Monday, June 27, 2011

Part 2 – Men of Estero! Where are You?!


One problem we faced was getting the local men to volunteer. Interestingly, this was never a problem in China. I tried to get to the bottom of this.

The Foundations of Agua Muisne and Yanapuma were determined to partner in building a water treatment system in the town of Estero de Plátano. This determination was a mistake. The decision to build should have been conditional on the townspeople’s understanding and commitment to the project. On Day 2 of construction, I noticed these were both lacking in the community. But it was already too late: materials had been purchased and work had begun. Nik and Allie were long term North American volunteers established in the community, and together we hastily created a presentation and held a village-wide meeting to remedy the problem. I cannot say we were successful. We may have called to attention the importance of clean water and garnered a few volunteers, but if we could have halted the project right then, we would have. The money was there, the ball was rolling, and we could only forge ahead and deal with the fallout later, sure to come.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Social Challenges
Part 1 - Grappling with a Colonial Animal

Please excuse my one month hiatus. I trust you'll believe me when I say it was for good reason.

To understand the challenges of working in Estero de Plátano, you must first understand something about small towns. The following two paragraphs come from Steinbeck’s The Pearl:

A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns, so that there are no two towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a town is a mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences.