The last Friday I was in Mérida went better than Thursday. We finally got to purify some water! I trained the women from about 8:30 to maybe 11:00 or so and that went well. Arturo dropped me off in El Centro to meet up with Kimmy, the same Centre intern who was supposed to come on Thursday, and take the bus with her back to CEMADE. So all of that went right and we got back to CEMADE a little after two. Except there were no kids. One finally showed up at about 2:50 but we didn’t know he was one of ours. When we were getting ready to leave we found out he was one of ours so we took him over to the purifier with us and talked to him for a few minutes. So all was not lost – just most of it!
Saturday morning two of my friends were supposed to come and talk to the kids from 9:00 to 12:00 and I was supposed to start training the women at 10:00. So we picked up my friends in El Centro but the kids didn’t show up until after 10:00 because the mom’s thought it didn’t start until 10:00. Arturo was driving around trying to round them all up, which helped a lot! My friends, Esther and Hannah, were really happy to help out and to see Zapata and the purifier. I’m really glad they and Kimmy were willing to come, too.
Training on Saturday went well too. Everyone tasted the water we purified the day before, which was really cool. You can see pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/January24MoreTraining We purified another tank of water, but I knew the women didn’t feel comfortable enough purifying the water to be able to do it on their own, so I offered to come back Monday afternoon.
On Sunday my traveling buddy Hannah and I went on another adventure, this time to the cenotes at Cuzama. You have to check out my pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/TheCenotesAtCuzamaJanuary25 Cenotes are underground bodies of water that you can swim in. We took a bus for about an hour and a half to the middle of nowhere. When we got off there were four or five guys with those bicycle taxi things waiting at the bus stop. One told us he would take us to the cenotes, which were 4 kilometers away, wait for us, and bring us back to the bus stop for only 100 pesos, which is less than $10. Hannah and I talked about it for a second and thought it through to be sure that he was legitimate. Then we decided that we couldn’t beat that price and it would be fun! So Gabriel, our driver, took us all the way to the cenotes and we had a nice conversation with him on the way. We knew it was a good sign when he didn’t ask for the money upfront. When we got to our destination, we realized that the mode of transportation to get back to the cenotes was a little different too. They had these narrow train tracks and carts (which they called “trucks”) that were pulled by horses. The driver would take us to each of the three cenotes and wait for us for half an hour at each. The trip would take about two hours and cost only 200 pesos. How cool!
I was blown away by the cenotes. I had no idea what to expect. To get to the first one, we had to climb down a ladder. It was pretty dark but I could still tell that the water was amazingly blue and you could see all the way to the bottom. Each of the cenotes were somewhere around 30 meters deep. It was amazing! I was a little nervous to get in the water at the first one because it’s kind of freaky to think about swimming in water that’s over 90 feet deep. But the temperature was perfect! You’d think it would be cold but it definitely wasn’t. Our half hour flew by and we were on to the second cenote! You went down stairs to get to it and there was more light. They had built a big wooden platform so people could jump off and there were huge tree roots hanging down from the ceiling – or the ground, however you want to look at it. We swam around for a while and then decided we wanted to try to jump. I was a little freaked out at first because it was pretty high, but some other people had been jumping off and they were just fine. So once I made up my mind I wasn’t afraid any more. We jumped off together the first time and then decided to take videos with my camera. You can see them on my picasa site. It was so much fun! And again our half hour flew by so we went on another 15 minute “truck” ride to the final cenote. You climbed down stairs to get to this one too and it had the most light of all three because the hole in the ground/ceiling was the largest. This cenote was also the longest. I swam all the way to the back wall, touched it, and then kicked off to get back to the front. It was dark back there and it freaked me out! There was also a really shallow part where they had poured some concrete to make a kind of kiddie pool. A family with some pretty young kids was there having a good time. I just can’t describe how beautiful the water was and my pictures online just don’t do it justice either. It was incredible.
When our time was up we took the truck back to where we started. We were happy to see that our driver was still there waiting for us. We tipped our truck driver an extra 20 pesos because we took a little longer in the cenotes than we were supposed to, and were on our way with Gabriel. We told him we had return bus ticket and asked him what time the bus came through. We would have enough time to get back to the bus stop in time, but not enough time to eat – and we were hungry! He told us he could take us to a restaurant that is near another cenote and then take us back to a taxi van that would take us back to Mérida that cost only 16 pesos. That sounded awesome to us, so that’s what we did. I was getting a little nervous about what kind of restaurant he was going to be taking us to because we were out in the middle of nowhere. But we finally arrived at a very touristy looking place and I was relieved. We passed the restaurant and Gabriel took us to another cenote. We were too hungry to swim, so we just went down to look at it and take some pictures. Gabriel took us to the restaurant and waited for us while we ate. I got a boring but tasty breaded chicken and Hannah got ceviche, a dish of shrimp, tomato, and onion that is common in Mexico. When we were done eating Gabriel took us back to where the bus had stopped earlier, where a van heading back to Mérida was waiting. We gave Gabriel 200 pesos and thanked him for taking such good care of us. The van was almost full but there was room in the very back seat for Hannah and me. We thought the van was full and were waiting to leave, but evidently there’s always room for more in Mexico. Two more people got in, for a total of about 20 people. After we got going we stopped and picked up another man who stood in the side aisle all hunched over for about 20 minutes. I’m sure his back was hurting. It was interesting end to an interesting day, to say the least.
