Maine Rotary Club Visit

This month we had the privilege of a visit from members of three Rotary Clubs from Maine, including Freeport, Portland and Brunswick. A group of six Rotarians and the lovely, intelligent (and most importantly Spanish speaking) daughter of one of the said Rotarians joined us for a week in Santa Barbara.

Saturday: The Agua Pura crew, a few local Rotary Club members, and Abundio, the wonderful driver for the week, all met the group at San Pedro at the airport. We loaded their 15 suitcases and the 7 of them into three cars and headed back to Santa Barbara without any glitches (except that it started to rain on the way back and the bags were in the pack of the pick up so we had to stop and buy a tarp).


Sunday: We all woke up early on Sunday and headed to Descansadero, San Nicolas, to hold a capacitation (hygiene and filter use training). We had a great turnout from the community; they were all waiting for us at the entrance of the school when we arrived. Miguel (aka barba, which means beard), a retired teacher and community leader, started off the morning by giving a little background about his community and thanking the Rotary Club for all they have done to make these projects possible. One thing that he mentioned is that the single room we were sitting in served as the school for grades 1-6, which were taught by one single teacher. Then we started the meeting off with a dinamica, like an ice breaker, which Hondurans love. Here is George Crocket in a “human knot” trying to work his way out of it.

Nineth continued with a basic hygiene charla, recapping what we had talked about in the socialization, the first community meeting, and then moved on to talk about the filter use.

We finished by handing out prizes of soap, toothbrushes, dish towels and the coveted bucket with a spout on it. To encourage the community to participate we handed out many of the prizes to those who could answer questions about hygiene and the filters (they wanted to participate).

After the meeting ended the community treated us to tamales (corn meal with meat inside boiled in a banana leaf) and the Rotary Club treated them to all sorts of toys to play with.


That night we had a meeting and dinner with the local Rotary Club to receive an introduction to Santa Barbara and meet the junta directive of the Santa Barbara Rotary Club.

From left: Elizabeth, George, Dick, Andrea, Tom, Les, Marge

Monday & Tuesday: The Rotary Club members from Maine spent time in El Nispero, a neighboring community of Santa Barbara, with Erin, another Peace Corps volunteer, visiting the schools to donate shoes and school supplies. Meanwhile the Agua Pura team delivered filters to Descansadero to prepare for the Friday installations.

The delivery truck from the filter workshop

Wednesday: The Rotary Club members from Maine took a trip to Copan Ruinas to check out Honduras’ Mayan Ruins.

Thursday: We went to Jimilile to do monitoring. Which means we went to each house with a filter to make sure it was working properly and to talk to the family about how the filter had impacted their health. Every family that we talked to reported improved health, many of them experiencing no diarrhea whatsoever since initiation of filter use. This aspect of our work was very important for the Rotary Club from Maine to see because it showed them what an important impact the filter project has on the people’s lives.

Jimilile

Thursday afternoon we went to the filter workshop to watch the filter making process, including pouring the cement into the filter molds and watching the sand be washed and tested.
Sergio at the filter workshop, working with the filter molds.

A few of the Rotary members left the workshop early to meet with Douglas Diaz, the previous Santa Barbara Rotary Club treasurer, and Rene Vazquez, the previous president, to review the project accounting and make sure everything was in line. Luckily Nineth’s organizational skills paid off and everything was as it should be. Thursday night we had a second meeting with the water committee from the Santa Barbara Rotary Club, members of the Maine Rotary Clubs, the Agua Pura team and Maria Inestroza, the Agua Pura National Director. Despite the language barriers we were all able to communicate well, clarify operational issues and make some important decisions that will improve our future functioning.

From left: Vasquez, Douglas Diaz, Maria Inestroza, Hector Madrid

Friday: We went to Descansadero (the village we visited in the beginning of the week for the capacitation) to install filters. The first filter we installed made us thankful that we weren’t the ones to deliver it because it was at the bottom of a huge hill. After installing the first filter together we broke up into teams and installed about 15 filters (in total we will install 45 filters in Descansadero).

Dick is measuring the flow rate of a newly installed filter.

We finished up the day by eating tons of fresh corn on the cob prepared by the gracious wife of Miguel.

Friday night we attended the Santa Barbara Rotary Club meeting, which incidentally coincided with a visit from the District Governor. Each Rotary Club from Maine, was presented with a Santa Barbara Rotary Club banner as a token of appreciation. Earlier in the week it was discovered that Hector Madrid, the current president, and his wife Doris belonged to a local folkloric dance group and at the insistence of the Rotary Club members from Maine they were convinced to perform at the end of the meeting. So we finished the meeting with a wonderful cultural show followed by a catered dinner.

Allison & Nineth all dressed up for the Rotary meeting

Saturday: Saturday we packed up the cars and headed back to the airport to say goodbye and finish off an exhausting but memorable week. Overall, the trip was important because it allowed many people that have all been working towards the same goal to finally meet each other in person and get a feel for what is really happening on each end. We can’t wait to see you again next year!

Special thanks to the Rotary Clubs of Freeport, Portland and Brunswick, Maine for sending great representatives. Special thanks to George Crocket for all your planning. Special thanks to Elizabeth Crocket for your Spanish skills. Special thanks to Abundio for not crashing the SUV. Special thanks to the Santa Barbara Rotary Club for being wonderful hosts throughout the week.