Pure Water for the World

Monday, July 19, 2010.       Hello, I’m Jennie Kessler, a new volunteer for Pure Water for the World to be stationed in Trojes, Honduras.  This is the first of many blog posts that I will be writing this year to give a behind-the-scenes look at Pure Water’s projects in Honduras..

I’m already in awe of this country’s natural beauty, its cultural resources, and Pure Water’s operations.  I think I’m going to enjoy the year very much.

What I’ll be doing

Some of my major goals and responsibilities will be the following, though they may eventually be divided up with other volunteers:
•    Create a GIS (computerized map system) and printed maps depicting Pure Water’s work and related statistics
•    Help further develop the community training curriculum
•    Analyze water samples to measure the filters’ effectiveness
•    Analyze health data to measure the project’s impact

María hard at work in Pure Water’s Tegucigalpa office, which is actually in the twin sister city of Comayagüela.

I arrived in Tegucigalpa on Monday, July 12th, and have spent the week primarily getting oriented.  The two Tegus-based staff members picked me up from airport and we have been getting acquainted since then.  Maria Regina Inestroza is the Central American Director, and Oscar Armando Andino is the Assistant Director.  Both have been wonderfully friendly and patient.

The original plan was for Oscar to drive me straight to Trojes the next day, but heavy rains and mudslides rendered the road impassable, even washing out a bridge.  So I’m going to stay here in Tegus for a week so that I can put a good dent in the training curriculum with easy access to María, Oscar, and reasonably fast internet service.  I have worked on the community training curriculum for the last couple days and I think we’re off to a good start, with a solid concept for the content and format.  We also established the specifications and data sources for the GIS- computerized map system.

Oscar picks some mangos from the beautiful mossy garden outside María’s window.  The mango tree occasionally drops fruit on the roof (big bang).

Tegucigalpa at dusk.