Hate to say it, but this was somewhat of a languid semester, and the Honduran government and Roberto Micheletti are mostly to blame. Since the coup that occured there on June 28, 2009, the country hasn't exactly been a war zone but there was enough uncertainty that we couldn't travel down there at least until the elections (November 29) were complete, and probably until after the new President starts his new term (January 27, 2010). Since we didn't really have approval for a project we didn't start heavy fundraising until recently.
You may be asking, approval for what? Well, I should probably start by saying that we did finish our first project in Los Sanchez, Honduras in May of 2009. The people in this small village now have clean drinking water from a spring being delivered to them through a gravity-fed pipeline. So now we are looking to continue with more projects in the same area of Honduras.
We are currently working on two. First, we are returning to Los Sanchez to complete some smaller projects utilizing the water that they now have. Some options on the table are a tilapia farm (a source of food and income), an irrigation system (for farming), latrines and chimneys (currently cooking is done inside their huts, leaving soot on the walls and making the air hazardous to breathe). Second, we are going to another village, La Barranca, to complete a water distribution project that is somewhat similar to that which we completed in Los Sanchez. La Barranca had a water source until it was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998; since then they have been obtaining polluted water from a local farmer's cattle runoff. The big difference is that the source is not a freshwater spring but Rio Choluteca, a river with a reputation for its pollution. So this time around we must concern ourselves with the quality of the water which can be quite expensive. Since La Barranca (pop. 370) is only about two miles away from Orocuina Centro (pop. 4,500), the main city of the Orocuina region (pop. 20,000), we may be able to include Orocuina Centro in the distribution line. Due to problems with wells, Orocuina Centro currently has water only four hours a day, so this project would give them access to water 24/7!
In December we received approval from EWB-USA to continue our work in the program with these projects, and we have set a tentative goal to travel over our Spring Break (March 8-12) to assess the feasibility and details of both projects. So now, its paperwork and fundraising for the next two and a half months. We have a batch of new officers and members, and we're very excited to begin work on this project. We'll keep you posted on how everything's going!
Adam Dellinger
VP Membership
