So I built a sanitary landfill...

Okay, well technically I didn't build it, but with my community, Agua Caliente, we did.

In these photos you can see the progression of digging out the trench; the almost finished landfill with its view of the beautiful Agua Caliente forest; me throwing myself into it before it was ready for trash; the landfill with its tank for dangerous runoff; with community members getting the trash cans ready; a trash pick-up site; the committee putting the first trip of trash into the plastic-lined landfill; and the main group of people I worked with after we inaugurated the landfill with trash (along with the PCVs replacing me).


















The history of me working with Agua Caliente is quite interesting. It is a village of Sija, thus I only visited it from time to time; I didn't get to LIVE and work with these people, just work with them, which makes it much more difficult. I first arrived in March 2009 to help them with their tourism project (hot springs). However, all they seemed to want was money.

I stopped working with them for a few months, until my Peace Corps boss told me to go back. Then I learned that they were just skeptical of outside organizations because they also promise and never follow through. Thus, in September 2009 our relationship solidified when I showed that I was committed to them and they showed that they wanted projects, not just money.

We did a diagnostic of the community and identified that the community wanted to confront their trash problem. Thus I presented the idea of building a sanitary landfill, placing trash cans around town, and implementing a collection system. They liked it, and so did Peace Corps/USAID, because they gave us the $3300 necessary to build it.

The project took more time than I expected to complete it, but in the end, it allowed me to stay a little bit longer. It wasn't that the community didn't want to work, it was just that we had to wait on unforeseen elements that slowed us down and that the community members, for example, had to plant their corn.

On Wednesday, they finished the landfill and on Thursday, we inaugurated it with the first bags of trash. They had saved their trash up for 3 months so as not to throw it in a ravine, thus the load was pretty big, but from now on they will be sorting it, recycling and composting what they can, and taking the rest up every 2 weeks. Ideally, this landfill will last them 10-15 years. To keep smells and flies away, they will pack dirt and a bit of limestone on top every couple months.

This project has been a huge success thanks to the determination, the unity and the positive attitude of the community members of Agua Caliente. As I told them, this was not my project, but theirs.

Volcan Pacaya

Here are some fotos of the area where the volcano went off taken by the volunteers that live in that municipality.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jmfesta/May27EruptionOfVolcanPacaya

Another photo update so that I don't have to write much!

Below, this is the river in Sija. It had grown a lot more than this during tropical storm Agatha. It's always ugly, but she made it worse. Sija wasn't hit too bad, though. Not like other places.




Coban Half Marathon in May. My goal was 1:40 and top ten, but as sports go, you don't always achieve your goals. I ran 1:50:45 and was 23rd out of perhaps 500 women. The photos below are of me and some other PCVs, and the winner from Kenya. Everyone always talks about how fast los Kenianos are!











These photos are from the basketball tournament that I played in in Sija. My team took third place due to our pink and purple uniforms, obviously. The photo with four people in it is of my friends here in Sija - they are 4 hermanos that all brought home the gold. Fred, Alan and Jeramias' team won the men's, and Leslie's team won the women's.








Here we've got a guide-training hike (7 hours from Sija to Agua Caliente) that I did with my Agua Caliente village. Working with them has been my favorite project by far.

Bottle school update

Thanks again to everyone who has supported the construction of the classroom with trash-filled plastic bottles. The construction process has been slow due waiting on funds, encouraging community particpation, finding time to work with everyone's schedules, and filling the bottles completely full. We had a lot of bottles donated, but they were not filled full enough to be brick-like for the construction, so rather than building daily, we've had to fill bottles as well. But alli vamos!

We are almost done placing bottles. We have 1296 in place and lack 305 more! We still need to cement the walls and put a roof on, but we have a lead on some very likely financial support from an NGO that dedicates itself to helping with bottle projects. Ojala!!

Here are some fotos from the construction:

The builder and I putting the first bottle in place



One of the students helping



Agua Caliente, another community I work in, on a visit to learn how so that they can implement it in their village



The almost-finished product


Since I finish my service on June 22nd, we may not be able to finish construction during my tenure, but my replacement, Amber, is fantastic and will continue with the project and will continue updating me so that I can update you all!

y más...

I meant to publish this in May when I did the last set of photo updates, but I just realized that I didn't do it! In the end, it's more relevant now because these are photos from Volcan Pacaya, the one that erupted right before tropical storm Agatha. I guess now it's no longer a nice cone -- part of it was blown off! There's a video at the bottom of the explosions we saw (that we thought were big, but were nothing in comparison), but I don't think it uploaded well; I will try another day.

más...

Trek with Danya in the Cuchumatanes:

Foto update

My training class at our final conference in January. Almost all of them are gone now, silly me is still here!



My coworkers Don Armando and Martha checking out the progress on our trail. The first half should be inaugurated on May 28th!



View from my park to Volcanes Tajumulco and Tacana -- I've climbed both.



Martha and I relaxing at one of the rest stops along the trail. All of the park infrastructure looks like wood but is made out of recycled plastic.



Doing a trek through the Cuchumatanes mountains -- which transportation would you prefer?



Fresh squeezed orange juice in Agua Caliente. Yum.



Danya heading down the crazy slides in my town... I bruised my bum on this!



Doing an environmental ed particpatory lesson.



Danya came to visit and helped me coach the girls to play basketball at my bottle school. We didn't have much success, they still push, shove and tackle!