Most of us left from XNA in Fayetteville but the whole group met at the DFW airport at 7pm to fly to Miami. DFW is KNOWN for changing their gates at the last minute so we were all running around trying to get to our last and final gate. As we all met up they assigned our seats and we flew to Miami International Airport (MIA) where we had a 14 hour layover planned before our final flight that would take us to Belize.
After landing after midnight we gathered our bags and headed to check in for our next flight...only to find out that check in was not open again until 4am. So we knew we had a long night ahead of us! We found an area where we were out of the way where some of us could stay to get some rest and watch the bags. But most of us were too excited to sleep just yet so we visited South Beach and went to get some breakfast.
The whole group met back up at 5am to check in together. We all had not realized how tired we all really were! We headed to our gate and found out the hard way that MIA loves to blast their AC all year round. We were all freezing and not sleeping! Here is some pictures of our suffering...
We all finally boarded our plane to head to Belize! There were lucky few that were able to sleep the whole way there...but needless to say we were all exhausted anyways! We landed in Belize around 3pm and went through customs. When we stepped outside we were all so happy to see the big white bus and Jiño!
We loaded up the bus and headed to the mission we were staying at near Belmopan. We were all blown away with how warm and beautiful Belize was! Jiño stopped at a market and we were able to indulge in some of our first Belizian experiences! We tried natural juices and plantain chips. It was very refreshing after spending so much time cooped up in an airport!
We pulled up at the mission right in time for dinner and I know that every could say that every meal we had was authentic and delicious. And the mission was gorgeous! All of us were tired and were starting to feel the the bug bites! After dinner we were all exhausted and everyone was showered and in bed, asleep by 8pm...some of us said we had not been to bed that early since elementary school!
Monday - AEA versus Mud (Work Day 1)
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December 2010
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The next morning we all woke up and had an early breakfast. It was unanimous that we all felt like we could have slept all day! But breakfast gave us all the energy we needed and we decided to kick off our day by going to look at the suspension bridge that was down the road. It was very noticeable that everything was so luscious and covered in green! As we were walking to the bridge we discovered the "Touch Me Not" ferns...they are small little ferns that look like leaves but when you run your finger across them they close up. Many of us found this entertaining! The bridge looked very nice compared to pictures we have from last year. The bridge was cool because it would swing as we all walked over it. It went over the river that we were staying near called the "Roaring River" ...but there was nothing roaring about it! It was nice calm and serene.
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| Today |
After our walk down to the bridge we were all excited to visit More Tomorrow! Fist Jiño took us to the hardware store to buy rebar and the supplies we needed to dig the holes for the first day. We drove out to More Tomorrow and when we arrived at the church. The site where we were going to start digging was directly across the street from the church and we all could tell that we were going to have our work cut out for us! Belize has two season, wet and dry. We were visiting at the end of wet season which lasts June to November so we were still experiencing quite a bit of rain. During our stay we were lucky to have most of the rain during the night or early morning, but that meant that we always were coming out to a wet site.
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| Dig Site Work Day 1 |
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| Pump |
Before work we ate lunch and broke up into teams. Project leader Ben had most of the hands out on site to map out and measure where the footings needed to be located. Each footing needed to be dug into a 3 foot cube. Once the digging started we noticed that there was alot of sitting water and the soil was retaining alot of water as well. Jenny headed up a second dig site team to try and create a trench so the water had a way to go that went away from the footings. Thankfully this was the only day that we experienced rainy weather off and on the whole day. Although this was bad for us on our first day of digging because the footing holes were filling up with water fast. We needed alot of the water out of the middle of the site fast so we could get more done on the first day. Luckily Jiño was able to find a local who had a pump and could help us get some of the water out of the dig site.
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Well 2 - School Well
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| Well 3 |
Megan headed up the small last group with Cody and Chelsea. They walked around the village to conduct a health survey with the community. They were able to really interact with the people individually which was a great experience for them to get a more personal relationship going with the community. They asked questions about what their favorite drinks are. Many said they drank water. They also asked them where and how did they get their water. There were a few interesting results from this...last year when we came we tested Well 3 which is easily accessible to many of the villagers...the results were not good and we asked that they tried not to use that water as drinking water. When they asked them where they got their water not many of them said from Well 3. But when we asked a kid where he got his water from he told them that he drank from Well 3 often and that it tasted very bad. Some villagers also said that they catch the runoff of the rain water from their tin roofs but when they drink it that it makes them sick. They blamed it on the nearby farms and the chemicals that they spray over their plants. We would like to be able to bring some of that water back with us to test what could possibly be the problem. As a group we discussed some other sources of why the water could cause them to get sick. If they do not have a well covered catchment then anything could get into their water and make them sick.
