msetz's blog

Sunday, January 17th - Wisconsin Travel Day
The travel team got up early in the morning for our final meal of Mirna's cooking.  There were pancakes, beans, bread, and hot chocolate.  After getting the bus loaded with all of the luggage and saying last goodbye's to our El Salvadorian friends we headed off to San Salvador. Before going to the airport we stopped at a market to get any last minute souvenir items.  The market was very nice and had a lot of great gifts that students purchased to bring back to their friends and family back in Wisconsin.
In the airport people grabbed food from different places in the airport before boarding the flight.  Our first flight was delayed, but we made it on time to Miami.  The group got through customs just fine and loaded up for the final trek of the trip from Miami to Chicago.  Students were then taken back to their homes and apartments in Madison.  It was hard to say our goodbyes to each other because we had been around each other 24/7 for the past 2 weeks, but we know that the friendships and memories that we've made with each other in El Salvador will last us a lifetime.
 
Saturday, January 16th - Final Day In El Salvador
This morning started off bright and early with a community meeting at 8AM at the school in Nuevo Ferrocarril.  Both communities of Nuevo Ferrocarril and La Granja were invited to the meeting.  The turnout ended up to be over 150 adults and around 100 kids.  Right away the adults and children were split off.  Eric translated to the adults’ information about what the group had done over the past two weeks, EWB's community commitment, and our plans for future work.  The rest of the group (lead by Caitlin) worked with the kids for educational workshop about the importance of hand washing.  The group went over reasons why you should wash your hands, when you should wash your hands, and the proper technique.  A Glow Germ activity was done (this is a lotion that you apply to your hands and then use a black light to see all the areas of germs/bacteria that were missed during hand washing).  There was also a handout each child received that is an activity that they are supposed to mark off every time they wash their hands (3 times a day).  We also showed the most current version of the El Salvador documentary.  The community members all enjoyed the documentary and knowing that their story is being told back in the States.  After the meeting the group stuck around and talked with various community members about the future of the project, taking pictures of the kids, and talking about life. David and Nancy Slinde from West Bend area Rotary Club were also in attendance at the meeting which was really nice to see them and have them there!
After the meeting, the travel team headed back to Los Ranchos.  After a small break and lunch the group piled back onto the Nejapa bus.  We ventured off to 'La Puerta del Diablo' (the devil's door) which is a volcano hiking area.  We hit it perfectly - just around sunset - and the view was wonderful with the view of the ocean on one side and San Salvador on the other.  Dusk set in as we climbed down the volcano.  We were then taken to a look out of San Salvador, which in the night view looked like glitter.  For dinner we went to a pupseria for our last meal of pupusas. After dinner we then drove back to Los Ranchos (while some choose to sing 90's hits).  The group stayed up celebrating our last night in El Salvador with dancing.  It truly was a perfect ending to a very successful and fun trip.

Please note flight number from Miami to Chicago has changed:
Flight AA926 San Salvador 2:50 pm to Miami 6:25 pm
Flight AA2039 Miami 9:25 pm to Chicago 11:40pm

Friday!
 
Everyone was up at the crack of dawn again this morning although some of us had a harder time waking up than others.  After yet another delicious breakfast, the group headed to the work site to finish up all last minute tasks.  The majority of the group worked on planting various plants along each edge of the ravine to prevent erosion during the heavy rainy season.  I think we were all surpised at Jim´s green thumb.  We were all happy to see the almost-complete bridge site look so good.  While this was going on, some of us dug up the last manhole by the Pan-American Highway to measure the depth of it and to see how the flow was moving.  Gosh, that was an extreme smell and we were a bit surprised to find a ball down there!
 
The temperature has increased from earlier this week and we were happy to come back to Los Ranchos for lunch.  After lunch, some of the group headed back to the work site to meet members of the San Salvador Rotary Club and show them what we have done with the funding they have provided us.  We are headed to a place this afternoon where there is a great overlook of San Salvador and we will get dinner there.  After this, it´s time to clean up and hit the dance floor one more time at the discoteca in San Salvador.
 
-Bryan

This morning we finished the wing walls on the Nuevo side of the ravine. Eric and Jessica S. finished making changes to the bridge dimensions and finalized the plans with Daniel  Rivera’s workers. Most of the day was slow with nothing too exciting going on. The communities treated us with lunch, papusa’s and chocolate covered bananas. Mike and Paul dominated the eating contest with 9 papusa’s each. I was wasn’t there to offer any serious competition, but congratulations to them anyways…Jim, Norm, and I travelled to San Andrés to find a nursery that would help us with our erosion control planting. Our goal was to find plants that will help retain the loose fill that entered the ravine and establish them before the rainy season. We ended up getting a full bus load (And I mean FULL bus load) of zacote (sp? A type of local grass) and pina (pineapple) to plant 625 square meters total. The look on Missy and Eric’s faces when we returned with nursery stocking packed tight into the entire bus was priceless. With about two hours left before dark we planted a good portion of the Nuevo side and watered the plants.The wastewater group finished with their last day of sampling. I think they sampled at roughly 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 12am. They also prepared their final bacteria cultures.We were supposed to meet with the Alcaldesa (female mayor) at Los Ranchos for dinner, but she never came. Instead we ate a late dinner and played cards (as usual).

