Nueva Providencia, Guate, San Martin, Antigua, Sumpango - oh the places you'll go!

When I finally sat myself down to start writing this post (and given that nearly a month has passed since I brought you all up-to-speed), my knee-jerk reaction was to say "yup, more site visits - business as usual..." Then upon further reflection, I realized how silly that was. I even got a little upset with myself, because 1) "business as usual" in Guatemala inherently means crazy sh!t happening left-right-and-center and therefore does not exist in the common sense of the phrase and 2) I've had a few awesome trips/met some awesome people since Panama and they deserve proper recognition

So, to the best of my recollection, here goes:

Xoy-ful Events (major props to Margaret P. for that clever little use of Xoy)

• Generally speaking, site visits are semi-close to "business as usual" status and as of this moment, I have visited 115 communities out of ~140! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, though that light means no more hiding from data input... yikes.
• Site visits are always full of some goofy/crazy/memorable moments - to elaborate on a few...
• The community members have a few common jokes that get thrown around and since so many have used the same jokes, my seemingly on-the-spot witty retorts are well practiced by now - this is quite helpful since laughter is the ultimate way to break the ice and build some rapport and confianza - common jokes include:
• when I ask "do you need any bridges" a common response is "yes - a bridge from here to the city!" and/or "no, a helicopter/plane would be nice though!"
• when I ask "how many families/homes have caballos" a common response is ":insert-name-here-aka-usually-the-president:'s house has a burro!" 
• When Abel drives the pickup truck for an extended period of time, the carburetor stops functioning properly (all the fluid drains out of it) and the car stalls. There's a lovely picture of the first time this happened to us in the middle of the campo a little over a month ago, and it also happened in the middle of a super busy one-way street in the city on market day (meaning we stopped all traffic for 15-min while Abel popped the hood, took the carburetor apart, added some gasoline he keeps in a soda bottle in the back seat, put the engine back together, then scooted out of the road - he also took some time to go to the car behind us to yell at him for honking) - at this point, he's got it all worked out and while I'm chatting with communities, he'll randomly wander off to the pickup, take the engine apart, add gasoline, oil, and water to various components, then sit and rev the engine to get everything warmed up
• I've now had a consistent run of 4 communities with women (wearing traje tipico aka of indigenous decent) either in high-ranking leadership positions and/or very vocal in a meeting with men present - this is super rare and has been exciting to see consistently
• also, not indigenous, but one of the communities (San Isidro La Comunidad aka one of three communities who uses Puente Hielo for those who remember the time we got hailed on during a site assessment...) is run by an AWESOME ladino power couple - husband is the community president and working his way up in La Corporacion Municipal after an honorable mention from Mike P. for his coordination/leadership work on Puente Hielo, and the wife is the Consejo de Padres de la Familia (aka Guatemalan school PTA) president - they collectively have recently coordinated a new roof/other repairs for the school and the construction of a new community building - their son also joined our meeting and helped with answers - super awesome
• (prepare yourselves for a run-on sentence to end all run-on sentences b/c it best expresses the pace/ridiculousness of this day...) I had a day where the first community thought I was from a Canadian mining company and didn't want to talk with me (pollution for neighboring Canadian mining operations is a hot-button issue around here - I'm norte americana so assumptions were made...), then the Vis Alcalde, Santos (aka AWESOME MAN), explained that I was with the muni, then we had an awesome conversation/interview during which a young Mayan girl (daughter of a female comite member) contributed to the meeting, then Abel had to take off with the pickup for an emergency which meant Santos and I had to walk to the next community where we met the Save the Children rep who I was able to make friends/contacts with (though I was physically dripping sweat from the hike and that's just icky icky), then the community guys were great and we got off to an awesome start to the meeting, but within 15 min, Santos had to take-off b/c there was a group of gringos checking out a random part of the river elsewhere in his area and the fear of mines was in the air and he needed to check it out, so then he took off and I stuck around to finish the meeting, and once it was done I just wanted to walk the 4km home (we happened to be in communities very close to the pueblo, thus all the abandonment), but the community guys refused and flagged down a pickup for me to ride in, but then within the first km, we ran into Santos on the side of the road who flagged me down and asked if I wanted to have lunch with the Alcalde which of course I accepted b/c it's the Alcalde, so I hopped out, then he clarified it was actually a Caritas (another NGO) water project inauguration in a community we had just visited and Florencio (the Alcalde) couldn't make it but wanted me to join as a Corporacion representative (aka political playing card), and I agreed b/c the muni truck was there, so then we went to the community, I sat on stage, they cut the ribbon, and we ate a TON of food and drank cusha (moonshine) - I also got to network with the Caritas guys, so that was great. And then I went home and went to zumba class...
