Elyse O'C: life after MKE: las primeras semanas del trabajo sola en Xoy

SO after making it through the barricades and back to Xoy for work, the past couple of weeks flew by with plenty of work at el filtro and settling into my room. Highlights include (and fair warning - I've mostly been working, so highlights include A LOT of enginerdy explanations...):

Filter was not functioning when I returned per an order from the Alcalde to bypass the system - "¿Por que?" you say? Since it's the rainy season, the springs ("nacimientos" which are captured by "capitaciones") are producing more water than the system is designed to handle, so we had shut off some of the springs to bring the flow down to design levels, however over the weekend, enough complaints came in about people not having enough water that Florencio just decided to let 'er go...
With the promise that we would work tirelessly on the system to get it up and running and passing enough water for el pueblo (and with my physical presence in Xoy), we notched the flow down, but are letting her run higher than design to see how much it can handle with only daily bed cleanings
A consideration to increase performance was to add better peagravel to the beds (apparently the original shipment during construction was not ideal, but used) assuming that the existing peagravel was too fine, thus being forced down into the course gravel layers and subsequently plugging the pipe holes...
LESSON LEARNED: adding new gravel to a functioning sand filter is NOT ideal

Theory suggests we should be able to place a layer of peagravel on top of the sand bed, and, while the sand layers are suspended and quick during backwash, the gravel will settle nicely into place (because it is heavier)... theoretically
We ended up spending a solid 7-8 hours backwashing and prodding the sand/peagravel mix and, one week later, still have some pea gravel to settle, which, other than stratifying the AGGREGATE (there is your favorite word in action, my non-engineering friends!) into different levels and ribbons throughout the sand, the filter beds are still functioning fine
We only did this to 3/6 beds (to see if/how much performance is improved)

As of right now, the filter is performing FANTASTICALLY which makes me a HAPPY HAPPY ingeniera

as a total side note, as we left the perfectly functioning filter today at 6:30am (after a crisp, 5am start to the day), after my favorite fontanero, Alejandro, filled in the data collection notebook I developed with him and set up for him to maintain a log of system functions PERFECTLY, and we were getting ready to head back into town for some coffee and to report our happy findings to the Alcalde, I saw two dogs playing on the hillside near us. Super corny, but this mountain-top hillside was beautiful in the early morning light, with a smattering of trees and cows and a rustic house, and these two dogs loving life - they just looked so darn joyful, I really enjoyed watching them and felt like they were sharing my joy of things finally moving in the right direction

All of the Guatemalans I work with refer to me as "ingeniera" or "ingeniera Elysia" and whenever I tentatively ask for something like a ride, or a few hours of Alejandro's time to help me run tests, I get responses like "que tu dices es la orden" and "estoy aqui para servirle" - trying hard not to let such power go to my head...
Last weekend I FINALLY had a chance to buy a table and chair from the market and buy some tablas (1"x12"x8' ish planks) to construct my storage unit - I thought about buying a wardrobe, but they're super expensive (compared to my move-in budget...) and just don't provide EXACTLY the type of storage I want... so I designed my own (engineer, duh) - implementation of said design consisted of:

purchasing tablas from my neighbor who goes with his dad up the mountain to harvest the trees, then they have a make-shift saw mill to cut them to approximate dimensions, and set them out to dry/advertise in their yard (they are white pine and very sappy)
taking said tablas to the carpentry shop in town which was SO COOL (pictures below... dad, you would have been in heaven) to cut them into slightly more consistent, standard, dimensions, "clean them" (as Mincho put it - aka rough sand them), then I marked out the lengths and our master carpenter cut them into pieces
heading out to Mincho's with screws, PVC for hanging clothes, paint, sand paper, and "wipey" (their non-tacky version of tack clothe) to put the pieces together (pretty sure this process went more smoothly with warped, fresh-cut planks and non-pilot-hole screw connections than any piece of IKEA furniture I've ever attempted...)
sanding and wipey...ing and PAINTING

As you'll see in the pictures, I had grand plans of painting clearly laid-out sections blue and others green, but neither my skills nor my paint supplies allowed for this, so it quickly degenerated into "screw it, I'm gonna paint the parts that will be visible with whatever combo of colors I have left and expand paint splatters to make them look intentional"

Finally, Mincho chopping down a and shaving a branch from a tree in the yard to reinforce the inside of my PVC clothes hanging rod

