It’s our last week in San Cristobal and I’m currently fighting with the Villa wifi for this to work so fingers crossed! No idea what the guiding questions are so let’s hope I answer them!
Our UVC sanitation device feels more fleshed out as the weeks go on, and our visit with Patti and Nancy from Tseinan was perfect to understanding the actual needs of the mothers we hope to help and how they would actually use the device. A big takeaway I’ve seen repeated over and over throughout our visits with Cantaro Azul and in class is that we could stress over perfecting our design for full functionality, look, and efficiency but any one can use the device in any way they wish to, planning for that inevitable fact is imperative in our process! I feel confident in our ability to fully research and brainstorm all of their critiques and feedback to come up with a product that hopefully another team could build and make happen!
Our team outside of Tseinan!
Other highlights include our excursions outside of San Cristobal to the surrounding nature! The expansive waterfalls of Chiflon were insane–everytime we thought we saw the best one, there was another one behind it until the last towered over us. Never one to be afraid of heights, I ziplined over the entire valley and the waterfalls with the tops of the trees surrounding me. Later we were off to the lagoons of Monteballo, a series of lakes in the southern reaches of Chiapas. We were not able to swim ;( but we did step foot in Guatemala which I never expected to do this trip! 😀 The 7 hours overall in the van admittedly dampened the fun and I have never hated speed bumps as much as I do right now after the trip, but it was a worthwhile experience!
One of the lakes of Monteballo!
With all the water we saw on our excursion, all of it freshwater, it was such a stark contrast from our talks of accessibility to safe drinking water in class. There can be enormous amounts of water anywhere, but lacking the awareness and expenses to pay for cleaning technologies and habits is our main issue. There are so many steps to cleaning almost every object involved in drinking and eating that I never considered: the containers, the lids, the rags you use to clean. A constant vigilance is required to fully protect from pathogens in our water that I hope we can make just a little easier with our device!
The largest waterfall at Las Cascadas de Chiflon
Brian Messar!