On Monday morning I gave a presentation about my internship in front of my Centre professor and some of the other interns and went to Zapata in the afternoon to do a final day of training. And of course I have pictures of that day too: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/TheLastDayJan26 It went well and I could tell that they were getting a better understanding of everything. As the sun was setting on my last day in Emiliano Zapata Sur, I was sad to see it go. Over the past three weeks the community had really found a special place in my heart and I felt truly honored to be able to work there and be part of a development project that is touching so many lives. The women went together to buy some cookies, chips, and cola as a little going away party for me, which was so sweet of them! We all hugged goodbye and they told me thanks. Then I rode away from Zapata for the last time. I had a lot of mixed feelings. I was happy to be going home but very sad to be leaving the community I had grown to love. I was glad I could connect with the women there but I regretted not getting closer to them. I was proud that we had accomplished so much in three short weeks, but ashamed that my Spanish wasn’t better. I couldn’t help but hope I could come back again.
I got up at about 5:30 on Tuesday to finish packing, eat breakfast, and say my goodbyes to the family. I told them, “hasta pronto,” which means “see you soon!” Arturo took me to the airport a couple hours early, which really wasn’t necessary because it took about 20 minutes to get to my gate. There were a bunch of other Centre students in the airport, which was a relief. I was afraid that the big storm was going to leave me stranded in Houston for a day or two, but God must have been smiling down on me because I got home to Louisville as scheduled a little before 8:00 on Tuesday night. I got home to mom’s safely before the big ice and snow storm started wreaking havoc, but mom lost power at about 1:00 a.m. Dad never lost power I went out there and played in the snow. So the weather didn’t give me the warmest welcome, but I’m still glad to be home!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings about my adventures in Mexico. I couldn’t have done this without your support, encouragement, and prayers. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The big day deflated.
Well things didn't go quite right today. We were supposed to start the training at 8:00 but only a couple of the 6 women were there at 8 and the rest didn't show up till closer to 9:00 (welcome to Mexico). The maintenance men were still working on the electricity and stuff so we didn't have any water to purify. So I set up the purifier and explained the process and showed them the pump, the battery, the battery charger, and all the parts on the purifier. I think they basically understood what I was saying. I took everything apart and asked them if they wanted to put it back together and they said no, that they had to be going. So oh well. They're going to come back tomorrow at 8:30. A while after they left the maintenance men finally finished everything, so we have water and electricity now and everything is ready to go for tomorrow.
This afternoon my friend was supposed to come to Emiliano Zapata Sur to help me talk to the older children of the women who will be purifying the water. Well Arturo and I were supposed to leave Zapata at around 1:00 in order to pick her up in the city and bring her back by 2:00 to start her hour-long class. But they were doing the last minute finishing touches and we didn't leave until about 1:40. I was so stressed out about being able to pick her up and get back in time! But on the way Arturo realized that he forgot some materials he needed for something they're doing at CEMADE this afternoon at 3:00 and he had to drive all the way to the university to get them and then head straight back to CEMADE. So we had to cancel the session with the older kids for today. He dropped me off in the city and I took the bus home.
Sigh.
Well tomorrow will be better.
For now I'm going to take a siesta.
This afternoon my friend was supposed to come to Emiliano Zapata Sur to help me talk to the older children of the women who will be purifying the water. Well Arturo and I were supposed to leave Zapata at around 1:00 in order to pick her up in the city and bring her back by 2:00 to start her hour-long class. But they were doing the last minute finishing touches and we didn't leave until about 1:40. I was so stressed out about being able to pick her up and get back in time! But on the way Arturo realized that he forgot some materials he needed for something they're doing at CEMADE this afternoon at 3:00 and he had to drive all the way to the university to get them and then head straight back to CEMADE. So we had to cancel the session with the older kids for today. He dropped me off in the city and I took the bus home.
Sigh.
Well tomorrow will be better.
For now I'm going to take a siesta.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
We're almost there!
Well I had a great weekend – Friday night I had a meeting with the rest of the Centre interns and our coordinator. After that I went with Arturo and Maria to their friends’ house for dinner at like 9:00. It was pretty neat because some of their old friends who now live in Canada were there so it was a very cross-cultural experience. The food was great too!
Maria told me I could sleep in on Saturday for as long as I wanted – so I did. I didn’t get up until about 11:00 and it was fantastic! I went to Wal-Mart with Maria to buy some groceries and hung around the house until Arturo and I went to mass at CEMADE. It was... interesting. The mass was right after the kids’ CCD classes, so it was basically all little kids who were at the mass. They were not paying any attention and were rather restless.
