...
I would say that going on this trip is by far the most important thing that a member can get out of being on this team. This does not mean that people should join simply to go to Honduras, and obviously there is plenty to be learned doing design and research work. But long after each of us has graduated and gone on to do something else and long after the AguaClara technology has evolved to the point that our individual contributions to the team have become little more than an historical curiosity in a old report, we will remember our experiences in Honduras and for me it will always remind me that I should use my education to solve problems that will help people less fortunate than myself.
Travis Stanislaus' Abridged
...
Journal Record of Honduras
I keep an almost daily written record of my day and I continued it in Honduras more or less. For this personal interpretation, a sequential log of the day may drown the points I try to convey and my personal journal is not for public viewing. Aside from my personal journal, I keep an abridged journal, a French journal, and (now since Honduras) a Spanish journal; with my French journal being the weakest of the four.
On to Honduras. Just so you know I left my house at 12:15am to get to JFK and I got stuck in traffic on the Belt Parkway and I was afraid I would be late meeting you all... . I digress, TACA is a pretty solid airline imo, and it was my first exposure to being manhandled by Spanish (I would equate it to a nudge). The lack of sleep one of the most interesting parts of beginning the AguaClara student trip. And of course I enjoyed the van rides on roads that were as wide as the van.
I did not account for the Spanish divide when we arrived in Honduras, it was my first interactions with Antonio that punched me in the face. Antonio came up to me and shook my hand and began talking to me and I could not listen or respond to him. It was the first time I heard Spanish directed at me in a conversation and my ears could not handle it. Sarah had to respond for me, I felt the way you feel when you cannot defend for yourself. The next time I spoke to Antonio, was when we walked to the village later on the 1st day and without even thinking, I spoke to him in English and he looked at me and I looked at him and we said nothing for a few seconds, all the while I was thoroughly embarrassed for assuming he spoke English when I opened my mouth. Going back to the not being able to defend yourself feeling, it was the same when we were exchanging money with the mafia, Dan had to look over the transaction for us and he was speaking to the man, I had no concept of the words they were saying and it left me with that feeling. In my preparation for Honduras, that feeling caught me off guard.
...
The wiki ate half of what I wrote so I will try again. I did not know what to expect when we went to Tegucigalpa, but it felt similar to New York City to me, not to say they are the same in their intricacies. It was interesting to feel a similarity across two cities.
Visiting the water treatment plants and water distribution systems and a water intake systems gave lessons on effective vs. ineffective designs, expensive vs. manageable and well planned, well designed vs. proprietary, teaching vs. being a worker. We got to come in and sit around and look at what wanted to see in the water plants and systems and let them soak into our heads. Giving us a concrete image in our minds when we bring up the thought of a water treatment plant. It was a rico opportunity for learning. In Honduras showed the physical expense of AguaClara and that many people in their lives do not care about or welcome our presence, which keeps us aware of the challenges the work we want to do will bring, and in doing so you can work with amazing people and meet, teach, and learn from promising children. (I have more to write but I am discouraged at the moment because of how the wiki editor destroyed what I put before, I need to recharge)
Vanish Grover's Honduras Journal Entry
Tegucigalpa
Today, two images really struck me. The first was when I was outside of Dan's apartment. I looked up and saw the top of a power line. What should be (and in the states actually is) a tidy set of connections was here a messy, tangled, dangerous knot of wires. I was told by Dan that poorly planned connection like this repeatedly caused power outages due to the overload. This wasn't rare in Honduras. For me, it summed up the magnitude of the lack of planning that plagues many parts of the country.
The second image I saw was at a basketball liked to spend court. A few of time with them rather than the party.
the taller guys on the trip and I (the only one shorter than six feet tall) went to go play basketball with some of the local basketball players. We started playing at dawn, and the sun shortly went down. That is when we realized that there was only one street lamp (on the corner of the block) to light the entire court. Poor planning, I thought again. Then the light went out during a basketball game. I figured that everyone would go home and wait for someone to fix it, when Dan told me that this was a light that the basketball players paid for. One of them (called "the doctor" because he was a pharmacist) collected money from everyone in order to support the electrical bill for this one street lamp that they needed to play basketball twice a week. I saw that the Hondurans didn't leave or get upset. They simply waited for ten minutes until the light flickered back on, and resumed playing. Today I think I saw some of the resilience and patience of the residents of Tegucigalpa.
I'm not sure whether or not these glimpses into Honduran life helped me learn anything in particular, but after the trip to Honduras I now believe that we have much more work to do, and that there are people that would truly benefit from what we do in the future.
