May 2, 2014, Friday

 

Travel from Denver, Colorado (John Jankousky and Adam Buehler) and Houston, Texas (Russ Zick) to Quito, Ecuador.  Stay at Hosteria San Carlos near the Quito airport.

 

 

May 3, 2014, Saturday

 

Picked up by Marcelo Araque at 8:00 a.m.  Marcelo drives us to Supermaxi mall in Latacunga.  Arrive about 10:00 a.m.  Meet with Bob Breimayer, an American who lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.  Buy minutes for telephone, some groceries, and some hardware items.

 

 

EWB Team (John Jankousky, Adam Buehler, Russ Zick, with in-country driver Bob Breimayer) have lunch with Santiago Sansur and four other Latacunga Rotary members at the Cotopaxi club in Latacunga. Discuss project timing, material orders, deliveries, availability of other products.

 

In late afternoon, we drive to Malingua Pampa and stay at Paulino Sacatoro’s hostel.

 

May 4, 2014, Sunday

 

EWB Team meets with Guantugloma community members (approximately 22 adults [15 women and 7 men] plus Paulino Sacatore).  We discuss the water system, the need to pay dues, the need to participate in the mingas (work parties), and the need for the water board to report to EWB.

 

After lunch, used GPS and Abney level to locate two tanks – Tank Matias and Tank Delia.  Set tanks a minimum of 15 meters above the highest house to get service.  Started raining about 3:30 p.m.  Went back to truck about 4:45.

 

May 5, 2014, Monday

 

Staked out Tank Hilda.  Traversed slope to Manuel _______’s house.  Hard hiking, running elevations with Abney level.  Took about 2 hours to check elevation to Manuel’s house.  Brought cement, sand, and gravel to Tank Hilda.  About 25 people working in the minga.  Used two burros also, mainly to haul two cement bags of 50 kg (110 pounds) each.  We used Bob’s truck and Paulino’s small truck to haul the materials from the Guantugloma community center to the point nearest Tank Hilda – still a hike straight uphill of 300-400 meters.  Saw one woman carry at least 100 pounds of rock on her back.

 

Bob, Adam, John, and Russ went to Rumicheca spring to plan the work.  Back to the hostel in Rumicheca about 6 p.m.

 

May 6, 2014, Tuesday

 

Went with Elvia Sacatore to check out the sand at two mine sites on the road to Pucara.  Chose the lower of the two sites because the sand seemed coarser and more suitable for concrete.  Used Paulino’s truck to mine and haul sand.

 

Hired Pedro Toaquiza, one of the masters (maestros) from Malingua Pamba, to come help set up and pour Tank Hilda.  There are not any maestros in Guantugloma.  Poured the base shortly after noon.  The walls of the tank were ready to pour about 3:30 p.m.  It started raining about 4:15 p.m.  The minga finished pouring the tank at 5:30 p.m.  Everyone was wet and cold.

 

May 7, 2014, Wednesday

 

Bob and Adam went to Rumicheca spring to begin prepping for the concrete dam wall.  Russ and I used the GPS and Abney level to stake out Tank Isulina (the 4th and final tank in the northern section of the water system) and Tank Jorge #1 and Tank Jorge #2 (the two tanks in the southern, Verde Toro portion of the water system).

 

Most of the minga began carrying gravel and sand to Tank Delia and Tank Matias.

 

Russ and I finished marking out the tanks about noon, and went up to Rumicheca spring to consult with Bob and Adam.

 

In moderate to hard rain with some small hail, left Rumicheca about 1:15 p.m.  Had lunch in Malingua Pamba from 1:45 to 2:15 p.m.  Back to community center to cut rebar for Rumicheca.  Stop at Jose Augustin’s house to cut plywood for Rumicheca.  Still raining pretty hard.  Stopped work about 4:15 p.m. because of rain.

 

May 8, 2014, Thursday

 

Adam and Russ went with most of the minga to oversee stripping of the forms from Tank Hilda, carry them to Tank Delia, and form and pour Tank Delia.  Had three of the maestros (Abelino, Pedro, and Cesar) help at Tank Delia. Paulino made inspections of the completed Tank Hilda and Delia at the end of the day.

 

Bob and I went to Rumicheca spring to form and pour the concrete dam wall.  We had two men with us to help carry tools and materials.  Russ came about noon to help us at Rumicheca.  About 6-8 people from the Minga, as well as Paulino Sacatore, came to help carry sand, gravel, and cement up the Rumicheca, mix the concrete, and bucket brigade the concrete to Bob, Russ, and I, who poured the wall.  Bob, Russ, and I all worked through lunch – we knew that if we took a break we might not get done.

