Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Project Funded


Dear donors and readers of Playa Balsa´s potable water project,

I want to start by expressing to you all how much my community and I appreciate your donation and support to this project.   

Due to our political affiliation with the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle, yet our geographical connection to the Bocas del Toro province, our region is often forgotten when it comes to development.  On top of that, being a community of just 200 residents and a pretty new community, if development does reach our region, it still will not reach PlayaBalsa.  When the community found out that the project had been funded they called a community-wide meeting and spent an hour taking turns giving speeches about just how happy and accomplished they felt.  They were extremely generous with their words in regards to the donors of this project and my work with them.  In return I reminded them of how hard they have worked to get this project started and congratulated them for reaching this stage.  As many of them then went on to say, in many ways we have just begun. 

About three weeks ago Playa Balsa and I got full access to the funds for the project and have spent the last three weeks setting the ground work.  We have been arranging transportation of materials, measuring and designing our source captures, and uncovering a spring source which had been covered by a landslide that we will use as another source.  (The project in reality is four separate gravity-fed water systems due to the geography and water flow of the sources).  I have also been giving classes on how to calculate volume and make conversions from cubic feet to five gallon buckets, which has been a lot of fun as older men have really seemed to enjoy learning this skill.

On a personal note, I feel so grateful to be entering into the next stage of my Peace Corps service.  I have never been this busy in my entire service and I´ve honestly never been more content.  Getting this project funded has also been a great success in terms of my reputation and Peace Corps reputation in the community.  My promotion of Peace Corps´ sustainable development process is showing true results in the eyes of the community and making all the prior meeting around needs assessment, what is potable water, and survey data applicable.  I remain extremely dedicated to the community being the driving force behind the project and am trying my best to go at the community´s pace (even when it feels painfully slow).  I continue to stress while I care about seeing the project completed, it means nothing to me if I don´t see the community truly managing the project alongside me, if not more than me, because that is what will decide the long term success of the system.

Thank you again for your incredible generosity and I will continue to send out updates about our progress. 

Attached is a photo of the first work day at the spring source we recently cleaned up.