25 julio 2011

Aqueduct Blog


I got the chance to work with 50 American volunteers for 10 days in July.  Every year, the same group comes to our barrio to work and build things such as churches, schools, etc. for the community.  For about 5 years now this group has come to our barrio. This year the foundation that they work through decided to collaborate with us since we live here and are on the ground running with the community.  Tina and I researched different projects that were wanted by the community and that could keep the group busy over the 10 days.  If you divided our community into thirds, about one- third of the community’s water supply is very poor.  There are 2 aqueducts in our community that feed water through pipes in the ground to the houses.  The houses with water simply connect to the line of pipes for their water.  We decided that building an aqueduct, putting mother tubes connecting with the new aqueduct in the streets of this one-third of the community, and putting pipes in 30 scattered houses that did not have running water would be sufficient and rewarding work for all.  So our plan of action was to find a piece of land to build the aqueduct, walk around the community to find houses that did not have pipes for water, find a person in the community that had experience in building aqueducts, and get a budget for everything.

I went searching with one of the pastors of the barrio looking for a person to donate a piece of land for this aqueduct.  Living in poverty, people are looking to sell any and everything for money to live.  I thought finding a person who wanted to donate a piece of land for water for hundreds of people, no matter how generous that sounds, would be difficult, but I guess having a pastor on my side helped.  After 2 days of searching we found a woman of his church that was willing to donate a piece of her property for this aqueduct.
Another pastor and I walked around to find the houses that did not have any running water. Without running water, these people (or usually their children) have to walk to a neighbor or friend’s house, sometimes blocks away, to fill up small buckets to bathe, wash, clean, cook, you get the idea. It almost felt like a campaign tour since the pastors have so much power in our community.  After an hour in the sun, the pastor and I decided to call it quits and have a “café”.  Later, in order to get it done, I walked the whole barrio with my wife (she still has the sun burn), and we found the 30 houses that did not have any running water. 

We choose a technician for the project who is a neighbor and who has experience building aqueducts.  He gave me a list of materials, and we later went to the hardware store to get a quote on them.  About a week before the volunteers were to arrive, we were confronted with one pastor being upset because he was not the technician, another technician having a sudden hernia surgery a week before the project, and the owner of the land wanting to move the site to another smaller part of her property 2 days before the project; after we had already chopped down trees preparing the land. 

When the volunteers arrived, they all hit the ground running with shovels and picks, digging trenches for pipes.  While we were working, another person who I had never seen decided to show up and say we were all wasting our time and money because the people already had water.  I felt upset because we had spent so much time walking house to house obtaining information about the needs of the people, and the lack of water was a big concern for many people in our barrio. Now, after 7 months of research and planning, this guy decides to show up with papers in hand to distract. Well, we did not pay him any attention and kept working; he later left.  After two days of digging through hard rock in the ground, a few volunteers decided that renting a jack hammer would save time and callused hands (too late for my hands).  After me riding shotgun in a tractor through the city of San Pedro, a dead battery, and oil spilling through a hose of the tractor, the 4 holes for the base of the aqueduct were done, and the trenching was finally ready for the pipes.

With all the translating (the volunteers did not speak Spanish), walking back and forth for materials, assigning work stations, and delegating responsibilities, I had never been so physically and mentally drained, on top of all that working in the Caribbean sun.  My body has not endured soreness like this in a while.  After the first day my hands were bleeding from calluses.  A few Dominicans said that now I have experience, while one volunteer said I had fragile college kid hands.  I told another person that I left the office to do this type of work.  He looked at his wife and laughed.  Despite all this, I felt good because I was assisting in giving water to a lot of people, getting a full body work out, and gaining the respect of the whole barrio.  When I walk through the barrio now, kids chant my name and people say “Dominic, estas muy fuerte”.  I think working on a project in which people can see tangible results help with your credibility here.  We do a lot of classes with the community, which are also very important, but now we were literally bringing a life necessity to the lives of people. 

At the end of the ten days, everyone was sad to see the Americans leave for many reasons: all of the relationships that were formed, 1/3 of the community laid with pipes for water, an aqueduct elevated with 4 walls and water pumping out of the ground for it, a new church built, and a water purification plant in the community as well.  Only about a week worth of finishing the aqueduct is left.  Once this is done, if I were to leave I would feel like I did something in El Brisal, but I have a year and 3 months left and a lot more to do.  The volunteers were pleased and want to come back next year.  We have been talking about the possibility to build a public pharmacy in the community next year.

So I guess teaching local Dominicans about health, grammar, English, how to run a business and how to make positive decision in life is our day job, and bringing infrastructure or solving basic needs is something we do on the side once a year.  After writing this down on paper, I feel like I am very blessed to be here.      



Giving away free water at the drinkable water plant

Aqueduct site before

A week later aqueduct almost complete

Laying the mother pipes through the streets.




1 comentario:

  1. I am very proud of the work you and tina are doing Dom.

    Keep it up you guys are changing things.

    all my love- vera

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