Implementation Trip Update (cancelled)

Unfortunately, we had to postpone the implementation trip to Bolivia. There is too much civil unrest in Bolivia right now because they are having their election in August. Also EWB-USA was giving us a hard time when we were trying to get approval. They loved our project and thought we were prepared and organized, but they wouldn't give us the OK until we told them what the roofing material was made of. We contacted Luc (the director of the Capacitation Center in Bolivia) and he told us that the roof was made of a zinc alloy and that he believed that it was usable for rainwater harvesting, but it was not enough information for EWB-USA. They wanted to know if we could get a sealant for the roof to prevent the zinc from leeching into the water, but there was now way that we could get that information at the time since Luc left Bolivia for a month and our other contacts were not responding in. Because our implementation trip date was approaching and we still had not bought our tickets, we had to postpone the trip. the tickets would have been too expensive for our budget, and we would not be able to get the rest of the implementation trip requirements completed before August.

For the rest of the summer and next semester, we will be doing experiments with sand filtration, charcoal filtration, SODIS, and ferro cement to prepare for our implementation trip in December. Will you be in town for any of the summer? If you are interested, you can help us out with the charcoal filtration, and SODIS experiments this summer.

If you or anyone else has any more questions, please ask me. I want to make sure that everyone is updated and knows what's going on. I hadn't sent everyone an update yet because our decision to postpone the trip was just made last week.I hope you have having a great summer,

-Akeem