We made it to El Salvador alive and well yesterday with no problems traveling. We were picked up from the airport by Armando and Diego, two people who work at the alcaldia (mayor´s office) of Nejapa, and taken to our hostel, Los Ranchos.
After arriving we had a delicious lunch and talked about our plans for the week with Diego and Armaya, then drove into the communities. We walked through La Granja and Nuevo Ferrocarril and spoke with the community leaders, and we also spent a while checking out the bridge. The ravine looks quite different from last January...our erosion control took very well and the sides of the ravine are covered in vegetation, and the bridge in place was a very welcoming sight. We checked out the support plates and the welds, and everything looks good.
Today (Monday) Chris, Jen, and Norm went into Nuevo Ferrocarril in the morning and re-surveyed several of the roads to aid in the collection system design. They also analyzed our rough design on site to help in its development. Flory and I went to the wastewater treatment plant to take flow measurements and speak with some of the workers.
We all met up in Nuevo Ferrocarril for lunch, then returned to Nejapa for a meeting with the alcaldessa (mayor). We talked about their plans for the future of the wastewater treatment plant, which they are beginning to renovate, and our involvement in this process, as well as a couple of logistical issues for the system in Nuevo Ferrocarril. Immediately after this meeting we met with Daniel Rivera, the Rotary San Salvador engineer who has been in charge of the fabrication and placement of the bridge. We´re hoping to pour the deck of the bridge while we´re in El Salvador this week.
It´s been a very busy past two days, but we´re enjoying ourselves and getting a lot done. The weather here is very pleasant...it´s overcast most of the time and fairly humid but temperatures have been in the 70´s during the day, and not too much rain yet. Tonight we´re going to relax and prepare for a full day of surveying and water sampling in the communities.
-Eric
