Anatomy of an EWB Assessment Trip
Brian Davis Describes His August Trip As EWB-Rice Mentor in El
Salvador
After a late night packing session and three hours of sleep, the carpool
train of students left Rice University for Bush Intercontinental Airport
The final destination was the small farming village of El Pital, El
Salvador . After the usual plane ride, customs check, and short cultural
acclimation period, the EWB-Rice group was en route to El Pital by way of
our preferred private driver, Don Julio. On the surface, the assessment
trip goals were clear and dry: perform water testing on the local springs,
survey the terrain with a professional grade GPS unit, and interview each
community member concerning their health problems and water usage. As usual, all
expectations were bound to be exceeded in the most unexpected ways. 
Having just left the concrete jungle of the capitol city of San Salvador
, we were soon looking out of the microbus windows at a different kind of
jungle, a real jungle. Upon passing the final mountain ridge in our
journey, we descended into the valley containing the lake 'Embelse del
Cerrσn Grande' and El Pital. The ferry ride across the lake was home to
beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. The sole fisherman out on the
lake was evidence of the sparsely populated jungle. As we arrived in the
community, we were greeted by any resident who saw us. They knew that we
were there to help and they were glad to see us.
The week of both work and play sped by at a blistering pace. Holding
community meetings, collecting water samples and analyzing them, setting up
the GPS equipment and taking survey points, interviewing countless
community members, and always planning the next day. There was never a
night of more than six hours sleep, and every shower was taken with a cold
bucket of water. The two sacrifices, and many more like them, didn't seem
to matter at the time. Everything else was too important to divert our
attention. After spending time on the interview team, in the midst of
engineering objectivity I didn't realize what I had inadvertently done over
the course of the week. I had gotten to know the community. At the
beginning, I
was waving and saying hello to community members as they passed on the
street. Now, I was greeting the man with a wife and two sons who
farmed corn for a living, the woman who works with the embroidery co-op so
she can have a little spending money, the family with two members who work
in San Salvador, and the elderly woman who gets her water from her neighbor
because she cannot afford the water company's monthly fees. Suddenly, I knew
these people and it felt that much better to be working on a solution to
their water needs.
The most memorable
interview was with a slight elderly woman living just outside of El Pital.
She had a beautiful home, which was too new to fit seamlessly into the
surrounding community. During the interview, her daughter and three of her
grandsons came out of the house. The daughter spoke to me in English, explaining
that her mother had five children in San Salvador and five children in Los
Angeles. The daughter went on to say that she lived in an area of L.A.
called Hawthorne. The family had brought the grandmother with them to L.A.
, but after two weeks of staying there, grandma insisted on returning home.
Thinking about the few times I have been in Hawthorne, it was easy to
sympathize with this elderly woman. It was very understandable that life in
El Pital could be seen as much better. Life in El Pital is not necessarily
stricken with poverty, misery, or want of the things we have in America .
Life in El Pital is good, but the residents certainly would benefit from a
reliable, clean, and inexpensive year-round water distribution system. This
is what we intend to provide for them.
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What is Engineers
Without Borders?
EWB-USA partners with developing communities
to improve their quality of life through the implementation of
environmentally sustainable, equitable, and economical engineering projects
while developing internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.
Get involved with the EWB-USA Central Houston Professionals!
The Central Houston chapter of Engineers Without Borders was
founded in February, 2005 In the last year and a half, the chapter has
grown from two engineers
to approximately 40 active participants.
We are succeeding in creating a chapter
that is diverse in age, experience, and engineering disciplines Our team
members live all over the city, including Cypress, the Woodlands,
Sugarland, Clear Lake, and Galveston. If you would like to join our team,
please let us know.
There are plenty of ways to get involved!
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Project Engineering
Volunteer as a project engineer on our current projects. A listing of
engineering needs can be found here.
Technical Reviewer
If you can't commit to working on a project, but can spend a few hours a
month reviewing technical designs, let us know. We're starting to form the
South Central Technical Advisory Committee.
Fundraising
Serve on our Fundraising Committee. Help us build partnerships with local
companies and organizations to provide financial support for our projects.
Join our team of grant writers.
Sponsorship
Ask your company to sponsor an EWB-USA event.
Outreach and Public
Relations Present about EWB to local companies and
organizations. Set up our booth at your company's volunteer fair. Get
involved with K-12 volunteer opportunities pertaining to science and
engineering.
Professional
Development Seminars Attend or present at our seminars,
which are designed to help Professional Engineers
(PEs) obtain required professional development credit.
Workshops and
Training Programs Are you an expert in a particular
field? Give a workshop on a sustainable engineering topic to teach local
engineering students and professionals.