The whole process took my weekend and ended with the components being delivered in the back of Mincho's pickup truck Monday morning, meaning I spent a lot of time at Mincho's house Saturday and Sunday

during this time, the family got a new puppy (sadly, the late Taffy had 5 puppies, but was hit by a car before the puppies could survive on their own, meaning the whole family passed away a few months ago) who Lupe (short for Guadalupe, Mincho's 5-yr-old daughter) promptly named "Alemania chivas de brazilia" (guess who she supported in the Copa, much to the shegrin of her father??) - this was eventually revised to "Bruno Alemania" (his name was originally Bruno) with the clarification that Alemania is his last name (pictures of their cuteness can be found below)

In preparation for my map-making activities (AJ, your maps are still hanging all over the Muni and other Ministry offices around town...), I've been taking lots of points and tracks with my GPS and spending lots of time in the local hotel restaurant to utilize wifi to run Google Earth Pro instead of attempting such work on my little, Claro internet stick... the daytime waiter, Alberto, has been quite helpful explaining the Guate bus system and I can tell you ALL about the latest telanovela drama (but I'll spare you the riveting tales of lying, stealing, cheating, and babies that grandma doesn't know about)
Been spending lots of time with Alejandro between measuring flows and water quality (turbidity) at the filter and spending hours taking readings of water depth in the distribution tanks in 15-min intervals, which could be a horrifically boring and sad task in the hot sun, but is in fact quite lovely, b/c Alejandro is a wonderful, dedicated, and positive person.
THE TURBIDITY METER FINALLY HAD ITS MAIDEN VOYAGE – many photos below, b/c the guys have been amused by the detail and weight of the whole deal since I first showed up on site with it, and both Mincho and Alejandro were more than happy to take MANY pictures of it in action… So be prepared for the photo shoot below…

Yikes, OK FINE TIM, I did have a lot to report after 2 weeks... sorry for the length and delay...

Also, shout out to the McCarthy-and-cousins crowd in Huron this past week - I was telling Mincho what Tim was up to out at Lake Erie (poco de sol, poco de cervesa, y mucho descanso, familia, y COMIDA) in response to his (frequent) questions about how "el hombre de un mil batallas" is doing, and I enjoyed his response - "Ah, es un regalo de la vida"

Finally, after a meeting with the Alcalde tonight to discuss our findings, concerns (mostly social/water use/waste related), and recommendations for the water system, I'll be packing and off in the morning to meet with a variety of folks in Guatemala City, Antigua, and around Lake Atitlan - stay posted for info on that next Thursday when I'm home!

WARNING - pictures are proceeded by some more enginerdiness to provide some more background to info above...

First, numbers (sorry, explanations are in Spanish, but that's what I have prepared for the Alcalde...)

This is what a "capitacion" looks like - I tried to capture the awesomeness of finally reaching these (it takes a 1hr pickup ride on dirt roads then a 30min hike up the mountain), but the feeling of coming across ancient ruins in the jungle doesn't quite translate... brother Michael, I need your photographic eye in Guatemala. please!

The white lines feed the filter I'm working on - 4 capataciones feeding the Chilaj line

This is a schematic of a sand filter (thank you google...) to explain the peagravel (fine gravel) dealio... Ours is not fed by a septic tank...

Mincho and Alejandro at the beginning of our day of backwashing trying to settle the darn peagravel

Me feeling artsy as the day wore on

The carpentry shop and master carpenter - again, I need my brother's photography skills to capture how cool this place is (there are maybe 5 other rooms like this and stairways all over the place like they were designed by the folks at Hogwarts)

Lupe and Bruno Alemania and the desk when I still had dreams of carefully laid out, separated colors

Bruno Alemania "in his new home" according to Lupe (this lasted 30 seconds)

The finished products! notice how the colors started to blend...

Not to be one of those people who takes pictures of their food... BUT to prove to my mother that I am nourishing myself, here's what happens when I'm left to my own devices for cooking - eggs (so many eggs...), a stir fry of various root veggies, squash, and green beans from the market, and some sauteed tomatoes and onions and hot sauce, of course!

My room after the set up! My traje skirt with pinned items that was on the right-hand wall didn't last the night - I can't put holes in the wall (darn cinderblock!), so I'll need some more heavy duty 3M products from the city - my cheapo "Truper" wall mounting tape has only kept up the Harley poster so far...

The view of our little courtyard from my room

Mincho gathering a sample of water - THE FIRST

Look, pa, it works!

The SECOND sample (compliments of Mincho - I swear, I don't ask them to do these things, they just don't trust my balance and take their own initiative...)