Work a Dog Days

The "Senior Staff" of Santos - all of us over 60

At last, the time has come to do work on the waterlines – my favorite part. Construction and repair work is just so instantly satisfying and gratifying. While the rest of the community was busy schlepping materials up to the new spring site for Barriada Santos, the “Senior Staff” and I did some plumbing work.

Waterline cleared and repaired

First, we cleared a plugged line from the lower canyon water intake – full of mud and some small animal skeleton. Then we replaced some bad pipe and added a valve for more control options. 

The MacGuyver field patch

Along the way, Usevio clipped the tube with his shovel, so we had to do a MacGuyver field patch (having no proper fittings). It was a clever fix and didn’t leak a drop.

The new water control center

Then we created a new junction where the dirty water from the canyons (quebradas) meets the clean spring water from the storage tank. New valves will allow full control of water flow.

We are running an “end-around” pipe direct from the main line to the houses up high on the other side of the village, across the canyon. They have never had decent water pressure and this will give it to them. We made a valved spur, but didn’t run the full 320 meters.  It’s a start that the youngbloods can finish.

The waterline ran right in the middle of a major trail
and was dangerously exposed - we made it all better

Finally, we corrected a really bad situation where the water line was right in the middle of a frequently travelled path. (They call it “Camino Real” it’s so popular). The tube was exposed well above the path and made for a tripping hazard, as well as the cause of frequent breaks by people, cattle and horses. We just spliced in some new heavy gauge pipe and buried it 12” below the path.

The major trail "Camino Real" - used to be the major route
to Almirante - now mostly supplanted by bus and paved road

All in all, a good productive day. I love working with the Older Guys – our work is thoughtful, steady and deliberate. Kids bring us coffee and cacao and we chat while we work. They have great curiosity about what life is like in the US. Of course, explaining that is like describing an elephant while only touching one part. Their biggest puzzle is our tendency for violence – against each other and other nations. Does everyone in the US have many guns?? Etcetra.

PC Regional Leader Hana meets with the Santos elders

A couple of days ago, our PC Regional Leader, Hana, came to lay the preliminary groundwork for getting a new WASH volunteer to live (regular 2 year service) in Santos. The community is excited and has already secured a host family for the first 3 months and a small private house for the rest of the PCVs service. They have a ton of ideas of what they’d like the volunteer to do – it should be a great 2 years for some lucky person.

The latest fad in Santos is the kid’s begging me to take their photo. They get all excited and crowd around to see the photo replay. Their surprise will be that I’m printing the photos and giving them, so they will actually have a photo of themselves. This is pretty rare here – no school photos or family snapshots are available. Oh, the simple things we take for granted in Estados Unidos.