In July of 2012, two other students and I traveled to the jungles of Nicaragua to trek through rural homes, villages, and mountains in hopes of furthering the methods of mapping and monitoring water points that are currently in place today. The trip proved quite fruitful, and we gathered an immense amount of useful data during our time in the field. We have already compiled a preliminary report and a set of metrics based on some of our discoveries, and we are all very excited to continue to bring new components of our work to light. For a complete recount of our adventures, we have documented our trip at improveinterns.wordpress.com.
Emma Bones, Lily Ponitz, Susan Davis of Improve International, and myself boarded a plane for Nicaragua armed with hiking boots, smart phones, and a high-tech water probe. After a four-hour flight that I mostly slept through, we found ourselves in the steamy, Nicaraguan airport, face to face with Wilbert, our guide for the next two weeks. He took us across Managua to our hotel: a quaint, authentic little compound squeezed into the wall, complete with exquisite courtyard and colorful murals. After a good night’s sleep and a couple of meals which consisted of the typical rice and beans, we left for the headquarters of El Porvenir, the non- governmental organization (NGO) that we would be partnering with for the duration of our field work.
At El Porvenir, we discussed our goals and objectives with director Rob Bell. We described our plans to test five mobile phone technologies that we had brought along. We planned to also test the application which El Porvenir was currently using for monitoring, FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch). Rob helped us to plan out the route we would take through the country. We planned to visit several comarcas, including Camoapa, San Lorenzo, Ciudad Dario, Terrabona, and stay for two to four days in each. We would then return to Managua to meet with Rob and discuss our findings regarding the status of El Porvenir’s wells. After a rough plan had been laid out, we piled into a pick-up truck for our first of many long, rough rides.
Our field work began later that day, in Camoapa. After a lengthy, jarring ride in our second pick-up truck, we found ourselves atop a cloud-covered mountain, outside of a small shack overlooking barbed-wire cow pastures. Our guide, Wilbert, and Carlos, the director of the local El Porvenir office, went to greet the family. The Nicaraguan woman inside the small shack greeted us cordially, and led us to the well. Within moments, every child in the village had formed a ring around us, and peered curiously as we took our first sample. It went surprisingly smoothly, as our water quality probe functioned without a hitch, and each of the three of us completed a survey or two. We discussed the well’s history and level of function with the family for a while, and explained a bit of what we were trying to do. In maybe half an hour, we were loaded in the back of the truck again, and bouncing our way back down the mountain...
by Alexandra George
