22.3.10

Water Water Everywhere!

First-

Happy World Water Day!

Of course I forgot about this until my dear friend Nancy in Argentina reminded me gently on facebook---thanks Nancy!

Well this is what my life has been and will continue to be about for the next 10 months: water.

I spent the last two weeks in the Los Encuentros area of Guatemala with another water organization helping build a 10,000 liter ferrocement storage tank as well as distribute water to 55 families in a sector of the aldea El Adelanto. In order to do this we were capturing water from a spring on the side of a mountain and then digging trenches and laying pipe for 16,000 feet over very rough terrain. However, I spent most of my time working on the water tank at the spring. I went along to learn how to make an above ground “can-shaped” tank and left with a dozen or more new friends. We are planning to leave tomorrow for Momos to build a smaller 4,000ish liter above ground tank. We are thinking it may be easier and less expensive and therefore we can forget the egg-shaped tank and concentrate on the above ground one.

The best part about the two weeks working in El Adelanto was the people. Not only did I work with some talented Guatemalan masons but I also got to hang out with some awesome people from Wisconsin. The group of nine “sconnies” came from several parts of Wisconsin and the majority of them work in different water sectors such as water utility plants and most of them were engineers. They are all part of a social water club that has been coming to Guatemala for the last three years to do various water projects. Need less to say, we fell in love with each other. I especially fell in love with their sense of humor, love for water, and love of helping others. The only way I can describe them is as super balanced, down-to-earth people who really do care. Despite hearing how they were inspired by me, I felt the opposite. I found daily inspiration from them and truly thrived intellectually from them.

I think I’m going to let the pictures tell the rest of the story.