Processing & April

First, I apologize it has taken me so long to make this post. On the one hand, moving back and starting a new job has made life really busy, on the other, I have still been doing much processing about our past year and it has been hard to but those thoughts to paper (or the ethereal blog cloud).  I have come to realize that I will not be done processing our experience in the Ulpan Valley anytime soon.  As much as I would like to sum it all up and write a final blog - I don't think that can happen with any real honesty.  So I will continue to throw a few snippets about my processing out on this blog here and there until most of the processing is done.

Here is summary of the work we accomplished in April:

Drew and I had a good time in April when we returned for two weeks.  We had planned to help with a team from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and to design a system for San Vicente 2 (SV2), but as often was the case, our plans changed a little when we got there.  SV2 was not ready for us to design their system so instead we did preliminary studies of two other villages.  Chirubiquim (CBQ) is a village slightly outside the valley near Semesche (where we did our Decemeber construction project).  They had seen the project in Semesche and wanted something similar in their village. I spent two days hiking through this village with their leaders looking at potential springs that could provide community access points to better water.  We found several springs that, when combined, may be able to provide a source of water for their school and a couple of community access points, but they unfortunately were not able to show us any springs that would be an ample supply of water for the entire community.  We left the community with a list of things to accomplish before we would be able to help them complete a design and project.  Those things included getting written permission from property of the small springs that we found and sending a letter to CAFNIMA asking for help with a water system.  The property permission has always been a long process in our experience.

The other village that we visited was Ulpan 2 (ULP2).  ULP2 is in the middle of the valley (and though I don't know this as fact) I believe they were the original village in the area.  They are now ULP2 because the farmers who took over the land in the valley displaced the original ULP from the best land in the middle of the valley.  ULP2 has a very nice spring that we believe is on property owned by the village.  We hiked to this spring and did a preliminary survey with some of the village leaders.  We left ULP2 with the same instructions as in CBQ - proof of ownership and solicitation letter to CAFNIMA.  The biggest problem in ULP2 is that - for some reason - not all of the people who live in this village want a water system.  We told the leaders that contacted us that we would prefer that everyone receive access to the water if we were going to help them with a system and the last I heard they were still discussing this as a community.  We did not want to create a situation of the "HAVE" and "HAVE-NOTS" so our hope is that they will come to an agreement where all will have access to the water system.

...more to come...

Quick Update on SXP Project

We really enjoyed having the Knox ProCorps team in Sequixpur this past week.  A few highlights:

• Julio, our water technician, built two beautiful concrete tanks for the system in the two weeks prior to the team coming.  He was able to demonstrate just how much he has learned in the past year and a half.  
• We installed over 6 km (3.7 miles) of pipe in 4 days, 30 new services to homes and laid the groundwork for being able to supply good water to two or three more communities.  We also replaced valves in parts of their existing system, teaching the water committee how to maintain their own system in the future.
• We cooked and ate at the house of the president of the water committee (Don Juan).  The last night we were there, Juan's family invited us into their home to enjoy a meal of black beans, rice and platenos.  We had a wonderful time enjoying our food in the simplicity of one of the homes in the valley.
• Katy, the kids and I camped for two days with the team in the valley.  Despite the rain and the very primitive "facilities" we had a really good time with the people of Sequixpur and the team.  Drew had an especially good time, radio in hand, harassing all the guys he knew on the team.  
• Katy really enjoyed spending time with Cata, Michelle, Ginger and Kena.

Julio working on one of his pressure break tanks.  The tank is 1 meter square.

The team + a few locals.  Don Juan is the man middle-right with the brown shirt.  He was a very gracious host.  The other two Mayan men on the right are Ricardo and Ricardo, both members of the water committee and very active in everything we did with the project.  Team included (from left to right): Craig Parker, Michelle Maddox, Bruce Giles, Zac Helton, Jonathan Cummings, Gary Massey, Cata (Nina's sister), Edwin Deyton, Kena & Ryan Hyers, Troy Wedekind, Andy Jackson, John King, John Powers, Tim Tucker and Ginger Colvett (not in picture).

Organizing all of our materials in the Bodega (storage building).

Tim Tucker and John Powers with new friends in the valley.  In many instances the local men began to do all the pipe gluing and fitting.  It was fun to see them taking ownership of their new system.

