River shrimping

A neighbor of mine and I went "river shrimping" in a local stream. Just after sunset we hiked up a few kilometers of stream with a flashlight in one hand and a machete in the other, searching for the light's reflection off the shrimps' eyes. We saw a 6-7 foot boa constrictor slither out of the water, countless giant spiders. My favorite part may have been scaling the cliffs of two waterfalls, about 20-30 feet each - reaching from roots to vines. The bounty was delicious, needless to say.

Projects

Working with a committee of locals from the neighboring community with no access to safe water, Pedregoza, we've completed a project plan for the first phase of a community water system. The project will include the small catchment structure at the source springs in the hills and about five kilometers of 1.5" and 2" PVC pipe to the community center and school, providing two communal water outlets. We have managed to find the 400 dollars for the source structure locally, from a national legislator who represents the area. For this "Phase I," the estimated $9,000+ in labor will be provided by the community, while the 8,800 dollars for the pipeline will be provided from the USA. Peace Corps will put an "ad" online with the ability for anyone to make online donations - I'll post the link here and send a mass email as well to give anyone interested the opportunity to contribute to the project. But, thankfully, we have secured the commitment of an NGO, Waterlines, to fund whatever has not been donated after a week or two up to the entire 8,800 dollars. So the project is secure, and we plan to begin as soon as the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy processes the request and funds. We hope to begin in January and have tap water in April. The construction of the source structure is nominal and in the shade, but burying five kilometers of pipe with nothing but shovels, pick-axes, and sweltering heat will take some time. The committee I'm working with is really well organized and has planned to split the 60 local workers up into three 20-person groups, with each group working two days each week. I feel confident letting the committee run itself and make decisions, and the community has continuously shown its commitment to work. We'll see how things go in February.

The latrine project in my own community is finalized as well. The project will consist of 15 latrines, going to households with no latrine. This project is being led by a small group of locals, including the new president of the health committee. I've had a bit more trouble finding cooperation and ambition in my community than in Pedregoza, but the new president happens to be my closest friend in the community so we work together well. I have had to play a slightly heavier role in planning this project, setting deadlines and requirements. For example, the participants will have to have the latrine pit dug before they receive the materials for the latrine floor slab (set over the pit), and will then have to have the walls built before they receive the roof (zinc) sheets. I hate to treat them like children, but there are too many cases of a pile of materials being given to a household for building a latrine, and then a year later the household has a pile of materials and no latrine. This project will also be financed through online donations, with a different NGO as the main donor - we have the 1,500 dollars secured. We should begin around February and be done in a month or two.

For the latrine project, we took two trips to the provincial capital, totaling 10 dollars in travel for the committee - a very significant expense, going to the Ministry of Health, District Mayor, Provincial Governor, and a "social investment" Fund of the Presidency with well-prepared requests (individual letters and budget), but have received nothing but a commitment of plastic latrine seats (which weren't a part of our request). Pedregoza had slightly more luck in these efforts, but not much.

Photos: Jesus and me (above), the tarantula that continuously returns to my house (above), two of my roosters and two of my hens, the path to Pedregoza, a praying mantis, a sloth.

Designs

I am finishing up the water system design for a neighboring community, and realizing how expensive it can be to build a properly-designed water system. Materials are coming out to cost about 20 thousand dollars. Ensuring that there is equity in service, that each house has sufficient pressure, requires larger pipe sizes that carry with them a much higher price. I am going to look at a few alternatives, because I am not sure how feasible it would be to fund the ideal solution.

We're also finishing up a proposal for moveable latrine floor slabs, which would be a new technology for the community. Currently, the community members would need to construct a new concrete slab to be used with a new latrine pit. With moveable floor slabs, when the pit is full, the slab can simple be relocated to a new pit, saving a significant amount of money. The cost of building a new slab for a new pit currently is the main reason why latrine pits are overused, i.e., continued to be used even though the pit is full.

Taking a break in Colombia for now.

Photos

A roommate with meal, a lizard in my front yard, cows on a hill, a roommate (deceased), my chicks, my house.

Rain

With my house done things are very tranquilo. Slow paced but moving forward.

