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.