As we began to wrap up the days work we had one hole completely dug, a second hole more than half way dug and the last two holes just started. We had alot of very unexpected water issues that caused problems with thick mud. This made it hard on our shovels resulting in many broken tools. Zach unfortunately lost a shoe to the mud...and Padma was named the mud princess because she was covered in mud from head to toe! We had Well 2 and 3 tested fro Ecoli, Coliform and Staph...all expected to yield results in 48 hours. We were all worn down but we needed to go to the lumber yard on the way back to the mission to get plywood to make frames to hang rebar from. That evening before dinner we were able to measure out four 3 foot squares with the ply wood in the shop on the mission.
Tuesday - AEA versus Sun and Concrete (Work Day 2)
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| Group Demonstration at Well 1 |
We woke up for an early breakfast again and headed out around 9am. We went to the hardware store again to buy 12 bags of cement as well as more supplies. Most everyone who did not have rubber boots or gloves the day before bought some that morning. Before we began work we stopped at Well 1 to teach the rest of the group how to test using the samples we had. This was the Well that we have tested in past trips and discovered that is was saturated with Iron. We observed that it probably was still this way due to the same cloudy water that came out. Once the water was settled we could even see brown heavy particles that had settled at the bottom of the sample cup. Sara demonstrated how to run the test with the conditions we had. Every one who wanted to try to test got their chance to do so.
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| Megan Performing Water Testing on Well 1 |
We all had a little bit of a better idea of what to expect at the site. We had a long night of rain at the mission so we knew that we were going to have another water issue that day, so Jenny continued to headed a team to help drain some of the water away from the site.
As the team got the some of the sitting water out of the hole Harrison and Sara took the frames that were made from the night before to start hanging rebar from. In a beam the there are two zones of stress and strain that the beam experiences...the tension and compression zones. Concrete is weak in tension and strong in compression so when working with concrete you have to reinforce the bottom third of the beam where the tension zone is located. The design of the footings did not call for reinforcement for this structure but for sustainability reasons (mostly for their hurricane seasons) we raised enough money to reinforce the cubes with 2 rows of Number 4 bars.
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| Hand Mixing concrete |
Midday we had lunch. After lunch Sara and Harrison took the first frame and rebar pallet out to our first ready footing. We placed the pallet over the hole to make sure we were going to have all of the cover we needed for the rebar. We had a team getting wheel barrels full of sand and we made a mixing station near our site...and yes we hand mixed ALL of it! Getting water for mixing was a slow process because we needed to use the closest source we had which was the sink in the bathrooms. The water that was supplied for the bathrooms came from a tank that gathered rain water off of the roof of the church. We layed down layers of sand and cement. First a wheel barrel of sand and then a bag of cement, each time flattening and spreading out the layers to create a pallet where we could pour the water in the middle and begin mixing. This first footing was the worst one for us. It was a learning experience at its finest and we were all working hard to get it filled. Water was an issue for us when filling this hole because this hole stayed very wet most of the time. Therefore we ended up having to use all 12 bags of cement for one hole. We were able to get a concrete sample by filling a water bottle...we would like to bring it back to test its strength in the lab at school.
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| Hung Rebar |
The one hole took us the whole day to work on. Like I said it was a learning experience. Jiño was very helpful with teaching us how to hand mix. We used the wheel barrel to take out all of the mixed concrete out to the hole. Since it was muddy we found old ply wood from a deserted house next to the church that we used to make a path for the wheel barrels.
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| Zach Hard at Work |
Most of us were exhausted and it seemed like we needed to come back together and recap the day and come up with a better plan for the next day. We needed to get every one back and regrouped so we were not so bogged down by the work for the next day. So after everyone had dinner and got cleaned up we met on the boys side in their unused front room for a discussion. We made it open for anyone and almost everyone came. This just showed how united our group was and how dedicated and committed everyone was to take on the next day. Jenny and Sara raised some questions and concerns about the water and the design. Ben was ready for this and helped us all get on the same page. We went over plans and everyone was starting to understand the design process. Only half of our AEA members are Civils and we are so glad that everyone was curious about why we did things a certain way. We were able to get so much accomplished in this meeting and everyone was ready to take on the next day.
