Today was another muy hectic day, with equal parts work, play, and Spanish language learning. The day started off with a delicious breakfast cooked by our amazing hostel owners (today, breakfast was ham quesadillas, fresh fruit–a choice of papaya and/or watermelon, and the world renowned coffee and hot chocolate that Chiapas is known for), we headed off on a bus back to Cántaro. After several minutes in the office, filled with warm greetings, laughs, and cheek kisses–El Encuentro Team headed off to a preschool, Colegio Quetzalcoatl, to learn more about el humedal (the wetland) that the school had installed.

When we arrived at the school, we were introduced to a smiling, mud-caked man named Lander from the non-profit, Las Abejas. Las Abejas is responsible for multiple projects including the humedal system at the school, a project to reconstruct several school houses that were damaged in a recent earthquake (see Aside for more information), and the gardens at el Encuentro. Lander walked us through the complete humedal system, which included complex greywater sequestration systems, the humedal itself, and a small garden that is used as a second filtration step for water treated by the humedal. The final water is discharged to a basin, where it is used for the irrigation of the preschool’s small jardín.

After an introduction by Lander to the humedal, we took pictures and measurements of the system, as well as inundated Lander with questions about it. After Lander (exhausted from all our questions) saw us off, we set on our way to El Encuentro, where we took even more pictures and measurements of the area where the potential humedal system would be. We also quickly learned of a super cool project that was literally happening right above our heads: the construction of the roof of La Casa del Agua, which includes two green roofs. Of course, we had to be a part of the project so we scaled the homemade ladder that led up to the roof of la Casa del Agua, grabbed some hammers, staplers, and box knives, and for the next few hours, set to helping construct the green roof under the supervision of two amazing (and very patient) Cántaro employees, Ramón y Luz.

After several hours of hammering and stapling away at the roof, cutting tarp for roof covering, and learning the Spanish words for construction tools, we were all exhausted, sun-burned, and impossibly happy. It was time for the next leg of our journey! We returned to Cántaro for an amazing lunch (once again catered by our hostel owners, who as aforementioned, are AMAZING). After our bellies were filled to capacity, El Encuentro Team debriefed on what we had learned about Quetzalcoatl’s humedal, roughed some drawings of the system, and went over how the system could be adapted to El Encuentro.

As we neared the end of the work day, we met back up with Los UV Hermanos and got a quick demo of their flow rate device before heading out of Cántaro and back into the city. Next, we went on a field trip to an extremely polluted river which runs through the city. While the river was a solemn sight, it reminded us all of the significance of Cántaro and other organizations that are dedicated to providing clean water to México and cleaning polluted sources of water. Visiting the glum river was juxtaposed with the trip we took to arrive at the site: a walk through the lively market district of the city, which offered everything from fruits and local drinks to unexpected history lessons about the origins of cacao from a wise store-owner.

After all this exploration, we were, as the locals say, exhaustos, and headed back to the hostel for a quick evening rest before heading out on the town to find dinner. After una deliciosa cena at a really hip cinema restaurant, Kinoki, we met up with Dr. Jorge Loyo for some post-dinner socializing and merriment. After, we saw Dr. Loyo off to his alojamiento and have now made it back to the hostel, where I’m now typing this blog post. As I’m still completely exhausto, you’ll have to pardon the abrupt ending to this post. Goodnight!

ASIDE: When we got to the school, we were surprised to see secondary school students who were helping to reconstruct some school houses, which had their structural integrity compromised after a recent earthquake. While the project that the secondary school students were working on was part of their Civic Engagement and Ethics class, the students were so genuinely invested in and excited to help out at the schoolhouse. They were also extremely efficient–with the help of the secondary school students, several schoolhouses had been completely reconstructed in only about a month.