Sunday I went to Uxmal (pronounced “oosh-mall”) with Hannah, one of the other Centre interns who I went to Chitchen Itza with last week. Uxmal is so much better than Chitchen because there is so much more to see there. The pyramids aren’t as big, but you can climb them at Uxmal and there are a lot more different structures to explore. The architecture is more ornate and there are fewer tourists. I put 250 pictures online. You can click here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/UxmalJanuary18. It was a really great day because we were had more time than last Sunday, so we really got to take everything in instead of rushing. We decided to pay for a tour guide at Uxmal, which turned out to be worth it. He told us that we could catch a bus at 1:30 to go down the road to another ruins site called Kabah, so we did! It was pretty neat too because the whole front of one building was covered in the mask motif that we’ve seen all over the Yucatan. We stayed there for a little while and then went back to Uxmal to see the rest of the ruins that we didn’t have time to see earlier. The park closed at 5:00 and the bus was supposed to come at 5:30. It was late, of course, and when it finally came it was standing room only. So we got to pay 41 pesos to stand for an hour and a half until we got back to Merida. Oh well. We ate at a restaurant in el Centro and then I went to the place where I always catch my bus home. The buses stop running at about 9:00 or 9:30 and it was about 9:20 at the time, so I was anxious to get on any bus that would get me within walking distance of home. A bus was waiting there that I thought could get me home, but I was wrong. So I ended up taking an hour-long tour around the more upper-class part of the city. When the bus finally returned to el Centro, I got on a bus that goes to my neighborhood and got home around 11:00. Long day, but still a good one!
Monday, Tuesday, and today Arturo and I have been supervising the maintenance men’s work at la casita. Things are finally almost done! All the plumbing is in, nearly all of the concrete work is done, the windows are replaced, the tanks are ready, and they’ve installed a big tub to sanitize bottles in. The only thing left is a little bit of electrical work, which the men are going to finish in the morning. And I finally got to get my hands dirty today! I love to play with PVC and I finally got my chance. One of the maintenance men had started on the manifold between the two tanks and I finished it. This is a super-fancy set-up. Besides having a water softener and two tanks, we’ve also installed a hose for pressurized, softened water and another hose for purified water that the women will use to sanitize the bottles the people bring to get filled with water. Click here to see more pictures of the advances we’ve made in the installation: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/AlmostDoneJanuary2021.
We haven’t been able to test everything to make sure there are no leaks, but tomorrow is the day! I am scheduled to begin teaching the women how to use the purifier tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and I’ll train them some more on Friday and Saturday. I’m so excited to finally see all this come together!
I’m also organizing a side project with some help from three of the other Centre interns here in Merida. They are going to teach the children of the women I am training about why we need to purify the water, how to keep the water from getting re-contaminated, and how the water project is going to improve their health and their families’ financial situation. Thursday and Friday afternoon, one intern is going to come for an hour to talk to the teenagers and on Saturday, all three are going to come for three hours to talk to the teenagers as well as the younger kids.
I’ll update again tomorrow – I hope to have lots of good news!
Maria told me I could sleep in on Saturday for as long as I wanted – so I did. I didn’t get up until about 11:00 and it was fantastic! I went to Wal-Mart with Maria to buy some groceries and hung around the house until Arturo and I went to mass at CEMADE. It was... interesting. The mass was right after the kids’ CCD classes, so it was basically all little kids who were at the mass. They were not paying any attention and were rather restless.
Sunday I went to Uxmal (pronounced “oosh-mall”) with Hannah, one of the other Centre interns who I went to Chitchen Itza with last week. Uxmal is so much better than Chitchen because there is so much more to see there. The pyramids aren’t as big, but you can climb them at Uxmal and there are a lot more different structures to explore. The architecture is more ornate and there are fewer tourists. I put 250 pictures online. You can click here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/UxmalJanuary18. It was a really great day because we were had more time than last Sunday, so we really got to take everything in instead of rushing. We decided to pay for a tour guide at Uxmal, which turned out to be worth it. He told us that we could catch a bus at 1:30 to go down the road to another ruins site called Kabah, so we did! It was pretty neat too because the whole front of one building was covered in the mask motif that we’ve seen all over the Yucatan. We stayed there for a little while and then went back to Uxmal to see the rest of the ruins that we didn’t have time to see earlier. The park closed at 5:00 and the bus was supposed to come at 5:30. It was late, of course, and when it finally came it was standing room only. So we got to pay 41 pesos to stand for an hour and a half until we got back to Merida. Oh well. We ate at a restaurant in el Centro and then I went to the place where I always catch my bus home. The buses stop running at about 9:00 or 9:30 and it was about 9:20 at the time, so I was anxious to get on any bus that would get me within walking distance of home. A bus was waiting there that I thought could get me home, but I was wrong. So I ended up taking an hour-long tour around the more upper-class part of the city. When the bus finally returned to el Centro, I got on a bus that goes to my neighborhood and got home around 11:00. Long day, but still a good one!
Monday, Tuesday, and today Arturo and I have been supervising the maintenance men’s work at la casita. Things are finally almost done! All the plumbing is in, nearly all of the concrete work is done, the windows are replaced, the tanks are ready, and they’ve installed a big tub to sanitize bottles in. The only thing left is a little bit of electrical work, which the men are going to finish in the morning. And I finally got to get my hands dirty today! I love to play with PVC and I finally got my chance. One of the maintenance men had started on the manifold between the two tanks and I finished it. This is a super-fancy set-up. Besides having a water softener and two tanks, we’ve also installed a hose for pressurized, softened water and another hose for purified water that the women will use to sanitize the bottles the people bring to get filled with water. Click here to see more pictures of the advances we’ve made in the installation: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/AlmostDoneJanuary2021.
