France April 17 to 25, 2014

Cindy and I spent four days in Paris and an additional three in Toulouse, France. We stayed at a Marriott south of the Latin Quarter while in the capital city and took their excellent Metro system to see all the major sites; the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysee, Notre Dame, Museo de D’Orsay, etc. As it was Easter weekend (they take Monday as a holiday as well), the crowds were huge so we only waited in line for the D’Orsay and saw the rest from outside. We did not even attempt Versailles and the Louvre.

The days of aspiring artists and writers like Hemingway, flocking to Paris after World War I because the city was inexpensive and the living was easy, are long gone, as we found everything pricey, even in the out of the way shops and restaurants. Long past as well is the reputation from the days of De Gaulle of Parisians for being rude to Americans. We were universally treated with respect and kindness.

From Paris we took the bullet train down to southern France and spent three nights in the delightful center of Toulouse. The town was full of wonderful buildings and gardens as well as charming plazas and squares with lively outdoor cafés filled with happy, talkative patrons. Everyone however appears to smoke.

From Toulouse we took a day train trip down to the old fortress town of Carcassonne. I had recently read a novel that took place in the 1200’s when the walls were breached by the northern French with the support of the Catholic Church, so was interested in seeing where the action had taken place.

Cindy dutifully took pictures and kept the faithful at home fully up to date on our big adventure with Facebook entries. And, we walked and walked, good training for the Bolder Boulder next month.

 

It was a good trip for both of us, especially Cindy who was able to fully get away from work responsibilities.

Jalapa Valley, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua

March 24 to April 1, 2014

Five friends from the Rotary Club of Boulder Valley, Maud and John Kenyon, Bart Swanson, Travis Ramos, and me, had a busy and fulfilling week in Nicaragua. We went there for both the adventure and to check into clean water projects that Travis’ company, Second Mile Water, was organizing in the small pueblos around the city of Jalapa.

Jalapa is an agricultural center (tobacco and coffee) in the mountainous highlands of northern Nicaragua, just south of the Honduran border. Many internal immigrants are attracted to the area for the field labor jobs on offer. They have established ever expanding settlements of block-built homes on free or very inexpensive land along the paved roads of the valley. These homesteads often lack basic services such as access to potable water. Until a well-designed system (costing $35,000 to $60,000 for smaller villages of 500 or so inhabitants) is in place, they either access contaminated water from local streams or similar “grey” water from shallow wells.

Second Mile Water’s objective is to build the appropriate system, either with deep wells or water sourced high in the mountains, with funds lent from the company to the villages as well as with additional monies and labor contributed by the communities themselves.

Once the project is completed, all serviced homes are charged a monthly fee. Most of that which is collected is set aside in a community controlled account designed to pay for maintenance and repair of the infrastructure of the project. This is why the company is called Second Mile Water. The first mile is to construct the system. The second part, the on-going payments, are to keep it running. This is the most difficult part and hence the name Second Mile. A percentage of the monthly payments is sent back to 2MW ostensively to pay back the loan, but actually it will be used to fund future projects.

We met with Rotary Club of Somoto, who had been the local partner for the first project 2MW completed in the community of Pasmata, to secure that club’s blessing going forward. Later we met with a club in Ocotal, which is closer to Jalapa and had recently been restarted. Ocotal was very interested in participating as well and sent one of their members, Francisco, to Jalapa to meet with us and potential new clients.

Here are the communities we met with-

Pasmata: Their new mountain-collected, gravity-fed water system is up and running. We worked with them to put together a project completion celebration party that was held on Sunday. Most of the village children came as well as a good number of mothers and a few fathers. Speakers spoke, food was served, loud music was played and a ribbon was cut. Travis played with the kids from start to finish.

El Bosque: Their deep water well has been dug. They now need to have an 8 meter water tower built, install a pump and have a network of pipe laid to connect the homes. We met with their water committee and a Maestro de Obras to discuss the building of the tower.

El Trapiche: Just getting started. We met with their water committee and hammered out the details of a contract that 80% of the residents will have to sign to get started. They want to get going before the rainy season, but Travis told them that he had to secure more funds before he could commit.

Travis ran the show, John was a Pied Piper with his camera, Maud interacted with everyone, Bart offered building advice and I served as interpreter, sometimes better than others.