 

It rained most of the day.  Rumicheca has a rock overhang, so we were at least partially sheltered.  Both Tank Delia and the Rumicheca wall were completed by 4:30.  Everyone was wet, cold, and tired.

 

May 9, 2014, Friday

 

Layed out the pipe tee on the main line (one line will go to Hilltop Tank [existing] and one line will go to the newly-poured Tank Hilda).  The main line trench was dug a few months ago by a government backhoe.  The minga dug the trench for the line to Tank Hilda on May 9 in about 3 hours.  The trench was about 225 meters long and one meter deep and the width of an adozón (a kind of wide hoe, about 8-9 inches wide).

 

It started raining about 11 a.m.  It was raining hard still about 2:30 – many of us took shelter in a traditional straw house – it was warm and dry in the straw house.  By 3:45 p.m., the rain still had not let up, and we broke for the day.

 

We had carried up some pipe and supplies to begin laying and gluing the main pipeline.  However, the rain made it impossible to glue the pipe.  No pipe was laid.

 

May 10, 2014, Saturday

 

Bob, Russ, and I went with 2 other men and oversaw stripping of the forms from the Rumicheca wall.  Adam started at Tank Matias, and then joined us later in the morning.  We finished about 11:30, and then stopped back at the community center.  Some of the minga had killed a sheep and were butchering it and making soup out of it.  They made us promise to eat lunch with them today.

 

About noon we went up to check on Tank Matias.  The base had been poured and they (the minga and the maestros) were forming the walls.  We pitched in to help as best as we could, but mainly left the work to the locals.  The rain started in earnest about 12:30. The walls were formed up at 1:30, still in a moderately heavy rain.  The minga kicked into high gear, laughing and working double time, and poured the wall in one hour, finishing at 2:30 p.m.  It was fun and very impressive. 

 

We went back to the community center and had a late lunch of sheep soup.

 

After lunch, I went over the plans with 5-6 of the most interested water group members.

 

The minga picked multiple plants (potatoes, habas, and others) and placed them on the adjacent volleyball court for the gringos to “harvest.”  They invited us to take the vegetables and the plants back to the United States as tokens of our visit.  A band consisting of a flute, a snare drum, and a small bass drum played some songs.  A boy in a werewolf mask started the dancing, to be joined by gringos, who were dragged into the dancing by Quechua grannies.  It was entertaining and slightly bizarre.  Of course, it started raining in middle of the werewolf-boy’s dance, and turned to a soaking rain pretty soon.

 

Paulino came down to join the party.  The women of Guantugloma convinced him to make one trip to carry the supplies stored in Malingua Pamba up to Guantugloma in his truck.  We stopped and had a Guantugloma Water Board meeting at Paulino’s house in Malingua Pamba.  Adam started off the meeting talking about communications and recordkeeping; from there, the floor was opened up for speech-making.  The meeting started about 4:45 and went to about 7:00 p.m.  The Quecha know how to talk.  Adam then took several of the water group members to the Malingua Pamba computer lab, located in the school, to teach them about email and other matters.  They went back to Guantugloma about 8:00 p.m. in Paulino’s truck, taking the supplies.

 

May 11, 2014, Sunday

 

We travelled back to Latacunga with Bob, who returned to his home in Cuenca.  Marcelo took us back to Quito.  We stayed overnight at the Hosteria San Carlos.

 

May 12, 2014, Monday

 

Adam and I returned to Denver.  Russ left Quito and took a side trip to Colombia to visit his son.

 

 

Summary

 

 

Overall, it was a very successful trip:

 

• All six planned tank locations were staked out.

• Three tanks were constructed.

• The concrete source capture dam wall was constructed.

• One major pipeline trench of 225 meters was dug.

• Meetings with Latacunga Rotary, Guantugloma Water Board and Guantugloma users were held.

• Reviewed the existing mainline trenching which was completed by local resources between the post-assessment trip and this implementation trip. The trench location prompted a design revision to accommodate the location of the trenching.

 

The minga plans to construct the remaining three tanks without us.  In addition, they plan to lay at least some of the main line pipe.  They plan on waiting to hook up the tanks and to dig the remaining trenches when EWB returns in August or September of 2014.