A season of changes

Hi Friends and family!

 It´s been quite a while since we got anything new up here.   As many of you know of you´ve been on a road trip with me, I hate that time of the trip when you´re ALMOST half-way.  Say hour 5 of a 10 hour trip – that little bit of suffering until half-way always seems too long.    Well, its seems what is true of road trips can be true of longer-term commitments too.   Feb 25 marks 17 months for us in Bolivia, and half-way in our contract.   We have struggled a bit in the last couple months to keep our chins up as some projects drug to a halt and we were asked to write plans for the third time because we might need to change the source of funding for our work. 

I assume plenty of you will be reading this right away as you´re all snowed in and hoping the heater stays on!  Here we´re enjoying the peach harvest with the apples son to come!    Jeremy and I are working on an Apple cider press to get some more value out of the non-marketworthy apples, more value for them and for us!

Cassie and I are back in Moro Moro after taking a little time away to sort ourselves out, we´re working hard but in a new direction.  No one knows at this point if we´ll be replaced after our term is up, so our real job for the next 18 months is to work ourselves out of a job by training local technicians to do our jobs – then with the resources of the mayor and perhaps continuing with MCC, they can maintain and expand the water systems without direct involvement from outsiders.   We´re enjoying the task, but progress in the work of training can leave you with a lot fewer signposts to know how far you´ve gone, and how far you have to go.

 

Here´s a recent photo of our Moro Moro team.    From right to left…

Jeremy Good – one year volunteer from Pennsylvania – working in letrines and erosion barriers

Fernando – local student who just graducated wtih an agronomy degree, and is finishing his practical component with MCC´s sponsorship – working in field trials of organic fertilizers

Nathan Harder – volunteer who´s been here 4 years now, working in organic agricultura and an irrigation project

Patrocinio Garvizu – our buen jefe (good boss) – Officially the rural programs coordinator, lives in Santa Cruz and does a lot of leg work to get us materials and keep us sane when our culture clashes with that of the Moromoreñans

Cassie – Busy as always on executing water systems, leading the church women´s group in a fertilizer course, and most recently,  working her tail off translating plans and getting proposals ready and re-ready as we switch sources of funding (internal to MCC switch – no worries)

ME! – Working as always in water systems and latrines, but now that we have a truck and a larger team, I spend a good bit of time fixing motorcycles and coordinating materials, the truck Schedule, and helping Jeremy on erosion barriers.