Day 32

By elissam

Most of the day was spent helping with preparations for the festival, which starts this evening with a talent show & beauty contest. I spent most of my time painting the back wall and door of the bookmobile and adding the Hummingbird House logo to the door. Jeremy and Charlie went up to the reservoir at Mari Pata to take the flow rate from the pipes, and then returned to help in the afternoon. We helped clean up the Hummingbird House and put up photos and decorations until the water board meeting started at 7:00. 

We began the meeting by discussing the excavation and surveying we had done at the Vista Alegre source (Yacuñao) the other day. We explained that we found a flat, relatively large and clearable place above the main reservoir at which to build the new filter. The excavation was dug to the specifications of the engineer who had come to talk with us the other day: 2m deep and roughly 1m wide on each side. A similar hole will have to be dug at Lambras before we leave. As we are running short on time and the board members need to understand the processes behing our project, someone from the board will come up to help us dig and choose the other filter location. We have also asked the board to prepare sand and other materials for when we return in December to repair the Mari Pata system. 

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing and setting up the email account for the board, and walking several members through the process of logging on, writing, and sending an email. When this was over, it was almost time for the festival to start. We returned to the Hummingbird House for dinner, and then went over to the municipality to watch the ceremony.