Around the house and a new aqueduct

Besides that aqueduct in the town next door I have also been working on developing two other potential aqueduct projects. The Representante has his eyes set on building an aqueduct in far away from town where I think he has family. There are only a few houses there, and he things he can bring water from a spring, or creek, to my town which is about at 25 minute walk on flat ground. The water source has yet to be identified. However, he is willing to spend money so, I want to be a part of the team to make sure it is built properly. We walked out there the other day with a community member, the Representante and an engineer from the municipality.

I also may follow up a proposal for an aqueduct in another neighboring community, and have plans to visit them in 2 days.

This is the poso, or open well, that they were drinking out of. The water apparently comes up from under the ground here, but it is very unsanitary because rain water washes off poop from farm animals right into the same water. Ducks and other birds also swim in it. I recommended that the fence it off and build a drainage canal to divert runoff but who knows if they will do it.
They identified this creek as a possible water source. It is important to measure water sources in the dry season (now) because when it is raining they sometimes appear to be plentiful and can practically dry up during this time of year. To measure water you make a dam out or leaves and mud, and channel water in the a 5 gallon bucket. This can give you gallons per minute.
This is the area where we may provide water. It is essentially one big family with about 6 houses.
These guys were my guides back the the trail. Crossing this river stands to be a major problem because with normal rains it rises, 5 ft and with floods it overflows the bank.

My host sister Juanita, left forever. She was one of my best friends in town, and was a great worker. I also paid her to do my laundry, and she would always help look for sawdust for the composting latrine, or help me with my garden. She left to live with her dad, way up in the mountains of the Indian Reservation. I think this will be a really hard change from her, especially because she had become accustomed to having expendable income. She spent most of her money on batteries for her radio, and good percentage on food for the family and some for new clothes.
This is my host sister Gaylena, she is just learning to walk and is really cute.
Another picture of them working on my roof. I have been really busy with the aqueduct so havn´t really had time to help out. You can see all the penca they had stacked up to do roof. My uncle Dario is up in the roof constructing.

The night before Juanita left we killed two of the three chickens she was raising. I helped by holding the bird down while someone else cut the neck with a knife. It was really primal.
This is my host family, pretty much everyone in this picture has left except for the kid on the far left and the older guy in the hat.
One night I was getting ready to go to bed in my house and my host broth Justin hollered at me and told me that ants were attacking the tree between our houses. These cutter ants form a highway, that you can literally see. There is so much ant traffic that thy push dirt to one side. They cut parts of leaf off the tree, and bring it back to their mound where fungus grows on it that they eat. Essentially they grow their food. Anyways, they can really cause damage to trees and even kill them in some cases. I sprayed the trunk of the tree with some peace corps issue 25 % DEET OFF, and it was like a wall. They ants couldn´t cross, so they couldn´t destroy they tree any more. I did feel bad that as a environmental volunteer I was using harsh chemicals, but I want my shade!