Qué piensan ustedes de cloro?

When designing a training session, while it is important to reflect upon the goals of the workshop – what are the lessons that we aim to impart on the group? What are the results and changes that we are hoping for? – it is also integral to determine some key information from the target audience. It is difficult to address the needs of a community if their needs and knowledge gaps are unknown.

I was thinking about these questions in regards to my mini-project: my main focus will be to help the community of Pitahayas (which you might remember from my first week of work) institute the use of chlorine in their small potable water system. They have a fairly new potable water system which has a hipoclorador (chlorinator) built into their storage tank. However, the community members were never trained on the operation of their chlorinator after the construction, so it hasn’t been used. My plan was to work with them to set-up a chlorine dispensing system and prepare a day-long training for the Junta, the fontaneros (volunteer plumbers) and anyone else interested in the community. As I was gearing up to sketch out the training session, it occurred to me: I have no idea what the community thinks about chlorination.

Nanoturbinas y cafe

At 5am two Saturdays past, I shuffled bleary-eyed past the fruit-and-vegetable mongers starting their market set up. I was heading out on a day trip into the mountainous wilderness surrounding Comayagua, to indulge my engineering side and learn about turbines. And I regretted it initially; too little caffeine pulsed in my system, our lift was late, and I longed to wait an hour or two for the pupusa sellers to warm up their fryers. Ultimately it was worth it; a day replete with site visits, plus a bonus lesson on Honduran coffee (one of the country’s biggest exports) and a surprise hike and river crossing (that seems to happen a lot here).