Katie Weible's Honduras Journal Entry
I think that our time spent in Honduras was the best possible way to ensure that we, as students, would fall in love with the Agua Clara project. The things that we got to see first-hand definitely changed my perspective on the project and has encouraged me to stay involved more than any class possibly could have.
One thing that I think most people on the trip came to understand more fully was the value of the Agua Clara approach - the fact that our designs take into account local resources and local ability, that we partner with APP and don't just come in and dump an American plant in their lap. We got to see multiple water treatments plants, some that were really advanced and pretty cool, but not functional for Honduras. It's frustrating to see that these other organizations/countries want to help but they do so in a way that is not sustainable.
As I shared in the first day of reflections, a lot of the people I told about the trip were almost disappointed when I told them that we would notbe building the actual treatment plants. In hindsight, however, I can definitely defend this position better having been on the trip. When we went to Cuatro Communidades and saw how beautiful and well-functioning the plant was, it was obvious that having ownership of the project is essential to its success. The people of Cuatro Communidades definitely felt that the treatment plant was theirs and, as a result, committed to making it work (and even went so far as to plant flowers!).
Of course, we also got to experience communities that were not as excited about the Agua Clara project. Spending time in Agualteca was a very interesting experience, especially since we stayed in people's homes. It was always somewhat disconcerting to be so, so careful to not use their water and then watch as the children openly brushed their teeth in it or even consumed the water that we knew to be sub-par.
Spending time at the Health Fair revealed two important things about the people of Agualteca. The first thing I discovered was the dedication of mothers to their children in that community! These women were lined up and ready to get their children in to see the doctor and they were not going to leave until they got what they needed! But they were not only aggressive about seeing the doctor, they even went so far as to practically mob Matt, Rachel and myself when we were handing out balloons and candy to the children! It was just so obvious that these women wanted nothing but the best for their children. The second thing I learned about the people of Agualteca was that some people are not only uninterested in adopting an Agua Clara plant but are even suspicious of our motives. As we tried to get people to sign a petition in support of Agua Clara, many turned us down saying that they didn't see a need for it or wondered what financial benefit we, the Americans, might receive from it. I was surprised by this in light of the first conclusion I had reached about this community, if the people wanted only the best for their children, why wouldn't they want clean water? The only explanation that was offered was that they don't recognize the value of clean water - yet. This emphasized to me the importance of educating the rural communities that Agua Clara visits in Honduras. People won't support the Agua Clara project until they understand the significance clean water has on the health and well-being of their community. The statistics about deaths due to water-borne illnesses that Monroe shared with us at the beginning of 454 were astounding. Obviously, these same statistics need to be communicated to the people of Honduras so they more fully understand the importance of clean water.
Nicolas Pautassi's Honduras Journal
This is a journal entry from one day in Honduras.
01-16-10
Yesterday we arrive to Agalteca. It's a small community (< 2000 people). The roads are not paved and it has small houses. The community received us in a house with a big front yard were tables had been setup for us. We had a "plato tipico" (tortilla, beans, and plantains). The president of the water board (Modesto) and Antonio from APP spoke to us and some other people from the community who where there. Later that afternoon everyone paired up and went to meet with their host family. I was paired up with Steve. We had a great family. There was Doña Celia (the mother), Don Hugo (the father) and Huguito (the son). We ate dinner with them, plato tipico, and talked with them for some while. It was nice to know a little bit about their lives and share with them.
Today we played a soccer game and the health fair started. Doctors came from the capital, Tegucigalpa, to give medical attention to the community. There is only one doctor in the town which is an intern, so people must really appreciated the health fair.
After the game, I needed to do laundry really bad. In my host family house there was "pila" in the backyard so I decided to do my laundry there. I started not really knowing how to use the "pila". When my host mother saw what I was trying to do, she taught me how to do it correctly. It's amazing how generous the people from Agalteca are with us.
Akta Patel's Honduras Journal
The trip was such a wonderful experience and Honduras is a beautiful country with endless mountains that became a theme of the trip (especially with all of our "10-min" hikes!). We met some amazing and kind people. It's surprising how much you can connect to someone despite so many cultural and language barriers.
One of my most memorable moments from the trip was the homestay in Agalteca. Soon after we arrived in Agalteca, we went to the soccer field where a game was going on and countless kids were playing. I sat with a few people and played with the kids. They were amazing friendly and patient with our limited knowledge of Spanish. Later that night, we played Go Fish with the kids in our family. I am always amazed at the carefree happiness of children. I started think about 4540 and how Monroe talked about how many people die every year because of poor drinking water. The homestay made the project so much more personal by getting to know the people who will be benefitting from our work at Cornell.
