We spent Wednesday visiting rural villages, especially concerning the issue of water access and potable water (virtually none have the latter!) The first picture is a meeting with me and the "guys" in Billie White Village. Local residents administer their water systems, collect fees for the village, etc. We are helping by training leaders in the rural villages to prepare proposals, create budgets, design systems of accountability and find funds.
The next picture is of one of the few government schools (more than 90% of schools are church-based with the government paying teacher salaries--all schools have user fees although school attendance is required through age 14; only 40% of eligible children are enrolled in high school nationwide: this elementary school is in
Duck Run 1: on the right is the principal and on the left the Rural Community Development Officer with whom I work. The tank to the left of the school room is the only source of water for the children and is frequently empty until the principal collects money from the parents to fi
ll it to provide potable drinking water for them. This village is an example of need for coordination among NGOs, many from the U.S.--one helps schools but not communities, one helps with water but not electricity, one provides computers but no internet, communications company provides free internet to schools but no computers and not for the community at large. It is not atypical at all.
It has been Santa Semana (Easter) all week so I got to take a lit
tle break: caving tubing at Jaguar Paw. It was quite lovely. The picture of the young Peace Corps volunteer is her showing us the live termites that she told us taste just like carrots as she and the tour guide each popped a few in their mouths (I am not kidding.) Needless to say I skpped that part of the tour. That's me in the red shirt getting ready in the rain forest and then in the very dark caves with friendly bats and other creatures.