Wednesday - Domination (Work Day 3)
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| Cement Assembly Line |
We left before 8am that morning after a very early breakfast. First we dropped off Megan at the bus station. Megan is an Industrial Engineer and she has focused alot of research to Sustainability and Development. Last summer she came to Belize with the summer study abroad group where they had many projects that they worked on in Dangriga, Belize. Megan was going back there to talk to and interview people about how their project helped them and how things are developing after.
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| Nick Measuring Footing |
After the bus station we went to the hardware store again...this time to get 40 bags of cement! The bus was pulled back to where the cement was stored and the boys made an assembly line to get them all into the back of the bus. We were all excited to get on the road when the bus broke down...
We were all kind of glad that it decided to give now rather than later when we were in the village because we ended up having to go get repairs done on it before we could head out to More Tomorrow. This put us behind what we thought we would make it out there for. Over lunch we decided that our goals were still attainable and everyone got to work, already knowing what we had left to finish. Water was starting to be collected for mixing, a sand pile was brought closer to the site, and there was a team out on the site clearing out and digging the two holes that we wanted to get filled that day. Jenny and Sara set the next two frames for the rebar pallets. When we were done with the first one we had the group start mixing the first batch of concrete so as we could pour one layer into the hole first and then place the rebar in. We had so much going on that it felt like it went by so fast...and it did! We were able to pour two more complete footings in only 5 hours! It was AMAZING team work!
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| Day 3 - 3 Footings Completed |
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| Most of the Crew After a Hard Days Work |
We picked up Megan and had a short drive through Belmopan as we headed back to the mission. We drove past the US Embassy just to say hi! We then made it back for dinner, which was delicious just like every meal she made for us there. After dinner we had another meeting. The meetings at the end of the day really kept everyone much more encouraged and excited for the next day. And we all knew we only had one more footing left for us and now we all felt like pros! So we discussed groups and a course of action for the final day. Then we told everyone that if we got done before 1pm that we could try and go on an excursion. We all decided that we could finish and that we would go to the Mayan Ruins in San Ignacio when we did!
Thursday - We Are On Top Of Belize! (Work Day 4)
We left early again around 8am and arrived before 9am in More Tomorrow. Before we left Sara checked the water samples that we had tested on Work Day 1 because their incubation period was now well over with. We were all shocked to see the results...
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| Well 2 Results |
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| Well 3 Results |
Above are each of the Wells test results. The test on the left is the Staph test. The pink test in the middle is the Ecoli and Coliform test. These two tests called for an inccubation of 24 hours. The orange test on the right was the Rapid coliform test, where results would show with in hours. As you can see above, the results for Well 2 (the one near the school) had hardly any traces of contamination. This is very good. But the results for Well 3 are awful. Staph, Ecoli, and Coliform showed up all over the test for this Well. This was just astonishing to all of us. On a normal day we are supposed to drink 2 nalgeen bottles of water...but none of us could ever imagine having no choice but to drink that much from Well 3. Below are closer looks at each of the tests that were preformed on Well 3.
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| Coliform and Ecoli - Well 3 |
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| Staph - Well 3 |
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| Rapid Coliform - Well 3 |
Everyone knew what needed to be worked on. A group gathered sand again, Chelsea was working on getting the water, and Alex an Nick really worked hard to get the last hole dug. Everyone worked hard to get the mix ready for when the hole was ready. Megan also got GPS coordinates for Ben so we can see how much piping we will need to get the water to the school. |
| Finished Footings |
And it all flew by so fast! We had completely finished the days work at NOON! Ben gathered a few people to remeasure the footings and to mark the centers. We gathered the rest of the data that we would need to be able to communicate with the contractor as well in the future. We were all so relieved and ready for lunch. After that we cleaned up our work area as well as the church where we had been working inside of.
We then headed to San Ignacio around 1pm to climb the ruins as a completion gift to ourselves! Here are just a few pics of our adventure there!
Friday - We Don't Want to Say Goodbye...
It was sad to realize that we were finally gonna have to leave this beautiful country. We had such a great time coming together to help the village of More Tomorrow. The next step is working with the consultants on finishing the project. They are taking care of the steel construction of the tower. Then we will need to get piping to be able to provide the water to the school and to the community. We have talked a little bit about going back down to do this. We have alot of high hopes for returning back to Belize. Everyone who went on the trip fell in love with the country and the people.
As the next semester begins we still need to raise the last of the project goal. Now that we have started the project we will be able to know what the contractor is looking at for the final budget. So thank you again to everyone who has been following us through this process!
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