• Also related to site visits, I had a few new experiences in relation to aldeas (the largest community collection/area within the municipality) fracturing into many, smaller communities due to failed/corrupt leadership
• The first was a community that apparently was the result of bloody land acquisition during the war and now consists of leaders who sell water from an already over-stretched water system for large fees, but never maintain the system
• Unfortunately, this has simply meant that families have jumped-ship and formed their own communities in hopes of having their own infrastructure projects and avoiding the leadership within the former aldea at all costs
• The second was even more intriguing, because while the Cocode (leadership committee) for the community is not functioning, a representative from the majority of homes in the community came to our meeting
• It's a good thing I'm a strong extrovert (and gain energy from rather than feel drained by human interaction), because even so this was a bit overwhelming - lots and lots of voices
• This was a really awesome experience, because while it made the survey a bit harder to complete with so many people vying for attention, it also gave me a chance to hear from a wide range of individuals within the community (because a pleasantly surprisingly wide array of individuals spoke up at the meeting)
• I also had a new experience - a woman came to the front of the group and asked me for a home and some land
• while I hear a lot about poor, often widowed/abandoned women in communities with no homes, property, or job prospects but usually a few patojos (Quiche for kids) to house and feed, I never see them at our meetings
• I had absolutely no power to help that women in the moment, and to be honest, I was wildly uncomfortable with the whole situation; however, I listened to her story (and by default, so did the entire community), and between Abel and I, we tried to explain that I was not able to help, but that she should go to the muni to speak with the Office for Women or try to speak with the Alcalde
• As it turns out, after we left, some of the wealthier individuals in the community purchased a small plot of land for her and started erecting a little home out of some spare boards and lamina (sheet metal used for roofing) that were laying around the community
• In other Xoy news, the PCV girls had GLOW camp the other week
• For me, this meant 4 additional gringas in Xoy for the week, which meant lots of family style meals and great conversations
• This made the week very very fun and entertaining, particularly zumba class with lots of extra gringas
• Also, it was Lauren's birthday yesterday
• here in Guatemala, the birthday tradition is to wake up the birthday person with cake and firecrackers at obscenely early hours of the morning 
• Naturally, this meant that we celebrated by setting off firecrackers in front of Lauren's window, singing happy birthday, and eating cake at 5:30am - good times
• We also tried to make zucchini crust pizza for dinner, but upon firing up the oven, we discovered that Dona Humbe's stories of rats peeing in the oven were probably true (heating it up made the entire kitchen smell like urine...), so instead we used the Peace Corps oven to bake the crust - this meant absolutely no temperature control and a LONG wait for a small crust... having started the cooking process way too late, we scrapped the zucchini crust idea and switched to tortilla pizzas, though the zucchini crust was delicious!
• in the vein of Dona Humbe animals-peeing-in-the-house stories, we also discovered that the stories about a feral cat coming into the living room at night and peeing on the couch are true 
• I was working in the dining room the other night as the cat tried to make its way in, at which point I scared it out, then it ran up the stairs and into Lauren, tried to escape through the front of the house, but ultimately ran back up the stairs while Lauren and I were talking about it in the dining room. I then had to go upstairs to help Lauren check her room to make sure the cat wasn't hiding under the bed (it wasn't - we figure it went up to the roof) while Lauren insisted on yelling at the cat - first in English, then in Spanish, b/c OBVIOUSLY the cat speaks Spanish...
• Moral of these stories is this: we assumed Humbe was being dramatic/telling us tall-tales to keep us from using the oven and to make us close the doors to the kitchen/dining room/living room each night, when in fact, we do have a variety of creatures roaming around the house at night peeing in/on various things...