We haven’t been able to test everything to make sure there are no leaks, but tomorrow is the day! I am scheduled to begin teaching the women how to use the purifier tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and I’ll train them some more on Friday and Saturday. I’m so excited to finally see all this come together!
I’m also organizing a side project with some help from three of the other Centre interns here in Merida. They are going to teach the children of the women I am training about why we need to purify the water, how to keep the water from getting re-contaminated, and how the water project is going to improve their health and their families’ financial situation. Thursday and Friday afternoon, one intern is going to come for an hour to talk to the teenagers and on Saturday, all three are going to come for three hours to talk to the teenagers as well as the younger kids.
I’ll update again tomorrow – I hope to have lots of good news!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Progress and Poverty
Today was a pretty good day in that we made some progress on the installation at la casita. It was also a very thought-provoking day because Arturo showed me around the poorest part of the community. More on that in a bit.
This morning Arturo and I arose early so we could get a jump on the day. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:00 because I didn’t hear Arturo and Maria until then. (I have a really hard time sleeping here because there are four Labradors right outside my window that like to bark, and growl, and play all night long... So you can imagine why I would stay in bed as long as possible.) After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, we were out the door a little after 6:30. We went to the university to pick up four maintenance men and took them to la casita. They were working on several different jobs: running the electrical wires inside the house and installing electrical boxes; taking out the windows so we can get the tanks in the building; digging a ditch and running a water line from the road to the house; and working on some concrete bases for the water tanks to sit on. You can see pictures of the progress on my Picasa site by clicking here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was exciting to see all of our planning and talking turn into some measurable progress!
While the men were working, Arturo showed me around the poorest part of Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is just a few blocks from la casita where we’ll be purifying the water. There are a few pictures on the picasa site above. In that part of town, there aren’t any paved roads and the people live in shacks made out of scrap metal and any material they can find. As in all of Emiliano Zapata, there are horrible-looking stray dogs everywhere you look. They don’t have electricity or running water in their “houses,” but they can get water (for free, I think) from the spigots near the dirt roads. The spigots bring forth the government’s “agua potable” which means “drinkable water” but the water really isn’t safe to drink. The water lines lie on top of the ground where a vehicle could drive over and break them. Then when they turn the water on, it would suck up any dirt or mud or sewage into the water line. We got out and talked to some people who were sitting outside their house made of scraps of metal. One woman said she and her children drink the “agua potable.” Arturo asked her if she and her kids were sick and she said no, not right now. It was really sad though that she was holding a cell phone and had her nails fancily manicured. Another woman said she buys bottled water from a name-brand company for 20 pesos for 20 liters. Twenty pesos is about half the minimum daily wage in Mexico. I asked Arturo why the people don’t buy purified water at the local plant for 6 pesos a bottle, and he said they don’t have confidence in the local plant. The big name companies spread propaganda that their water is superior. In fact, the slogan for the brand of water “Cristal,” a Coca-Cola product, is “el mejor agua” – “the best water.” This is one of Arturo’s big concerns for our project here, that the other companies will spread the rumor that our water is unsanitary and not as good as their 20-peso-a-pop name brand stuff. For this to work, it’s imperative that we do a professional test of the water we purify so that we can demonstrate to the people that the water we are purifying is just as good, if not better, than the water from the companies that are robbing them.
After he finished showing me around the poorest part of the neighborhood, we went by and talked to a man who Arturo holds in high esteem – I think his name is Grinaldo. He was wearing a big, baggy sweater and baggy pants with a hole in the leg so that you could see through to his bony knee. Horrible cataracts in one eye. He had a house of concrete blocks and had built four other houses for his other family members right next to him. His yard was full of beautiful, colorful flowers and plants. Everywhere you looked, you found something he was cultivating to feed his family with. He invited Arturo and me into his house to escape the rain while we talked (well while they talked and I tried to keep up with what they were saying). Arturo told him about our water project and he asked what brand our water is. Arturo says there is no brand, it’s water that we are purifying ourselves. Grinaldo seemed apprehensive to the idea, which I found interesting. Arturo promised to come get him and show him all the equipment and explain the process. After that, Grinaldo gave us a tour of his yard, pointing out the different plants and what kind of edibles they bring forth. I winced as he climbed a precarious looking ladder and reached high into a tree to give Arturo and me some small, round, green, acidic things that I can’t remember the name of. He also gave us some limes. A very nice man.
This short tour got me to thinking – a lot. There are people like the woman with the fancy nails and cell phone who just don’t seem to be helping themselves and their family in the smartest way. Can people like Arturo and me reach people like that and help them? Maybe or maybe not. People have to want to help themselves, and there’s not really much that we can do if that desire isn’t there. But on the other hand, there are people like Grinaldo. People who use every square meter of the land they own to make it productive. People who say they like to work. People who struggle and fight every day to provide for themselves and their families. Can we make the load a little lighter for these people? Absolutely.
