Friday at Clean Water U

We learned lots about how and where to get our supplies for teaching the modules and how to pack them to go “in country”  We prepared for our presentation to the rest of the group concerning the actual things we would teach and how we would go about it (methodology).  We also discussed how to keep the education going after we go back home.  We are charged to take enough teaching supplies to leave with the community for the training of 200 more people after we are gone.  A trainer of trainers model of education.

A word or two about the food.  It has been rather high quality camp food.  What does that mean.  Well, we’ve had pizza, spaghetti, sandwiches, hamburger covered with gravy, etc.  The selections are “camp” but the quality has been good. The salad bar has been available at each meal.  Breakfasts have included eggs at every meal along with biscuits and gravy (that folks rave about) waffles, sausage and other regular breakfast things.  I’ve been going to the fruit area with yogurt, peanut butter (and apples) etc.  I’ve missed being in charge of what is served for breakfast because 5 weeks ago I re-joined Weight Watchers and lost 5 pounds so far.  I am determined not to gain—I may not lose, but that’s okay—altho with all the walking up hill and down, who knows.  I’ll weigh in on Monday when I get back to see how I did.  Those who know anything about W W know that food intake is tracked (this time on my phone) and plans are made with breakfast to stay within the allotted # of points for your current weight.  Yesterday for example, not knowing what would be for lunch or supper, I keep my # of points used down as much as possible.  Lunch was pizza- rather high in points, supper was an object lesson meal—just beans and cornbread—to simulate what might be eaten at a meal “in country”.  I thought okay this will keep me within my points.  2 ladles of beans is, depending on how they are cooked, 8-15 points.  It’s difficult not being in charge of what’s to eat.  Another object lesson.

             The facilities are comfortable, but not swanky.  I am appreciative of the WiFi when it is available.   And I’m so glad I brought an extra blanket—I would have been more comfortable with a sleeping bag, but I’ve been okay.The early morning tea on the porch is really calm and lovely.   

Harry has been going over forms needed for assessment and learning how to elicit information from the community to assure all will be well when we go to their country.  And the water guys (Dane, Walter and Gary) will report to us on Saturday what they’ve been doing and we will drink the water they produced.

Friday we had the opportunity to meet with folks who know all about a specific country—Guatamala, Mexico, Yucatan, Peru,  Honduras and others.  These are the countries in which a network exists (there are 11 networked countries).  A network means that Clean Water for the World organization has people in the country, sometimes more than one, who help with assessment, who know good translators and drivers-- who just assist.  We have been encouraged to choose one of the networked countries for our first mission. 

The Friday reports of the 101 (Administrative) group were eye-opening and entertaining.  We gave our report in song and story.

Thursday

Today is intense for all of us.  The technical guys spent the day at the Water building learning how to actually build the filtration system.  They should be back for supper, so I’ll get some info about how their day went.  Harry and his group worked on budgeting and specific planning for installing the system- going through the necessary forms and discussing the importance of each.  My day was filled with “why’s” about clean water and then doing activities that we will do with the students “in country”  In many of the places we might go (no decisions yet), the general population’s literacy level is low as is their Biblical knowledge, so we must teach about germs and taking care of “pure” water as if we were teaching American 3^rd or 4^th graders who’d not heard much about contamination.  The activities are fun ( bingo games, put the matching picture parts together, making "play doh" germs, and acting out water related Bible stories)  

All of these activities are then related to the need for using “pure” water and caring for the bottles that hold the water.  As of now (4pm)  we’ve gone through 2 complete days of curriculum and will do the third day after supper tonite.  

After talking to Harry, he says his day has been all about assessment of various types.  All his work will help us decide where to go for our site installation.  A great deal of assessment must be done before we can actually go on a trip to install a system. 

My head is reeling with all the information we are called on to share with the folks “in country” along with lots of activities to reinforce the needed information. 

Dane, Walter and Gary returned from the water building feeling pretty confident of their ability to construct the device.  They had a meeting tonite to reinforce their lessons from earlier today.

We have a short devotional each morning and each evening.  Some of the songs we sing are to familiar tunes, but with different words.  The first song the first evening was especially appropriate because it was written for Living Water for the World.  I’ll share it later if anyone is interested. 