NP/Guate adventures

• NP drama drama drama
• NP (Nueva Providencia) is the community near Lake Atitlan where the MU chapter has been working on a combined micro-hydro and PV electrical system for over almost 8 years - my entire college career consisted of work on this projects 
• Sooo when Steve (Hiteca owner and mechanical engineer extraordinaire) went to finish the installation and complete the system POR FIN, he ended up getting less than half of design flows at the power house aka too little to get the generator up and running
• this meant I came home from Panama to a very sad phone conversation where I had hoped for a triumphant one...
• After much frantic emailing back and forth and royal freak-outs thinking about reconstructing portions of the pipeline assuming there was some sort of clog in the line or major issue with head loss, Mike P. noted that water should be allowed to run through the line for a more extended period of time
• the theory (as well as lessons from experience) here is that every bend in the pipe traps air as the pipe goes from purely filled with air (no water running) to filled with water (once water is sent down the line) - with time, the air will leech into the water, but since the system is operating a temperatures that don't necessarily speed the aeration process, multiple days to a week can be necessary to relieve the system of all its air pockets/blockages
• When Mincho and I made our way back to NP to check out the line and come up with a fix, it took us nearly an hour to sort through a lot of Guatemalan passive aggressive anger to finally get our hands on the plug to send water down the line as well as the help of a few men to do an additional, as-built survey to ID all bends and head loss to a high point in the line
• needless to say, this was a very angry, tired, and frustrated community - I honestly feel that it was only the confianza built over so many years that made them even remotely open to hearing us out with the air explanation, because given how angry they were (and rightfully so), the fact that it only took us about an hour to get work up and running was really no time at all...
• After getting water flowing in the line, opening up a small air release hole at the high point in the pipe line, and noting that flow at the spring boxes was more than adequate, we let water flow for 3-4 hours while we surveyed the line
• Ultimately, we found the critical head loss to be consistent with the design, and also that the flow increased tremendously from the rates Steve had seen
• while the flows were still lower than design, they brought us within the range of energy generation potential and also strongly supported the concept of air blockages rather than more insidious pipeline issues
• We left the community that day with a clear plan to add a few respirator valves (basically regulated holes in the pipe to allow air to escape) at critical points
• We also left with the community significantly happier with us and ready to make the final work push
• The following day, Mincho and I went searching for respirator valves in Guatemala City
• This became very interesting very fast because the one, large ferreteria with which Mincho is familiar did not carry the materials we needed...
• We both took to calling contacts and fortunately I had my computer and internet stick with me
• between contacts (namely Enrique D.) some google searches, and following a few leads via phone conversations with ferreterias that didn't-have-what-we-needed-but-knew-of-one-that-might, we FINALLY landed on Regeplast 
• Regeplast, however, was located in a part of the city that no one was familiar with... so after asking directions from many different people and after a few wrong turns, we got the parts!
• This was a very frustrating but ultimately very fulfilling experience plus we found a new, excellent supplier for random water line accessories 
• ALSO this was VERY BIG TIME because I had been a major dunce and left cheese and some fresh, natural peanut butter at Enrique's house in Guate
• I had spent the night there after returning from Panama, put the goods in the fridge overnight, then forgot to pack them back into my bags when I left for Xoy in the morning...
• Ultimately, I bought Mincho and Enrique lunch for helping me reunite with the cheese and PB, and Mincho and I had a very uneventful ride back to Xoy
• PAN FRESCO NP UPDATE ("pan fresco" is apparently the Guatemalan/Spanish coloquialism equivalent for "hot out of the oven" and I'm a big fan...)
• LA TURBINA LIVES!
• Mincho went back on his own to install the valves and was getting well over design flow rates (always preferable b/c we have a lovely, machine-operated butterfly valve that is programmed to adjust its aperture to keep flow to the turbine relatively constant and at design values since flow can fluctuate so much between rainy and dry seasons)
• Steve was just back earlier this week, installed the belt connecting the turbine to the generator, flipped the figurative switch, and now the community of Nueva Providencia, at long long last, has constant, turbine-generated power!
• I should be heading back with Mincho and Steve at the end of the month for a check-up on the system, but WOOHOOOOOO!!

