Reset

March flew by (marched by? har har) and now I can’t believe I’m already a week into April—where does the time go? Between going to Cajamarca for Carnival and spending 2 weeks in Trujillo for EIST (Early In-Service Training) and a behavior change workshop, I actually did not spend much of March at site. I think that is why I keep getting the feeling that I really haven’t done very much lately, even though I have been pretty busy.

I learned a lot about trash and water systems management at EIST, and at the behavior change workshop we actually wrote and implemented a survey for the recycling service in Trujillo to try to figure out why people are not recycling. At first that was really a mystery to me, because the recycling service distributes yellow bags for recyclables and then actually knocks on everybody’s doors to collect them—you don’t even have to drag your bottles to the curb! But this program is going up against a pre-existing informal system of recycling (basically people just taking bottles out of people’s trash so that they can sell them). We found that some people were very suspicious of the program, thinking that it was only going to line the mayor’s pockets—in which case, it would be better to keep supporting the informal recyclers. What people didn’t know is that in an effort to keep people from living horrible conditions in dumps or opening bags on the streets, there are new laws mandating that municipalities create formal recycling programs that incorporate people who are already making a living recycling. Additionally, the municipality cannot profit from the program. It is an interesting transition to make, but hopefully they will be successful after a little more “concientización” (giving conscience? Public education, I guess, but I really want that word to exist in English).

Now I’ve been back at site since Friday and I feel like I am starting over—not only do I have some new approaches to try out with my community, but just last night I moved to live with a different host family. I’m still in the same community, but now I’m right in the main plaza. I also have a toilet and a shower! Woohoo! After a little cleaning, I think I’ll feel really at home here. My new 7 year-old host sister never stops talking (so she is basically me when I was her age!) and her younger 1 ½ year old sister is adorable. Their older brother is a little shyer, but did manage to monkey his way into my window when I got back from my run this morning and learned the hard way that the lock on my door is broken and determined to keep out even the bearer of the key.

My community diagnostic is almost done—I presented a version at EIST and have received edits/comments on my written rough draft, so now all I have to do is make some changes and beef up the presentation for next week when I finally present to the community. I’m really hoping that after this community meeting, I’ll be able to form a committee to actually begin some real projects! I really want to push them to form a JASS (Junta Administradora de Servicios Sanitarios—administrative body for sanitary systems, a formal committee registered with the government) to manage both the potable water system and the currently under-construction sewage system. My fear is that shortly after the wastewater system gets put into use, someone is going to flush something they’re not supposed to or dump food waste down the drain and clog up the pipes and ruin it for everyone—the JASS is necessary to not only collect monthly fees to maintain the water and wastewater systems (right now the water is free), but also to educate people on how they can help make sure they keep working for everyone.

This week I have already started working more with the school—on Monday I gave a “charla” (another word that should exist in English! Class? Workshop? Talk?) for all of the professors on how to treat water with SODIS (Solar Disinfection). It’s a great method here because there is so much sun, plus it is very inexpensive—literally all you need are clean, clear plastic bottles and somewhere sunny to put them. The idea is that now the professors can teach all of the students (and I don’t have to give the same charla over and over again!) and hopefully soon we’ll have a spot set up where we can start using SODIS right there at the school.

Of course, I woke up today to find that something is not right with our tap water, because in addition to the usual invisible microbes that I have to boil out every morning, it’s brown. SODIS doesn’t fix brown water, nor does boiling for that matter, and my efforts to let it sit/sediment have not been successful. I wish I could say I know exactly what is going on because I’m tight with the water committee, but then I also wish that my water committee actually existed and did things like make sure the community’s water at least looks clean! I have heard various theories about how this is a result of a reservoir cleaning or the recent rain, but nothing concrete. For the first time at site, this morning I had to buy bottled water L.

Hopefully the two guys who make up our kinda sorta water committee are hard at work fixing whatever happened and we’ll have clear water soon—in the meantime, I think I’ll go add another slide to my presentation under “Reasons Why We Need to Organize a JASS and Actually Pay for our Water so the JASS Can Maintain the System”!