Return to Ipeti

This Bano unit gets honors for best landscaped

What a glorious morning, after a night rain and cold front. A perfect day to return to my beloved little village of Ipeti. All my old friends were warm and welcoming. Marco, Ilsa, Seciaro, Plablo, Jacinto, Mylin – all with big smiles and hugs. First thing all the artisan ladies wanted to know was when is my next buying spree.

The village looks very different with the 28 new

The Compleat Bano - nice and clean, with all supplies

government casitas. On that front, there is good new and bad. Good news is that the government has gotten the message about septic drain field problems and has put a halt to new construction until solutions can be found. Nice to have a government agency that listens to the people. The bad news is that this means no one in Ipeti can move into their totally completed houses yet, so a bit of frustration. I’ll be presenting ideas at a community meeting in 2 weeks.

Folks have added their own touches - dish drying rack atop
an emergency water barrel - very smart

The 46 Bano units (compost toilet, shower and big wash sink), that worked on last year with Global Brigades are mostly up and running well. I’ll do a complete survey later, but checking in with a few folks showed some use problems in the composting toilets – no sawdust or water flush bottle ready, no privacy curtain, guys pissing in the

The old community house lost in the hurricane of Nov 2016

dry chamber  or very dirty floor. So, more training needed on a case by case basis. Most were clean, well supplied and odor free – just as they should be. The other area that needs attention is the plumbing for the shower and sinks. Most common problem was clogged shower heads. I had to show 3 folks how to take apart the head and

The new, smaller casa comunal is almost finished

clean it. Also some of the valves already need new washers due to over-tightening and the same for some sink faucets. I didn’t include such issues in my training sessions last year – my bad. New training will address the problems.

The shining star is the water committee. I was there for the committee’s creation and trained the

Nice thatch work inside

group in administration, accounting and operations. They have taken the ball and REALLY run with it. Everyone says the water service has never been better and is now chlorinated daily. Even better – almost everyone in the village pays their water fee. The secret was simple; they just started cutting off service to families who got more than 3 months behind. They only had to cut off a few when word spread. Now, more than half pay at the office on Sunday and the others are collected door to door. Even better still – since so many folks are now paying, they reduced the monthly fee for $2 to $1. How’d you like that for a monthly water bill ? I am proud beyond words of these folks. They stepped up and did a thankless volunteer job with energy and love of community. BRAVO !!

Here's a surprise. First Catholic church ever in the village. Kuna
and Embera have their own "nature-based" religion. Not sure the
Pope will attract many here.

Another big change is the Casa Cumunal – community center – got heavily damaged by the hurricane last November. It was torn down and a new one is almost finished – stronger and prettier than the old one, albeit smaller.