San Martin - Heifer Visit

• To create a more definitive/realistic link between our bridge projects and economic growth potential (ie if you have consistent access to markets, you can start producing things that you can consistently sell at market), we're in the process of trying to partner with an organization called Heifer International 
• They work in a few regions here in Guatemala
• To start the process, Waleska organized an orientation visit for the leaders of 2 communities where EWB-USA Marquette and MSOE, respectively, will be constructing pedestrian bridges
• this orientation comprised of a visit to Granja la Fortuna farms to meet with Don Lazaro, the apparent Guatemalan guru of sustainable, high-yield agriculture, incorporating low-tech, cheap manifestations of concepts such as organic farming, permaculture, aquaponics, and biodigesters within the Guatemalan campo context
• This was a super awesome daytime excursion for many reasons
• Don Lazaro is a clear genius and hearing from him/getting a tour of one of his farms was incredible
• I got to spend some quality time with Wale, Mincho, Florencio, and many cocode members
• I had a chance to meet and chat with the Heifer rep, Guillermo, who's a super pilas, awesome guy who has been working for Heifer for over 18 years now and loves his job
• It was super awesome to see how excited the guys got by the concepts presented
• All-in-all a very cool experience - I know at least one of the communities is chomping at the bit to get started with Heifer, so I'm excited to see where this can go!

Antigua/Sumpango

• Because no one parties harder than the people of Xoy, Dia de los Santos (Nov. 1) equated to a long weekend (because the ACTUAL holiday fell on a Saturday, which means Friday and Monday CANNOT be work days but must also be holidays too...)
• I'm not complaining - this meant a lovely 12.5-mile long run on Friday 10/31 with Lauren and Allie (one of the PCVs in town for the GLOW camp) followed by a GINORMOUS breakfast 
• direct quote from Lauren: "Lance Armstrong (in the runners app) says we burned 1,300 calories - WE GET TO EAT SO MUCH!" followed by and awesome high five
• This also meant that, after a very long day of travel with lots of traffic and delays of people getting to the Peace Corps shuttle, we made it to Antigua in time to celebrate Halloween with other gringos
• The PCVs have travel restrictions around the Guatemala City/Antigua/Chimultinango area, so they have a shuttle they have to use to get in and out of those areas - I was able to squeeze in as a friend of Lauren's which was quite nice
• I went as a woopie cushion, because wonderful wonderful Dona Humbe happened to purchase said costume in a paca last year to use as a "calidad" little rug - Lauren ID'd it as the woopie cushion costume is was born to be, and the rest is history
• For Dia de los Santos, a town near Antigua has a giant kite festival, so we all headed that way Saturday morning to enjoy the kites
• I ended up riding with Enrique, who, despite being born and raised less than 1.5hrs from Sumpongo, had never seen the festival
• The festival was AWESOME and the kites (made entirely our of tissue paper) were unbelievably impressive, both in size and intricacy of design
• Kike ended up giving a full car of PCVs a ride back to Antigua after we were all ready to head home and take a nap, which equated to a fantastic sing-a-long for songs such as "Benny and the Jets" and "American Pie" - it also meant Lauren, Kike, and Julie (a PCV friend of Lauren's) giving their best street vendor impersonations which was hilarious
• This trip was a blast for many reasons, particularly because it gave me the opportunity to meet a whole host of great folks, see some incredible sites, and generally just get out of the pueblo and have some quality gringo time

In other news, the family (aka the entire O'C clan) has confirmed that they will be visiting at the end of January/beginning of February, so I have very-excitedly started planning that trip!

Oh, and yeah, if you hadn't already gathered from parts of the post, I'm gonna run a half marathon this weekend in Xela... yikes!

With that, here are some photos:

A former EWB-USA project connecting the communities of Chosavic and Tres Cruces

An ancient ped bridge with MASSIVE abutments/pier connecting Rio Grand Los Llanos to Las Guacamayas, though at this point they would prefer a vehicle bridge

A very cool bridge

The SUPER PILAS leaders of the community El Amate standing in front of their school - happily, KSU will be down here in January to assess the site and plan for a new school building

A lovely hike between the Quiajchaj communities with Flat Stanley and Santos

At the Guapinol water system inauguration

on the stage...

Chatting with the guys at Coyoya

Mmmm the folks at San Luis La Comunidad were both awesome to chat with AND fed us a wonderful lunch of caldo de pollo and fresh-squeezed lemonade

Ahhh and the foks of Pachilip I...