This morning Arturo and I arose early so we could get a jump on the day. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:00 because I didn’t hear Arturo and Maria until then. (I have a really hard time sleeping here because there are four Labradors right outside my window that like to bark, and growl, and play all night long... So you can imagine why I would stay in bed as long as possible.) After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, we were out the door a little after 6:30. We went to the university to pick up four maintenance men and took them to la casita. They were working on several different jobs: running the electrical wires inside the house and installing electrical boxes; taking out the windows so we can get the tanks in the building; digging a ditch and running a water line from the road to the house; and working on some concrete bases for the water tanks to sit on. You can see pictures of the progress on my Picasa site by clicking here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was exciting to see all of our planning and talking turn into some measurable progress!
While the men were working, Arturo showed me around the poorest part of Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is just a few blocks from la casita where we’ll be purifying the water. There are a few pictures on the picasa site above. In that part of town, there aren’t any paved roads and the people live in shacks made out of scrap metal and any material they can find. As in all of Emiliano Zapata, there are horrible-looking stray dogs everywhere you look. They don’t have electricity or running water in their “houses,” but they can get water (for free, I think) from the spigots near the dirt roads. The spigots bring forth the government’s “agua potable” which means “drinkable water” but the water really isn’t safe to drink. The water lines lie on top of the ground where a vehicle could drive over and break them. Then when they turn the water on, it would suck up any dirt or mud or sewage into the water line. We got out and talked to some people who were sitting outside their house made of scraps of metal. One woman said she and her children drink the “agua potable.” Arturo asked her if she and her kids were sick and she said no, not right now. It was really sad though that she was holding a cell phone and had her nails fancily manicured. Another woman said she buys bottled water from a name-brand company for 20 pesos for 20 liters. Twenty pesos is about half the minimum daily wage in Mexico. I asked Arturo why the people don’t buy purified water at the local plant for 6 pesos a bottle, and he said they don’t have confidence in the local plant. The big name companies spread propaganda that their water is superior. In fact, the slogan for the brand of water “Cristal,” a Coca-Cola product, is “el mejor agua” – “the best water.” This is one of Arturo’s big concerns for our project here, that the other companies will spread the rumor that our water is unsanitary and not as good as their 20-peso-a-pop name brand stuff. For this to work, it’s imperative that we do a professional test of the water we purify so that we can demonstrate to the people that the water we are purifying is just as good, if not better, than the water from the companies that are robbing them.
After he finished showing me around the poorest part of the neighborhood, we went by and talked to a man who Arturo holds in high esteem – I think his name is Grinaldo. He was wearing a big, baggy sweater and baggy pants with a hole in the leg so that you could see through to his bony knee. Horrible cataracts in one eye. He had a house of concrete blocks and had built four other houses for his other family members right next to him. His yard was full of beautiful, colorful flowers and plants. Everywhere you looked, you found something he was cultivating to feed his family with. He invited Arturo and me into his house to escape the rain while we talked (well while they talked and I tried to keep up with what they were saying). Arturo told him about our water project and he asked what brand our water is. Arturo says there is no brand, it’s water that we are purifying ourselves. Grinaldo seemed apprehensive to the idea, which I found interesting. Arturo promised to come get him and show him all the equipment and explain the process. After that, Grinaldo gave us a tour of his yard, pointing out the different plants and what kind of edibles they bring forth. I winced as he climbed a precarious looking ladder and reached high into a tree to give Arturo and me some small, round, green, acidic things that I can’t remember the name of. He also gave us some limes. A very nice man.
This short tour got me to thinking – a lot. There are people like the woman with the fancy nails and cell phone who just don’t seem to be helping themselves and their family in the smartest way. Can people like Arturo and me reach people like that and help them? Maybe or maybe not. People have to want to help themselves, and there’s not really much that we can do if that desire isn’t there. But on the other hand, there are people like Grinaldo. People who use every square meter of the land they own to make it productive. People who say they like to work. People who struggle and fight every day to provide for themselves and their families. Can we make the load a little lighter for these people? Absolutely.
Uganda!
I didn’t have to wait long to find out about my next adventure. It’s Uganda.
A Ugandan priest, Fr. Athanasius, visited one of the teams at the Mission House last summer telling them about the need in his community. Their greatest need is pure water, and the only way to get that is by drilling wells. But EDGE doesn’t know how to drill wells.
But not for long! EDGE is now in the process of learning about well drilling and they are just beginning to think about taking an exploratory trip to Fr. Athanasius’s region of Uganda. I’m amazed and excited and awe-struck by the way God is moving through all of this.
A Ugandan priest, Fr. Athanasius, visited one of the teams at the Mission House last summer telling them about the need in his community. Their greatest need is pure water, and the only way to get that is by drilling wells. But EDGE doesn’t know how to drill wells.