My community had a $250K road project financed last year, connecting us to a paved road. This would be great, because electricity could then arrive to the community, as well. Students could attend school more easily, pregnant woman and injured people would not need to be carried in hammocks for the 3.5km to where the public transportation currently arrives. Products, namely corn, could be transported quickly and easily. People could conveniently come and go from places where there are jobs. It is overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development . . . it was very generous of everyone, but unfortunately that road project is not moving. The company that was hired for the project layed gravel on about 0.5km and then left. That was around January. Repeatedly calling this to the attention of government agencies, the governor, and even a letter writing campaign to the president have accomplished nothing. About once a month, someone says that the project is going to start soon - everything is ready now, just a few more weeks. And the $250K? Possibly, paying the salaries of the people in charge of overseeing the larger program of which this project is a part. Poor accounting? Incompetence? Corruption? It makes it very difficult to motivate locals to solicit their government for any type of support.

Regardless, we are moving ahead in Pedregosa, nearly done with collecting all of the data we need to design a water system. One of my favorite days, we hiked up into the hill and dug a large trench (that will be a part of the water collection system) in pouring rain. It was simply a real situation, seeing everyone working together, laughing and working at the same time in a situation that could just as easily be considered miserable.

In another nearby town, of about 500 people, there is a 7km-long water system of 4-inch PVC pipe, which is very large for the rural systems in the area, constructed in about 2005. I can only imagine imagine what the cost was, but my guess is about $200K. And when I say cost I mean the price paid to the company hired to complete the project, not necessarily reflective of the value of the project, unfortunately. The system has never worked. No water has ever arrived to the community through that pipeline. Mindboggling and confusing. But it perhaps drawns attention to the need for more technical support from development agencies (USAID, World Bank, perhaps Peace Corps) in the government agencies that approve/oversee such projects. I recently went with some locals from that community and surveyed the pipeline. Hopefully I can identify a flaw that can be fixed. That was another incredible day, hiking about 24km in one day. Thankfully the weather was perfect.

Presently, another volunteer and I are working with the Peace Corps-Panama office to try to get the organization to be more responsible when it comes to compelted projects actually being effective. For example, a lot of composting latrines are built, but very few are actually used properly - when used improperly they are in large part a waste of the $400 investment. As I think mentioned previously, a lot of work is done, but not much attention is payed to whether or not that work benefits the people living in poverty. The present situation is irresponsible and needs to be drastically improved. So instead of just complaining we are collaborating with the office and trying to come up with some of those improvements.

I have four new baby chickens that are almost not babies anymore. They´re relentless when they´re hungry. I also have planted yucca, pineapple, beans, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, and corn. I was proudly admiring my corn one day when a 12 year old asked me what foods I know how to prepare with corn - he had to go rain on my parade.

A house

My house is done. It´s a great feeling to be eating and sleeping under my own roof/leaves. I´m still working on setting up my water, shower, and latrine, but the the house itself is complete, with the help of the community. The house has a penca (palm thatched) roof, quincha (mud-stray mix over a wooden frame) walls, and a dirt floor. I built the door and windows myself (out of lumber from the provincial capital), as well as a shelf, all of which are hideous but functional. There´s about a foot of space between the roof and the walls, so the strong winds make it very drafty inside. It´s cool during the day and chilly at night - I couldn´t ask for anything more.

Crossroads

I find this to be amazing: in the community where i live there are no
paved roads, currently no running water, no electricity, yet the
technology exists and is available here for me to post this entry from
my cell phone for a penny.