... notice how the meeting started as a reasonable size...

... but rapidly exploded into a very large group - like I said, this was a very unique, uncomfortable, and wonderful experience

The leaders at Pachilip II - also a pilas bunch with a nice, covered cancha

Stanley with the girls at GLOW camp

my dinner/attempts to save my Dona Luisa banana bread from some ants who decided to attack it's bag... Lauren decided it looked like cookie monster

Getting ready to light the firecrackers and Magda (one of our running partners) with the cake!

A failed panorama of the gang having some cake - Margaret was also moving to take a photo and is chop chopped as a result

NP! The springbox with it's fancy new trashrack

Surveying the pipeline with the tremendous help for the poncho given as swag at the ASCE conference in Panama - really a big score for rainy season work

Trying to teach Stanley how to survey... and struggling...

...theeerrree we go...

...also taught Stanley how to operate a turbine

Jenaro, the president of NP, with the turbine

So pretty

Aaand a quick check-up of the good old NP ped bridge - they had replaced floor boards properly (whereas there were problems when I visited a few months ago)!

Julie the pinata, Lauren the hippy baby, and the woopie cushion 

the group staying at Backpackers International all dressed up

also, WAHO exists in Guate??

Stanley checking out the cemetery decorations  

One of the kites - for reference, Kike in the bottom left corner is 6'6"

KITES

This one might have been my favorite

the dragon!

Some guys putting together another kite

The crowds moving back and forth between the kite field and the cemetery

Onoe of Lauren's pictures from earlier in the day before the clouds rolled in - so pretty!

Vol. 3 – PANAMA! Pa na ma-ah

Yikes! This one really got away from me – the event itself was so jam packed with wonderful people, places, and learning experiences that it was all-consuming, which in turn meant my communication with the rest of the world ceased. Suffice it to say I’m still chin-deep in a well of emails and such…

SO por fin here are my thoughts on Panama!

For some background, check out the course schedule here, but in short:

• Part 1
• 3 days
• Exclusively with EWB-USA folks focused on course material
• This consisted of long morning lectures from BernardAmadei (founder of EWB-USA and prof at CU-Boulder), snacks, lectures from various professionals on their work in the engineering field, lunch, then afternoons in our pathway sections
• Pathways were our focus area for our case studies – I wrote a case study on the MU micro-hydro, PV electrical system here in Guate and was therefore part of the energy pathway
• We stayed about 15-20 min outside of the city center in a place called the “City of Knowledge” which is right next to the Pacific locks, used to be the main US military base, but when the US handed ownership over to the Panamanians (this only just happened in 1999 by the way – add this to the list of things I should have known but found shocking!), the Panamanians turned it into an incubator for development – it now consists of a few universities, UN offices, office space/living space for other start-ups and NGOs, and a hotel w/ conference center
• Part 2
• 5 days
• ASCE/EWB-USA conference and end of course
• This part consisted of various conference lectures/activities, local project site visits, and a visit to the CANAL – Bernard also gave a closing lecture for the course
• The conference was held at the fancy-schmancy Riu Panama and was lovely and expensive, so EWB set us up with blocks of rooms at a Double Tree that was about a 10-15min walk from the Riu
• This effectively meant that the EWB love-fest/bonding time/exclusivity didn’t change much; we just had better access to the city and all of its awesome attractions such as Casco Viejo

Generally speaking, this week was AMAZING for many many reasons, including (but not limited to):