But not for long! EDGE is now in the process of learning about well drilling and they are just beginning to think about taking an exploratory trip to Fr. Athanasius’s region of Uganda. I’m amazed and excited and awe-struck by the way God is moving through all of this.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
"Ser para servir"
Today we were supposed to demonstrate the purifier for some people at the university, but it didn’t happen because they were in meetings or something like that. So instead Arturo and I put together a spreadsheet of the investments we’ve already put into the project, the fixed and variable costs of operation, and the profit that will be made. We can purify 1000 liters at a time and a maximum of 4000 liters a day. That’s 50 to 200 20-liter bottles every day, at a price of 3 pesos each, which means a profit of 150 to 600 pesos a day. Less the variable and fixed costs of the electricity, the water, the salt, the cost of labor, and a reserve for repairs, the net profit will be somewhere in the ball park of 50 – 250 pesos per day ($3-18). We also calculated that EDGE and the donors to my project will have put in $2250 once the system is installed. $770 has been spent to set up the water and electricity utilities in the little house where we will install the system, which I think Arturo and Maria have paid for. The Universida Marista has or will put in $1300 (salary for Arturo, professional tests of the water, and installation expenses). The women who will be purifying the water can make a little bit more money working in their usual jobs as domestic workers, so they will be giving up about $830 over the next year. And finally, Centre College (and me) has invested about $1200 in airplane tickets and paying for me to stay with Arturo and Maria. So that makes a total of $6360 already invested in this project! It’s kind of neat to step back and take a look at the big picture of how many different parties are invested in this project and how we are all coming together to make it happen.
I’ve also been thinking today about the Universidad Marista’s slogan, “Ser para Servir,” which means, “to be in order to serve.” The more I do this kind of work, the more I am sure of the fact that it is my vocation to serve and to serve totally. I can’t imagine myself working in an office every day and I don’t want to imagine myself doing the same, mundane task for the rest of my life. And I especially don’t want to find myself working for the sole reason of lining someone’s pockets – my own included. The kind of work I am doing here invigorates me, it makes me come alive. Working for and with EDGE Outreach has fulfilled me like nothing else has ever come close to. And I know God has equipped me with the skills, the intelligence, and the opportunity to earn a degree from Centre College for a reason – for His reasons.
I can’t wait to see what adventure He has in store for me next.
I’ve also been thinking today about the Universidad Marista’s slogan, “Ser para Servir,” which means, “to be in order to serve.” The more I do this kind of work, the more I am sure of the fact that it is my vocation to serve and to serve totally. I can’t imagine myself working in an office every day and I don’t want to imagine myself doing the same, mundane task for the rest of my life. And I especially don’t want to find myself working for the sole reason of lining someone’s pockets – my own included. The kind of work I am doing here invigorates me, it makes me come alive. Working for and with EDGE Outreach has fulfilled me like nothing else has ever come close to. And I know God has equipped me with the skills, the intelligence, and the opportunity to earn a degree from Centre College for a reason – for His reasons.
I can’t wait to see what adventure He has in store for me next.
Monday, January 12, 2009
A very busy weekend
Lots to update today!
Arturo and I had a busy day on Friday. Arturo figured out that the Universidad Marista has a contract with Coca-Cola to only sell it’s products on Marista property, so we can’t do the purification at the community center, Centro Marista de Desarollo (CEMADE). But there is a little park two blocks away from CEMADE that they have been working on for a little while now. It was an overgrown, abandoned lot where people dumped their garbage a lot, but Arturo, Maria, and some people from the community bought it for the citizens of Emiliano Zapata to use and have cleaned it up quite a bit. There is a tiny house – la casita – there where we will set up the purifier.
So Friday morning we visited la casita – the little house – in the park in Emiliano Zapata with a technician from a company that sells water softeners. They took some measurements and such and figured out that it would be possible to install the water softener there. Then we went to visit Arturo’s friend at his chemical company to look at his water softener because it is very similar to the one we would be buying. They were very nice people. So we went home for lunch and then came back later to get 50 liters of water from him in order to do the test run that night. We also bought a battery and some plastic barrels to do the test in.
So that night we went to CEMADE to do a demonstration of the purification for some of the women who will be purifying the water. Everything went really well! The only problem was that there was less water pressure at the end of the process than there should be, but after talking with EDGE that night, I have some ideas about what might have been the problem. I’m not sure what the women thought of everything because they were pretty quiet, but I think Arturo was impressed. He commented that I was an engineer. Ha ha! It was great to actually get out the purifier and finally get to set it up.
The purifier runs off of a battery and a handful of salt. I read this story to the women (in Spanish), as is EDGE’s custom:
2 Kings 2:19-22
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
Saturday I had a meeting with the internship director from Centre and the other students. After that we walked around El Centro a bit and had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the central plaza. It was really nice! I took the bus home and then Arturo and I went to CEMADE, where the kids were gathering for their weekly CCD class. Arturo said there are sometimes 200 kids there! The place was crawling with them – about 100 this week. It was so much fun to watch them and be around so many kids. This was a special day because they were giving the kids presents for El dia de Reyes – the epiphany. Mexicans celebrate the epiphany much more than we do. On top of gifts from Santa Claus, children get another gift from the Three Kings on the epiphany.
Sunday was a long day. I got up at 7:00 in order to leave the house by 7:30 to go to mass in the cathedral at 8:15. The cathedral is beautiful and they have a huge organ that is wonderful to listen to. I found it a little difficult to keep up with the mass because things were a little different, especially in the beginning. And I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying because of the echo of the speakers. When they go to communion, the people don’t go to the front in a single-file line, pew-by-pew. They just get up whenever they feel like it and walk up. I was kind of confused, but I managed.
