Sorry for the long break in posts….my parents even called me to tell me they were worried they hadn’t heard from me in so long!
I have been busy the last few weeks with Engineers Without Borders. The team came on the 28th, well the three women came on the 28th, Cody came on the 30th. The women left on the 5th, while Cody stayed until the following Thursday.
While they were here we did a few lessons in the school making volcanoes. Cody, me, and a few other PCVs who came in to help me (thanks Adrianne and Forest!) gave the science lesson about volcanoes and the rest of the team helped the students form groups and make their own volcanoes. Then we put chemicals in the opening and watched them fizz out the top like a real volcano. The students made small figurines out of clay and watched as they were overtaken by fake lava…nothing like fun with natural disasters.
Tiny volcanoes made of clay
Forest, taking a break from teaching
Cody's t-shirt....we're really serious teachers.
Adrianne, dressed like the unibomber...again really serious teachers.
Jennifer from the EWB team playing games outside
Also, they investigated their next project. They are hoping to come back in about six months to implement another project! Whoo hoo! They came and took some measurements, did some testing, and are taking all their data back to the States to decide what they want to do next, since there are quite a few team members and only a few of them can come down at any given point.
Kate, Kristine, and Cody taking measurements and other engineery stuff...
Rugged mountain engineer...
We also FINALLY finished their last project. It is officially done! Last trip in the fall last year was working to install a new electric pump to replace the old diesel pump. Originally, we expected the pump project to be done last year, but a lot of circumstances got in the way, but at the last minute everything worked out and Cody got to see the final tests just hours before his flight home. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, but at least things finally came through and we are officially using our brand new pump!
Doing the final testing...just moments before its first official use!
We also managed to throw in a few fun activities while they were here as well…
We visited a coffee-processing plant to see how coffee is made...here is bagged coffee ready to be shipped out.
Toasting the coffee
On our day off Cody and I ventured out to the chorros in Juayua for a little waterfall jumping
Having the team here was amazing! They work so hard, and they make my job so easy. I get to take a lot of credit for being here with them, but they do all the work. Also, having them here makes the community so happy. They really care about making the lives of the people here better, and I am definitely the luckiest PCV in the world to have the BEST (not exaggerating, actually voted the best by EWB) chapter of EWB working with me!
It has been a long few weeks. I am tired, but happy. Now that I am back alone in my house back to my routine, and I have caught up on two weeks worth of laundry (handwashed!) and organized a few things I have been too busy for, my friend Kent sent my a whole zip drive full of new music…I plan on spending quite a few hours discovering all the new popular music that everyone else already knows, but I have never heard before. Thanks K-Campbell, thanks you’re the best!