On our last day in Agalteca, a young boy from Jeff's family came to help us work on the plant. He diligently worked with Kayti to cut the plastic for the plate settlers. Later, I noticed him crouching on the ground looking at an insect. I went over to him and he showed me the tiniest little green bug. He then proceeded to comb through the yard looking for other creatures and we spent a good deal of time trying to catch a butterfly. I was amazed at his curiosity and interest in the world around him. It also made me sad to think that he may never have a chance to get a good education. We talked about education during some of our reflections and I really feel that it will be important for Honduras to have a better education system where everyone has at least an opportunity to change their lives. It will be especially important for AguaClara to educate the communities about the importance of clean drinking water so they feel a connection with their plants. I'm excited for the Agalteca plant to be finished and to play what little role I can with that. I can't wait to see the path AguaClara takes in the future. One of the things I like best about groups like AguaClara is the reminder that there are people out there who truly care about helping others.
Gonzalo Caprario's Honduras Journal
I have some great memories from the trip to Honduras.
To begin with, I would like to point out that this trip completely changed my view of the project. While at Cornell, I always felt the project as a great idea to provide safe drinking water to different communities in Honduras, but was always more focussed on the technical aspects.
As engineers, I think that is inevitable, but once you go on this trip and you see the background, the Honduran part of the team, the perspective changes radically. I think that during the trip, I totally forgot about the technical aspects of the project and enjoyed learning how the whole process really works. I got to learn the really hard part of the project and also the most rewarding one, the people.
The whole trip was full of emotions and good lessons, but Agalteca, in my opinion, was something different.
First we got to know the area a little, the way of living, we had lunch and met our families. Afterwards enjoyed a soccer game together with a big group of Hondurans who immediately included us in the pool of players.
At night everybody had dinner with their families and shared thoughts with them. In my house there were a lot of little kids who where always asking us questions and willing to play. They taught us some card's games and we played for several hours.
We also did a some work in the construction site and, in my opinion, seeing the construction procedures, was a good lesson to improve the system.
It was great to know the engineer also and learn his point of view, thoughts and inquiries.
This trip was full of good lessons. Each plant we visited had a different story, the story of the people that manage each of them. There is when you see that those water treatment systems that you see in the drawings, which look all very similar, are only the base to create every unique Water Treatment Plant, that each community manages with pride.
I feel grateful for this trip and this project and look forward to continue improving this technology and being part of this great process.
Rachel Philipson's Honduras Journal Entry
Before this trip, I can honestly say that I had zero expectations. I am not very well traveled and certainly had never been to a third world country, so I wouldn't have been surprised if we were sleeping in tents or in nice hotels (I am very glad it was the latter). I will never forget our first van ride out to Copan when we pulled over to get gas and there was a guard standing outside the gas station holding a shotgun. I was astounded to learn this is the norm. The following two weeks proved to be one of the greatest learning experiences I've ever had. Not only did I learn a lot about water treatment, but we also got to truly experience the culture of Honduras. This was especially apparent in Agalteca when we stayed with families that graciously opened their homes to us. We were able to eat meals with our family, play soccer, attend a health fair and even wake up at 5 am to a combination of some very loud farm animals and the machine that our family had to make tortilla dough from corn. This is an experience that not many people have and it had a very profound impact on me.
Antonio drove me around the city looking for a tetanus vaccine and a clinic, I cannot say enough about him.
Whenever I looked at the tayo driving all of our luggage ahead of the vans, I thought, it takes a lot of resources to move us around Honduras, I'll be damned if this is just a class (estaria maldita si solo esta un clase).
Visiting the water treatment plants and water distribution systems and a water intake systems gave lessons on effective vs. ineffective designs, expensive vs. manageable and well planned, well designed vs. proprietary, teaching vs. being a worker, the maintenance, up keeping, and iteration that is required to build things right and the talent that is required to go beyond selling a product to people or a group and teach them what you know, grow with people, as Jorge said, "vivar esta servir". We got to come in and sit around and look at what wanted to see in the water plants and systems and let them soak into our heads. Giving us a concrete image in our minds when we bring up the thought of a water treatment plant. It was a rico opportunity for learning. In Honduras showed the physical expense of AguaClara and that many people in their lives do not care about or welcome our presence, which keeps us aware of the challenges the work we want to do will bring, and in doing so you can work with amazing people and meet, teach, and learn from promising children. (I have more to write but I am discouraged at the moment because of how the wiki editor destroyed what I put before, I need to recharge)
Vanish Grover's Honduras Journal Entry
Tegucigalpa
Today, two images really struck me. The first was when I was outside of Dan's apartment. I looked up and saw the top of a power line. What should be (and in the states actually is) a tidy set of connections was here a messy, tangled, dangerous knot of wires. I was told by Dan that poorly planned connection like this repeatedly caused power outages due to the overload. This wasn't rare in Honduras. For me, it summed up the magnitude of the lack of planning that plagues many parts of the country.
