Project Update

Well things have been extremely busy for me here in OUdomxay. Last week starting on Monday I went out with two of my colleagues to do a training workshop for building using the Biosand water filter. Things started out pretty good with 10 villagers attending the training. the first concrete case we built however, fell apart as we took it out of the mould...too much water and it didn't sit long enough. so we tried again and the next day it turned out really good. did some additional training on sanitation, bacteria and water storage....and that was it for the week as the villagers had other work to do. Going back today (Sunday) to see how the second concrete case turns out and hopefully do some training on installing the filter medium. Hopefully it will work out.

Thursday morning I attended a meeting with my staff and community leaders from 8 different villages located around the xay Township. We are working with these villages to help them develop and implement strategies and plans for dealing with waste water and solid waste. this coming week we will be spending 4 days in the villages helping them to do surveys on waste around the village and then working to actually develop village based plans for dealing with it.

On Friday, the project staff for the watershed management project went out to two villages, Ban Konoy and Ban Homxai, to conduct focus groups on deforestation and chages in land use planning...etc. unfortunately as I'm supposed to be training my colleagues to do the research I don't really get to sit in on their discussion and have trouble following along (don't have a translator for this stuff) but the little I was able to pick up seemed really intersting. Hopefully, we will all have the chance to sit down soon and go over what they learned from the villagers.

anywho, keeping busy and always having fun. Starting today I will be in the villages for the next 7 days straight and then headed off for a study tour to the Houaphanh province. don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while. patrick