Bruce Giles and Ryan Hyer with new friends.  Ricardo from the water committee on the left.

Edwin Deyton, Zac Helton and Jonathan Cummings showing off their strength after completing work on one of the tanks.

We will give some more details and add more pictures when we have more time and better internet.

Thanks for your prayers, we really appreciate it.

Mark

Semesche Construction Update

We have been working with the leaders of Semesche all fall to develop a water system for their community. In December, all of our design work and training finally came together in the form of a construction week with  Knox ProCorps team.  I have developed a quick pictoral overview of our pogress.  

This is the owner of the land on which the spring was located (standing next to the spring)

The owners family using the spring before we built the spring box.

We hired a local contractor to lead the building of the spring box and a tank.  Local men from the village provided all the labor.  In this picture you see the spring excavated and the beginning of the spring box.

The completed spring box.

This is the beginning of the formwork for the tank.

Pouring concrete.  We used a gravity wall design that the local contractor and workers were familiar with.

Mixing concrete.  No mechanical mixer here. 

Here is the complete tank.

On December 7th, the Knox ProCorps team arrived.  We had just completed all the concrete work (spring box and tank) before they arrived.

Within two days, the men of Semesche opened up over 2 km of trench.

Julio, our local water tech, giving a presentation to the team about the design of the project, the materials on hand, and the plan for their week of work.

Some of our supplies.

The first day, we plumbed the spring box and tank.  Little man helping out.

Kevin Colvett was the engineer that was in the valley last year.  He led the Knox ProCorps team.  Little Man may have gotten a little vigorous on the sawing.

First drips of water in Semesche's new tank.

The men from the village did the digging while the team from Knox ProCorps glued pipe, fitted valves and fittings.

One day, the ladies of the water committee in the village provided lunch for us.  Tortillas with beans and coffee (very typical meal).

A view from the spring.  We ran water to the Baptist Church in the lower left, the Catholic Church just above that and the Mennonite Church at the upper right.  

Laying pipe down the hill from the spring box and tank.

Overall we have been very pleased with this project.  We had ample time during the construction to train the man who had been selected from Semesche to be their fontanero (plumber) and several members of the water committee how to clean the system and general operations.  All the churches and health centers now have water and we have hopes of extending the system at some point in the future to many of the homes in the village.

The best parts of the project for me:

1) Watching Julio as he participate in the construction of the spring box and tank.  We asked the contractor (Daniel) that we hired to train Julio how to build these structures.  Julio was there every minute and soaked up all the teaching from Daniel.  We asked Julio if he felt like he was ready to build two small tanks for the next project on his own and he said yes.  He then disappeared, returning about four hours later with a hand sketch of the tank and quantities of the materials he thought he would need.  Kris and I are elated with Julio's eagerness and abilities.  We have high hopes that Julio will be able to carry on the water work in the valley (supported with short term trips) when we leave.

2) Hosting the Knox ProCorps team was lots of fun.  Some of the folks were friends, others we had never met before.  Everyone worked extremely hard.  They did their work well and quickly, giving time for Kris to  train the local men in Semesche.  Our kids had a lot of fun having some more people around to "play" with and the everyone on the team was very gracious towards them.

In returning to the valley after Christmas, the system is operating well.  We look forward to walking with the water committee and the fontanero in the coming months.

Mark

School Is Cool! (& Construction Update)

School is cool because I get to go on field trips with my Dad.  I went with my Dad to Semesche. Semesche is a village where my Dad works on water.  They don’t have clean water. We hike up to the top of a hill to get to a spring .The spring is clean water they are trying  to get the water  in a pipe and take it to the spigots. They are pouring concrete in the water  tank  and I stood on it . It is fun to go with my Dad.   

School is also cool because I get to explore and find cool stuff.  One time I got to find a tarantula and write about it. Another time, we saw a poisonous caterpillar - It was cool. School is fun!    

This Tarantula was outside our house!

-Little Man

It has been really fun to take Little Man and Dancing Beauty with me while I have been observing our construction progress for the spring box and tank in Semesche.  It seems as though it is a great learning experience for both of them to see what their Dad does.  The following pictures show what we have accomplished so far with the spring box and tank in Semesche.  The tank is almost complete, but I do not have a picture since the form work on the walls was stripped.  I will update again with new photos once I have them.

