Alter months of communicating with members of the Freeport and Portland, Maine Rotary Club by e-mail and Skype we finally got to meet a few of them in person. On February 9th a group of five showed up to spend a week in Santa Barbara to work on the filter project.
From left: Allison, Paul, Kaitlyn, Tamara, Marjorie, Jim, Hector
Paul & Kaitlyn are both software engineers from San Diego, California who came along for the ride because Paul’s mom is Jim & Marjorie’s pastor (thankfully they both speak Spanish, so they were very helpful). Tamara is a civil/environmental engineer from Maine and is the wife of a Rotarian. Jim & Marjorie are both engineers (mechanical & chemical respectively) from Maine and are members of the Portland Rotary Club. So, if you add that up, it comes to five engineers!
We were incredibly busy all week, visiting communities, meeting with the local filter manufacturer, local Rotarians and tying up administrative loose ends. Each member of the group brought important skills and was able to contribute to the project in a meaningful way. Tamara was able to help us evaluate our lab procedures for our water analysis, Paul & Katie helped with translating, Jim brought us a great filter carrier (they weight 300+ lbs) and Jim & Marjorie helped us straighten out contract, budget and planning issues. Most importantly they all had great attitudes, were patient and flexible, which is very important down here.
Sunday we all met in the office to do an overview of the project and talk a little bit about the culture and city of Santa Barbara.
Then we headed over to the filter workshop for a tour and a filter installation demonstration. They were ready for us when we arrived and had a welcome sign hanging above the filters.
From left: Tamara, Marjorie, Jim
While at the workshop we also gave our new filter carrier a trial run. Jim brought down a carrier made of steel cables that can support a small or large filter and can be carried by 4 or more people. This type of devise should come in very useful for us when we are delivering filters to homes, especially those with difficult access.
From left, clockwise: Jim, Paul, Rolf, Mauricio
Monday we went to El Conal to deliver 16 filters. The community is about 1 hour away from Santa Barbara with difficult access. Actually, we had no problem getting there, the challenge came with getting out. The Agua Pura truck had to help toe the filter delivery truck on the return trip because of the steep hill out of the village.
We used the filter carrier for the first time and it worked great.
While there we were treated to numerous types of oranges and other fruits that looked just like clementines but tasted wholly different. First, the people that were working with us climbed up into the trees to get them down for us…
Ramon, our driver, in the tree
And then peeled them for us…
Monday night Jim, Marjorie, Nineth & Allison met with Hector, Rene & Douglas from the Santa Barbara Rotary Club filter committee and Maria & Willam from the Agua Pura staff to go over administration. It was great to be all together in one place talking face to face, since most of our communication happens over e-mails half in English and half in Spanish. We were able to come to an agreement on a number of important issues and re-establish our commitment to the project.
Tuesday we started off the day with a quick visit to the hospital for a tour and to drop of a suitcase full of hospital supplies donated from the states.
From left: Morjorie, Dr. Peraza (Assistant Director), Jim, Dr. Mejia (Director), Dr. Marly (Rotarian)
Then we headed to Descansadero to do monitoring of filters that the Maine group installed last September during their visit. During the monitoring Nineth & Mauricio took multiple water samples in order to test the water quality and our lab procedures. Once we got back to the office Tamara helped Nineth and Allison go through the water analysis procedures step by step to identify any problem areas.
From left: Nineth, Tamara, Allison
Wednesday we went back to El Conal to install the filters we had delivered on Monday. Unfortunately we discovered that 6 out of the 16 filters had leaks, which prompted us to do some serious thinking about how we can prevent this in the future.
Paul installing a filter
Wednesday afternoon we returned to the office and analyzed the water analysis from the day before. We concluded that our lab procedures and current equipment were working just fine and we do not need to make any substantial changes or buy new more expensive equipment (that was a relief).
Thursday we went to Zorca to deliver deparasiting medicine to the filter beneficiaries.
Marjorie deparasiting
The Mobil Clinics project also accompanied us and performed basic check-ups.
Friday Kaitelyn, Paul, Tamara & Rolf took a trip to Copan Ruinas to visit the Mayan Ruins. Meanwhile Jim, Marjorie, Nineth & Allison worked on a revised budget and plan for the project, met with Marvin from the filter workshop to talk about improving filter quality and met with Douglas, the treasurer, to review the finances. Finally, we finished off the week by attending the Rotary meeting Friday night in the new Casa de Cultura.
Overall it was a very productive trip and also a wonderful opportunity to meet a great group of people.
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