The second image I saw was at a basketball liked to spend court. A few of time with them rather than the party.
the taller guys on the trip and I (the only one shorter than six feet tall) went to go play basketball with some of the local basketball players. We started playing at dawn, and the sun shortly went down. That is when we realized that there was only one street lamp (on the corner of the block) to light the entire court. Poor planning, I thought again. Then the light went out during a basketball game. I figured that everyone would go home and wait for someone to fix it, when Dan told me that this was a light that the basketball players paid for. One of them (called "the doctor" because he was a pharmacist) collected money from everyone in order to support the electrical bill for this one street lamp that they needed to play basketball twice a week. I saw that the Hondurans didn't leave or get upset. They simply waited for ten minutes until the light flickered back on, and resumed playing. Today I think I saw some of the resilience and patience of the residents of Tegucigalpa.
I'm not sure whether or not these glimpses into Honduran life helped me learn anything in particular, but after the trip to Honduras I now believe that we have much more work to do, and that there are people that would truly benefit from what we do in the future.
Katie Weible's Honduras Journal Entry
I think that our time spent in Honduras was the best possible way to ensure that we, as students, would fall in love with the Agua Clara project. The things that we got to see first-hand definitely changed my perspective on the project and has encouraged me to stay involved more than any class possibly could have.
One thing that I think most people on the trip came to understand more fully was the value of the Agua Clara approach - the fact that our designs take into account local resources and local ability, that we partner with APP and don't just come in and dump an American plant in their lap. We got to see multiple water treatments plants, some that were really advanced and pretty cool, but not functional for Honduras. It's frustrating to see that these other organizations/countries want to help but they do so in a way that is not sustainable.
As I shared in the first day of reflections, a lot of the people I told about the trip were almost disappointed when I told them that we would notbe building the actual treatment plants. In hindsight, however, I can definitely defend this position better having been on the trip. When we went to Cuatro Communidades and saw how beautiful and well-functioning the plant was, it was obvious that having ownership of the project is essential to its success. The people of Cuatro Communidades definitely felt that the treatment plant was theirs and, as a result, committed to making it work (and even went so far as to plant flowers!).
Of course, we also got to experience communities that were not as excited about the Agua Clara project. Spending time in Agualteca was a very interesting experience, especially since we stayed in people's homes. It was always somewhat disconcerting to be so, so careful to not use their water and then watch as the children openly brushed their teeth in it or even consumed the water that we knew to be sub-par.
Spending time at the Health Fair revealed two important things about the people of Agualteca. The first thing I discovered was the dedication of mothers to their children in that community! These women were lined up and ready to get their children in to see the doctor and they were not going to leave until they got what they needed! But they were not only aggressive about seeing the doctor, they even went so far as to practically mob Matt, Rachel and myself when we were handing out balloons and candy to the children! It was just so obvious that these women wanted nothing but the best for their children. The second thing I learned about the people of Agualteca was that some people are not only uninterested in adopting an Agua Clara plant but are even suspicious of our motives. As we tried to get people to sign a petition in support of Agua Clara, many turned us down saying that they didn't see a need for it or wondered what financial benefit we, the Americans, might receive from it. I was surprised by this in light of the first conclusion I had reached about this community, if the people wanted only the best for their children, why wouldn't they want clean water? The only explanation that was offered was that they don't recognize the value of clean water - yet. This emphasized to me the importance of educating the rural communities that Agua Clara visits in Honduras. People won't support the Agua Clara project until they understand the significance clean water has on the health and well-being of their community. The statistics about deaths due to water-borne illnesses that Monroe shared with us at the beginning of 454 were astounding. Obviously, these same statistics need to be communicated to the people of Honduras so they more fully understand the importance of clean water.
Nicolas Pautassi's Honduras Journal
This is a journal entry from one day in Honduras.
