Recently in Guatemala Category

We are a bit tardy in posting Jared Wehde's last dispatch (below) from Guatemala, where a group of international engineering students spent Spring Break. The students, who were working on water quality issues, are now back at UMR.

Before we left, a few of us visited a nearby neighbor to the site and were greeted with a warm welcome. The family was excited about a project to improve their drinking water. We spent a few hours talking with them about future projects and they offered us drinks and chairs under the shade.

P.S. Marian Christiansen and Casey Duncan have some final details about the other group that traveled to Guatemala for Spring Break-- the Women as Global Leaders, or WAGLs as they call themselvs -- after the jump:

OK. We've now got three separate blogging parties in Central America. The international engineering class (featuring Jared Wehde) and the Women as Global Leaders class are in Guatemala. The UMR chapter of Engineers Without Borders is in Honduras.

Updates from the Women as Global Leaders class are being provided through a collective effort by Casey Duncan, Marian Christiansen and Rachel Sweringen:

Day 3... We started off the day going to an elementary school called John Wesley. The students ranged from grades 1-4. We gave our presentation on the importance of water filtration and sanitation. The students seemed to receive us well. After that we went to the orphanage before going back to the same school to talk to the junior high students. When we presented an activity for them to do they were quite skeptical. They were to build a tower out of one piece of paper and one piece of tape. Though these were the only materials given to them, many found things outside of that to make their towers stand up...like gum, rocks, and even quetzals.

Day 4... Today we went to another school where the students seemed to just love us. They istened intently to our presentation and then participated in the activity. Afterwards, many of them clung to Ashlee (Abbott) and weren't going to let her go. After that, we had a little break and hiked up to some of the Mayan ruins which date back to about 1200 B.C. There was actually a healing ceremony going on while we were there. After that we spent a little more time at the orphanage before making our way back to Chichi.

The last few days have been the most important of the trip. For the last three months we have been researching and planning for this week. Everything is going pretty smoothly considering the circumstances. We have installed all of our equipment at the site and are begining to sample the water. Students and instructors from CUNOC are also here to learn how to test the water in the future. We have enjoyed their company and their ability to help us with out Spanish. -- Jared Wehde

Girl playing with a pogo stick at an orphanage in Guatemala (photo: Marian Christiansen)

Marian Chistiansen and other students from UMR's Women as Global Leaders class have joined Jared and the rest of the gang in Guatemala. In addition to Jared's Journal, we'll be providing some posts from Marian, starting with the following:

The WAGL students woke up around 3:45 in the morning to catch their first flight. It has been an interesting trip with lots of unexpected happenings. The drive from Guatemala City to Chichicastenango was bumpy, and full of scenery that was beautiful. We arrived in Chichicastenango around 4 p.m. Guatemalan time. We ate at a place called Cafe San Juan,which we must say has the world's greatest chocolate con leche (hot chocolate made with milk).

As we were going to bed, a processional was in the streets in preparation of Holy Week, thus keeping us up for a while.

Day two, Sunday...We woke up to a nice Pancake breakfast provided by the hotel. We then ventured into the streets for Market Day. After about an hour in the streets, we went to Pastor Thomas´s house to assist the UMR students working on a new watter system setup there. We then left their house and went to the orphanage in Lemoa, where we got to play with the children.

We put in a request to Jared (who continues his journal below) to positively identify the intrepid spring breakers in this photo. We'll add their names to this post when Jared responds.

UPDATE: Jared himself is on the left and the other climber is Will Granich. Both are seniors in environmental engineering.

The last two days have been exciting but also exhausting. Early Saturday morning (4:30 a.m.), we made our way up Santa Maria volcano. The views were out of this world but the trip up the mountain was intense. Six miles, a steep 3,000 meters, and three hours later we made it to the top. The air was thin due to the elevation, roughly 10,000 feet, and gave even those who were in shape a challenge. After arriving at the top, we found another volvono nearby erupting nearly every fifteen minutes with ash and steam. The trip to the top was definitely worth it. The trip down was physically easier but more dangerous, the steep slope and ash cause more than a few trips and falls.

Today (Sunday) we awoke in Chichicastenango to the large crowd of Sunday markets. We traveled to the Pastor´s house where we will be working. The task for today was to install a new spigot, we will be installing our monitoring equipment tomorrow.

Jared Wehde sent us a new dispatch from Guatemala. During the past few days, UMR students have been visiting dead people, drinking hot chocolate, possibly witnessing sacrifices, and planning projects that will improve the quality of water for some of the people in Guatemala.