      

The original Spring.

Katy, Little Man, Dancing Beauty and I got to visit on the 2nd day of construction where they excavated the spring. 

Here is the beginning of form work for the front wall of the spring box.

Here is the completed spring box.  The box is filled with clean stone to support the earth behind the front wall and has an access hatch on top so that the plumbing can be worked on as needed in the future.  The man in this picture is collecting water from the spring to make concrete for the tank.

Here the men are mixing concrete (by hand) and carrying it down to the tank (in 5-gallon buckets). 

Tank construction!

More Concrete & more pictures in another post.

In other exciting Ulpan news.  We took delivery of the pipe, fittings, glue, valves, spigots, etc. for the project last night.  Only in Guatemala does the delivery truck show up to a place with no electricity at 7:45 at night.  Several men in the village showed up to help us unload the truck and count everything by candle light and head lamps.  315 sticks of 2" pipe, 18 2" Ball Valves...  Late night, but lots of fun.  Across the language barrier it was evident that the men were excited about the project and it is really fun to recognize faces and hear my name from many of the men who have been most active in the construction of their new water system.

Next Friday (Dec. 7th) we host a team from Knox ProCorps to begin construction of approximately 2 km of pipe, fittings, valves, etc. & 8 access points for the people of Semesche.  We can't wait for the team to get here or to see water flowing from the choros (spigots).  Please pray for the team's travels and work.

-Mark                                

Work Update 2.2

Continuation of Part 2.1 - Semesche:

I wanted to give you a visual of the work here in the valley.  The picture below is a picture of a map that I found in the Puesto de Salud (Health Center) in Semesche.  It has lots of helpful information on it that we are using, but for a spacial reasoning geek (me), I like to know "actual" distances and how high things are.  So...

The next picture shows the same village in Google Earth with points that we have taken with the GPS.  In the top left you will see (SEM SPRING LARGE) a point that is the spring we will be using for this project.  Towards the right, you can see the access points that we will be providing, mostly at churches, for this phase of the project.  We use Google Earth a lot (mainly because it's free) to determine distances and plot rough profiles of the terrain.  We have found that its elevations are often off and not all that consistent, so we use the GPS (with an altimeter) to verify high and low points along the routes of our designs.  

The next step is to determine how large the lines need to be in the system to provide the water a village will use.  We have been consulting reference materials to determine average usage rates for families in rural communities.  We plug the pipes, tanks, and usage (flow rates) required into a model to verify that our design will work both now and if the community were to decide to expand their coverage to each house at some point in the future.  The picture below shows the modeling work I have been working on the past two days in Semesche to determine line sizes that will work if they decide to provide water to each home.  I am thankful for free water modeling software from EPA (your tax dollars at work).  I have traditionally used much more sophisticated programs in the consulting world, but this one is getting the job done.  From the modeling, we were able to determine that by increasing one section of pipe from 2" to 3" we could eliminate the need for an additional tank when expanding the system to 60 of the families to the northeast.  The cost to increase the line size now is one-fourth to a third the cost of having to build the tank. 

2.2 Sequixpur:

The second project I have been working on is to improve an existing water system in the village of Sequixpur (pictured below).  This system was built in the mid to late 1990's for several villages, including Semesche ironically, but because of poor maintenance or funds to fix breaks, the majority of the system stopped working shortly after it was built.  Sequixpur is the highest and closest village to the supply springs and has remained working because the main break that caused the failure is downstream from them.  Since the project was constructed the village has expanded but there has been no expansion of the system to serve these new homes.  We are planning to expand their system to serve those who have no water. The picture below shows Sequixpur in Google Earth.  The blue lines show the existing system and the red and purple lines show our planned expansion.  

I believe I mentioned this in an earlier post, but the significance of the Sequixpur system to the whole valley is that the springs that feed this system have more water than can ever be used by just Sequixpur.  The springs are of good quality and are very high - which allows us to push this water to several other villages that have no good water sources near their communities.  This thought is massive when compared to the scale of what we are doing in Semesche, but is the kind of infrastructure planning that has provided all of us in the states with reliable, clean drinking water every day. I will be spending a lot of time in Sequixpur between now and when we head home for Christmas, working out the details of this design.  We hope that a team from Knox ProCorps will be coming in February to construct this project.

