Update we forgot to publish on Fri....

Things have been moving steadily along in and out of Las Lomitas. Our time is currently split between Caliche, community development initiatives, and our time in our community.

Our community development time is mostly internally-focused, helping the staff here recognize their involvement in the country's development and trying to move HtH's practices more towards sustainable processes that don't create dependency or disempower the people with whom they work. However, this time is starting to open more into other initiatives as potential projects begin to move forward.

Our Caliche time has seen a group of engineering students from Dayton come and go to work on the filters there above the community. They had a very successful week and were able to check out the entire system as well as install the majority of the filters. This involved moving the 10,000 Liter tanks up to treatment house and sifting tons and tons of sand. This week, we'll be headed out see how close to full of sand the filters are before water is moved from the source to the treatment house.

Within the community, we've had some very exciting moments as well. With our community's leaders, we were able to meet with a national senator about the potential electricity project in Las Lomitas, and the outcome was very positive. We'll keep you up to date on how that process continues. We really feel like we have some exceptional leaders in the community and are very glad to see them stepping up to see their community grow in the right direction.

In addition, our rainwater collection system is up and running and have flushed our toilet for the first time and taken our first shower there at home. Needless to say, it was very exciting to see the cistern full of 1500 gallons of water and then be able to use it for our basic needs. The next step is to help some local folks understand that it's a possibility for them too.