December 2007

Although we only worked a few weeks in December we were able to get a lot done. We did monitoring in El Diviso, El Carmen and Buena Vista. Held community meetings in El Carmen and Buena Vista and trained Community Agents from San Francisco de Ojuera, Buena Vista and El Carmen.

Buena Vista, Atima

Buena Vista, Atima is a community over three hours away from Santa Barbara. It is by far the poorest community we work with. They have no electricity, no running water, no pilas and no latrines.

They don’t have fences either…

They get their water from about 15 different wells (more like holes in the ground) and have to carry it back to their house. The women usually make three or more trips per day, each trip taking 5-30 minutes depending on how far away the well is from their house. During the dry season they wake up at 4 am to go to the well to get water before it dries up. This can take hours because all the women are there at the same time trying to get water.
At the urging of a Rotary Club from Minnesota that visited Buena Vista for a medical brigade last year, Agua Pura installed filters in the community. In early December the Agua Pura team went to Buena Vista for the week to do monitoring of the filters and train Community Agents from El Carmen and Buena Vista.

Mauricio teaching about the three steps of water treatment

Nineth teaching filter installation

Proud graduates

It was wonderful to find that the health of the community has improved greatly since they started using water but they still have a serious lack of water. Luckily the same Minnesota Rotary Club that visited last year is hoping to fund the installation of a water system in the community to provide everyone with running water. Therefore Katie Strass, a Peace Corps Volunteer who works as a Water & Sanitation engineer, also went to Buena Vista for the week to collect data for the water system. Meanwhile, Allison, the Peace Corps Volunteer that works with Agua Pura, went door-to-door conducting a needs assessment for the application to Rotary International for the funding for the water system. Everyone in the community was happy to see us and thanked us for visiting.

Family Profile Buena Vista, Atima

Besy & Doni

Besy and her 3 year old son Doni were instrumental in our work there. They both accompanied Allison from house to house for the needs assessment. While the Agua Pura team usually wears sturdy hiking boots or tennis shoes when we go out into the field (and still manage to fall in the mud).Besy wore flip flops and Doni wore dress shoes. He was amazing! He didn’t complain once and walked the whole way without asking to be carried, meanwhile the Agua Pura team was absolutely exhausted hiking up and down mountains all day.

Besy is a very strong woman who works hard and understands the importance of serving her community. She even withstands the challenges and criticism that sometimes comes along pushing the boundaries. For example, she had to ask her husband for permission to attend the Community Agents training. He was reluctant at first but then conceded. Also, she has to brush off the comments that some community members make about her for leaving the community to work on projects. They suspect her to be a “bad woman” if she is leaving and sleeping somewhere else for a night or two. Through all of this is was wonderful to hear that she has confidence that she knows she is doing what is right and doesn’t care what others say about her. She is thankful to have a filter and is excited to see a water system come to Buena Vista. Here she recounts her daily routine during the dry season: “I wake up at 4 am to bring water because early in the morning there is water, in the day there is no water. We have to wake up early to bring water for the entire day. The women and children go in groups of 5 or 6. I can’t carry water in buckets because I wasn’t born here, the women that we born here can, I carry water in smaller containers. I go 3 or 4 times in the morning so I don’t have to go when there is sun. From 4-6 am I bring water. I only bring water for the kitchen. To bath and wash clothes I have to leave again.”

We didn’t see much of her husband or older son because they were out working. Humberto, her husband was with Katie, doing the study for the system and her 8 year old son was working in the field all day.

Happy Holidays

We were all ready for a break and really enjoyed spending time with our families. Nineth went to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, to spend Christmas with her family. Allison went home to Cleveland, Ohio for a week and then traveled through Honduras with her parents. Mauricio and Sergio stayed in Santa Barbara to spend the holidays with their families here.

The Office Gets a New Look

During the holidays the Agua Pura office got a new paint job. Purple and cream in one room and yellow and pink in the other…kind of like an Easter basket.