Once again brought to you by Jordi De Jong.
The weeks are whizzing by! This week was especially notable for our ENGI class because my team and I (Lions Never Bite Jalapeños) got to visit Tseinan, the non-profit that works with the Tzotzil communities on issues of cleft lip/palatte babies as well as water access and quality in general. It was super valuable to get insider perspectives on the two existing UV sanitation devices we are researching and comparing to create our design. They both provided feedback on the functions of the two devices and were able to specify what their priorities would be for mothers. We learned about how to focus our design on a product that would actually be used — if it was too large, there was a risk that the sanitation aspect would be forgotten, and if it was too fragile (one product contains a mirror), once broken, the product may never be used again. We are fortunate enough to be able to return this week and hopefully speak to some mothers themselves and gain more insight!
Squad (including Dr. Hunter) in the back of the taxi
Our whole team plus the Tseinan employees who spoke with us! The GOATs!
In addition to making progress on research for our sanitation device, our team was also hard at work designing water purification systems for our CEVE class. Our main experiments are with coagulation/flocculation methods and disinfection processes — our team (still LNBJ) is investigating the use of nopales (cactus) as a coagulant to test its effectiveness in reducing water turbidity (aka making the water less cloudy/removing sediments) and the use of SODIS (solar disinfection) as a means of removing pathogens. It’s been really interesting to learn about the many steps to filtration and the different part they all play in ensuring water is safe for human consumption. I don’t think I’ve ever thought much about the amount of work required to take water from any natural source and remove sediments, pathogens, and chemicals to get the water I’m so used to consuming every day. We got to see this process played out at El Encuentro on Friday, speaking again with Cántaro Azul. We saw examples of filters and the Mesita Azul that we had talked about in class (so I could actually understand what they were and what they did! hooray!) — seeing the designs in-person was also cool because we got to see potential new designs and uses for their UV sanitation in different contexts (urban, for example). And!! We saw the entire water treatment set up they built to provide clean drinking water throughout the park. While it was hot and tiring, it was still awesome to see how they have designed systems for every part of water-use cycle by humans and how they have implemented it in El Encuentro (larger-scale treatment to household sanitation to natural wastewater treatment and compost systems). It’s so easy to take water for granted, or to cling to the water systems I’m used to (like water toilets…), but the innovation of Cántaro Azul to increase accessibility and re-usability at every step of the way was, once again, inspiring.
UV sanitation system and pre-treatment steps
The whole sha-bang (water treatment process)
Today, we collected water from La Kisst to begin our treatment experiments in our final week! Things are coming to an end… 🙁
Getting our water (plus dog that followed us, Bruh #9)
Other highlights of this week: cafe lock in and waterfalls!
Amor Negro 10/10 experience
don’t go chasing them (seriously the drive was too long)