Community Based Training

I´ve been up in the mountains for the past two weeks or so, having an amazing time at the site where I´m learning all the technical skills I will need when I am at my own site. Sorry if there are any typos in the next few entries, but I´m at an internet cafe and I need to be pretty quick.

The site itself is amazing. We are are at an altitude of about 3000 ft, which isn´t extremely high, but compared to flat Chicago, it might as well be Mt. Everest. It gets pretty chilly at night, about mid-60s which is so nice compared to the hot, sweaty capital. I never thought that I would have to wear sweatpants and a hoodie in 60 degree weather. The scenery and landscape is ever-changing because the clouds roll in over the mountains in a different way everyday. It´s awesome. I hope to get some pictures up in a few weeks.

The evening we arrived at the site we met our host families and I was shown my bedroom. My bed is awesome. It is seriously nicer than the bed I had at home. It´s a nice queen, pillow-top mattress. However, it did come with pink satin sheets with flowers and hearts on it. It´s hilarious.

The great thing about the town is that there is always electricity because they get their power from a nearby dam. Most of the country is on a grid that doesn´t have power for about half the day, so we are pretty lucky.

The last two weeks we built two latrines to replace ones that were in bad condition and a spring box, which catches the water that will be used for the small aqueduct system we are building. Yesterday we began construction on the tank that will be used to store the water for the system.