Since my arrival back to my campo, I have been very busy! Between a national youth conference, International AIDS Day activities, picking up my water filters, health promoter meetings and writing grants for our future aqueduct, I have had little free time.

Our local water committee has decided to continue with the long-awaited aqueduct project. Our multiple solicitations to various local politicians for financial help in the past year have been in vain; no help has been granted. So, with my help, we are currently grant writing and pricing necessary materials in hopes that we will raise enough money to redo the aqueduct this spring/summer. As I have mentioned previously, the aqueduct project consists mainly of taking up the rotting tubes (that we currently have) and put in new tubing underground. The new aqueduct would not break frequently (as it currently does) and will be a stable water source for the community. The project should cost approximately 3,000 USD.

Also, the water filters came in! I rode in a large truck to Santiago and picked up the 40 filters last Monday. The whole process was much easier than thought. The daunting task now is to install them, which may be a bit more difficult do to the large size of the filters and the weight of the sand (and lack of transportation within my community). Unfortunately, it has been raining non-stop for the past 3 days which has put a damper on the speed of installation. The filters will definitely not be able to be installed in all houses by Christmas.

I’m still waiting for 3 grants—where are they?!!

This December I will hopefully be executing a small income generation project with the women’s group. We are making Vapor-Rub from scratch and are selling small jars of it for about 75 cents in neighboring communities. Vapor-Rub is a huge cure-all here and I hope our project will be successful!! If all goes well, we should make about a 15$ profit!

Nothing too new around the house. There has been a large teachers strike in the province and the kids have missed 2+ weeks of school.

Christmas should be fun around here. A few dances lined up and lots of communities ginegbres (ginger tea nights)!

Hope to get in another blog before Christmas!