A journal entry from Friday 28 December 2007

Something's running around in my room. I check my clock and it's midnight. A plastic bag crackles on the floor, then another on the shelf. I shine my flashlight around, generating more quick sounds of movement and then silence. It's probably a rat. Yesterday Dr. Lourdes sent out an email about a Hanta Virus death in the Province of Veraguas. I live in Coclé. Coclé borders Veraguas. My throat is dry. I turn off my light and get comfortable in bed. What are the symptoms of Hanta Virus? I can't remember exactly what they said. . . I think vomiting was one. My stomach doesn't feel right. . . . And it has something to do with dry areas, right? Something seems to fall off the wall not a foot frommy head, followed by a squeak and quick movement. I get the flashlight again and find a rat tail. No that's an umbrella cord. Why can't I sleep? I don't have to go to the bathroom, there really isn't much noise . . . my stomach is a little queasy and my throat a bit dry. . . am I dying of Hanta Virus? If I vomit then definitely yes. . . Hanta onsets quickly, if I remember medical training correctly . . . something about 15 minutes? Should I call the office now? "I think I'm dying of Hanta Virus," I could say . . . But then what? It's a three hour hike to the hospital. Maybe they could chopper me out more quickly. Where would it land, though. . . . maybe the open land near the school, but that's not very flat. . . probably the pasture and corn field next door. That would be a great story for the locals, "We had a helicopter land on our property to rescue the gringo dieing of the plague." Forget it. I'm going to sleep. I put in my ear plugs so I can't hear whatever it is infecting my room with whatever deadly disease there may be. I hope I don't die of Hanta Virus.

Progress

The house is still in progress, unfortunately. We're making progress, though. We had a great time making the walls - creating a huge pool of mud, adding straw, stomping on it, and then laying it over the walls - a few more iterations of this are still needed. Hopefully this week it will be done, I say for the seventh time.

A nearby community has no water system and is strongly motivated to work for one. To meet their water needs, the locals carry water form water holes. The government office in charge of rural water systems has been unwilling to work much with this community because the identified source provided insufficient flow for the entire community. That is how it has stood for years. On Monday, I went with the community, around 20 men volunteered their time to participate, and we located and measured the flow from all of the sources of which the locals knew. We found more than enough water, and this is the dry season. It was an amazing experience, trekking through thick forest at times, roughly 700 meters up, while working to provide access to safe drinking water for about 200 people.

Meanwhile, I'm helping the local health worker with a vaccination campaign against mumps, and learning that it is quite a logistical challenge to deal with vaccinations in rural areas with no electricity, considering that they need to be refrigerated. Solar panels were recently brought, on loan, to run a refrigerator in the local health center, but that's where it stands - brought. Unfortunately the not-to-be-named did no install it nor advise anyone on its installation. I imagine they will be returning presently to install it.

Pictures: My house (under construction), my hen and chicks, my friends with my motete, my friends.

Distractions

We've been making steady progress with my house - the main framework is in place, and the roof is almost covered. We ran out of the palm leaves the day we were covering the roof, and collecting more is an exhausting task that the group just wasn't up to. So add another week onto the time of construction.

I can ride a calm horse now, and enjoy that. I tried without a saddle but that just doesn't work for me.

I've finished (roughly) a comprehensive community analysis of where I live, identifying the resources the community has, the resources that are being abused, potential threats, and opportunities. One of the critiques of Peace Corps as a development agency is that not enough assessment and evaluation is done for both determining what work to do and then determining if that work had any effect; for this reason, I'm making sure I collect enough data to show the current status of the community and then repeat the data collection post-projects. I'm not alone on this; I'm collaborating with another volunteer and we're hoping to help see this sort of assessment and evaluation become standard practice.

Wandering around

I´m quickly finding that there is a lot of interest in acquiring and improving water systems with the communities with water problems, however interest in working for the water is at times lacking. So, helping communities become more organized, I am beggining to see, will be a significant part of my work.

I´m working with the local health worker to initiate a project to travel to each community within the corregimiento (i.e. county) to provide standard vaccinations - I want to get to each community to learn about their drinking water situations, so this extra project will fit in well. Some of these communities are in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Keeping the vaccinations on ice while trekking out to the towns in nearly 100 degrees of motivation-draining heat will be a feat in itself - I´m hoping for cloudy days. I imagine many have not been visited by health workers with vaccinations for quite some time, so I think there is a lot of need. The first part of our efforts will be to determine if there is that need, visiting each community. I´m thinking about learning to ride horse for the distances.

Making slow progress on my house - chopped down my first tree, with mixed feelings, to be sure. We have roughly half of the wood (branches, not lumber) we need for the frame, permission to use the palm branches from a nearby pasture for the roof, and all of the mud we could ask for to make the walls.