Two Tanks and a Learning Curve

I have officially completed the first two tanks of 2010! These two tanks were my “training” tanks and Greg came along to show me the ropes. For the first tank, (funded by everyone’s generous contributions at home!) we hired a highly qualified and experienced mason, Nicolas, to help out and give us lots of good tips. The first tank we made with a group of volunteers and friends from CasaSito. The dynamics were good and I think we all had a fun and stimulating experience. On the first tank we changed up the design a bit and made a dome top made completely out of rebar. It was intense and pushed our work back half a day---but well worth it! It’s a beautiful, strong, and sturdy dome that we are all very proud of---though we aren’t sure we’ll be making any more of them because of time and costs. The family was also very appreciative of our time and efforts as well as put in quite a bit of work themselves! Check out the pictures!







The second tank was made and funded by the first volunteer tour group of El Camino VolunTours. I had the pleasure to get to know two single moms from Canada who were escaping the chaos of the Olympics and cold Canadian winter. These ladies were extremely hard workers who had some great ideas about the construction of the tank that we will use on future tanks as well. For this tank we did the old design which included making the dome out of a huge sawdust filled bag. In one month we will have to come back and take all that sawdust out! We are still trying to figure out new designs that will be economical, time-efficient, and sturdy. All suggestions welcome! Check out these pictures from tank two!







I was invited by another group who makes water tanks to come help out and learn a thing or two about above ground tanks. I’ll be helping out with that the week of March 8th. Then we have selected our next in-ground tank recipients in Chocantariy. I will be going back to Momos around March 18th to do the third tank of 2010! We are also trying to implement a system where one family member has to help out with another tank before receiving one for themselves---similar to Habitat for Humanity. Hopefully we can get something running, though this is more difficult than it sounds.

Thank you all for your abundant support and if anyone has suggestions on how to make a dome, feel free to share!

J