ACCOMPANYING THE OSU TEAM WERE FACULTY ADVISORS. DR PAUL WECKLER AND DR GREG WILBER
OSU ENGINEER STUDENTS USED THE WEST LOT TO BUILD NINE WATER FILTERS. HERE THEY ARE EDUCATING THE VILLAGERS ON THE USE OF THE FLITERS
A MEETING WAS HELD ON THE PORCH OF GATHERING HEARTS FOR OSU EINGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS STUDENTS TO EXPLAIN THE DISTRIBUITION AND USE OF THE FILTERS TO THE RECIPIENTS OF THE WATER SYSTEMS. EDUCATION IS A BIG PART OF THE SUCCESS OF THIS PROJECT.
Cheryl had a really special birthday yesterday; she received about 70 Facebook cards. The surgeon examined Oscar and felt optimistic. Surgery will be performed tomorrow morning 7 at CEMESA, private hospital. Not sure of the cost; scheduled it on faith. Joel performed first test of the OSU water filters; two thirds failed. Back to the drawing board. ------ One of my favorite responsibilities at St. Francis Health System was workforce development – working with managers to match employees strengths and interests with departmental job tasks, and then delegating-- really delegating. The result was better departmental performance; greater job satisfaction; and fewer people needed to get the job done. As we continue to add more and more projects here, I think we need to do some workforce development. We have employees with the capacity do much more and many of them have free time on their hands. Furthermore, there are people in the village in need of a job who likewise have great capabilities. ---- I met the man today whose company has built big buildings in Puerto Cortes, including the big FICOHSA bank building. Were thinking maybe he can help us divide the dorm project into more manageable segments.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The wisdom of this world says don't spend your money, invest it. To the believer, what is more valuable than money? Time. Time is more valuable than money. Therefore don't spend it, invest it -- in prayer, Bible study, service to others.
A recent development has been the inclusion of the OSU-EWB trip to Honduras as an official study abroad class in the College of Engineering. This allows the students to take advantage of travel stipends and scholarships offered by individual engineering departments, the College of Engineering, and the Provost’s office to support international travel and study abroad.
Oklahoma State University Engineers without Borders arrived March 13th ready to work. Their goal, according to their president, Austin Burton, is to provide pure water systems for the village of Seis de Mayo. This will be a long term project that will be accomplished during bi-annual visits.
OSU Students, Austin Burton and Brian, in Action in Seis de Mayo
OSU Team Meets With Villagers
Eric Lam, project manager, divided the team into two separate teams for this on site visit: The Community Team meets with the missionaries and community leaders, they will then proceed to fill out the Health Point form for the community and check our approximation of the population. The Surveying Team will mark the perimeter of affected residents on a map.They will then proceed to take topographical data and start drawing a map of the community. Potential locations for a central filtration system will be identified. For the first time in history as far as we know, a map of Seis de Mayo and our village were drawn and lined up with GPS coordinates. They met with the municipal officials and the village authorities; a relationship was established and the education process has begun.
Filters that were donated by the Freeman and Boss family of Tulsa were distributed and demonstrated. One of the team's challenges was to help the people realize there is a correlation between drinking contaminated water and their illnesses. Gary and I were impressed with the dedication this team had to their project and their willingness to work in spite of some hardships. Sarah Cary, who started Engineers without Borders at OSU and then appealed to them to accept this project here in Honduras accompanied them solely to assist me with this team while I was laid up with a broken foot.
This past week, Mar 13-17, a group of eight students and one faculty member from Oklahoma State University came to Seis de Mayo to see how they could improve the quality of living in the community. They were mostly concerned with the quantity of parasites and bacteria in the water, and how to best provide clean water to the village. While unknown by most of the inhabitants in the village, the water, which is not filtered or decontaminated in any way, causes much disease, sickness, and death in Seis de Mayo. These engineers have a task before them not only to provide the clean water, but to show people that it is necessary to use the clean water exclusively. Through multiple studies during the week, they concluded the number of houses in the community, the elevation throughout Seis de Mayo, and the general consensus that there are only few families in the community that recognize the need for clean water. They also met with the mayor of Puerto Cortez and the leaders of the community to fully understand what the people of Seis de Mayo need the most. Having fully studied and understood the problems existing in this village, they will return to the US and formulate a plan to solve the problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Today, March 4,2010, Gary had a meeting with the new Vice Mayor of Puerto Cortes. One of the items discussed was the project of the Engineers without Borders from Oklahoma State University. EWB will arrive March 13 to study and install water filtration systems in Seis de Mayo. The group will be invited to the Municipality for a visit with the Vice Mayor and other officials. While Gary was there, the Vice Mayor invited the press and local cable television to cover the story.