell phone. Both men and women use them as purses. When carrying a large chakra with cargo the strap is placed on the forehead and the bulk is carried on the back. This takes a very strong neck! I decided to try my hand at making a chakra with some ugly plastic string I had. I made a bag for my yoga mat. The women were so enthusiastic about helping me, but they couldn't understand what a yoga mat was (I finally called it a sleeping map) or why I would make a bag for it. 

Compost

I'm trying to make compost out of my food scraps. I'm using a 5-gallon bucket with holes punched in the bottom. Everyone in my community thinks I'm crazy. They wander by the outside of my house to sneak a peak inside the bucket. They just don't get it. It's been about 2 weeks and I'm patiently waiting for something exciting to happen, to show them I'm not more crazy than I know they already think I am. I scanned a few how-to compost sites online to get started. I'm now soliciting advice from my green-friends (you all, if it applies) to see if I'm on the right track. The physical characteristics of my compost are: dark in color, smelly, attracts flies, has maggots. To keep it moist I add coffee & grounds every morning and occasionally some urine (nitrogen, right?). I set it in the sun every day to make sure it stays hot. I've added dried leaves for a carbon input. Recently it has become more consistent in color and I can tell the material is breaking down. How long should it take? Does it sound like I'll have myself come rich compost soon?