“What Would You Say, Ya Do Here?”(2006.08.08)

I think it’s about time I explain what work is like for me…so far anyway. I talked with my parents the other night and they asked me if I was going to be drilling any wells soon…to which I responded that first I needed to unpack my clothes. Everything works a lot slower here…there isn’t just work waiting for me to jump on, I have to be very proactive in seeking out projects that the people want, especially since I am the first volunteer to be sent here. There has been nothing set up for me and it’s pretty much completely without structure so far. I’ll try to give you as much of a window into my work as I’ve got so far.

The way I see it, I have two fairly separate jobs, both equally important. One of them is working pretty much as an employee of the town water cooperative, which I can explain as sort of the Water Works for the town. We have an office with a phone, fax machine and even a couple of computers (no internet). Within the confines of the cooperative is the well where the water comes from (about 160 meters deep) and the tank that the water gets pumped to. The water system is managed here, and it is also sort of a town center for a lot of things that are going on. There is a big speaker attached to the water tower and people come in to make town announcements over the microphone. There is a council that oversees the cooperative, which is elected by the town and serves a one year term. The president and vice president of this council are my official work partners, but since they aren’t going to be around the whole time, I’m not sure what’s going to come of that after they are gone. The coop employs three other people. Danny is the plumber who fixes things when the break and also is responsible for cutting off people’s water when they don’t pay their water bills. Susy is the receptionist and answers the phone and deals with the folks when they come in to pay the bills. And Lidia is the head administrator, who pretty much runs the whole place. She is also the owner of the house where I am staying, so I work with her and live in her house. It’s a good thing she’s super nice. We have been getting along well, she is a good person to have on my side, introducing me to people and such.

My responsibilities with the cooperative can vary, but I’m going to try and check out their water system and see if it needs revamping, perhaps do some health and hygiene courses, and try to figure out a way to solve the problem they have of too much fluoride in their water, which turns the children teeth brown. Another big project they want me to work on is the trash in town. There isn’t any sort of trash collection service, so anything that isn’t burned is just kind of thrown wherever. It’s not too terrible yet, but it needs to be controlled before it gets worse. I was thinking of trying to put together some sort of collection system with a landfill, but I have no idea yet how to go about that. They were also talking about me teaching English…perhaps in the school or perhaps in the evenings, but that has to come second to my work with basic sanitation. That’s what we call a secondary project. With all of these projects comes the need for funding, which can come from a variety of sources. There is the mayor’s office, there are NGO’s and there is the community. Depending on the project, I will have to look in different areas for funding.

The other job I’ve got is to drill wells in more rural parts of the community. Everyone who lives in Hardeman has access to good water (as far as I know), so they don’t need any new wells. But once you get outside of town, it’s not always the case. There are farmers who don’t have enough water to irrigate and places that may just be using rainwater. It’s not all that clear to me how I’m going to find out who needs a well, especially without an effective means of transportation to get around to all these places, but for right now I’m just worried about understanding Spanish. I wanted to come here because I knew that drilling wells would be a big part of my work, so I’m pretty excited to get out and see what there is to do. There was a volunteer in a town about 3 hours south of here that drilled a couple wells in the area, and he set us all up (there are two more volunteers here to work on the same sort of stuff…one is an hour south of me and there is another one 2 hours south) to do drilling. He got a big grant from a Rotary club in Florida where he’s from and has also worked with a Rotary club here in Santa Cruz…so there is still money left over from his project and even a well drilling rig for each of the three of us. So we are pretty set up…he was an all-star volunteer…maybe if I’m good enough they’ll need three people to replace me in 2 more years.

So, needless to say, there is a lot to do. But for the first month or so, I’m most focused on integrating into the community, meeting people and establishing myself. Some people have said they haven’t even started working until 6 months or a year have passed…I honestly don’t see that being a problem here…there seems to be a pretty big desire to get some stuff done. I think it’s going to be a challenge to juggle the well drilling with the water cooperative work, but I think I’m going to enjoy having work on two different levels. The well drilling is kind of the fun, get-my-hands-dirty manual labor stuff I really expected to be doing all the time, but it’s not enough to keep me busy all the time because it takes time to plan and wait for the money, etc. So during that down time, instead of being bored, I’ll have things to do here in town to keep me busy. Off we go.