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These feelings were reinforced at the town meeting we attended in Alauca. The meeting opened with a discussion amongst the townspeople as to whether they actually needed an AguaClara plant or if the project was being forced on them by another party. Every single townsperson vehemently supported the AguaClara plant being built. I distinctly remember one man thanking god that we had come and worked with them on the plant. The overwhelming support was something that you do not see while working on the project at Cornell. It is easy to forget that AguaClara is not a hypothetical project and that it really changes the lives of thousands of people with every plant built. The strong feelings the beneficiaries showed toward the project really spoke to me and emphasis the core goal of the AguaClara project.

Matt Higgins's Journal

January 10, 2011 - We arrived today in Atima around 5 PM. Traveling here was maybe the bumpiest road I've ever been on. We were immediately distributed into host families. I'm staying with the owner of Pulperia Jenny. His two kids are Jorge Luis (8 years old) and Jenny (5 years old). We had a brief meeting with the mayor and he outlined the town's water problem. Recently a construction project broke part of the distribution line, so many places in the town are not receiving water. My host family doesn't have any running water. Right now the water they use for cooking and drinking is sent through a point-of-use filter given to them by a brigade. It looks like a 5-gallon bucket with a cylindrical canister filtering the water. My host family really didn't know how or if it worked. To me, it looked like some sort of cylinder containing activated carbon but I couldn't tell for sure.

January 11, 2011 - I woke up this morning and took a shower with a bucket of cold, dirty water. I was shivering the whole time because it was a cool morning. We met up with the rest of the team at breakfast. Jorge Luis and Jenny were there and were making fun of me for "sleeping in" until 8 AM and calling me a sleepyhead. They're fun kids. I haven't heard them complain or be upset about anything the entire time we've been here. I think Jorge Luis is especially mature for his age. It's hard for me to think about them growing up without any running water in their house, or think about them getting sick because of dirty water. It makes me feel proud to be part of a group of people who's actually taking concrete steps to help people in these situations. I'm glad the town is in touch with AguaClara - the townspeople owe it to their kids to do something about the drinking water problem.