TravelStream™ news feed for member ewbfortcollins on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ewbfortcollins en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:08:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1213356420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1213356420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1213356420/tpod.html Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:08:29 -0400 Filters & Buckets - Implementation on the Ucayali

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Pucallpa, Peru

¿Well where to begin? Things unfolded so rapidly on this trip that none of us have really had time to reflect on the events of the past two weeks. So this entry - subject to the vagaries of memory - will have to do.

We landed on the evening of the 3rd in Pucallpa to be greeted by a heavy rain, an ominous sign considering the next day we were scheduled to make the flight over the village. The weather gods debated among themselves for some time the next morning before deciding for sun. So we left the runway shortly after 3 pm with Bryan, Bernardo (the village´s jefe) and Jains (his assistant) along for the ride. It was the first time either of them had been in an airplane. The trip was breath-taking. The Ucayali with all its curves and sinuosities, is a living organism.

We collected some 700 photos of the villages territory and an hour and a half´s worth of video, all of which will be linked to a discrete GPS position. Bryan´s resourcefulness in this whole process was - as always - invaluable. (welding together a camera mount, planning the technical details of the photo sequence, setting up the system for data collection, all went off seamlessly) To Bernardo´s distress however, we discovered the eastern reaches of the territory to be heavily encroached upon by settlers moving south from Masisea, apparently with the full support of the authorities.

That effort completed, we turned towards defining the boundary of the property. We had spent dozens of hours over the last year poking at this, teasing information out of various sources, testing and tossing various hypotheses, until that one fine day in March when the solution crystallized by itself in front of our eyes. It´s one thing though to believe you have it right, and another to convince authorities who probably have different ideas of where those boundaries lie, and who may well have different motivations than we do for establishing those boundaries. How would I react, I found myself wondering, if some smart-ass surveyor from, I don´t know, Japan showed up at my doorstep to tell me (in Japanese!) that I´d gotten the boundary to one of my surveys all wrong?

We started this endeavor by meeting with Mario Osorio with the Instituto del Bien Comun, and a host of others from a bewildering assortment of organizations, both governmental and non- on Thursday the 5th. The IBC is an indigenous rights organization who have been working with Bernardo for some time prior to our arriving. Mario from the beginning was our advocate, and honestly without his presence, I seriously doubt we´d have ever made the inroads we did on this trip . . . To condense a little, a day and three meetings later we had a general agreement on the methods we used to establish our boundary, and a commitment from both the Ministry of Agriculture and COFOPRI to accompany us to the field, a feat roughly akin to taking five fishes and five loaves of bread to feed the throngs.

So now comes the easy part, the part that Bernardo has been so looking forward to since I first met him. Marking the boundary corners and taking a charge of a hundred or so machete wielding Dinamarcans to hack a boundary line out of the jungle. Friday afternoon, after a six hour jaunt up the Ucayali with all the magic and life the river holds, we arrived at the village. The traditional pageant of arriving in the village and the dancing that followed lifted my spirits just that much higher. We all pretty much watched Friday night turn into Saturday morning with not more than a blink or two of sleep.

There are inevitabilities in the jungle. One of the immutable ones is that plans cannot possibly go off as designed. Five or so seemingly unrelated (to surveying) events conspired this time to reduce 4 days of surveying to two. The major one of these was that COFOPRI, unbeknownst to us, had decided not to come. That was a blow because it is necessary for them to be on the ground for a boundary to be officially recognized. Francisco Sifuentes from the Ministry of Agriculture arrived on Sunday, a day later than planned, and other minor to middling crises arose. While none of this was lethal, it did take a toll on Bernardo I think. Last year through all that happened, he was smiling and positive throughout all of it. This year lines of frustration crossed his face at times, and I suffered with him. He is so passionate in his quest for improving the lives his people both in his village and in the wider Shipibo community, that you cannot help but want the same.