After mass I walked around the central plaza (where a million vendors had their stands set up) to wait for my friends to arrive who I would be going to Chitchen Itza with. When they got there we walked to the bus station – about ten blocks away. Well we had trouble finding it at first, so we had to ask someone where it was. We bought our tickets and left Merida on a tour bus at 11:00. The ride took forever! The bus driver would stop in these little towns and pick up people who were going one or two towns down the road. And people selling snacks would get on and walk up and down the aisle rattling off whatever they were selling. I knew better than to buy anything because the people who prepare them usually don’t use clean water or hands. I thought it was safe to buy a can of Coke though. I got ripped off – it cost 10 pesos. So the bus ride was supposed to be an hour and a half but we didn’t get there until almost 2:00 and our bus back to Merida was to leave at 6:10. When we were about to go into the park a man stopped us and asked us in English if we’d like a tour. After talking with him for a few minutes we figured it was worth the 400 pesos (about $30) to split between the three of us. I realized after I handed him the money that we gave him 40 pesos extra. Oh well.
So Chitchen Itza is a famous Mayan ruin site with a huge pyramid in the middle. I’ve loaded pictures on my Picasa website here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was pretty neat to see how advanced the Mayan people were. The big pyramid was like a calendar because there are 4 sides with 91 steps on each side. If you count the top roof, that equals 365 days. We didn’t get to climb it because they stopped allowing it only 2 years ago. You can read more about what I saw on Picasa. One of the other girls who went wanted to go see the cave that was 6 kilometers down the road, so we paid for an overpriced taxi and took a “tour” of the cave. It was actually a self-paced walk through the cave with speakers of a recording and music. It was in Spanish and I didn’t spend the energy to try to figure out what they were saying. I guess when you’ve seen Mammoth Cave, everything else pales in comparison.
After that we took the taxi to the bus station. It was only 5:00 and our bus didn’t leave until 6:10. There was another bus that was leaving at 5:30 and I would have liked to take that one, but one of the other girls wanted to take our time eating. We went across the road to a tourist trap restaurant (buffet style) where they had dancers who balanced trays on their heads and a can of coke cost 30 pesos ($2.20).
When we left the restaurant at 6:00 we learned that our bus had left at 5:50. So we waited for the one that should come around 6:30, which didn’t actually come until closer to 6:45. The bus ride home took about two hours and the three of us walked back to El Centro where we could catch our buses home. They were telling me I didn’t have to walk so fast, but I was ready to be home. I went to my bus stop, but after 30 minutes the bus I normally take never came. I called Maria and Arturo to ask them if it was still running at this hour (which was not easy to do since I was so worn-out). Maria told me to take another bus that was labeled with our colonia, or neighborhood, and I did. I got home at about 10:00 and set my alarm on my phone. When I opened my phone there was a reminder from my calendar that I was supposed to take my malaria pill today. I was supposed to take it with food, but I was too tired, so I just took it on an empty stomach. I guess the combination of the tourist trap food and the malaria pill woke me up at 5:00 a.m. with some... digestive problems.
This morning Arturo and Maria knew I wasn’t feeling well so we waited a while before going out to the place that sells water softeners to make our purchase. I think we spent about two hours there talking about how things will be set up and making sure we’re getting the most economical set-up possible. Arturo can be very thorough, which is a good thing. So I bought the water softener, two tanks, salt, and some parts for 13,000 pesos, or about $980. When we left Arturo asked me what I thought and I told him I don’t like to spend money! Later on he asked me how my stomach was feeling and I said I felt fine. “So the purchase didn’t make your stomach feel bad?” he said. “Sí, un poco,” I said with a laugh.
Tomorrow we demonstrate the water purifier at the university! I think if I can demonstrate this purifier – in Spanish – in front of a bunch of professors and engineers, I think I can do just about anything. I think I’m going to brush up on some of my vocabulary tonight...
Arturo and I had a busy day on Friday. Arturo figured out that the Universidad Marista has a contract with Coca-Cola to only sell it’s products on Marista property, so we can’t do the purification at the community center, Centro Marista de Desarollo (CEMADE). But there is a little park two blocks away from CEMADE that they have been working on for a little while now. It was an overgrown, abandoned lot where people dumped their garbage a lot, but Arturo, Maria, and some people from the community bought it for the citizens of Emiliano Zapata to use and have cleaned it up quite a bit. There is a tiny house – la casita – there where we will set up the purifier.
So Friday morning we visited la casita – the little house – in the park in Emiliano Zapata with a technician from a company that sells water softeners. They took some measurements and such and figured out that it would be possible to install the water softener there. Then we went to visit Arturo’s friend at his chemical company to look at his water softener because it is very similar to the one we would be buying. They were very nice people. So we went home for lunch and then came back later to get 50 liters of water from him in order to do the test run that night. We also bought a battery and some plastic barrels to do the test in.
So that night we went to CEMADE to do a demonstration of the purification for some of the women who will be purifying the water. Everything went really well! The only problem was that there was less water pressure at the end of the process than there should be, but after talking with EDGE that night, I have some ideas about what might have been the problem. I’m not sure what the women thought of everything because they were pretty quiet, but I think Arturo was impressed. He commented that I was an engineer. Ha ha! It was great to actually get out the purifier and finally get to set it up.