• The people – holy cow! What an INCREDIBLE group of awesome, passionate, interesting, motivated, wonderful folks!
• There were about 120-130 individuals taking the class (mostly junior and senior engineering students but also a large contingent of professionals) plus 15-20 EWB-USA staff and the pathway leaders
• From my conversations, while most of us agreed that the course would have likely been more impactful for younger chapter members (freshmen/sophomores) and an excellent introduction to the theory and practice of development engineering, I must admit that I tremendously enjoyed having a group of juniors and seniors who had appreciable experience in the field. This meant that much of the lecture material felt a bit like preaching to the choir; however the choir was a melting pot of people who had thought about these concepts in great depth and with tremendous passion, therefore the questions asked and the conversations during “down-time” were incredibly enriching.
• Also, speaking a bit more selfishly, this group dynamic allowed me to straddle the student and professional realm very easily; since I’m only a year or two older than the vast majority of the students, I had no problem connecting. Having the opportunity to re-connect with the world of being an undergrad with a group of incredibly interesting peers, if only for a week, was absolutely wonderful. At the same time, I also had the freedom of a professional taking the class for personal reasons, not for credit, which meant I was able to allot more time to networking and being fully present in conversations rather than scrambling to complete homework
• I tried my darndest to get to know as many of the amazing folks present, but fuieron BASTANTES, so all distractions (email and blog…) from the present moment were neglected almost completely and I simply did my best to spend time with people at all times… this meant awesome conversations on a wide wide WIDE range of topics and the development of some pretty solid friendships. ALSO this meant extremely minimal sleep – adrenaline and lots of coffee made this acceptable for a week, but my body and email inbox were very displeased after my return to Guate…
• The conversations – speaking of the people, here were some of the take-aways I had from a variety of conversations with students and professionals. DISCLAIMER – These are sound bites of much larger, often week-long discussions and each deserves full-fledged posts to truly capture them, so please take them for what they’re worth…
• Balance – we need to be involved in organizations and volunteer work that is personally enriching rather than all-consuming
• This conversation with a professional who is new to EWB-USA work was very intriguing and reminded me tremendously of Pedro Arrupe’s thoughts on the matter
• Essentially, we came to the conclusion that we’re involved in EWB because we receive spiritual and emotional enrichment (from the other volunteers as well as communities) in exchange for our time and energy
• While the idea of “getting something in return” for service work might sound incorrect or selfish, we had a great conversation about how service work isn’t meant to be martyrdom (and if anything, that type of service only feeds our egos and leads to excess pride and chips on our shoulders) – we need to receive some form of joy and enrichment otherwise we burn out
• Morality in relation to development engineering
• After a week of immersion in the topic of development engineering, some folks raised interesting moral questions related to our work that all seemed to be based out of the basic question - is it moral to take on projects that have so many inherent and unmanageable risks that failure seems more probable than success? Given that the world of engineering is one of managing risk, the consensus generally came to this:
• We cannot avoid all development work because there is risk, but instead must do our best to operate within frameworks that are known to work and be extra vigilant to recognize and mitigate risks – we need to do everything in our power to make success more formulaic rather than “magical”
• Incentivized training for members
• Along the lines of mitigating risk and operating morally within the context of development engineering, many conversations came to the need for more education and training
• Back to balance, most volunteers are already stretched too thin by project demands within EWB to spend a ton of time on training purely for the sake of EWB (clearly the training enhances the project work, however that is not always clear to volunteers)
• Given this, we discussed many ideas such as finding ways to incorporate training modules into engineering course work at interested universities, providing PDH (professional development hours required in many states to maintain a professional engineering license) opportunities, or providing some type of certification that holds value outside of EWB
• Ultimately, all of these ideas call for greater educational resources or at least the re-purposing of existing educational resources within EWB to make them more widely utilized
• The content
• Like I said, some aspects felt like preaching to the choir, however it was fascinating to learn development theories in the specific context of engineering, particularly taught by Bernard (one of the premier minds in development engineering theory)
• Further, hearing from the various industry professionals about their work outside of EWB (and within EWB) was fascinating – it was effectively a collection of amazing speakers talking about their work and passion. We also had a chance before lunch and before closing each day during Part 1 to ask the day’s speakers and pathway leaders various questions – this led to awesome conversations over lunch and dinner/evening drinks          
• The Pathway sessions were also very enjoyable – I’ve been meaning to collect and present all info about the NP electrical project for a long time, and this setting gave me both ganas to actually tackle it (having deadlines is big for me) and an opportunity to have it reviewed and enriched by some outstanding professionals as well as the insights of other students in the pathway
• To be perfectly honest, I was a bit stir crazy and very mentally exhausted after 3 days straight of lectures, so I spent most of the conference in side conversations outside of lectures, though I certainly attended a few (below) that were exceptional! FAIR WARNING – I got a little excited and nerded out on this portion of the post… its super interesting I swear, but sorry for the length!
• “Evolving Models of Partnerships with USAID Programs” presented by Morris Israel, Ph.D., P.E. Senior Assoc. with Tetra Tech
• Really interesting technology applications (such as Watertracker and ePORT) for monitoring, evaluation, and maintenance of infrastructure projects in the developing world
• He also had a lot to say about local capacity building and how USAID requires work with local contractors, banks, and universities throughout the project life
• “Leaving a Community” Bernard Amadei’s closing statements
• He presented on his new model for development engineering that will be out soon when his new book is published, but it essentially took his earlier models and altered them to view development engineering projects as closed-loop systems with a circular causality – hard to describe without the model as a visual, but I’m looking forward to the new book
• Lots of talk about the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the importance of studying and implementing their models within the development context
• Chapters need to be prepared to recognize and manage the difference between “scaling up” projects and “scope creep” within projects and also need to understand that the definition of a “finished project” depends heavily on the context and owner’s (aka community’s) understanding of the project
