Community Update

Photo- Surveying with the abney level.

Water – In terms of the government-funded project, things are going very slowly. In the past month, at the government leve l a contracter was selected so now we are only waiting for a whole bunch of signatures from Panama City. At the local level, we sold fried dough and juice at 12 Sunday soccer games. I had to force myself into not doing a cost-benefit analysis of these events – let’s just say that every Sunday there were 4 people working, 8 hours of prep and sales, and $12 to $17 raised (and a daily work salary is $8 to put it into perspective). However, I am a health and not a business volunteer so I kept my mouth shut and just sold the fried dough. The fundraiser had another underlying benefit which took weeks for me to realize - the sales gave 4 women the opportunity to leave the house and kids to go watch a soccer game, which would normally be culturally unacceptable.

In general I have been trying to do as much capacity building (Peace Corps buzz word) as possible. We measured flow rate from the spring sources during dry season and wet season. I have gone out surveying with community members using two different measuring techniques, the Abney Level and the Water Level. I am hoping to combine all of this data into an aqueduct design which hopefully will not be too far off from the design already created by the government institution. The main goal though is to teach community members the techniques to trouble shoot their own water system.

Sanitation ¬ Due to community interest I am beginning the process of starting a latrine committee working alongside 4 sector leaders. The leaders already took census information of interested families and drew a map of the community. Next we will be holding 3 mandatory health meetings to weed out the unmotivated families, and then apply for funding for approximately 50 latrines.

It will be the responsibility of each family to attend 3 meetings, dig the hole, get the sand/gravel from the river about an hour away, and build the house for the latrine out of local materials. Solicited funds will cover cement, rebar, and 2 sheets of corrugated zinc roofing per family. Based on feedback during my Peace Corps training and from other volunteers, each family will be responsible for a $5 deposit due before materials are delivered that is returnable upon completion of the walls of the latrine. The general problem with a latrine project is that in the past 20 years, a few aspiring politicians have swung by the area, built 20 latrines including the hole using paid contractors, and then left the non-included families extremely jealous. Thus the general idea of a latrine “project” is that some outsider will come with materials and then build it. We’ll see how this goes.