A few more days in the life of your favorite PCV

A good day.

Tuesday morning I had to get up really early to be at the office by 6am. I was very lifeless you might say, and sleeping in a car on awful dirt roads is not a skill that I have mastered (yet, give me time). We were going to an aldea called Gold Creek. I was excited to go because last time Walter went, he saw monkeys, although part of me thought he was pulling my leg, I was still excited at the possibility. A bunch of us went, and several people were riding in the back of the truck for the two hour ride out there. While I was there to help a topo study piece, they were there to do the water survey in the community.

We head out to do the topo study, and walk towards the water source, which is a stream well above the community, and above all agricultural areas. The source is in a steep canyon type place, and walking around was a lot of fun! I was slipping and sliding all over the place, all the while moving things out of your way (vines and whatnot). One problem with their current survey is that the dam site isn’t high enough to create enough pressure for the water to climb over one hill, so we were going to pick a site further up. We get to the base of a waterfall, and were trying to think, is the base high enough or are we going to have to pretty much ruin this (dam would take most of the water from the stream). We went with safety, going above the waterfall to make sure we had the height we needed. Walter goes and then puts my theodolite in the stream. At that point I had to ask the people helping us if they could move some rocks (first one I saw was too big for me to move) for me to stand on (I was wearing tennis shoes and not boots which didn’t help the situation). At the second or third point we saw the monkeys! Not joking, a small family of four. They crosses the canopy over the stream, and then ten minutes later crossed back over. We were really far down, but at one point I got a really good view of one, but alas the camera was not ready and I wouldn’t have been fast enough to catch it anyways.

Later we went to go investigate another situation in the community where the design could be bettered. I got within 150 yards of Nicaragua! The aldea is literally on the border, and one time an engineer with a GPS came and it told him he was actually in Nicaragua when he was standing where I was.

Ok, so side story: I am watching TruTV right now, and it is showing the police after Katrina, what they had to deal with. They pull one woman over, and she was drunk, and was trying to scream police brutality that they were being rough to a 90 pound woman, and the police officer very straightly says “you are not 90 pounds.” It was great! I think all police should be that blunt with people. For those of you who wondering about the situation in New Orleans after Katrina, the woman couldn’t be charged with DUI because they didn’t have a real breathalyzer (only the big ones in the police stations are credible in the court of law) and the greyhound station was converted into the jail because they jail was destroyed, and they had to use those plastic cuffs because all of their cuffs were submerged in water, then proceeded to rust shut.

The next day I survived another meeting with an engineer from Teguc. It turns out we just do something a little different. I will find out Monday if my topo study works and the community will have a water system.

Yet the following day we did the two + hour drive to Gold Creek. We get there, and climb quite the hill in the heat only to find out that the theodolite has finally given out. Somehow, over two nights, locked in a protective case, it has ceased to work. So, down the hill we go. And then drive back. What a day!