Today was the longest and craziest hike I have ever been on. Though only about 4 miles in length, the humidity, dust, and terrain made it incredibly difficult. The dust in the air towards the base of the mountain made breathing-in clean air very difficult. The first portion of the hike was to the water source, a small stream up the mountain that has been damned off with a small retaining pond. The walk up this mountain was full of incredibly steep dips & inclines, and lots of loose rock and cliffs to slide off of. At one point on a steep decline, rounding a turn, on a thin makeshift path I lost my footing; for a split second I thought for sure I was going over the edge and tumbling to my death. I'm fairly positive that whomever insures Global Brigades has no concept of the places they are going with inexperienced college students. The second part of the hike was to the large concrete cylinder that is the holding tank. Here the water is stored and cleaned with a simple chlorine filter before continuing down the mountain. This entire system uses gravity to keep the water moving so the source is higher than the holding tank, is higher than the homes of the community. Though the hike was incredibly beautiful I'm not sure I would go for that much danger again any time soon.
(two other brigadiers climbing up the mountain)
(video of the damn area of the water source, this was a very small creek which is why not much appears to be coming in our out, but over 150 gallons per minute go through here)
(water holding tank)
After the hike to the damn and then the holding tank ( the most beautiful point I've seen in Honduras so far) we headed down the mountain to a community meeting. There were over 100 people packed into a 20x20 school building to discuss the current water project as well as the future of Public Health Brigades within the community. The meeting in this hot, humid, dusty room lasted over an hour in rapidly spoken Spanish. Though I didn't understand the majority of what was being said it was obvious that there was some frustration and animosity between Joel, Orlando, and the other GB leaders and the community. Though not understanding
