My first topo study

Topo(graphic) study, surveying expedition, whatever they're called. I did one. 7 or 8 km, not sure because I haven't processed the data yet, but yeah, I was out for 10 days. I wrote notes every evening about the day, and now I'm gonna type 'em up and maybe flesh 'em out. Brace yourselves.


Monday, Nov. 10

So this is the second time I've been out to this community. The first time was called on account of rain and because the workers were too preoccupied with planting their beans than working to get a potable water system. So I left, and called my contact in the government water development program who asked me to do the study, told him I'd give him 3 weeks to organize the community, then I'd try again. I heard nothing from him for 3 weeks, he drives me today to the community, and I find out he's said not a word to 'em for the 3 weeks, even though he assured me the community was ready. Typical.

So I got picked up in his truck, got bribed with a free breakfast, drove out, and asked him to give me a better idea of where he wanted me to survey for this new pipeline. Two studies had been done before, but went straight through rocks and nobody likes to lay pipes in rocks. So my task was to avoid the rocks. i figured he had a better grasp of the lay of the land than I, but he didn't seem to, and basically walked me out to a vista and waved his hand and said "go over that way instead down over there" and then walked me back to his truck.

Unsatisfactory. I gave up on getting any form of support from the guy after that, and I'm not eager to work with him again.

So he leaves, and I find out the community got surprised last night with a call saying I'm gonna show up. So they're not ready, have no work teams organized, and politely suggest I rest for the day to prepare for the project. I'm glad I brought the entire Dark Elf trilogy by RA Salvatore to read, instead of just one book.

Room and board are just like last time, with me sleeping in a place on one end of the town, and getting my meals from a house about a 20 minute walk away. Had to walk out there to get lunch and dinner. But I was in a different room to sleep, with two windows instead of one, so i actually got some good air circulation.

One nice thing is that everybody remembers me and is pretty darn friendly.


Tuesday, November 12

So I wake up with the rooster crowing at about 4 am. Not terrible since I went to sleep around 9 pm, reading by candlelight. But not great. I roll around in bed for another hour, watching the dawn's light grow stronger out my window that looks out over the small cow pasture next to the house.

I wait at the community leader's house for a bit for the day's work crew to show up, and we leave late, as I expected we would. Community leader's truck isn't working right, so I interrupt before he suggests I waste another day and say we can walk the 8 km up the mountain to the water source and get started. He's hesitant, but I assure him I can handle it. So we walk past my food house and I pick up a bag with my breakfast and lunch in it, and we start up. Unlike the first trip up the mountain, I let someone else carry the 20 pound theodolite case.

We end up getting to the top of the mountain, to another community up there, at about 10 am. As we're passing through, 3 men approach us and start talking, saying they don't have good feelings about this water project, that they never gave permission to my contact community to take water from that certain stream, and that they're using that stream to water cattle and wash clothes. If the community starts drinking the water, they're afraid they won't be able to use the stream anymore. So they're passive aggressively ppreventing us from getting to the water source to start the project again.

I'm really POed right about then, but I hide it well. I volunteer my cell phone so the upstarts can talk to my community leader contact, and they argue a bit, saying they'll do a formal meeting the next day. In the meantime, I try to negotiate for permission to work for the day, just to get as much as we can get done. I basically just want the experience.

After an hour and a half, we finally disentangle ourselves with permission to work for the day, then wait til the meeting tomorrow.

So I get set up, get my crew briefed and organized, and start working. We get next to a corn field, finally out of the denser jungle-like forest, and then I realize 4 of my guys are missing. One comes back, and says "Alex... we better go." From what I could gather as I hurriedly packed up, the owner of the corn field was armed and didnt want us working near it.

So we start walking back down the mountain at around 1 pm. We get about halfway down, and get a call from my community leader saying he's organized a group and he's driving up in his truck (the one he said couldn't handle the drive) up to have a meeting TODAY with the other town. So we sit tight and wait for the cavalry.

And it's an impressive sight when it arrives. One 2 wheel drive truck loaded down with a dozen people, and as they pass us, slowing down, I see one guy in the back strapped with a sidearm, rifle with a scope, and an ammo belt. I whisper to one of my workers, asking why he's armed. He says the man is a judge.

In Honduras, the judges don't wear robes. They wear weapons.

So we hop in the truck and procede back the way we came. Of course, the mountain town complains that they didnt have time to organize, but over the course of the 2 hour meeting, people trickled in. Basically it was a contest between "You're gonna take our washin water and our cow water!" and "We don't have potable water for our children!" The mountain town has a water system in disrepair because, basically, they don't know how to collect and enforce water tariffs from the households so they can afford maintenance on the system. I gave a quick 5 minute explanation of how they're supposed to deal with that.

I basically sat out of the meeting circle for most of the time. A few of my workers found some sugarcane, and we spent most of the time whispering and joking around and eating raw sugarcane while the other people bickered. Not a chance am I getting involved in intervillage politics when guns are present. I've already had a tense meeting in a shack surrounded by 30 men with machetes, and I didn't enjoy it.

So, finally, after I am asked to step forward and explain how the surveying itself won't do any harm, and the water system itself won't take all the water from the stream. Also, I assure the insane farmer that I can avoid the corn field by shooting over it. Finally we get permission to do the study. I mention the fact we need to cross some private property lines, and the owner happens to be present, and with some pushing we get permission to hop their fences. Oh joy.

So we drive back down the mountain, basically wasted the second day in a row, only this time I'm tired from walking, too, and bored to tears by petty politics. I mention to my community contact, like I'd talked with my workers on the hike up, that I can ride a horse, and I'm totally willing to ride a horse up the mountain with my posse the next day instead of walking.

I got dropped off at my food house to get a homecooked dinner, and walked across town along the quiet unpaved road under the full moon with fireflies glowing among the shadows beneath the trees. Quite a nice walk. Just had to watch out for the cow poo in the road.

I checked the time on my cell phone and realized I had to pick up the pace. You see, the community has another mountain between it and the nearest cell phone tower, so to get reception I have to leave town and go to a bridge. From that bridge, down the valley in the distance, I have line of sight to the cell phone tower. I have to run because my woman is about to go to her morning classes, and I really wanna hear her voice. So I run. Then I get accosted by an old lady who simply has to tell me right now how excited she is to have me here helping their town, and she hopes her husband will be helpful the next day. Great, thanks, i gotta go rest, bye! I manage to get to the bridge, running with my backpack on, just in time for a 2 minute, 10 lempira a minute call to China. Win!

Afterwards, I walked back to my sleeping house and read by candlelight til about 8 pm, and passed out.


I'm gonna pace myself with this writeup... expect more soon!