First Week in Ecuador: Updates

emy445
May 27, 2017
3 min read

Buenos noches a todos.

Here are a couple quick answers to a few questions I am sure you all have.

Yes, I am alive.
I am trying A LOT of new food…. INCLUDUING SQUID!
I apologize for not writing sooner, Wi-Fi has been tough to obtain.
My journey in Ecuador has definitely been a journey so far, and I cannot wait to see what else God has in store for me.

WHAT HAS MY JOURNEY CONSISTED OF?

August 21-June 2

Seven Calvin College students including myself, were accompanied by three professors to study and gain more knowledge of the several different rural water systems in Ecuador. For the first week in Ecuador we stayed in an “old hacienda” in Ocpete de la Merced with an emphasis on the word old. Without running water and electricity, the old hacienda was a wonderful place to get to know the team, and of course play eucher. Since staying in a local community, members would cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us resulting in some interesting dishes. Of course quay (guinea pig) was served, I even got to cook it! A typical Ecuadorian meal included soup, with beans, rice, cheese and a mystery meet. You would think that is it.. no there is another course. A full plate of meat, rice, and plantains. (You all don’t have to worry about me starving, but rather the opposite. Just kidding!) Staying in the community was a challenge for myself. Sleeping on flea invested “beds” and the temperature reaching below freezing at night, my clean sleeping bag became my best friend. I made many wonderful friendships on the trip with the Calvin Team however I made an enemy, I must admit. The rooster and I at the old hacienda did not agree on sleeping hours.

Monday, we arrived in the community. We simply observed their local water system, and hiked up to the tank. When I say “hiked” I really mean we punctured our lungs walking and had consequences of lack of oxygen due to the high altitude. Now altitude is horrible, but hey when I get back to the states I’ll be able to run a marathon, I’m convinced. :)

Old Hacienda - boys room:

chlorination site for disinfection:

views from our lovely hike:

arriving at the old hacienda (pictured: Professor Tatko):

Tuesday the team split up:

Professor Wunder (a civil engineer), Bre (a public health graduate) and Jacob (a phycology major) = taste testing team (They created several different mixtures of chlorine water using dilutions and conducted a survey within different community’s to better understand the acceptance level for taste of chlorine.)
Professor Hoeksma (a civil engineer), Megan (a civil engineering student) = electrical modeling team (They created several different electrical models of the water systems and observed the several point of use amounts chlorine for disinfection to have a better understanding of how to construct a model to monitor the amounts of chlorine in a certain system.
Professor Tatko (a chemist), Curtis (a chemistry major) = Chemistry team (They conducted several tests on the unchlorinated water to attain a greater knowledge of the natural water itself, before disinfection. Some tests include testing for nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, iron, phosphate, color, turbidity, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, pH, carbon dioxide, nitrate. Understanding the water before treatment is beneficial in the method of disinfection.

Now you may be wondering, where did I go. I along with three students were “floaters”, we had not come down with specific professors for research.

Tuesday, “the floaters” stayed in Ocpete de la Merced to help and observe the community install new water pumps, but also new chlorine pumps. The community was on chlorine tablets; however, this method is not always the most reliable because it is difficult to control to dosage. Installing the chlorine pumps was a more efficient way to disinfect their water.

chlorine disinfection pumps:

Wednesday, the Calvin team stuck together as we visited 5 different communities to learn about their water systems.

Thursday, we visited Pumachaca. The groups slit off to conduct their research. Since I am staying a month longer than the Calvin team, I was nominated to continue collecting water samples and conducting tests for the Chemistry team.