This Tuesday, Laith and I took a trip to Chiang Mai to collect what we needed to begin testing. This was only after collecting water samples to bring with us to leave at Regional Medical Sciences Center for arsenic, nitrate, and biological testing. They asked us to bring 5-1.5 Liter plastic water bottles for chemical testing and 1 sterilized glass bottle for the biological testing, which was sterilized at the local hospital. Rose came with us to help us translate for Laith and I. We described the tests that we wanted and left the samples and forms with the Medical Laboratory with a quick wai and a korp-kun-krap.
We took a quick side trip for lunch and then immediately proceeded to the "Chemical Store" where we would buy our elusive standard solutions and glassware. We walked away satisfied with our purchase. Now, we had nearly all of the equipment and supplies that we needed to begin the testing, it was the deionized water that seemed to be really holding us up.
Meanwhile, back in Phrao, Jess continued to follow P.Da and observe the surveying. She also managed to enter all of the completed health surveys into the newly created Access database. The surveys are looking great and we are all optimistic that they will give us the necessary information to move into the next stages of our project, determining the real problem in the community.
All we need now is the deionized water, and Laith was all over it. He first tried to go to the hospital to acquire the missing solution but was only able to find sterile water, which wouldn't work as well as deionized or even distilled water. Next, he tried the pharmacy, but found himself empty-handed. From there he was pointed in the direction of the auto shop where he would only be able to find distilled water. Who would have expected to find distilled water at the auto body shop? Finally, after weeks of planning we were able to begin preparing our water testing kit for work. By the end of the work day on Wednesday we were ready to use our Hach testing kit.
Thursday morning, after our quick daily meeting, Ronn and Jess went to town (Nong Bua) to fetch a bottle of water. And let the testing begin... We anxiously started our testing from the main village well, looking to see what the problems were that plagued the water system. At first glance, it seems that manganese seems to be the biggest problem in the water, but I do not want to make any premature assumptions. 
We plan to continue to enter and analyze the surveys and continue to test the water from various village sources, maybe even bringing some of them to Chiang Mai for more testing. As more water is tested and more surveys are entered we will be able to paint a bigger and more accurate picture of the entire situation and get a grasp on possible solutions.
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