Plantains, Pozos, and Piglets

By Parker O’Neal

August 25th, 2022

Today was an exhausting but rewarding day for our team. We set out and grabbed breakfast from Mary Tere's, where we indulged in fresh papaya and the bolón de verde, an Ecuadorian dish that consists of mashed plantains with cheese baked inside.

Bolón de verde

The prominence of the banana and plantain industry in the Manabí province has shown through with the inclusion of plantains in nearly every meal we eat, ranging from fried plantains to plantain chips, and then mashed plantains today. After a hearty breakfast, we left for Rosario Vainas to conquer our to-do list of water testing and community surveying. The testing team collected samples of the water in a few wells that were already known, as well as one that was unknown previously. Our team tested the samples to determine the ions and any contaminants that are present in the water. These results provided information on the quality of the water as well as evidence that the wells were pulling water from the same aquifer. The community survey team tried to walk to the edge of the community but gave up after 1 km (it was lunchtime!!). On this trek, however, they found 4 more creeks and talked to a woman named Juana about her well.

Parker traversing the terrain with ease

For lunch we had another hearty meal of soup, rice, and chicken…oh my! After lunch we tested one last well while the survey team talked to some women in the community center. Interestingly, one woman had an 18 metres deep well that had run dry, while others had shallower wells that still had water. They also encountered many cute piglets and dogs! The water testing team finished early, and while waiting for the survey team to finish we were approached by some locals who had two things on their mind: water and Klara.

Water We Doing!?!

While I couldn't help them with Klara, I tried my best to speak with them in Spanish about the project and any concerns they had about water in the community. Before leaving for the hotel, we got some ice cream from the local sweets shop. Dinner was pretty typical, rice and beans with meat. On the way back to the hotel, we went shopping at Tia's and took their entire stock of Kinder chocolate and water jugs. Before retiring to our rooms, we had a lovely work session with snacks where we revised the community survey and compiled the water testing data into a spreadsheet. What a day!

Daniela and a very pretty flower.