Internet is down today, so you’ll receive this when it is up and running again. -------

 (Friday) Hooray!  It's up and running for awhile, at least.   

Arrival at Camp

This morning we leisurely had breakfast at the Comfort Inn in Memphis.  Altho’ we had planned to leave for the camp about 10, we were all ready to go  earlier.  After a short  hour and a half or so drive, we found Oxford, Mississippi, home of “Ole Miss”.  We browsed the lovely town square for about an hour, then looked for a place for lunch.  We had the choice narrowed down to one of 3 places on the square until we saw a group of people standing in a group waiting to get into the Ajax when it opened at 11:30.  That convinced us that this was the place for us.  The menu featured po’boy sandwiches, deep south entrees and tons of vegetables.  

The favorites at our table were chicken and dumplings with  turnip greens,  fried okra and sweet potato casserole.  We shared a blackberry cobbler serving and a piece of chocolate pie. The ceiling was covered with tooth picks that had been "blown" into it. 

 Fortified with a great lunch and fearing that we’d have to endure “camp” food the rest of the week, we made our way to the camp, not far outside Oxford.  On the way we drove through the campus resplendent with all sorts of blooming plants.

At the camp we met very friendly people and registered.  We received our room assignments and had some time to  make our beds and get settled in.   All the group had a 2 hour meeting concerning what the Living Water for the World organization is all about.  Many statistics were shared among them-the fact that-- millions of children die yearly from illnesses caused by not having clean water, 

LWW (Living Water for the World) has successfully installed 710 active systems in 25 countries.  They have created 11 networks (countries which have onsite co-ordinators)  30 of these sites are in Cuba, (a surprising fact to me) where the first one began in a Seminary.

We were all given overviews of our specific job areas.   Walter, Gary, and Dane are the ones who will be creating the actual filtration system.  Harry is the “boss” who arranges and co-ordinates EVERYTHING.  My job is to teach hygiene, when and how to use the clean water and also Bible stories to a few folks in the community in the mornings who in turn teach others that they invite that afternoon.   It is a trainer of trainers model.  Tomorrow we are going over the entire 3 day curriculum in morning, afternoon and night classes. 

WiFi is good in our cabin!  The bed is calling me.  Later!

Long Drive

We met at the church this morning at 8, loaded up luggage and people in the med sized SUV and headed east.   There was conversation, there was napping, reading and just some quiet time and voila we were in Little Rock.  Lunch was at Cracker Barrel, quite adequate and reasonable and we loaded up and headed east some more.   We rode and rode, and two of the guys drove and drove (sometimes thru rain showers) til we arrived at our night-time destination, Memphis.  After getting our rooms and chilling awhile, we met in the lobby to find a good Memphis barbecue place.  Armed with a map and instructions provided by the lady at the hotel counter we drove through a part of Memphis til we came to AR's Barbecue.                              

The guys had ribs which they declared wonderful,

I had chopped pork wrapped in a tortilla with cole slaw.  It was very tasty, but the cole slaw was not what I'm used to.   It had been chopped to death- it was almost a paste and way too wet.  But the taste was good if the texture wasn't.
Our plan is to enjoy breakfast on our own in the lobby and then to meet at mid morning to repack the car-- luggage and us- and head to Oxford, Mississippi for registration at 1:30.   Hopefully I'll be able to get adequate WiFi at the camp in Oxford to continue posting this saga.

Clean Water University

This will be a church group adventure, rather than a family trip.  My church (Westminster Presbyterian/ Arlington) is participating in the "Living Water for the World" project which brings filtration systems to villages which do not have clean water.   To be a part of this group, a team from the church must attend "Clean Water U" , a 4 1/2 day training to give us the necessary information to be able to help people- in the village we visit- to build the filtration systems.  They build and maintain the system, we teach them how and bring supplies.   My job on this team is to teach a few village leaders what to do with the clean water and about germs, microbes, etc. These few I teach will give the information to others. It should be an interesting few days with a huge amount to learn.  Our destination is not yet decided, nor is the date of our initial trip.