The purifier runs off of a battery and a handful of salt. I read this story to the women (in Spanish), as is EDGE’s custom:
2 Kings 2:19-22
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
Saturday I had a meeting with the internship director from Centre and the other students. After that we walked around El Centro a bit and had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the central plaza. It was really nice! I took the bus home and then Arturo and I went to CEMADE, where the kids were gathering for their weekly CCD class. Arturo said there are sometimes 200 kids there! The place was crawling with them – about 100 this week. It was so much fun to watch them and be around so many kids. This was a special day because they were giving the kids presents for El dia de Reyes – the epiphany. Mexicans celebrate the epiphany much more than we do. On top of gifts from Santa Claus, children get another gift from the Three Kings on the epiphany.
Sunday was a long day. I got up at 7:00 in order to leave the house by 7:30 to go to mass in the cathedral at 8:15. The cathedral is beautiful and they have a huge organ that is wonderful to listen to. I found it a little difficult to keep up with the mass because things were a little different, especially in the beginning. And I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying because of the echo of the speakers. When they go to communion, the people don’t go to the front in a single-file line, pew-by-pew. They just get up whenever they feel like it and walk up. I was kind of confused, but I managed.
After mass I walked around the central plaza (where a million vendors had their stands set up) to wait for my friends to arrive who I would be going to Chitchen Itza with. When they got there we walked to the bus station – about ten blocks away. Well we had trouble finding it at first, so we had to ask someone where it was. We bought our tickets and left Merida on a tour bus at 11:00. The ride took forever! The bus driver would stop in these little towns and pick up people who were going one or two towns down the road. And people selling snacks would get on and walk up and down the aisle rattling off whatever they were selling. I knew better than to buy anything because the people who prepare them usually don’t use clean water or hands. I thought it was safe to buy a can of Coke though. I got ripped off – it cost 10 pesos. So the bus ride was supposed to be an hour and a half but we didn’t get there until almost 2:00 and our bus back to Merida was to leave at 6:10. When we were about to go into the park a man stopped us and asked us in English if we’d like a tour. After talking with him for a few minutes we figured it was worth the 400 pesos (about $30) to split between the three of us. I realized after I handed him the money that we gave him 40 pesos extra. Oh well.
So Chitchen Itza is a famous Mayan ruin site with a huge pyramid in the middle. I’ve loaded pictures on my Picasa website here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was pretty neat to see how advanced the Mayan people were. The big pyramid was like a calendar because there are 4 sides with 91 steps on each side. If you count the top roof, that equals 365 days. We didn’t get to climb it because they stopped allowing it only 2 years ago. You can read more about what I saw on Picasa. One of the other girls who went wanted to go see the cave that was 6 kilometers down the road, so we paid for an overpriced taxi and took a “tour” of the cave. It was actually a self-paced walk through the cave with speakers of a recording and music. It was in Spanish and I didn’t spend the energy to try to figure out what they were saying. I guess when you’ve seen Mammoth Cave, everything else pales in comparison.
After that we took the taxi to the bus station. It was only 5:00 and our bus didn’t leave until 6:10. There was another bus that was leaving at 5:30 and I would have liked to take that one, but one of the other girls wanted to take our time eating. We went across the road to a tourist trap restaurant (buffet style) where they had dancers who balanced trays on their heads and a can of coke cost 30 pesos ($2.20).
When we left the restaurant at 6:00 we learned that our bus had left at 5:50. So we waited for the one that should come around 6:30, which didn’t actually come until closer to 6:45. The bus ride home took about two hours and the three of us walked back to El Centro where we could catch our buses home. They were telling me I didn’t have to walk so fast, but I was ready to be home. I went to my bus stop, but after 30 minutes the bus I normally take never came. I called Maria and Arturo to ask them if it was still running at this hour (which was not easy to do since I was so worn-out). Maria told me to take another bus that was labeled with our colonia, or neighborhood, and I did. I got home at about 10:00 and set my alarm on my phone. When I opened my phone there was a reminder from my calendar that I was supposed to take my malaria pill today. I was supposed to take it with food, but I was too tired, so I just took it on an empty stomach. I guess the combination of the tourist trap food and the malaria pill woke me up at 5:00 a.m. with some... digestive problems.
This morning Arturo and Maria knew I wasn’t feeling well so we waited a while before going out to the place that sells water softeners to make our purchase. I think we spent about two hours there talking about how things will be set up and making sure we’re getting the most economical set-up possible. Arturo can be very thorough, which is a good thing. So I bought the water softener, two tanks, salt, and some parts for 13,000 pesos, or about $980. When we left Arturo asked me what I thought and I told him I don’t like to spend money! Later on he asked me how my stomach was feeling and I said I felt fine. “So the purchase didn’t make your stomach feel bad?” he said. “Sí, un poco,” I said with a laugh.
Tomorrow we demonstrate the water purifier at the university! I think if I can demonstrate this purifier – in Spanish – in front of a bunch of professors and engineers, I think I can do just about anything. I think I’m going to brush up on some of my vocabulary tonight...
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