Divide and Conquer

If we told you that everything was going smoothly and according to plan, we would probably be stretching the truth a bit. As with any major project in a developing country, there have been numerous setbacks. Still, we have managed to make a bit of headway. Our project group, consisting of the the four EWB members and Shannon, a graduate student volunteer from UCSD, have decided to split up and tackle this water problem on several fronts. Currently, Shannon is in bed with food poisoning, but she appears to be getting better. That leaves us with four volunteers to start doing quality-of-life surveys, gathering equipment and collecting information about water resources and equipment.

We made some headway today by splitting up and each doing different tasks. Ronn dealt with acquiring equipment, which entailed driving to town to send a fax, arranging payment for the equipment and working with our lovely translator, Ploi, who helped us communicate with the water company. Laith took the long ride to Chiang Mai to create an inventory and price list of water testing equipment. He also went to obtain some chemicals for water testing that were not available from the other company in Bangkok. Jessica accompanied a translator, P. Da, to Nong Bua to observe some of the surveying and meet the townspeople. David worked on writing a grant and communicating with some experts.
Those of us who remained at the Warm Heart office also helped out some of the other volunteers begin a landscaping project, which basically entailed moving large amounts of soil around. We got pretty sweaty and filthy in the process. By next week, we hope to be right in the middle of water testing with our own equipment, have half of our surveying done, and have samples being processed at the Chiang Mai lab. If all goes well with Laith in Chiang Mai (he's still there), we should have a good equipment and price list also. Wish us luck!