work.

i've been getting quite a few questions recently about the actual work i am doing and how i feel about it. now seems a fine time to answer your burning questions:

what is a typical day like?
no day is the same as the last. seriously. each week, however, i typically spend 2-3 days working outside in the campo and the remainder in my office or in meetings.

what do you do in the campo?
i usually go on some incredible hikes. what i view as a main goal in my job is to support communities with technical advice. in each community i need to visit the water system(1) and water source to understand more about the individual problems. if i am returning to a community, or visiting it for the first time, i will meet with as many members of the water board(2) as possible to get an idea of the community's problems. going to the campo basically means i'm getting really dirty, sweating, working on a fabulous farmer's tan and eating the best beans and tortillas around. it is my favorite part of my job.

what do you do in the office?
i spend a lot of time on the internet and chambreando* with my co-workers. this is certainly a highlight; unfortunately, one of my jobs is to help design systems. this means plugging numbers into our peace corps excel spreadsheet and optimizing systems. this is my least favorite part of my job. mental note made: design engineer is not in my professional future.

do you feel as if you are saving the world?
no. one of my biggest problems with work is the mental struggle between two tough facts.

• fact #1: i am partly taking a job from a honduran. because a peace corps volunteer comes to be an engineer every two years, my office has fewer reasons to hire a permanent employee.

• fact #2: i have noticed a trend in water systems in this area, and projects in general, that most are unsustainable.

i tango between these thoughts often. it is fair to say that i question my actual purpose in this town and country every day.

do you believe in the idea of peace corps?
yes. i started out being fairly bright-eyed about this entire experience, saying i knew it wasn't going to be easy but i would make it work. my friend alex, and fellow pcv in ghana, said succinctly, " optimism's easy when nothing's hard." well, this experience is hard. i don't know if any of the work that i accomplish will be around after i leave, but i've come to realize that can't stop me from doing something. the more i work, the more i push myself and learn from others.  if i focus my scope and am honest with myself about what i can actually accomplish, i've realized i can enjoy myself and be a bit more successful. there are parts of this world that are corrupt and probably without repair, but that is no excuse for not doing something. so that's what i'm doing.

i believe it is absolutely true what people say about learning more from this experience in relation to the amount they are able give. i am not as bright-eyed as when i set out on this adventure and sometimes even fluctuate between cynical and beaten-down, but there's always something to make me smile.  and even if some days i want to run and kiss the soil of the land of the free, for now i am here, doing more than passing the time.

it all goes back to an early post in which i quoted from the elegance of the hedgehog, "...it's the now that matters: to build something, now, at any price, using all our strength. always remember we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. climb our own personal everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity."


if you have specific questions, want to discuss something or would like that i clarify a thought, please tell me. the third goal of the peace corps is to share this experience with those back home. and right now you reading this blog is fulfilling that goal. thank you.


(1) unless specified, the water systems on which i work are gravity-fed, pvc/metal piping systems. a dam is created at a spring source on top of a mountain and piped down to a community tank where it is then piped to each house.

(2) a water board is an elected council of seven community members to oversee operations and maintain the water system.

*chambreando = gossiping