The last few days have been really busy with Spanish classes in the morning and visiting CUNOC University at night. Tuesday's Spanish class entailed traveling to the public cemetary with our our instructors. We used the time to practice Spanish and learn about local culture. Many the tombs were very large and eloborate. The tenants of the cemetary actually pay rent and can be kicked out if they don't pay. This exlplains a few empty tombs.

Tuesday night at CUNOC was spent giving presentions about what we plan to do next week in Chichicastenango: collecting water quality data, surveying physical water parameters and building a ceramic water filter holder.

Wednesday morning we were escorted by the Spanish school staff to the local center, where we visited the museum, a few churches, the municipal building and a local chocalate cafe. If you ever have the chance to have hot chocalate here, you will never drink swiss miss again.

This morning (Thursday) we traveled to a local Mayan ritualisic site where sacricfices and burnings are a regular occurance. Nearby there was a family business where fiber was dyed using boiling cauldrons to produce thread for clothing and other textiles.

Our time at CUNOC University has come to an end. We said our goodbyes to the students and faculty and will be spending the next few days hiking and traveling to the project site. We are looking forward to next week and actually begining our work.

P.S. We'll be adding a few guest bloggers next week, when members of UMR's Women as Global Leaders class arrive in Guatemala for Spring Break.

Diane Franken, a senior in geological engineering, gets intensive Spanish lessons in Guatemala. (Photo: Jared Wehde)

Last year, Visions was fortunate to receive reports from UMR students who spent Spring Break in Guatemala, where they worked on water quality issues. This year, we've arranged for more dispatches from Guatemala. Jared Wehde, a senior in environmental engineering, is one of the UMR students who is currently in Central America. Jared will be the reporter in Visions' Guatemala bureau for the next two weeks. Check in every couple of days to read Jared's Journal, starting with this post.

The trip to Xela took around 12 hours. Six hours in airports and six hours in a van from Guatemala City to the Los Americas hotel where we will be staying. The lodging is comfortable and near a commercial area so we are definitely not without. After settling in, we atteded Spànish school classes Monday morning and will continue to do so all this week. The school was hidden amongst the bulidings and narrow streets but after walking inside the place felt very large. Every room and rooftop contained instructors providing us with one-on-one instruction. Monday afternoon, we arrived at CUNOC University. We were greeted by local students and given tours of the campus. It was easy to make freinds, even with some language barriers. The students were similar to us in many ways. We also took turns giving presentations about a typical day in the life of a student. We look forward to spending the rest of this week´s afternoons together. We will be busy this week with Spaninsh school and visitng CUNOC. Everything is going great so far. We will also be traveling to various sites around town.

Do you remember how you spent spring break in college? If you're like us, the details might be a bit fuzzy. (We'd prefer to leave it at that.) Well, a group of UMR students is spending this spring break in Guatemala, where they're doing memorable stuff that makes a difference. As you have probably figured out, we're doing a special series of posts this week on the trip. (Next week, we'll get back to regular programming; whatever that means.) In her latest dispatch, Cassidy Volek discusses progress on the installation of water filters, a visit to an orphanage and a stone basketball hoop:

The materials group returned to Pastor Tomas´ home to retest all of the filters. Work was much smoother since we had worked out all the bugs on Sunday. Another positive was that the water pressure was not spiking like on Sunday. We had a constant pressure of 20 psi. The high grog content (60-40 grog to clay ratio) filters were tested first and proved to filter water successfully in a reasonable time. We are still waiting on the coli form counts of these tests. However, the tests on Sunday proved that there were coli forms present in the water. Next the 50-50 grog to clay content filters were tested -- these proved to filter water but at a much slower rate than the 60-40 filters. Finally, we were going to test the 40-60 grog to clay ratio filters, but both of them failed under 20 psi. A crack propagated in the ceramic and continued to grow under pressure.

Andrea, Jeff, and Jen went to Tomas´ church and played with the children while the Women as Global Leaders class did their presentation. Again the children loved having their picture taken and playing. Cecilia and I stayed at Tomas´ home and finished up the testing and then fed the chickens and turkeys. This was entertaining, the birds were very tame and came right to us.

After the testing was complete, we traveled to Lemoa and visited the orphanage where Dr. Elmore installed a well a few years ago. The children were so cute and excited to play with us. We saw a very contaminated lake that had trash lying in it. Some women were washing clothes in it. We also saw a Mayan ball court, which was fascinating. It consists of one hoop which is like a small stone basketball hoop with no net, turned 90 degrees.

Signing off from Guatemala,
Cassidy