From all of us in Team Guatemala,

We would like to say many, many thanks…

…to our donors.  We simply cannot overstate how crucial you were to this project. Without your support, this simply could not have happened. 100% of the funds used for our construction came from donations of many sizes and we are humbled your gifts.

…to our NGO, AP1. Though they are a small organization, they have large hearts for service and truly care for the community. They have been with us since the beginning, working tirelessly to represent the community and help us meet their needs. Throughout our stay, they gave us excellent hospitality, took care of our team’s every needs, and helped us serve the community in the best way possible.  They are continuing to improve the community after our project and if you are interested in helping in any way, please contact them at: ong.proyecto1@gmail.com.

…to our Technical Advisor, Mary Lou Ralls. Stepping in at the last moment to travel with our team, Mary Lou quickly became part of our family. Her expertise in both engineering and project management was invaluable as we faced many changes and challenges during implementation.

…to our families and friends. Behind every PUC team member was a team of cheerleaders back home, sending love and support along the way. This was clearly signified by the crowded bandwidth, every night at the hotel, as team members were excited to skype and call loved ones to tell them about their experiences. Many of us would not have been able to make this journey without their great support.

…to the University of Texas at Austin. Projects with Underserved Communities was started when students made overwhelming requests to combine their drive for learning and passion for service. The University listened and developed a specialized program to meet these needs. From the professors and teaching assistants who answered our many questions and guided us through project planning, to the team of administrative faculty who connected the many dots before and during our travel, we are extremely grateful.

There are many more people to whom we owe thanks, but this post would never end if we listed them all. As to our project, in less than three weeks, we built a Pila reservoir, wash stations, a roof, and a rainwater collection system for the community of Aldea Santa Cruz.

We faced many bumps and forks in the road along the way but we truly grew in both our engineering skills and our relationship with the community. Now, we are happy to see the community members use their new pila and hope to see the water collection system supplement the town’s supply. We made unforgettable friendships and shared many amazing experiences with our fellow team members and the members of the community.

Now, we are working to write our final reports (Yes, there is still work to be done) so that we may guide future teams on helping our’s and other’s communities in the best way possible. We hope to see a future PUC team return to our community soon and are exploring options for future projects.  Many of our team members are now deep into summer jobs, classes, and internships and we are excited to take our new skills into our next phases of working and learning. If you are interested in helping our community or PUC teams in the future, you may contact us at guatemala.puc2016@gmail.com or go to the program website at http://world.utexas.edu/abroad/programs/puc.

Muchos gracias and Adios!

Buenos noches!

We have had so much happen since our last update. If you would like to follow us more closely, don't forget to check out our blog at https://pucguatemala2016.wordpress.com/.

Last week, we finished building the pila wall as well as water-proofing the interior. So far this week, we have built the form work and poured 3 wash stations! Though we have hit some unexpected speed bumps along the way, we have adapted our design and look forward to finishing the wash stations tomorrow. The community members are already excited and we have consulted some local women to make sure the pila is perfect for them. Most of the days we are there, they are washing clothes on built up rocks and we are excited to move them into their new pila.

Though we work Monday-Saturday, we do have a little time to enjoy Guatemala. On our off day on Sunday, we enjoyed a catholic mass in town, even though most of us could not understand the sermon. After that, some of us joined our NGO partner to visit a mango farm and pick some delicious mangoes. We then visited a local hang out along the river and enjoyed some fresh-made empanadas.

As mentioned, the blog has more details about our adventures but for now, here are some things we have learned so far:

1. Epoxy hardens in the tube when it is hot outside.(Then, it takes 2 people, a hammer, and some CMU's to get it out).

2. The best measurements are taken twice. (We've learned this the hard way many times).

3. If the contractors do something a different way, there may be a good reason why.

4. There is no civilized way to eat a mango on a work site. (You will shower after anyways).

5. If you play with the kids after lunch for a few days in a row, they will start to circle like sharks the following days.

6. There is no better way to end a hot, sweaty work day than with ice cold coconuts from a roadside canteen.

7. Change WILL happen. Being flexible is more important than getting it right the first time.

Well that is it for now from Guatemala. Once again, thank you to all of the donors who made this dream possible. 

Hasta luego,

Team Guatemala

Hola from Guatemala!

We have officially completed our first work day on the Pila project and after only a day, we can already see progress. With the pila foundation poured and cured, we began by laying out the CMU's (cinderblocks) to visualize the pila perimeter. This part required some flexibility, because the slab dimensions and pipe spacing are different from our original design. With some creative problem solving, our technical team was able to make things work with few changes. With the design on track, we drilled rebar into the concrete slab and mortared a layer and a half of the pila wall. 

