Some Amazing Days

I haven't written for the blog for several days now, I've been caught up in giving my water testing workshop. It's been a fabulous, rewarding experience, but exhausting and somewhat overwhelming. I didn't get much sleep on Wednesday or Thursday nights and now finally on Saturday morning I've gotten enough rest and time to be able to think clearly and try and put down some of what happened.
One issue has been that my team partner Stan and I have very different interests and objectives for our work. Food for the Hungry has received requests from different remote villages for help with their water systems, whether wells or springs or pumps or whatever. Stan then is sent out to check them out, a long process that takes most of the day, and two interpreters. They try to coordinate our projects with Stan's, so it sometimes turns out that we are kind of stuck in someplace waiting till he finishes his work. I had a lot of prep work to do prior to the workshop, so I asked for time to work in the office, and on Wednesday their staff had a meeting to attend so they just gave me their keys. Susan and I spent the day there working getting ready for Thursday. Because I decided to use their projector and do a power point show rather than just hold up pictures, Susan had to photograph some of my things that weren't in the computer then down load them. They looked a little funny, but were the best we could do. I wanted everything to be both in English and Spanish and so had to write some Spanish titles on the fly. I'm definitely not a power point person and it took an exceedingly long time to put the show together. If I had had time before I left to prepare I'd have felt more secure.
I couldn't sleep Wednesday night fussing and organizing and I had a big stack of papers and handouts I'd prepared to get sorted. I worried that I hadn't tried the projector with my computer and program, so I made copies of it in various formats. I copied it to a zip drive so that possibly I could use another computer if mine was compatible. I also was worried that inadequate information had gone out to the participants in advance. I wanted everyone to bring cardboard so that we could make stoves. Susan didn't think that they had access to cardboard boxes and that we might have to find a different material, but I was hopeful that there would be enough for at least a few stoves. Also it has been cloudy and overcast a lot and I was worried that the solar stove display would be a bust. I finally got up at about 4:00 and went over my speech trying to translate my thoughts into understandable Spanish. The only good sign was that there was plenty of hot water for a shower and I didn't cut myself shaving!
It's about a half hour drive from town to the resort where the workshop was held. Guatemala is an incredibly poor country, but there must be some rich people because this resort was almost as nice as any in the States. It covered several acres with gardens and pools and their own zoo of native animals. They had several fancy restaurants and very nice coffee service for our group. We got there about 8:30 and there were already 15 or 20 people waiting for a 10:00 start. At first there was no electricity, then no extension cord, but the lady doctor with Food for the Hungry also was going to use the projector and she had a little temper tantrum and immediately a cord appeared. I had a lot of of stuff to set up, but the director of the program caught me off guard by saying since everyone was there early, they might as well get started an hour early! There was nothing to do but grab my notes and plunge in!
At first my speech is just about how many people suffer from contaminated drinking water and the bad effects it has, especially on children. The audience was interested but not enthusiastic, I think they had heard that part before. Then though I start getting more technical and complicated as I start to plow into basic bacteriology. I want the participants to be knowledgeable about what they are doing and not just guess at the results, and it obviously was a new topic for some of them. I think some people didn't even know there were bacteria. I think next time I’ll have a slide that shows the relative size of things. We talked about what bacteria and viruses were and how they grow. Then we went into the various diseases and why you need an indicator for contamination. People were definitely sitting up in their seats then.
After all that I pull out some petrifilms and some tubes and we start looking at samples and talking about which are positive and why. I always struggle with the explanations in Spanish and then a person was translating my Spanish into the indian language. It slowed things down, but gave me time to think about my next sentence so it was all right.
By that time people had been sitting for an hour so I had everyone get up and we practiced pipetting. The little plastic droppers actually are a little trick for people to get used to, and they have to pipet exactly one ml of water on the Petrifilms, using the markings on the dropper. Usually we mix some coffer or coke with the water so it is more visible and then everyone gets a chance. I think people seemed to be having fun.
After everyone feels comfortable with the pipets we get started with the setup. I passed out Petrifilms and Colilert tubes, but I had a hard time keeping people from opening them up. First I talked about the importance of labeling and record keeping. Even though they only had one sample today, it is important to stay organized and accurate. I taught them how to open the pipet package without contaminating the tip and then to carefully open the tube. After we filled the tube to 10mls we replaced the top and mixed it well. Then I demonstrated how to carefully draw up one ml of water and put it in the center of the Petrifilm and very slowly replace the covering. This is sort of a trick also and several people had to try again before they got the knack of it. We used my petrifilms because I wanted them to start their work with a complete kit of supplies.
Of course then comes the big joke of the morning when I demonstrate how to incubate the samples under their clothes. I told them that for tonight this was their spouse and they were going to sleep with them all night in their beds. Then we got serious about how bacteria need the right temperature – body temperature- to grow. I gave everyone a ziplock bag and after some joking around every one put their samples in the bags and put them inside their clothing, including some of the women. Then we had a very nice lunch in the resort restaurant.
A minor problem was that everything moves slowly and happens when people want it to, so I fuss with the projectors and organize handouts, but everything starts 45 minutes late, except when I'm not prepared. Eventually I started out by talking about the risk of drinking water contaminated by bacteria and ask how that could be prevented. One simple way is to heat the water before drinking. The water need not be boiled because I show that harmful organisms are killed at temperatures well below that level. I show the WAPI chart and then explain how the WAPI works, how it can be reused and we pass some of them around to look at.
Meanwhile I had Susan setting up the solar stove and heating the water outside. We all got up and went out to see her display. Miraculously when she took the top of the pot off, the wax had melted. I brought along a digital thermometer and showed that the temperature was well above 65 degrees. I let Susan do this part of the program and she did quite well. Everyone has to touch the pot to prove t themselves that it's hot and then for dramatic effect I mixed a cup of the hot water with some Nescafe and drank it to show that I was confidant that the water was safe.
People seemed quite impressed with the stove, but have a hard time believing that they can be simply made, so the final part of the day is to have the participants form small groups and make solar stoves themselves out of cardboard and tin foil. Most tried to trace my Cookit stove even though I had lots of pictures of different stoves they could make. I think next time I'll hide mine to force them to create their own. It's a fun activity with everyone down on the floor cutting cardboard and gluing foil on it, it reminds me of a 3rd grade art project. At the end of the day everyone sets up their stoves to dry and we leave. I should try to work in a summary session at that time, but everyone is scattered and tired.
So that was Thursday, the microbiology lesson and sample set up, followed by a solar stove building session. On Friday we will examine the samples and go from there.