Buenas!! We’re two weeks into San Cris now and we’ve basically become water testing experts!! We had another very busy week visiting a couple NGOs and starting our water treatment experiments.
Sunday gave us a taste of the rain and chaos that would come the rest of the week. A couple of us had planned a horse riding trip to a nearby town called Chamula, so at noon we were picked up and driven to the starting point. We rode our horses uphill for a while until we got on the road and continued riding until we reached Chamula. It felt so freeing, riding the horse and feeling the wind pass me by!! In Chamula we walked through the Sunday market and visited the church but once it was time to go it began to pour. We waited under a tiendita roof for over an hour until we caved in and paid a taxi to take us home, but the street leading to our villa was flooded so we had to walk the last fifteen minutes in the rain. By the time we got home we were absolutely drenched.
Us on the horses!! My horse is Caramelo.
Stuck under a tiendita’s roof!! Emmanuella does not seem amused.
The next day we visited Tseinan, an NGO that provides healthcare and treatment for indigenous children with cleft lip and palate, to learn about their mission and present some engineering design projects that students over the spring semester worked on. Dr. Daniela led us through the different rooms and explained the focus and the reasoning for those rooms. They had rooms for physical examinations, nutrition, surgery, orthodontics, and more. Then we presented two projects and a needs finding proposal. My team presented a bottle that would help babies with cleft lip drink milk, since most babies with cleft can’t produce enough suction to use regular bottles. It was a great experience since we were able to get immediate feedback. It was great to be able to see what we’ve learned in EDES 350 in action!
Presenting to the group and getting feedback from Dr Daniela and her team.
Us and Tseinan!!
The next day we returned to the lagoon to collect water for our experiments and then went to Chedraui to buy the materials. We had two sets of experiments to prepare, the coagulation/flocculation using nopales as the coagulant, and the disinfection using SODIS and lime, so Tuesday was spent preparing that.
Drying our nopales in the toaster oven
On Wednesday morning we visited Cántaro Azul’s water quality lab and learned about their testing methods and how water quality labs in Mexico are set up. Then in the afternoon we went to El Encuentro, a privately owned park with the purpose of conserving the land and educating people on different water purification systems and other sustainable practices. The park was so beautiful and peaceful, and it was a welcome change in environment. Julio, Merced, and the other Julio showed us different water systems and also showed us experiments they ran to see what the most effective systems were. They showed us dry toilets, a water treatment system they’re building, and some lombri-compost they use for some crops. It was super cool to see the implementation of different sustainable practices.
El Encuentro
Water purification system for the park rangers.
The huerta with the crops.
On Thursday we had to lock in and start running our experiments and testing. We had five different tests for every sample and by the end of our experiments we had ran over 150 tests in the span of 24 hours!! In the beginning it was very chaotic but by the end of it we were basically experts. If you ever need someone to do a petrifilm dish test just call me up!!
Running tests!
We concluded the night by going to Cinépolis and watching Final Destination. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea since I hate gore, but I ended up watching most of the movie with my hands over my face or holding hands with Isa and Emmanuella.
On Friday we finished testing and began planning our weekend plans and then the next morning we woke up early to go see el Canyon del Sumidero. We stopped by 3 miradores at the top of the canyon and then had a yummy breakfast which consisted of tamales de chipilin and a coffee bolis before going down to the port. Then we boarded our boat and saw the most incredible sights!! We saw spider monkeys, and crocodiles (from an uncomfortably close distance), and caves over the 2 hours we were on the boat. It was the best experience out of the trip!
The view of the river from the highest point of the canyon.
El Canyon del Sumidero
Dang look at that mountain!!
The next day we went to Arcotete, another natural park with a beautiful cave, and like always, it began to rain the moment we arrived. We gripped onto whatever we could as we made our way down and up slippery stone steps until we made it to the cave. We explored the inside of the cave and saw Isa and Fern rock climbing on the other side, then called it a day and left to do some work. That night we met with Dr Hunter, Dr Loyo, and Frankie and ate at Las Pichanchas, a restaurant with traditional Chiapaneca food, drink, music, and dance!
The caves in Arcotete.
All in all it was another busy, yet insightful week. I really appreciated the water treatment project we had this week, since it really solidified a lot of the points that the NGOs we have visited have made. The water issues that plague San Cristobal and Mexico City, but also thousands of other cities in the U.S and across the world, are bigger than designing a device, they are systemic, cultural, and social issues as well that require a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach. Us engineers also aren’t the one solution to this problem, many communities are empowering themselves and finding their own solutions that work for them and that are also constantly evolving. If we are invited into their spaces we must work as collaborators and not saviors.