• “Industry Leaders Forum” a Q&A session with Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, P.E. Chief of Engineers and Commanding General for the US Army Corps of Engineers
• This came right after our closing session with the EWB crew, so I was fairly late due to the conversations, networking, and group photos that followed Bernard’s talk, however I caught the tail end
• It was interesting to hear about the scope of the ACE (in 130 countries w/ 40 separate offices) where they’re working to help build capacity
• Other countries are eager (apparently) to establish Army Corps of Engineers because they see how ACEs can
• Stabilize their country by meeting basic infrastructure needs and raising their citizens’ quality of life
• Help the image of the military (in my travels I’m constantly reminded that having pride and respect for your country’s military is not common in many countries outside of the US, particularly in developing nations – again, another can of worms that I will not get into here, but just an interesting observation)
• Distinguished Lecture Series – Masters International Work with James R. Mihelcic, Ph.D., BCEEM and director of environmental engineering Masters International programs at USF
• Very interesting guy who gave a wealth of resources during his talk (hard to keep track of it all!) including a major focus on appropriate technology – inappropriate technology will always equate to project failure in some capacity
• He defined inappropriate technology as a solution that doesn’t meet geographical and/or cultural specifications, is economically unsustainable, or that does not have adequate local capacity to support it (though he noted that capacity can be developed, but must be within reason and scope)
• He and some of his students also developed a field guide for “Environmental Engineering for Development Workers” which is AWESOME and should be done for other aspects of infrastructure development…                               
• “Transforming Vision to Reality” a panel of 4 professionals including MG John Peabody, Deputy Commanding General for Civil Works and Emergency Operations in the US Army Corps of Engineers
• All four panel members gave interesting presentations on a variety of different scopes and focuses related to project delivery for infrastructure systems, however MG Peabody’s talk stood out
• MG Peabody focused on geo-politics in relation to US natural resources and defined “infrastructure development” as the civil engineer’s job to satisfy human needs, but increasingly in the modern era, to satisfy/stabilize environmental needs based on previous attempts to satisfy human needs and “vision” as a dream based on reality paired with a plan to realize that dream
• He talked about the concept of “coasts” in the US, referring to coasts as anything touching a waterway that can be navigated to meet economic demand, making the Great Lakes region the “north coast” and the states touching the Mississippi river the “central coast”
• Given this, the US has more navigable waterways than all other nations combined (WOAH mind blown) making it an “Inevitable Empire” from a geo-political standpoint
• However, since we have so many coasts, this means we have a massive percentage of our population occupying flat coastline, which poses a massive threat to our infrastructure (ergo economy) as oceans rise
• Disaster relief is expensive work, so working on building resilience into our Public Works projects is critical to help lessen the cost of relief as more and more is required with water rising left-right-and-center
• He also noted that “armoring coastlines” was completely unsustainable and that we should instead focus on beach nourishment and wetlands restoration – he referred directly to the loss of wetlands surrounding New Orleans and how massively critical it is to work to restore them and I almost stood up and shouted “AMEN”
• He closed with the note that it’s all well and good to be an inevitable empire by geo-political standards, but that establishing such an empire is the easy part – once achieved, it must be sustained and must avoid becoming self-absorbed
• As you might have guessed given my air time for this one (and you’re probably reading this blog because you know me already…), I cannot possibly express how AMAZING it was to hear someone so high up in the ACE speak on these issues with such passion – he’s clearly fighting an uphill battle, but it’s fantastic to know that he is in a position to potentially make a difference
• During Q&A, when asked how engineers can have a greater voice in the vision of public works projects, he said we need to
• Spend more time/effort working on/through public policy
• Provide more solutions than problems as a way of establishing more trust and respect in Congress
• Engineering education also needs to place more emphasis on social/cultural education so engineers have the capacity to express ourselves better to the general public
• In a similar vein, there was a question of how do we change public perception of public works/civil engineering so we can get the funding we need to complete critical projects to which he responded
• First, they need to believe us (thus establishing trust is first and foremost)
• With trust, then we can get them to invest by showing how our work impacts their bottom line (it’s cheaper to be resilient)
• That being said, when I had the pleasure to chat with him after the presentation, we talked extensively about how such insights are often ignored completely by politicians and others in power because they only believe engineers are trying to push public works projects for the sake of job security – I wanted to know how he handles this and how he keeps himself motivated when people (politicians) refuse to listen to him. He basically said that all we can do is maintain our integrity and keep putting the information out there in as many ways and as clearly as possible, but we must recognize that we can’t make people change their minds – we only have control over ourselves and our own actions
• The place – suffice it to say, Panama City is incredible, but you all know by now that I’m long-winded, so here goes:
• As mentioned above, the City of Knowledge was way cool and a brilliant use of space (in my opinion) – it was awesome being able to spend time there, even if we were entirely cloistered and in our own, special EWB world (which was pretty awesome in-and-of-itself)
• Panama City is, as one of the local engineers put it, a civil engineer’s playground – the Canal brings in a staggering amount of money, and given that the city/country is essentially the crossroads of the world, the city sees a lot of activity
• Like anywhere, there’s also tremendous poverty present that I would be remiss to ignore, but my oh my is there some intense development happening!
• THE CANAL – we visited the Miraflores Locks which had a nice 3D movie to explain the history and function of the locks as well as a really well-done museum. Sadly, we only stopped briefly with a large group from the conference and missed the big big ships heading down the canal, but it was pretty incredible just to be there. We also visited the expansion construction site – again, we didn’t get to go down into the hole, but we had a nice orientation from the PM and the viewing area was pretty excellent given that the locks have yet to be flooded
• Casco Viejo (the old city) is also incredible – I was fortunate to visit Casco both informally as well as for my site visit on the final day. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and therefore incredibly beautiful and rich with history

