The good: hot springs in Baños rumored to have healing properties
The bad: "agua mala," or what the locals of Estero de Plátano call it when you encounter a stray jellyfish tentacle in the wave you're playing in and run back onto the beach shrieking
The ugly: drinking water contaminated with fecal matter, bacteria, and any manner of grossness
As you've probably gathered from my blog this summer, my bread and butter has become the ugly of water in Ecuador. Although my original public health focus was on sexual health, a series of events and influences have led me to focus on water. After years of work, Yanapuma was finally able to install a water purification system in Estero de Plátano... which made it the perfect time to conduct a water quality assessment to measure its impact... which was perfect fodder for a one credit hour independent study with an environmental health professor... which grew so big it turned into my culminating experience (mini-thesis)... and finally, which put Yanapuma in a great position to be the implementing parter on a Rotary Club project to install water purification systems in 200+ communities in Ecuador... of which I am now the perfect choice to manage. As I said, water is kind of my new thing.
I'm a bit hesitant to put this in my blog since it's not yet a sure thing that we will be implementing this project... but after months and months of job searching and doubting, I somehow feel sure about this one... vamos a ver!
