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Apologies for the late posts. The internet has been spotty.
This morning, we started things off right with some delicious mangos for breakfast. Then the team went to Trigo with Wendell and everyone had the chance to sit down and have more open discussion about how we should take the community’s needs into consideration when determining the best solution to deliver purified water to as many people as possible. Some ideas that were tossed around included multiple ways to distribute water (keeping in mind that the terrain is awfully uneven and rocky in some places). Things are nowhere near finalized, but progress has been made by ensuring that all three parties (Victor/Trigo/Forward Edge, Wendell/Forward Edge, and The Collaboratory/VWOS) are on the same page.
In the morning, we also traveled around the community to homes with wells. We collected three water samples today and completed water testing for all three wells. The idea is to create a groundwater map and also a map of potential water sources for future systems (if that is indeed the route the project will go). Each house was tagged with GPS coordinates so that we would have the ability to create such a map in the future. Below is a very rough outline containing the boundaries of the "colonias" that are associated with Trigo y Miel as well as some well locations.
In the afternoon, we also had some time to engage with the children. A group of about 10 intrigued children stared intently through the window of the VWOS shelter as we performed our water testing in the confined space. After the water testing, we had some down time to either relax or play with the children. They really enjoyed blowing bubbles! As they transitioned to doing some kind of martial arts practice with a coach, the team snuck into Victor’s home to have a birthday party for Lety. It was a really wonderful time and we sang birthday songs for Lety in Spanish, English, and Chinese. We shared a delicious cake that Ale and Professor Lockwood secretly purchased in the morning!
In the evening we went on an excursion into Downtown Oaxaca. Ale took us to get ice cream, and along the way we passed by lots of street vendors, hundreds of teacher protestors, and dozens of congested areas with pitched tents and tarps where the protestors were living in the streets. All in all, we had a full and tiring day, but getting to hear Victor’s heart on the matter of bringing purified water to the community and spending time with him and his family were the best parts of the day for most of the team.
Stay posted for more!
Hasta luego!