Graphic Arts
Apply your right brain to help us create chapter-specific promotional
materials
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Next EWB-Central Houston General
Chapter Meeting:
Wednesday, September 13th
The EWB-USA Central Houston Chapter meets the second Wednesday of every
month. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 13th at
7:00pm at Rice University in Room 253 of the
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, which is Building 46 on the map.
Agenda:
7:00: to 7:45 pm: Chapter updates: We'll give a status of our projects
and upcoming events
7:45 to 9:00 pm: Breakout sessions:
The India Reconstruction team will meet to discuss status of rainwater
catchment design for the Housing project as well as progress made
on composting latrine design options.
All 3 El Salvador Teams will meet to discuss the forward plans and
itinerary.
Outreach and Fundraising team will meet to discuss upcoming fundraisers
and seminars.
New Participants interested in getting involved will learn more about
the organization.
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Join
EWB-USA!
Engineers Without Borders
(EWB-USA) and EWB-Central Houston are looking for people who are committed
to improving the quality of lives of those in disadvantaged communities.
Annual membership cost is only $100, and chapter meetings are free. Click here for more information and to join EWB-USA today!
Upcoming Events
Next Professional Development Seminar TBD
The 2007 EWB-USA International Conference is scheduled
for April 12, 13 & 14, 2007, to be held at the University of
Massachusetts in Amherst, MA.
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El SALVADOR
Phase I and II: Colonia Esmeralda
Community Well:
After obtaining commercial well drilling quotes for nearly four times the
cost of our previous non-profit well driller, we have received good, but
unconfirmed news. Living Waters has obtained a well drilling rig that
can complete the unfinished well they began for us in July. They are
currently working to ship this rig to El Salvador.
Retaining Wall:
We have received TAC approval of our design from EWB-USA! After
translating all calculations and design drawings, we sent spanish copies to
Municipal Engineer Gomez so that he can obtain a construction permit
for us. Construction will begin this upcoming winter, contingent upon
well completion and project funding
Phase III: Tiembla Tierra
and Santa Carlota
Sanitation System: The
team is planning an assessment trip for the end of this month with 5-7
travellers. The trip is schedule for Sept 27th - October
1st. They have been organizing their itinerary and setting the
primary objectives of the trip. All interested in helping out are
encouraged to participate in the breakout session after the main meeting.
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DONATE!
Like all EWB projects, our projects are completely financed by
donations. All donations are tax deductible. You may contribute mail or use
the internet at your convenience.
To donate by internet, go here.
To donate by check or money order:
Address to EWB-USA, but write "Central Houston
Professionals" in the memo field. Send your donation to:
Engineers without Borders
USA
1880 Industrial Circle, Suite B-3
Longmont, Colorado 80026
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Got Questions?
If you have a question or would like to find out how you can volunteer
with EWB-USA, contact any member of our current Executive Board.
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INDIA
 Rainwater Catchment
Project: The Housing project to design and build 23 new permanent
homes for Sri Rama Pattapu Palem (SRPP) is a
collaboration between professional EWB chapters from Boston, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Texas, and San Diego. The team recently
developed a detailed project schedule showing completion of the
project in July 2007, and we have officially submitted a Continuing
Project Application to EWB-USA for approval. The
fundraising goal for this project is $100,000, to be divided
equally among the five chapters involved. Volunteer members in
Houston will be working to incorporate rainwater harvesting into
the individual home designs, which will be a part of the water supply
system that also includes the use of groundwater. We will
also be helping with the fundraising efforts. For further
details, please contact Guo-Pin Fuan at gpfuan1@netzero.net , or
AnnMarie Spexet at aspexet@gmail.com
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Sanitation Project:
Many of the villages throughout the coastal areas impacted by the tsunami
in 2004 do not have adequate sanitation facilities. There is
presently an urgent need for latrines to be implemented at these
locations. EWB Housing project team members are working on
design of composting latrines for SRPP, and will develop educational
programs to help build and maintain them. In a similar
way, Houston volunteers intend to design and implement composting
latrines at the smaller village of Jalamma Palem, which is the project
site that EWB member AnnMarie Spexet visited and worked at in March of this
year. For fundraising purposes, the budget for the latrines
project at Jalamma Palem is estimated to be $10,000. Please
write Tejal Gholkar at tejal_gholkar@urscorp.com ,or AnnMarie at aspexet@gmail.com , for
more information. (There is a 75-Watt solar panel in the SDRWC
office--purchased by Texas--that could be used for any number of projects.)
(NOTE: The India projects are now open to EWB student member
participation/travel. Please contact the Project Manager for more
details.)
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**Please
forward this to anyone who you think might be interested. If you did not
receive this newsletter directly and would
like to, please email Sara
Beck
EWB-USA
is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization that partners with
developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life,
while involving and training internationally responsible engineering
students and professionals.
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