In 2.3, maybe next week, I will try to describe the "BIG" vision of providing water to each home in the Ulpan Valley.  "Good water, for everyone, everday!"

Hasta Luego,

Mark

Work Update 2.1

Well the clouds and the cold have settled into the valley for the next few months, but our work continues.  

Side Note

Thinking about living in a cloud forest and actually living in a cloud forest are two very different things.  When I was thinking about it - I was thinking about monkeys and quetzals - strange bugs and trees.  In actuality, clouds can actually blow through your house - at least when houses don't have glass - I have only seen one in the valley that does.  When you live off solar - and its cloudy all the time - you have to have the annoying sound of a generator a lot in order to work on Google Earth and write blog posts - or have a light at night in your bedroom for that matter.  Today is cloudy, windy and cold - pretty normal from what we understand Nov. - Jan. to be here.  Those from the States that we know who have lived here before say that November is the hardest month of the year for them.  We are certainly experiencing that the clouds sometimes seep in into our consciousness and make us gloomy - so please pray that that the light of our Savior's love would be palpable in the midst of clouds  - warming from the inside out.  

The Work - 1. Semesche

We have two main objectives right now before we head back to the States for Christmas.  I will tell you about the first one now and write another post about the second.

The first, is to prepare for and construct a water system in the village of Semesche.  Semesche is one of the largest communities in the valley with approximately 200 families.  A team from Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga (a Knox ProCorps Team) will be coming from December 7 - 14 to help us complete this task.  The work consists of constructing a spring box, a tank and then piping the water from the tank to access points at each of four churches, the Puesto de Salud (Health Center), the school and the market.  The people of Semesche have agreed to our Regalamento - which describes the water users rights, the role & responsibility of the water committee, the role and responsibility of the Fontanero (basically the town plumber - hired by the water committee to operate and maintain the system) and the tariff or fee that each member of the community will be required to pay each month so that the water committee will be able to pay the fontanero and buy supplies to fix and expand the system.  The water committee and the Cocode - elected leaders of the village - have verbally agreed to the regalmento.  We expect them to sign it next week prior to us beginning construction on the spring box.  Please pray that they will continue to agree and sign the document next week.  

CAFNIMA requires that the community pay 10% of the cost for a water system, but recognizes that it is not always easy for the community to come up with cash.  In the case of Semesche, the community is coming up with the sand, rock and wood necessary for the construction of the spring box and tank.  By "coming up with" they have purchased the wood, will carry (on their backs) 4.5 cubic meters of sand from the river & 8 cubic meters of rock (from wherever) up to the top of a small mountain where the spring is.  They will then provide 5 to 10 guys for labor for the twenty days it should take to build the spring box and tanks.  We have hired an abinil (contractor) from one of the larger towns who will coordinate the work and understands the importance of teaching while he constructs.  One of the men who works with us, Julio, will get to be present for the entire construction process so that he can expand his knowledge - our hope (and he is well on his way on this point) is that Julio will be the teacher of all the fontaneros in the valley.

This community, as well as others in the valley, have been burned by folks who have given them water projects in the past.  We mentioned using some of the pipe from an old water system and they wanted no part of it.  We have since found out that the project that we see the remains of was likely very corrupt - filling government officials pockets - and did not last long.  So we are designing a system to the primary  points in the community that is sized so that it can provide water to every house in the future.  We hope that our efforts now will provide the framework for the leaders to lead well, and begin to organize infrastructure that will provide the framework for good health and the productivity of each person in the village.  

We are continually reminded how hard development work really is.  Changing the mindset of people who are poor and have been oppressed for a long time is very hard.  Their education is poor, but more so their mindset is that they don't really deserve it.  If it breaks...it breaks.  Guess I will go back to the spring I used to get water from.  My motto for the people that we work with here is..."Good water, for everyone, everyday!"  We are trying hard to change the mindset.  If you don't have water when you turn the on the faucet, I would guess it takes you less then five minutes to call your utility.  Here they just assume that there isn't any water and go back to their old ways - even if they are paying for it.  

