This week has been a blast! We started off the week with the 12th anniversary of Cantaro. Each group in the organization made a WASH themed costume. Our team made a cardboard bacteria to focus on water contamination. The schools team created a large poop costume to focus on sanitation issues. There were quite a few fun costumes, and in addition to all of them, costumed participants had to run a race! The race included a blow up slide which participants had to go down in the large costumes. It looked ridiculous, and was so fun to be a part of.

After, we had a soccer match with anybody from the organization who wanted to play. I played, and my team was winning until we had to stop due to a downpour. Coming from Houston, I thought I was accustomed to crazy storms in the middle of the day, but the rains here in San Cris seem to be worse than Houston, however that might be because the city drainage is lacking, so the water lingers for a lot longer. Each time it rains (almost daily) I have to prepare myself to dodge mini rivers on the road or sidewalk.

To finish off the day, we had a party at Taniperla. Lots of my coworkers taught me various Mexican dances of which I have no experience in. There were utterly patient, and I ended up learning a couple of dances.

The rest of the week was a lot of work to prepare for this upcoming week where we will be going to the field for 5 days visiting 9 schools. We had to make changes to our surveys, deal with technical issues, and meet with our team. The team includes a member, Janett, who will focus on building a relationship with the school to ensure participation while Cantaro is there, AND after Cantaro leaves. There are 2 members, Ramon and Tito, who will diagnose the technical capabilities of the campuses. And there are 2 members, Lisa and I, to conduct an in-depth survey for UNICEF. In addition, Janett, Ramon, and I will be conducting water analysis tests. A lot of work goes into “diagnosing” each school.

What I love about Cantaro is that their work strives to be sustainable. Although the organization started with an engineering project, a large percentage of their work aims to involve and educate the community to allow them to maintain their own systems and be self-reliant as much as possible in addition to creating a healthy, sanitary culture. The work involves the people just as much, or more than the technology. No matter how many Mesita Azuls we install, it won’t matter unless people use the systems which is unlikely if they don’t understand why the water is unhealthy in the first place.

Along with all of our work, I am also having a lot of fun with my team. For example, last night some of us went to a hidden brewery together. And this morning some of us attended a workshop about the concept of love followed by a taco lunch.

Poco a poco I feel more integrated into the community of San Cris and understand the language and people a lot more 🙂