A Whirlwind Water System Tour: Day 1

Monday
5:45 am

I wake up wondering why on Earth I am willing to get out of my nice warm bed to go to a community where I will be lucky if there are bathrooms and where there's a distinct possibility that I will return as a helado americana (a frozen American). I roll out of bed and stumble down the hill to the Water Projects Office. From there, Bruce (the head engineer at HCJB), Steve (another intern), and I head off for a community. Now at this point I had no idea what where we were going except that it was going to be cold. As it turns out we saw 3 different communities.

11:30 am

After a quick breakfast and lots of sleep in the truck, we arrive in Obraje, a town south of Quito. To meet with the villagers, we take "the stairway to the sky." Let me tell you, it is fittingly named. It is a combination of stairs and hill and by the end of it I was out of breath and sweating. This town is in the process of constructing thier water system. We checked out thier existing water tank and listened to a few concerns of the people before trekking out to see the springs. We hiked a few kilometers on the side of mountains in order to see Obraje's water source. For HCJB water projects, the people in the village supply all the labor for the water system. This means that the kilometers of trench were all dug by community members. In this town, the men are gone for close to 6 months at a time working in the sugar cane fields. Therefore it was almost exclusively women and older children who have done the work. On our way back it was really cool to see a colorful line of community members working together to dig the last stretch of trench.

3:30 pm

Trekking and trying to understand Spanish gave me quite the appetite. Little did I know of the feast awaiting me. Our lunch started out with chocle - corn with large kernels that you can pick off and eat one by one - and cheese. Next came pancitos (rolls) and soup with a portion of chicken in each bowl. So far all of it was delicious. I was pretty content when they brought out two platters of boiled potatoes with a side of lettuce. Then, much to my dismay, they brought out more platters, so that we each had our own. On my platter alone, there were enough potatoes for my entire family...all 5 Prices...after a long day of manual labor. And I was expected to eat all this! Thankfully no one else could finish so I didn't feel too bad leaving some potatoes.

6:15 pm

After waddling to the car, we arrived in another village. I don't know it's name but it was very close to Chimbarazo, another snow covered mountain. The vieww, again, was gorgeous. Here we spoke with a community leader. By spoke I mean Bruce and the community leader spoke in Spanish while I tried to get the jist of the conversation. We had a late dinner (more food!) before going to sleep on wonderful, luxurious mattresses laid out on a church floor.