In the end we were only able to reach two of the four corners and mark only a short section of boundary in the critical northeast portion of the territory. In both the northeast and northwest corners of the property, there are settlers who claim they have title. Equally important though was the meeting we had with COFOPRI and the Ministry of Agriculture on our return to Pucallpa. They have agreed with our assessment of the boundary, and they have been made aware of an issue that they had no idea was going on (encroachment on the communal territory). They have assured us that they will act to stop any additional incursions on to the territory. I am cautiously optimistic that they will work with us as we move forward with this. The complexity of this issue grows the deeper you burrow into it. But rather than being disappointing, it´s exhilarating in some perverse fashion. And the progress we have made in this visit is really astonishing when I look back at it.

I would like everyone reading this to recognize that none of the progress we made could have been done without Faith Sternlieb and my brother Tim. Faith is one of those annoying people who is able to get completely inspired by the sunrise morning after morning after morning. Her laugh and spirit and her passion are infectious, which is good, because she needs all of that to offset her singing voice! I well with pride, but at the same time am a little envious, of having a sibling like the one I do. Growing up he was the older brother who I wanted to fashion my life after. Now in the middle years of my life, I just hold tremendous respect for him for cutting the path that he has for himself.

Both Faith and Tim served as translators on this trip. And it has become abundantly clear to me that knowledge of spanish is one tiny prerequisite for that calling. Those things that make a human being extraordinary make up the rest of the requirements.

Pucallpa
June13, 2008
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Pucallpa, Peru

Our team has returned to Pucallpa after an all too quick trip to the village of Santa Rosa de Dinamarca. We were greeted at the port by men and women in traditional dress and the beating of drums. Each of us was escorted arm in arm by two of the villagers as we danced our way through the palm trees, to the main street, past the plaza and towards what would be our home for the next few days. When we arrived the dancing continued with traditional drumming and flute playing. A truly warm and loving welcome, for the four of us who had been there before it was a long awaited reunion.

Our time in the village was short, but it amazing what we were able to accomplish. We participated in a community wide meeting about the boundary survey and water projects our first morning in town. The excitement was palatable from everyone in the room as we listened to the Village Chief speak about his desire for these projects.

Water Projects
Our purpose in this trip was to implement a water filtration system that would provide a clean source of drinking water for each household until we will be able to implement a well, pump, elevated tank and distribution system. The community of Santa Rosa de Dinamarca has never had a filtration system before, so we knew going in it would require a lot of education for the project to be successful.

The community elected a committee of 6 men to learn about the filtration system and be in charge of construction, distribution to each family and maintenance. It was with these 6 men that the water team has spent all of the last few days. We were in class each day from about 8 am to 4 pm. We taught construction, maintenance and troubleshooting in the first day. Each of them took a filtration system they had constructed home to try out with their families. They cam back to us with very honest answers about what their families had liked, and how it may be difficult to convince their kids to drink the filtered water because the taste was so different from the well water. However, one family talked about how they were able to see a difference in the clarity of the water from the well and the filtered water, so they were convinced that the filtered water would improve their family's heath.

The class concluded with the 6 water committee members presenting the filtration system to about 20 of the mothers in the village. They did the entire presentation in their native language of Shipibo. Each of the committee members took part in the presentation and was able to respond to all of the questions asked by the mothers. We were so proud to see how they had taken the project on as their own and were excited to share it with their community. Because of a few delays in bucket delivery, and a last minute discovery that 2/3 of the filters we had brought came without wing nuts we were not able to complete construction of all 150 systems while in the village. However, the President of the water committee accompanied us to Pucallpa yesterday where we were able to purchase wing nuts and I am very confident that the systems will be fully implemented shortly.

We also had a great meeting with the village leadership and water committee about the future water projects. We talked through everything from the drilling of the well to long term replacement of solar panels. After such a great discussion we now have the information we will need to go forward and design the water system.

While all of this was going on, other members of our team were working on gathering more data. Some worked on a draw down test on an existing 40 meter well that is contaminated with coliform. Some did coliform count tests on all of the existing wells, the river and a local lake. Others worked on a village health assessment and spoke with the director of the health clinic as well as community members.

Boundary Survey
Because of a new law being proposed by the Peruvian government that would make it easier for foreigners to purchase land in Peru the issue of marking the location of the village boundary has become even more important to the village leaders. While in Pucallpa the village chief and members of our team were able to attend a number of meetings about the process of legally marking the boundary.