OK so much info – this is only a glimpse of the week as a whole and time cannot possibly allow me to describe every aspect of how amazing this experience was. My biggest take-aways were:

• Engineering education needs a facelift and I’m more excited than ever to pursue a career as a professor of engineering to help shake this up!
• Lots and lots of ideas to improve EWB-USA in relation to educational offerings, but also a tremendous appreciation for the base of incredible and passionate individuals who comprise the organization
• Amazing new contacts and friends – it truly was an amazing group and I look forward to maintaining and building on these relationships!

And now, PICTURES! Probably should note at this point that my amazing mother (with the help of my very patient and helpful boss) sent an awesome care package that included Jimmy’s Flat Stanley, so Panama also served as the first stop in the adventures of Flat Stanley!

flying in! look at all the ships headed for the canal!

sunrise during a morning run in the central park of la Ciudad de Saber

Nights in Casco Viajo

Ah, gotta love the panorama feature on iPhones!

Flat Stanley hanging out with Cathy Leslie (Executive Director of EWB-USA) and some awesome awesome students

FLAT STANLEY wants to be an engineer when he grows up

a nice stroll along the ocean front parkway

Flat Stanley with Bernard Amadei

And with MG Peabody

The closing luncheon

at the Miraflores locks!

Sadly, timing meant this was the only ship we saw pass through... just means another visit is necessary

the old sections of the canal

the new locks!

daytime in Casco Viajo at the first university in Latin America established by none other than the good old Jesuits

the golden alter

ahh Casco

Santo Domingo 

Hanging out with Flat Stanley

out and about during the market in the old city with the new city in the background

the Biodiversity Museum - very cool structure, just bummed I didn't have time to go in - again, just means another visit is necessary!