The children eagerly watched our construction all day and we were happy to get the chance to play ball with them at lunch. They were shy at first and would only smile and laugh when we asked them questions (probably because some our bad Spanish). But, they warmed up to us by the end of the day and waved "adios" as we left. The contractors, too, were incredible. We were blown away that they were able to trench, glue, and cover the drainage pipe from the pila to a place downhill in only one day. They were also very patient in teaching us their techniques and being flexible with design changes. Finally, we were very proud of our team in working hard and cooperatively. Every member was busy and sweating- carrying blocks, mixing mortar, drilling holes, etc.

After a long hot day, a big dinner, and showers (hopefully for all), we are off to bed.

Hasta luego!

Team Guatemala

We are so excited to leave for Guatemala tomorrow and get started on our project! It has been a long journey of planning, designing, making changes and sometimes starting over again. We are so grateful to all of our donors for getting us to this point. We would also like to thank our many advisors that have reviewed our designs and guided us along the way. 

If you would like to follow our progress throughout the trip, we will be posting on the following media sites:

Blog: https://pucguatemala2016.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pucguatemala2016/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pucguatemala2016/

We will see you in Guatemala!

We have officially ended our hornraiser campaign at a grand total of $12,750. All of us in Team Guatemala cannot begin to express how thankful we are to all of our wonderful donors. Though we did not reach 100% of our goal, we have sufficient funds to build our project this summer as planned.

If you are still interested in donating to help us expand our scope, you may do so easily online or by mail:

1. Simply go to http://www.me.utexas.edu/~efuscommunities/EfusC1_Donate.html,

2. Follow the instructions on the page

3. Be sure to note that the donation is for "Team Guatemala" if you want to funds to supports our team in particular.

Furthermore, we are still looking for a technical advisor to travel with the team this summer. If you, or someone you know, has professional engineering experience and would be interested in this amazing opportunity, please contact us at guatemala.puc2016@gmail.com

Lastly, we will continue to update our donors through project completion. Until then, thanks again for helping us make this possible.

Love,

Team Guatemala

We only have 4 days left in our official Hornraiser campaign! It's been a long journey and we are so grateful to all of our wonderful donors who have brought us this far. We have come a long way but let's finish strong.

Please share our project on social media and with friends and family and if you have not donated, now is the time!

Right now, the Guatemala team is hard at work. We have completed our first concrete workshop and our test slab is curing in the basement. We are still finalizing our designs pending measurements from our community partners.

We are still searching for a technical advisor to travel with and consult the team. If you, or someone you know, is a professional engineer interested in travelling with the team as a technical advisor, please email let us know.

We have officially surpassed $10,000! Thank you for the continued support of all our donors. We are now less than $5,000 from our goal and because of the Spring Break lull, we have extended our deadline to 21 more days.

Please keep encouraging friends and family to donate by sharing our project and using #pucguatemala2016

We are 61% to our project goal! Thank you to all our wonderful donors for helping us raise $9,150. Your support is incredible and crucial to our project. Though we have come a long way, we still have $5,850 left to go and only 8 days for our hornraiser campaign so please continue sharing and encouraging friends and family to donate.

Remember, that many companies will match donations. You can check if your company does this here: https://www.matchinggifts.com/rit/

We are also still looking for an experienced engineer to travel with our team this summer. If you or someone you know would be interested in this amazing opportunity (or if you have any other questions about the project), please contact us at guatemala.puc2016@gmail.com.

Our team is finalizing the designs for the roof structure and water collection system and we will present our progress to an advisory board next week. 

All of us in team Guatemala are very busy with midterm exams but we are excited about our progress and seeing our design materialize.

We are just over a week into our Hornraiser campaign and we are already over $6,000 and 41% towards our goal!

We still have a long way to go, with $8,710 still to raise in the 21 remaining days. So far we are on track and would like to hit 50% this week, but we need your help to do it! If you share our HornRaiser and Facebook page with others, we could tell our story to multiple networks of people that could help us reach our goal. 

Please remember that many companies will match employee donations. You can check to see if your company will double your donation here!

We have been working closely with technical experts to finalize our design, which will be a traditional-style pila. We are still looking for an official technical advisor to travel with us on our trip. If you, or someone you know, is a practicing engineer with experience in structural design, please contact us at guatemala.puc2016@gmail.com

It has been an exciting and crazy journey so far and we can't wait to travel to our community and start construction! Thank you to all of our wonderful donors, we cannot do this without you. Your kindness and generosity will touch the community of Aldea Santa Cruz!

We would love to answer any and all questions you may have pertaining to this project; feel free to email us any time!