An engineer from the Ministry of Agriculture was able to come to Dinamarca while our team was in town. He traveled with the village leaders and EWB out to two of the boundary corners during our stay. This will be a very important step towards legal recognition of the boundary location.

One of the survey team members will have to write more about their experiences. But I know they are very excited about the work they were able to accomplish during this trip.

So, we're off again. Most of us are headed home to the states and a few are sticking around to do a little tourism throughout Peru.

What a great trip!
Summer
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212716160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212716160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212716160/tpod.html Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:14:54 -0400 Filters & Buckets - Implementation on the Ucayali

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Pucallpa, Peru

Here we are, at the end of the road. The real one at least, not the figurative. From here our travel will be by boat. But first, an update on the last few days.

The team of 5 had great success at all of our meetings in Lima. We learned all that we could from all the organizations and boarded our plane to meet the team of 8 in Pucallpa. But the Team of 8 had been up to their own adventures in Pucallpa. It seems that in the year we had been gone Dinamarca has undergone many changes. One of them being the purchase of a boat. The village was very excited for our arrival, and the boat was headed back with many members of the community. So, along with the village members went Colin (Spanish speaker extraordinaire), Rebecca, Amy, Aaron and Alysha. From what we heard, they are having fun, playing soccer and teaching English lessons at the secondary school.

Here in Pucallpa, the original Team of 5 met up with Laura, Faith and Bob to become the new Team of 8. We have been attending many meetings with Bernardo (the Chief of Dinamarca) on the issue of the village boundaries. Yesterday Bryan, John and Bernardo took a flight over the village boundary. The purpose of the flight was to understand the extent of encroachment onto Dinamarca's land. It was both good and bad news to the community leaders. The area of encroachment is large, and is an emotional sight to see. However, most of the area is deforestation and does not contain as many settlers as anticipated which will hopefully make a resolution easier to reach.

We have also been on a search for more information to help in the future well drilling project. This too has been quite successful. Yesterday we were able to see our good friends Tommy & Angela Head who drill wells throughout Peru. They give us great advice on everything from what soils we'll encounter to sanitation training. The second pleasure of hanging out at the Head's house is getting to play with Monkeys while having these conversations. They have many monkeys they have rescued over the years, and they are a joy to be around. Be sure and ask Bob to see his pictures of the monkey and dogs playing together!

In the morning our Team of 8 will depart for Dinamarca, and finally be reunited into a Team of 13. We will begin filter training as soon as we arrive, and hope that the initial delay will not impact the overall success of the filter project.

To the Jungle we go!
Sumer
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212456000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212456000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212456000/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:36:16 -0400 Filters & Buckets - Implementation on the Ucayali

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Lima, Peru

upon arriving last night, we split into our teams. Our team is the 4 hombres + 1 chica. Bryan, John, Tim, Ross & Summer. We started the day with many phone calls to make sure our appointments were set and to change some others. We joined the group of 8 for the start of the Rotary meeting. (I'll let them tell you about that.). We were soon off to our meeting with Green Global Technologies to discuss solar panels, and well pumps. Great guys, great meeting. Looks like we have a good partner when we are ready to install the pump system. After a really good, (and slightly over budget) traditional peruvian lunch, we went to another meeting with Ciudad Saludable that was informative but not particular helpful. After that we went to IBC and had a 2+ hour meeting that was very informative and very helpful regarding the Dinamarca boundary project. The story is too long for this blog entry but look for further details at a later time. Stopped in an internet cafe to check emails, make more phone calls, and plan our day for tomorrow. Dinner is the last agenda item for the day so I've gotta go.
Bryan
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212158820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212158820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ewbfortcollins/1/1212158820/tpod.html Fri, 30 May 2008 11:03:38 -0400 Filters & Buckets - Implementation on the Ucayali

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Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

Wow, what an incredible adventure it has been getting ready to travel on this implementation trip. But we've got filters in hand. We've got buckets waiting in Pucallpa. Our bags are packed (mostly)... and it seems everything just may be coming together. The first members of our team have already departed and are headed for Lima. Our pack of 10 from Northern Colorado departs Denver bright and early on June 1st and will meet up with the Central Texas folks in Miami.

Here's to another great adventure!
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