Thursday, January 14th

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).