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:

Continue reading "Jared signs off from Guatemala" »

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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.

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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

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

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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.

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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.

Posted by Lance Feyh at 08:43 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

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

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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.

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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

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Jake was able to email us some images from Guatemala, after all. We don't have captions, but we trust these photos complement recent posts from Jake and Cassidy. Hopefully the shots capture the look and feel of the place, and shed more light on the good work the UMR spring breakers are doing.

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Yesterday, first we went to a nearby dental clinic to build a pump house around a well head that was previously installed by a UMR team. The house looks wonderful although I am pretty sure it can be seen from outer space, as it is constucted entirely out of coregated metal roofing. We probably should have put a warning sign on it instructing not to look directly at it.

After that we returned to the hotel for a short rendezvous with the rest of the group. From there, one group went to Ruth and Naomis to explain the procedure for those using the filter system. The rest of us went to the Bombaros to shake down and test the disinfecting system. It was our hope that we would also be able to explain the the system to the fire chief. However, he was on Guatemalan time and we weren't able to do that when we wanted.

So at four we went to the orphanage and toured it. Which was nice. Then we finally made contact with the fire chief and went to meet with him and request that he perform testing for us. This actually went pretty well. Then we returned to the hotel and wrote up testing procedures for both intallation locations to be traslated to Spanish.

Jake

Posted by Lance Feyh at 09:33 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cassidy Volek continues her spring break reporting from Guatemala, where a group of UMR students, faculty and staff are helping locals with water quality issues.

Yesterday the materials group (Andrea Muller, Jeff Rodelas, Jen Gilmore, Cecelia Fernandez, and myself) fixed the broken filters in the morning. Then Cecelia and I went with the Women as Global Leaders class to a local elementary school, where we taught the 5th and 6th graders about e.coli and how to test water, and the importance of drinking clean water.

The children were very interested in meeting with us and learning about how to clean the water. They were especially interested in having their picture taken and seeing the picture immediately. The children were also excited to see Rob (Bogie), as they used him as a jungle gym because he was so tall. Later on, they teased Rob about being, tall, hairy, and burned. The WAGL class left the teacher with four coli-scan-easy-gel kits to periodically test the water and explained that we would be back to get the results.

After we finished up with the children we returned to the hotel for lunch and then 16 members of the group hiked a very tall mountain to see some Mayan ruins. It was a memorial to the earth god. Natives bring the god offerings of food, alcohol, and coca cola. This left a lot of trash around the memorial. The view of the city and the rest of the mountains was beautiful from that height.

Next, Andrea, Jeff, Emma (Cawlfield), and I went to Saluda y paz, a clinic, to help Dr. Elmore and Dr. Cawlfield build a shelter for the well they installed earlier. This proved to be very challenging since we were drilling into cement and did not have the proper masonry bits. After it was all said and done, the shelter framework turned out to be fairly sturdy, which was unexpected. The roof still needs to be attached along with metal sides.

Signing off from Guatemala,
Cassidy

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Before the UMR students left for Guatemala, they talked about their plans with Wayne Huebner on TechnoFiles. The show originally aired on Friday, March 17, but you can listen to it here.

Like what you hear? Subscribe to the TechnoFiles podcast using iTunes or any other podcast receiver.

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Words we're learning: pila means outdoor sink and bombaros means firefighters. We think. Anyway, Jake and Cassidy have really been on the ball in terms of providing us with information about their research-related spring break trip to Guatemala. Dispatches from Saturday and Sunday have already been posted. Here are today's updates:

OK. On day three we split up, so me and Cassidy will both be posting about our different activities.

The operations and maintenance group installed two different systems. The first we installed was a ceramic filter system at the Ruth and Naomi Project. It was installed in the pila, which acts as a sort of outdoor dishwashing area and is their main source of cooking and drinking water. We had to make a few trips to the hardware store to purchase different fittings, which you can imagine was an exercise in frustration. However, it went together fairly smoothly and hopefully after today's testing we will be able to provide them with a proven potable drinking water source.

The second system is a UV disinfection system and was installed at the Bombaros station. After our previous frustrations at the hardware store, we wised up a little and remembered to bring our receipt. That way we could simply hand it to an employee. As you can imagine this greatly improved communication. Again the system went in as planned and the Bombaros should be enjoying potable water within 48 hours.

Tonight and tomorrow we plan to perform testing on both systems and provide education of maintenance procedures for Pastor Diego at Ruth and Naomi and the Bombaros.

Signing off from Guatemala,

Jake

Cassidy's dispatch from Monday is after the jump...

Continue reading "Blogging Guatemala: Catching up" »

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Earlier, we posted the first dispatch from Cassidy Volek and Jake Midkiff, who are in Guatemala for spring break. The two students are part of a UMR group that is testing water quality in rural areas of Guatemala and installing disenfection systems. This dispatch was emailed to us Sunday:

Yesterday we went to three different locations to do testing on water quality and decide installation procedures for today. The first location was the home of a Pastor Tomas. There we tested two spigots for Ecoli, Turbidity, pressure, and total suspended solids. The Materials group will test their six ceramic filters there today.

The second location was the Ruth y Namoi project. This is a group of women who produce textiles for sale. This project was organized for widows by the Methodist church during the Guatemalan Civil War. The same tests were taken in this location as at the home of Pastor Tomas. The operations and maintenance team will install a ceramic candle filter system in the pila (sink) for long term testing.

The third location was the Bombaros (firefighter) Station in Chichicastananga. Again, the same testing was performed. The operations and maintenance team will install a UV disinfection system on the main water source at this location. This system will also be used for long term testing.

Signing off from Guatemala,

Cassidy and Jake

NOTE: Cassidy and Jake say they won't be able to contribute photos until they get back to Rolla. In the meantime, we'll post some images from similar trips organized by previous UMR travelers.

Posted by Lance Feyh at 12:39 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's spring break, which means a bunch of UMR students have headed south -- for Central America. Jacob Midkiff and Cassidy Volek are two of the students who are helping people in Guatemala improve their water quality. They're also collaborating to send us dispatches from the field. In the first one, which was emailed on Saturday, Jake and Cassidy describe their arrival. Dispatches detailing their water-related work will follow.

Yesterday we arrived in Guatemala City safely. From there we rented vans and drove four hours to the city of Chichicastananga, in the highlands of northwestern Guatemala. The drive was beautiful, if not somewhat intimidating. The quality of the roads was better than expected. The roads were nicer than some Missouri roads. But the drive made the trip from Rolla to Jefferson City seem like an interstate highway. It took us approximately four twisty, hilly, sometimes stomach turning hours, to reach our hotel.

The city of Chichicastanango is very traditional with some indigenous touches. All the roofs are terracotta and people linger in the streets at all hours of the day. Children run around unsupervised in the streets, which is much different than in the U.S. They do have internet cafes, which don't fit with the other aspects of the town.

Signing off from Guatemala,

Jake and Cassidy

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