Back to Armenia and Jaguar Creek

Armenia and Jaguar Creek today. After breakfast at the rectory in Benque, we set off for Armenia. We saw a sign at the turn to the community center that proclaimed the presence of a “rudimentary water system”. We were early for our meeting, so we poked around the laundry for a while. My first impression was disappointment; the door had been removed, there were various bits of block and other rubble and a broken chair on the floor. Most but not all of the plumbing had been attached. The cistern, which had been attached to the community center, had been moved to the laundry, but there was no connection to the laundry plumbing. The result was that the community center has lost its water supply but the laundry hasn’t gained one.

Things turned worse and then better when Michael, the Peace Corps guy, and Pedro Garcia, the chairman of the village council and a member of the water board, appeared. Pedro told us clean water is a crucial issue because there is NO water. He said the first well collapsed, they installed another, which collapsed, and a third, which produced for about an hour before it went dry. They hope that when the rains start in a few weeks, the well will produce again, but it is obviously not a permanent source. They had borrowed a water truck from the Water Ministry and trucked in a load from Caves Branch River, but it wasn’t treated. The Ministry has offered to deliver water by truck if the village had a tank to put it in. It’s not clear that it would be chlorinated, so further treatment might be needed. But there is no tank. We figure that with a population of around 1500, assuming not all would use the water, they would need 2000 gal/day with little left for non-drinking/cooking use. We estimate a 2000-gal tank would cost about $1200 Bz ($600 US).

Pedro is interested in the possibility of purification for whatever water is available for daily use. He is also concerned about accumulating treated water because the community center is a designated hurricane shelter. He was put off a bit by the estimated operating and maintenance costs, but he seemed to think it might be possible to support it. He understood that they would have to run and bottle for 5-6 hr/day, and that may present a personnel problem. However, supply pipes have been laid to the community center just behind the laundry, so hooking the laundry up will not be hard once there is water.

Two civic wells, with hand pumps, are in use. We sampled them, but the second was difficult because the people collecting water had run it dry, and it took 5-10 minutes to recharge enough to get a sample. Both had high pH, high hardness, and high alkalinity.

We had heard from the peace corps worker and from Jaguar Creek that the Armenia primary school needs a new sanitary system. When we brought up the issue of a new septic tank, Pedro said he was considering options. A septic tank would not be useful if there was no water, and he didn’t know the leaching capacity of the potential drain field. He was thinking they might be better off with new, larger latrines, but he didn’t know whether there are too many rocks to be able to dig, and whether the wet-season water table is too high for deeper latrines to be possible. We encouraged him to work on the problem and let us know what it might cost.

We got to see Filberta, who we worked with at the clinic. She is very concerned that not much progress has been made in health education. I promised that if we got back to Armenia, I would talk with her and the other community health nurse Odelia about those issues. We have since decided that a return to Armenia at the end of the week is probably essential, both to solidify our position as interested and committed and ready to help, but to also just make a second contact be fore we come home. I was again impressed, as in the middle of the day we watched middle school age children labor up the hill from the river with 5 gallon containers of water. How do they do it? I don’t think I could. Chuck is not saying what we feel is obvious, there are many opportunities to be of service in Armenia and probably much can be done in the future, but they need water now, it seems easy to do—so let’s get it done.

From Armenia, we went on the Jaguar Creek. where we met Mark and Adrian Parcher, the new operators. We learned that their mission is to disadvantaged children – building supplemental facilities for schools, providing scholarships, etc. They are still working closely with Armenia, and they agree water is a serious problem. They reported that Rotary International has just approved a grant to install a septic system at the Armenia primary school, information that Pedro had apparently not yet received. They would be glad to house a group of water workers.

The camp has changed a bit but not a lot. They have remodeled several of the cabanas and bunkhouses, and they are replacing the batteries in the power plant. They have also cleared some of the forest at the edges of the central open space. But mostly it looks the same and had the same feel. Being there brought back many memories.

We are now at In His Will Ministries, with Lynn and Chris Kszos, Robin Graham, and Susan French. Actually we are now in San Ignacio at a dance recital that includes Caleb Coverdale, who is in the camp director family. Several of the pieces have religious titles, although they look like any other dance recital pieces. I’m glad we came. This is a side of Belize we hadn’t seen, where there are dance recitals and PTA, soccer moms and ballet moms, and cute little blondes as well as cute little Mayans and Hispanics. Dale’s not quite so glad. She says it’s past bedtime.

Surprise! The bacteriological sample from Arenal is already black.

I was hoping this would go out on a wireless connection, which some 12-year-old kid who was attracted by the computer told me was possible through one of maybe three routers, but no deal, but probably because I didn’t know how to turn on the wireless in the computer.