diecinueve de septiembre

diecinueve de septiembre
Our first day of work! Finally, after months of preparation, Susan and I started our projects today at Tultitlan. It's exciting to actually be here and meet with our friends and discuss our plans for the week.
Gaudencio picked us up at 8:30 and we went to the centro de comunidad where we saw a number of people we have worked with in past years.
Amextra's program here at Tulti is very interesting and effective I think. Gaudencio's wife Ruthie works as a sort of community outreach person and visits families in the community almost every day. She checks on their health, encourages the children to go to school, and advises them of programs that would benefit them. Gaudencio is the same, wherever he goes he knows everyone and talks to them about things they can do to help themselves.
Previously, there was a small classroom where they gave some computer classes. Now another friend of ours, Luis, has turned it into an internet cafe where young people can come and surf the web and play video games. Luis says that it has been a big success and offers teenagers a safe alternative place to go and hang out. Over all, the community center is thriving and a great success due to the work of Amextra, Gaudencio and others.
Susan went with Ruthie to walk through the community and visit families.. Some are reluctant to let people enter their homes, but they talk at the door and Ruthie encourages them to participate in various programs that Amextra has. Susan says many of the people seem genuinely pleased that someone like Ruthie cares about them and follows up to see how they are doing.
I wanted to immediately start water testing the various water supplies in the community. I want to get results early enough in the week that we can follow up with recommendations and help for families drinking contaminated water. There are several sources of water in Tulti, all with problems. Some people pay for water from the municipal water system. Others get water from a basically unregulated ground water supply. Some use rainwater stored in cisterns and some buy water in large jugs – garafones – that probably comes from the same sources. People say that during the rainy season the water is cloudy obviously contaminated.
Gaudi and I went out in the community and collected samples from six different families who get their water from different sources. The water seems clear, but some families store their water in open, dirty containers, another problem. We then returned to the center and I taught Gaudencio and Luis how to set up water samples for testing. I taught them accurate pipeting technique and how to use the various testing supplies and then we inoculated the the Petrifilm testing plates and the fluorescent assay tubes.
It's always a big laugh when I point out to them that they have to incubate the sample for 24 hours by keeping it under their clothes next to their bodies. I tell them to pretend that they are pregnant and that they are carefully growing their baby. If they don't keep the specimens warm they won't grow. I also set up my solar stove and pasteurized a sample of the local municipal water system water so that if it is positive we can demonstrate that solar stoves can make it safe to drink.
In the afternoon we started planning for programs for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday Susan will give classes in the morning and afternoon to the children in the school on basic hand washing and hygiene. The students will make wash bottles with small holes in them to take home. When they squeeze the bottle a small stream of water comes out to wash their hands with. She will also help them make a “soap in a sock” to hang next to their wash bottles. They are going to make their things and keep them at the school till friday when they will make a demonstration for the mothers of how they wash their hands.
On Wednesday we are going to have a solar stove making workshop for mothers in the community. We are rounding up a big pile of cardboard and we have all the aluminum foil and other supplies necessary. We'll make solar stoves and talk about using them to pasteurize water as well as cook with and hand out a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) to all the participants. I don't like to just give out the WAPI's without talking about how and why they are important. I feel that it makes them more important if the people understand and value them.
Thursday will be a day to show off “estufas cojetes” or rocket stoves. They are extremely effective and safe biomass stoves that burn scrap and waste material. They burn cleanly and because of their heat output, there is much less smoke. We make them out of 5 gallon cans and stove pipe parts so they are not expensive. I've brought tin snips and hack saws to make them with, and my goal is to make a couple at the workshop to show how.
Friday and Saturday are the days for the big workshop on water testing for invited participants from various organizations. A lot of the planning is still up in the air, so I'm still not sure how it will all go, but I enjoy teaching the workshop and am sure it will turn out well in the end. This year I have prepared a power point presentation on my computer. In some previous years I have given the program in places without electricity, so this will be different for sure. Next week in Chiapas there is no electricity at the site of the workshop so that will actually be more normal.
It's going to be a fun week!