Pure Water for the World: September 2006

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Week #8 - Community Integration

This week was all about Rotary and getting to know our local club here in La Ceiba. Tuesday we attended our weekly meeting and met an American couple who retired here to start up an orphanage. Then the highlight of our week, we found a house without a single scorpion in it. We also sent two of our workers over to Trujillo for three days of training in how to make filters. Saturday day we went to 'help' at a Rotary workshop teaching other clubs in the district how to write grants. Then that night we attended the fundraiser dinner and had a Rotary friend invite us to join him and his family for their Sunday outing.

Waiting for our turn to speak Spanish at the Rotary meeting

The front (upstairs) of our new house

Lending moral support to the grant writing workshop

Teaching the newbies how to sieve sand

Fundraiser at the Golden Palace and great Chinese food

Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com

Rasa Siminkas Kent- rsiminkas@gmail.com

Wat/San/Health Consultants

PureWaterForTheWorld.blogspot.com

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Week #7 - House Hunting

We finally moved to La Ceiba this week. On our last trip from Danlí, we brought with us the four large molds for the new La Ceiba project. The next day we started looking for houses and found our Spanish school. We go five days a week from 7:30 to noon and then work in the afternoon. Thursday, we had our big meeting with Rotary and MAMUCA to inspect the site where the filters will be built (taller). Friday, was Independence Day and we spent our day off mostly looking for a house.

The molds are almost as heavy as the filters themselves

This is our new school and maybe a potential home upstairs

Rasa showing off again

The future filter taller and the community workers

This is typical bathroom in rental houses, complete with scorpion

Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com

Rasa Siminkas Kent- rsiminkas@gmail.com

Wat/San/Health Consultants

PureWaterForTheWorld.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Week #6 - Goodbye Danli

After we dropped Dave off at the airport for his flight home to the DR, we drove back to Danlí and returned the truck. The next day we went strait to the taller to see how our new cement vibrator is working out and we found them working 7 days a week to catch up for lost time. We also created a checklist for everything we would need for the project start-up in La Ceiba. We also took advantage of the slow week to do some research for an upcoming water conference presentation. Then it was time for our going away party. We'll miss all our new friends in Danlí.

Going home but no soldiers at the airport this time

Vibrating cement to get out all the bubbles

A journal of all the filters delivered

Rasa doing research for her presentation

Our going away party

Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com

Rasa Siminkas Kent- rsiminkas@gmail.com

Wat/San/Health Consultants

PureWaterForTheWorld.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Week #5 - Meetings

Monday was an easy day of interviewing people in Santa Barbara for the position of site manager. The next day we were on the road again for a very bumpy six-hour drive to La Ceiba. Wednesday, we met with PCV Tania and fed her in exchange for her helping us with our health education program. The next morning we met another NGO who focuses on deep-water well installation as well as installing filters, it was a productive meeting. We were supposed to have our final meeting on Friday, and then on Saturday, but it finally happened Sunday morning. This left us just enough time to get Dave back to Tegucigalpa, on the other side of the country, for his Monday morning flight.