Working Hard or Hardly Working?

As the weeks march on January turns to February. It hasn’t been a productive work month. But rather a productive thinking and planning month. We’ve meet with the mayor about our water project. Juan did his best to translate for me, for a man who’s Spanish is a about as intelligible as the sound a crumpled paper bag makes. If I understood correctly, the project has been written into the municipality’s budget. I just need to start the PC paperwork for my end of the financing. Meanwhile we await an engineer who is coming late February to assess the project cost. Tengo mis dudas sobre todo. Patience.

I’ve made it clear to my co-workers, Maria, Pilar and Juan that I’m focusing on 3 large projects this year. The aforementioned water renovation, recruiting and training local health promoters and forming a new water committee. Sure other small things will come up. But these three projects are key to the development of Carata.

As for a department in general, PCV’s from La Libertad will be holding it’s first ever Camp ALMA (soul) this year. Camp ALMA began years ago when PCV’s decided to bring together a group of young females from their communities for a leadership retreat. The goal is twofold, to transform the girls into role models and upon their return home to work in their villages as agents of change. Ideally, they would maintain the sustainability of the camp by leading others into service, good will and civic involvement.

My health in general has been very good. Mentally and physically. I´m back into life in the mountains and really looking forward to a successful year. Change is so slow to happen, but the more we keep at it the better the future looks! Thank you to all my dependable readers. I´ve enjoyed maintaining this blog to chronicle my experience, but most of all to stay connected to the US in a major way. Un fuerte abrazo. Mateo