SPA - Piache

It was 6:30 AM yesterday morning when my phone started to ring. It only rang once and then said I had missed a call. In the world of buying saldo, the amount of electronic credit one has on his TIGO Peace Corps issued cell phone to make calls, send texts, etc, it was clear to me that the caller was out of money, as my phone rang once and only once. This is TIGO’s way of letting the person without saldo contact another person to alert them of their insufficient funds and lack of ability to make an actual call. In essence, it’s like being paged in the year 2011. After looking into my missed calls log, I realized that it was my albañil, Don Milo. Albañil is Spanish for mason. Although, foreman better suits the role that Don Milo plays in my USAID funded SPA project. Regressing a little, I returned the call to Don Milo and it was only then that he began to share his unease about the weather. We talked for about three minutes after which it was clear to me that we would have to postpone the next chapterof the project due to the inclement weather. I’ve attached a link below that discusses Guatemala’s recent “state of calamity” brought on by weather patterns in the region.

http://www.examiner.com/central-american-travel-in-national/a-state-of-calamity

All weather aside, it was about three weeks ago that I received money from USAID to fund my SPA(Small Project Assistance) project. SPA funds are USAID’s way of helping PCV’s throughout the world develop, execute, and maintain projects that will be beneficial to the local community and sustainable for future generations. Since the financial backing comes from USAID, there is an extensive, before and after, amount of paperwork that surrounds each project. During the months of July and August, I met with community leaders in Piache, a local village, multiple times and worked with them for hours on end to fill out all of the required SPA paper work. While I may fuss about the amount of paperwork, USAID just wants to ensure that the SPA funds are used to make a positive, needed, and sustainable change in a community. Ironically, my particular SPA project will be, in some sense, cleaning up a mess that another NGO, InterVida – a Spanish organization that has donated thousands of dollars to Guatemala through school projects, left years ago. In 2007, InterVida constructed a bathroom facility fully equipped with flush toilets and hand washing stations for the children of the community's grade school. While InterVida succeeded in the construction of this new bathroom facility, it failed to properly install a functioning septic tank. Furthermore, we are now currently in the midst of using USAID funding to rehabilitate the pre-existing septic tank, which, once in use, will positively promote the practice of healthy habits and sanitary practices among the students, faculty, and community members of Piache.

The rehabilitation of the septic tank will provide the students and faculty, of the grade school in Piache where I work, as well as community members with the ability to use the 2007 InterVida constructed bathroom facility. Once in use, this facility will provide six faucets (3 in the women’s room and 3 in the Men’s room respectively) for daily healthy practices like hand washing and brushing teeth. These two healthy habits, while they may appear rudimentary in nature, can truly better a child’s well being. The InterVida facility will also give the students the opportunity to use flush toilets instead of latrines. A picture above shows the very old latrines next to the InterVida constructed bathroom building. Currently, the overflowing and unpleasant latrines are the students’ only option for a restroom.

I've also posted a diagram that outlines how we will rehabilitate the non-functioning septic tank. The plan is to run 4” PVC tubing from the pre-existing septic tank all the way to an absorption pit off school premises. In the 2-meter deep 2007 InterVida constructed septic tank, we will bore a hole in the side, facing away from the school, at a meter and a half in height that will then be connected to the 4” PVC tubing. As a result, when the waste material reaches the 1.5 meter level it will be drained into the 4”PVC tubing and taken 310meters down the hill, away from the school, and be deposited into an absorption pit with a depth of 15 meters. This will help to alleviate the septic tank and ensure that it doesn’t overflow. In the past, the waste material, especially during the rainy season which lasts six months out of the year, would overflow and spill out over the school property; thus, contaminating the children’s learning environment and making it impossible to hold classes. It is for this reason, that since being built in 2007 the flush toilets have remained unused and the bathroom facility locked.

Returning to my Tuesday morning, the digging of the absorption pit was the main theme of my 6:30 AM wakeup. Don Milo reported that we were currently at a depth of 3 meters, which in my opinion is great progress. Although, due to the latest tropical depression, the pit has been filled to the brim with water and so stops our forward progress. After talking with other members of the community and Don Milo, we have decided to suspend digging and other project related activities until the rains let up. It was unfortunate news. The again, we’re already a month ahead of schedule and if they, the students and faculty of the grade school Piache, have gone this long without flush toilets and sinks for hand washing, what’s a couple more weeks? Since receiving the USAID funds for my SPA project almost 3 weeks ago, we’ve had little to no problems and so when the rains decide to let up I look forward to getting back to the task it hand.