So I started today wanting to work with the artisan group for tomorrows fair on Bocas Island but it seems that they had everything taking care of or at least didn't want my help. Ever since Solomon has been elected president of the artisan group its kinda been like that. I'm not sure if the power is going to his head or if maybe the group is doing so good that they really feel that they don't need my help anymore but it seems as if I might have to look for other things to do. I've already identified a couple of those things including working harder on the grant for some chocolate machinery, teaching English and working on marketing for tourists as we haven't had a tour for about 5 days now.
I knew that there was a gringo group coming today to do something water related at the school so meandered down there at about mid day. What I soon came up on was just about what I expected from an outside group that just comes and drops shit off. They heard that the tank that they dropped off last time wasn't installed correctly so of course they brought another one which added to the one they had already dropped off and the one that the school bought. I guess the group never stopped to ask about the aqueduct system that we have in the community that could easily be hooked up to fill one of the tanks or just to use straight from the faucet.
So now there are three empty tanks at the school. Two of them way way larger than is needed considering that kids don't really drink water at school and it is just used for cleaning dishes and making cream of wheat. Apparently the guy who came with his gringo friends runs some type of “water aid” program and from what I've heard he charges double the cost of the systems and says its a “processing fee” or some crap. I've also heard that he is running out of useless water installations to do which explains why he brought us another useless tank. There was a “dedicated to the memory of …....” on the tank so I hope that the person that at least bought it for so and so thinks that their 1k went to some good use and not just another giant plastic statue of which it is. At least the kids will have a good time trying to figure out who the hell so and so is for the next 10 years until someone realizes it would be much easier just to connect the community water system to the faucet and they sell the tank to buy computers or books.
I do have to say that there are places where these tanks do good. Like in my girlfriends community. I know that at least there they will use the water and its clean and sometimes they don't have any potable water. I'm just saying it might have paid to do a little research on where your putting these monstrous plastic monuments or wait, it might pay no matter what if your charging to do something that my community can and already has done for half.
So after I talked with one of the gringos that came with the water team about how great of a thing they are doing and about how they were now most likely go to heaven and be forgiven for all their sins, I went looking for a new water spot. And oh did I find one. A community member had told me about this small spot on this small stream pretty close to my house I went to check it out. Only after about 20 minutes of hiking up the small stream I came to the spot I think he was talking about and instantly it became my new favorite spot to swim. As the little kids that followed me there can attest, there is waterfall of about 17 feet that drops down into a small pool of about 10 feet across all the way around. What is great about this is that the pool is deep for some reason. So deep that I jumped from a rock of about 10 feet above and still didn't touch the bottom. I love new swimming spots and I especially love swimming spots that have hidden caves in them that I can't see where weird things might be lurking....
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