It has begun....

Yesterday we poured the mould for our first biosand filter in Bolivia.... at long last. It feels really, really good to be building biosand filters rather than just talking about building biosand filters. On the downside, we have had some very frustrating moments caused by language barriers and differening ideas on how a biosand filter should be built. Luckily, we have the help of a man by the name of Alejandro who was born in Honduras but grew up in Canada and spent 10 years working in cement construction in the United States. His proficiency in both Spanish and English, his wealth of knowledge about concrete construction and enthusiasm for the project all make him a very important part of Cordillera Water Supply Center.

Next week we should be heading out to a small village in NW Santa Cruz department to build filters and enducate people on how to use them.

We also need to sort out our visas next week, which we were supposed to do on monday, but couldn´t, apparently because El Presidente, Evo Morales, was having a party there, and there has been a massive backlog ever since.