We have not posted a blog entry for quite some time now, so here are some updates to get you up to speed on the progress of the project.

Truck

As many of you know Nineth and Ramon were in a serious car accident last August. They were cut off on the highway and slammed into a tree on the side of the road. Thankfully neither of them was hurt beyond bruises and soreness, but the car was severely damaged.



While the car was in the shop for months we had to rent a truck to continue with the project. Finally, in February the repairs of the truck were finished and it is now back in use.

Filter Workshop

When we started the filter project we originally bought the filters from Marvin (Pico) Chavez. After over a three years of working with Pico we were still unable to resolve some important issues, such as leaking filters and inconsistent flow rates from the sand. We were also faced with a price increase that our budget didn’t account for. So, in April 2008 we ended our working relationship with Pico and began to work with Eric Rodriguez. Eric is an engineer who has a workshop where he makes cement bricks and construction materials. We got the workshop up and running in July of last year and Eric has been committed to improving filter production. He has made substantial capital investments to his workshop to accommodate filter production and has worked closely with the Pure Water team to troubleshoot. For example, he identified a flaw in the mold construction that was causing filter leaks. We were also lucky enough to have Santos, an experienced filter producer from the project in Choluteca, come to Santa Bárbara to help train Eric and his workers.

Carroll Creek

We are pleased to announce that we finished the Carroll Creek matching grant in September of 2008. We surpassed the original goal of 400 filters and ended up installing 456 filters, benefiting a total of 2,478 individuals. We also did full follow-up work on 140 additional filters in the villages of Santa Ana, Tacaulapa and El Diviso serving another 730 individuals.

Sand

Due to inconsistent sand sources in Santa Bárbara we decided to buy our sand from Amapala, Choluteca, an island of the southern coast of Honduras. We have purchased 500 bags of this sand. The sand is of superior quality than what we were able to find in Santa Bárbara and produces more consistent flow rates during installation.

Accounting Help

Nineth has worked diligently on keeping track of the project finances along with the help of Jim Dawson, from Maine and Allison O’Donnell, the Peace Corps volunteer that works with the project, and Douglas Diaz, the project treasurer. However, we were still having some issues keeping everything as organized as it should be. Luckily we were able to enlist the help of Javier Prada, a Peace Corps volunteer in a town a few hours away from Santa Bárbara. He is a Certified Public Accountant and made two trips to Santa Barbara to go through all the financial records with Nineth, develop a reasonable accounting system and teach Nineth how to keep track of everything herself. Thanks Javier!

Maine and Michigan Visit

Once again we had the pleasure of spending a week with five visitors from Maine. Jim and Marjorie Dawson (our fearless leaders) Robin and Rick (Rotary members from Maine), and Raquel (an undergrad who helped us translate) all came down for a week in March. During their trip we visited the filter workshop and learned how to install filters. Jim and Robin drew on their technical knowledge to give us some important pointers about how to avoid crack in the filters and how to repair already cracked filters. We also took trips to the communities to deliver and install filters as well as give deparasiting medication and monitor filters already in use.

Katie Strass (Peace Coprs Volunteer and translator), Nineth and Robin

We finished off the week by attending the Santa Bárbara Rotary meeting.

Top from left: Robin, Rick, Jim,

Bottom from left: Allison, Nineth, Marjorie, Raquel

We were also lucky enough to welcome 14 more guests to Santa Bárbara. Rotary members and supporters from the greater Detroit area in Michigan as well as friends from Canada also joined us for a few days to learn about the filter project. They visited the filter workshop, received a lesson on how to install filters and then got their hands dirty in the filed installing filters.

Rotarct member, Dustin also joined the group and met with local Rotaract members in Santa Bárbara

Ramon

During the Maine visit we also made some important decisions about the project. We officially hired Ramon Muñoz as a full time employee to help speed up installation of filters and support the rest of the team. Ramon first started working with Agua Pura as the driver during one of the Maine visits and proved to be a quick learner and a hard worker. We are happy to have him on the team.

Filter Molds

To further speed up filter production we are lucky enough to be receiving 6 additional filter molds from the Pure Water project in Trujillo, on the north coast of Honduras, due to the finalization of their project. All we have to do is make the 8 hour drive to go get them.

Filters from Danlí

We have also decided to buy 250 filters from a filter workshop in Danlí, the original Pure Water site in Honduras. This will give us a large stock of filters to help us reach our installation goals.

Adios

Allison O’Donnell, the Peace Corps volunteer who has worked with the project for the past two years, is nearing the close of her service. She will be leaving Santa Bárbara in just a few days and will return home to Cleveland, Ohio. We will be welcoming a new Peace Corps volunteer from the business project to Santa Bárbara on May 16th; we look forward to meeting him.