We will be hosting the team from Knox ProCorps to complete construction of the Semesche water system from December 7th to 14th.  Please pray for their safe travel, their work and their hearts while they experience life in the valley.  Their names are Nate, Bryan, Bill , Kevin, Michael, and Jon.  We look forward to reporting to you on their trip.

I will try to write 2.2 and maybe even a Bonus 2.3 soon!  Stay tuned.

Mark

My Work Begins

This is Mark.  I wanted to give everyone an update on what I have been doing the last two weeks.  Our work on water projects here in the valley is picking up.  The Lord has been very good in spurring on the hearts of the leaders in several villages to pursue us - with regard to them requesting our (CAFNIMA's) assistance - with bringing water to their villages.  This is an important and long prayed for event.  The leaders in the village are much more interest in participating in their own development when they are the ones who have asked for assistance.

Water Samples

Last week we took 26 water samples from all over the valley where we have water systems already operational to test for bacteriological contamination.  We should receive the results today.  This information will help us know if there are any problems with any of the springs we are using.  If there are problems we will be able to determine if we can correct the problems with source protection or if we need to engineer some sort of treatment.  My role in the water sampling effort was to drive the truck.  We had to take all the samples into Carcha which is about a 1.5 hour drive one way on very bumpy roads.  We made this drive on Tuesday with part of the samples.  On Thursday, we drove to the other side of the valley (2 hrs.) then to Carcha and then back.  I don't mind driving (four wheeling is kinda fun), but on these roads - 7 hours is a bit much.  My shoulders have never been tired before after driving, but they were last Thursday.

Meetings

Last Wednesday we went to Sesalche II to meet with their Water Committee to have training on how to do administration of a water system.  We ended up running out of time to discuss the training material, but we talked for a long time about how much each user should pay for their water.  Part of what we are trying to do is help each water committee function more or less like a utility board in the states.  They will operate, maintain and administer the water system.  Part of the administration is collecting a fee from each user so that they will have the funds to do maintenance and fix their system when it breaks.  In Sesalche II, it is a struggle to help them understand why they need to pay as much as they do.  You can pray for us and them, that they will have understanding for the need to pay and that the water committee will manage and administer well; and that our team will communicate well with the committee.

Julio Leading the Water System Administration Training for the Sequixpur Water Committee

Also last week, we met with leaders from Semesche to write an "Acta" in their "Acta" book giving permission for the community to use a spring near the village and giving land for tanks so that they can store water from the spring for their system.  This has been "in the works" since I was here in February and we are very excited and grateful that this spring will be able to provide water to the Semesche community.  We will be working on this design in the coming weeks and hope to have this system constructed before we return for Christmas.

On Friday we went to Sequixpur to do the administration training.  Katy and I went with Julio and we had the meeting in the house of the water committee's president.  Julio presented the training material and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that they are already doing most of what the training recommends.  Sequixpur has a partially working system that was installed in the early 1990's so that have a little bit of a head start compared to the other villages in the valley.  We were excited to find out that they are already administering well and hope their example and history will be able to encourage others in the valley.  Sequixpur is also important, because the spring that feeds their water system has lots of water.  One of our ideas is to use the overflow from their spring box to serve several other villages with water.  I was able to hike to this spring box this past Tuesday with Julio and the amount of extra water pouring out is amazing (see picture below - all that water pouring out is the extra - overflow).  The other advantage of this spring is that it is so high.  It sits above every village in the valley so we can move water without pumps.  Julio and I will return to Sequixpur tomorrow to discuss where there existing system does not work and try to determine why.  Next Tuesday, we will return again to discuss where there are families that do not have a "choro" or spigot.  We will be working on the design of their system fix and extension soon.

Existing Spring Box above Sequixpur.

I am very grateful for the team we have here in the valley and the work which CAFNIMA and others have done to make this work possible.  It is humbling to be a very small part in a much bigger story that the Lord is writing.  My prayer while hiking through the valley is mostly that the Lord will raise up leaders who will genuinely care about increasing the health of the valley without ruining the culture of its people.  I pray that we will be able to offer our knowledge and skills in a way that will not promote dependencies but increase the knowledge and desire of the people to improve their own situation.  I pray that the Lord's Spirit would fall on this place with hope, peace and love.

We are always grateful for your support and thankful for your prayers.  I hope that all of you are well.

Mark