Well. Today was another productive work day in El Salvador. Most of us woke up at the normal time, 6:30 am and meandered through breakfast and took off for the bridge site.  The remainder of the crew set up camp at Los Ranchos for another day of waste water testing and analyzing.  Also, a meeting was set up between the wastewater group and Juan, and individual actively involved in the wastewater plant renovation and a nearby tilapia farm, and community development program.
 Upon arriving at the bridge site we broke up into a couple of groups. We had the survey group and a few others take off and complete an as-built of La Granja.  This included taking our original plans to go to the intended location of all of the manholes and then using a pick axe and local input to find their actual location.  This team also ventured into lower La Granja to survey a row of 5 houses that have not yet been connected to the system, to see if we could find any possible route to install pipe for their houses.  This location poses unique problems because it runs right next to an active railroad and there is barely any slope. 
The remainder of the crew spent their day on the bridge site carrying rocks, buckets of cement, and tube for the masons to complete the construction of the wing walls in La Granja and nearly complete them in Nuevo Ferrocarrill.  This included quite a bit of back breaking, but rewarding work.  Along the way 3 snakes, a rabbit and a scorpion were encountered. 
Tragically, at the end of the day an error was found in a measurement taken for the length of the bridge, so the remainder of the night was spent trying to adjust our dimensions of the trusses to account for the new measurement.  After a day of such hard work we all dropped into bed relatively early.

On Monday there were many things to do even after all the hard work that was put in last week. The bridge team had to start the coordination of finding suitable rocks for the wingwalls. Luckily many community members were helpful, and by the end of the day there were enough rocks to begin the wingwalls the following day. The survey team continued to survey Nuevo, and came close to completing their project. Monday was also the first day of sampling at the wastewater treatment plant by the wastewater group. The group needed to collect seven samples throughout the whole of the plant as well as take the flow rates at peak periods of flow during the day. The samples collected needed to be filtered and saved for analysis back in the U.S. This is to be continued for the rest of the week.
In the evening everyone was glad to see Norm. He arrived Sunday in El Salvador and was able to join us Monday night. His knowledge and experience with the communities and projects will help to get everything done.
After dinner we went to the poli where we met up with our old friend Will and his amigos. We played both soccer and basketball with the locals and all of us were taken aback by their skill. We spent so much energy trying to keep up with them that we found it necessary to jump into the pool afterwards for a night time swim. By the time we got back to Los Ranchos we were beat and just dropped into bed.

Sunday morning, we all woke up to another wonderful breakfast and then packed up for a trip to the beach. We drove 2 hours through San Salvador and arrived on the coast and found a man who owned a lot of ocean front property and had a restaurant and cabana area for us. After we parked the bus, we walked through a building to find a great beach with a lot of open space and plenty of hammocks for those needing a little break. A lot of the locals were looking at us probably because we were not exactly the clientel they were use to seeing but also because we were putting on sunscreen, which is something they don't need to use. For the first part of the day, most people went swimming in the ocean and played a little volleyball. It wasn't long before lunch time came around. Many people got the fish which was a full fish complete with eyes and tail, and a few people got a beef platter and it all tasted great. The rest of the day consisted of napping and swimming and boat rides. Two groups went on short boat tours around the area and stopped at sandbars and listened to a very enthusiastic tour guide. By the end of the trip, everyone was pretty tired and it was a quiet bus ride home. When we got back, we headed over to our cook Mirna's family home to eat tamales and have coffee in remembrance of one of her family members. It was a very nice dinner with a celebratory atmosphere. Most people went to bed shortly upon returning to los ranchos but many people had coffee at the dinner so there were a few card games going on until everyone slowly retreated to their cabins.
-Chris

Last night most of us went to a discoteca (dance club) in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, after dinner.  Everyone managed to clean most of the concrete off themselves and dress up.  We danced for several hours and had a great time.  This morning we returned to the Nuevo Ferrocarril side of the ravine to do the final pour of the abutment.  Around 11am we said goodbye to Tom, who left to join his family on vacation.  Everything went very smoothly, and this pour marked the end of a long, work-filled week in which we managed to start and begin the two abutments.  Everyone is very happy to be done and have a chance to relax this weekend. We finished the pour in time to return to Nejapa for lunch, which was a delicious vegetable beef soup followed by fresh fruit.  This afternoon we are going to the local pool to relax a bit, then out to another discoteca in San Salvador tonight.
 
-Eric