A Good Idea

Remember that movie with Leo Dicaprio, Inception? Well if not, it's basically about entering a person's subconcious and planting an idea without them knowing it. That idea grows and the person never knows that it came from someone else. But as the movie shows, there is always resistance and the act of inception is very difficult.

After watching this movie again recently, I realized that this is exactly what we are doing as Peace Corps Volunteers in development work. I mean there are a lot less machine guns, explosions, and zero gravity fight scenes, but it is quite similar. For example, trying to get people to care about protecting their water source from pollution and contamination. I can't just tell people that they should care and do something about it. I have to plant the idea in a way that makes it seem like it came from the community members themselves, and somehow get it to stick. If the Embera people see protecting the river as preserving their way of life and culture then it is more likely to stick. That idea is still in the process of inception.



Giving my first water training seminar



One of the quotes that circulates in Peace Corps that I like is this, "We are not here to build monuments, we are here to build people." Most of what we do is completely behind the scenes, often times nobody will ever know exactly what a volunteer was doing in a community. That's because we are working to build capacity, to give people the tools and skills they need to take leadership and develop their own communities. I'm starting to realize how much harder that is than building a latrine or a water system. So yes, sometimes we do build things, but more importantly we develop the people that are going to use those things.



My coworkers demonstrating water pressure



Lately I've been pretty excited about our new water system here in Nuevo Vigía. The government project started when I got here, and was finished a few weeks ago. It's a somewhat complex system that uses solar power to pump water from the river through a small treatment plant. For a long time I was feeling discouraged about it since very few people were showing any interest in the project. The engineers couldn't even get enough people to work burying pipes, so they had to hire workers from other communities. There wasn't much motivation since they already had all the water they could need right there in the river.

When the government decided they weren't going to give any training on how to manage the system, that's when we stepped in. I worked with three other Peace Corps Volunteers to give a three day training seminar. I invited everyone in town who was interested to come and learn. To my amazement we had way more people show up than I had hoped for. The seminar covered topics like how dirty water makes us sick, the physics of a water system, how to make a maintenance calendar, and everything in between. We formed the official water committee and chose five water technicians to be trained. The Costa Rican engineer who designed the system came and took everyone step by step through each part. I could see the enthusiasm growing each day of the training. Those who knew how to write scribbled everything down in their notebooks.

Now there are a lot more people on board with supporting the new water committee, even offering to raise money to get them started. We have successfully filled up our new storage tank with clean water and people have been drinking out of their new taps. The technicians have been taking their job very seriously as I've been coaching them along. We're learning together how to troubleshoot problems with the pump and water treatment equipment. The other day we had our first emergency that tested the technicians abilities. The river came up fast after a ton of rain and threatened to damage the pump, a very expensive and important piece of equipment. The team came and told me, and we had to remove the pump in the dark of night to bring it out safely.



My neighbor kids trying out the new water



The idea that I want to stick is that this water system is a huge benefit for the health of the community, and it belongs to them. That means they have a big responsability to take care of and manage it. It's really great to see clean water coming out of those taps, but I know there is a long way to go toward making this sustainable. For now I'll continue to try and incept the idea that will help Nuevo Vigía work together to keep their clean water coming.

Here's the group, trained and certified