01-16-10
Yesterday we arrive to Agalteca. It's a small community (< 2000 people). The roads are not paved and it has small houses. The community received us in a house with a big front yard were tables had been setup for us. We had a "plato tipico" (tortilla, beans, and plantains). The president of the water board (Modesto) and Antonio from APP spoke to us and some other people from the community who where there. Later that afternoon everyone paired up and went to meet with their host family. I was paired up with Steve. We had a great family. There was Doña Celia (the mother), Don Hugo (the father) and Huguito (the son). We ate dinner with them, plato tipico, and talked with them for some while. It was nice to know a little bit about their lives and share with them.
Today we played a soccer game and the health fair started. Doctors came from the capital, Tegucigalpa, to give medical attention to the community. There is only one doctor in the town which is an intern, so people must really appreciated the health fair.
After the game, I needed to do laundry really bad. In my host family house there was "pila" in the backyard so I decided to do my laundry there. I started not really knowing how to use the "pila". When my host mother saw what I was trying to do, she taught me how to do it correctly. It's amazing how generous the people from Agalteca are with us.
Akta Patel's Honduras Journal
The trip was such a wonderful experience and Honduras is a beautiful country with endless mountains that became a theme of the trip (especially with all of our "10-min" hikes!). We met some amazing and kind people. It's surprising how much you can connect to someone despite so many cultural and language barriers.
One of my most memorable moments from the trip was the homestay in Agalteca. Soon after we arrived in Agalteca, we went to the soccer field where a game was going on and countless kids were playing. I sat with a few people and played with the kids. They were amazing friendly and patient with our limited knowledge of Spanish. Later that night, we played Go Fish with the kids in our family. I am always amazed at the carefree happiness of children. I started think about 4540 and how Monroe talked about how many people die every year because of poor drinking water. The homestay made the project so much more personal by getting to know the people who will be benefitting from our work at Cornell.
On our last day in Agalteca, a young boy from Jeff's family came to help us work on the plant. He diligently worked with Kayti to cut the plastic for the plate settlers. Later, I noticed him crouching on the ground looking at an insect. I went over to him and he showed me the tiniest little green bug. He then proceeded to comb through the yard looking for other creatures and we spent a good deal of time trying to catch a butterfly. I was amazed at his curiosity and interest in the world around him. It also made me sad to think that he may never have a chance to get a good education. We talked about education during some of our reflections and I really feel that it will be important for Honduras to have a better education system where everyone has at least an opportunity to change their lives. It will be especially important for AguaClara to educate the communities about the importance of clean drinking water so they feel a connection with their plants. I'm excited for the Agalteca plant to be finished and to play what little role I can with that. I can't wait to see the path AguaClara takes in the future. One of the things I like best about groups like AguaClara is the reminder that there are people out there who truly care about helping others.
Gonzalo Caprario's Honduras Journal
I have some great memories from the trip to Honduras.
To begin with, I would like to point out that this trip completely changed my view of the project. While at Cornell, I always felt the project as a great idea to provide safe drinking water to different communities in Honduras, but was always more focussed on the technical aspects.
As engineers, I think that is inevitable, but once you go on this trip and you see the background, the Honduran part of the team, the perspective changes radically. I think that during the trip, I totally forgot about the technical aspects of the project and enjoyed learning how the whole process really works. I got to learn the really hard part of the project and also the most rewarding one, the people.
The whole trip was full of emotions and good lessons, but Agalteca, in my opinion, was something different.
First we got to know the area a little, the way of living, we had lunch and met our families. Afterwards enjoyed a soccer game together with a big group of Hondurans who immediately included us in the pool of players.
At night everybody had dinner with their families and shared thoughts with them. In my house there were a lot of little kids who where always asking us questions and willing to play. They taught us some card's games and we played for several hours.
We also did a some work in the construction site and, in my opinion, seeing the construction procedures, was a good lesson to improve the system.
It was great to know the engineer also and learn his point of view, thoughts and inquiries.
This trip was full of good lessons. Each plant we visited had a different story, the story of the people that manage each of them. There is when you see that those water treatment systems that you see in the drawings, which look all very similar, are only the base to create every unique Water Treatment Plant, that each community manages with pride.
I feel grateful for this trip and this project and look forward to continue improving this technology and being part of this great processThe whole trip, and the home stay in particular really taught me never to take anything for granted. I never really appreciated the value of clean water, a hot shower or sleeping in a room with no giant cockroaches and I now know that none of these are assumed luxuries in Honduras. Now that I'm back, I look forward to helping make one of these luxuries, clean water, available to the people of Honduras.