Our training is held in Oxford, Mississippi and the five of us are driving quite a few hours to get there.  We'll stay overnight in Memphis before driving the hour and a half into Miss. to get to the camp.  As always, I plan to add to this blog each day, but we have been told that wifi is spotty in the camp.  It may be next week before the blog is downloaded.  We'll see.  Travel along with me on this adventure into clean water.

Christmas in Mullin

Haven't added much to this blog since last March but thought we should document our Christmas, 2014 "getaway" in Mullin, Texas.  The Pike extended family met at the Duren Hotel outside Mullin the Friday after Christmas (26th), enjoyed celebrating Christmas with the kids on Saturday and we left for home on Sunday.

This Hotel was originally an old Rail Road hotel which was moved by the Duren family to their property outside Mullin.   Their property was "next door" to the Lonnie and Lessie Pike (Nick's parents) property, so we've all been aware of the hotel for years and years.  When Nikki and her friends in college began spending New Year's Eve there (it was available for rent), I heard more about the rustic old building.   Nick and some of his fishing buddies have rented the place for their once or twice a year fishing trips, but I'd never stayed there.  I'd walked through when visiting central Texas, but that was about the extent of my experience there.

The building has been radically remodeled, updated and generally turned into a model rental property.   With 6 bedrooms, it was the perfect size for our group.

Some of the rooms have twin beds, while others have full and queen sized beds-- all are decorated quite well, in the antique style of an old hotel with modern amenities (very modern bathrooms)

The newly modernized kitchen is a cook's dream with a huge new stove, dishwasher, and fridge.   Dishes, pots and pans, flatware-- anything you could want -- are provided.  But you must bring your own food, which is rarely a problem when Pikes gather.




The bedrooms are on the second and third floors with pretty steep stairs (original, I think) going up to the 3rd floor loft, where I stayed.   I went up and down stairs more times than I can count for the 2 1/2 days we were there and had really sore ankles when I got home.










There is a pond for fishing (which is dangerously low at the moment) lots of space for kids to run and play, a picnic table, grill, rockers on the porch, and a large screen t v in the game room-- anything a group could want for entertainment.  We had a fun time, but the weather and wind were so cold, that we couldn't enjoy the outside very much.  Hopefully we can do this again in warmer weather.

Campers and trailers and tents,... Oh My!

This is an adventure of a different sort-- we didn't head out of the country, or even out of the state.  In fact our adventure happened less than 10 miles from home.

This is the story--- Grand daughter will enter public kindergarten next fall and her mom would like her to be in a specific school, which is not her neighborhood school.  To accomplish this transfer the central office takes "first come/first served" applications for transfer.  Some of their schools are HIGHLY requested, so to be sure their request is first in line, some anxious parents literally camp out at the central office parking lot.  The school district allows parents/family to begin this "camping out" process on the Monday before applications are taken on Saturday morning-- and some do begin to camp out that early.  My son-in-law had planned to park his pickup there and camp in the bed the night before.  No one can predict the weather right now, so we looked online for a camper to rent for one day.  No one seemingly wanted to rent any kind of camper for less than 3 days-- which we did not want or need.   A call was made to Nick's boat storage man who gave him names to contact.  He found a place in Cleburne that rents campers for their owners who were willing to rent for one day.  Arrangements made, we drove on Friday morning to pick up motorhome.  Since the plan was to have it in place in the parking lot by noon Friday (to get a low number for entry into the transfer process) we took the empty camper home to add needed supplies for an overnight stay.  That accomplished, I drove to the central office, got the "parking permit" for $50 and our all important NUMBER.

Note we have #32, and the folks who'd been there since Monday obviously had the really low numbers.  As it turned out, they quit allowing parking- and giving out numbers at close of business (4 pm) Friday afternoon- giving out a total of 50 parking spaces.

No electricity or water were available for this unique camping situation, but 3 "porta pottys" were positioned in the middle of the parking lot, and they were maintained-- I saw the truck "taking care" of them while we were there.  And we were fully contained with a generator, running water, heater, and bathroom facilities

We settled in with books, iPads, and pimento cheese and chips and just chilled out.  We expected the rest of the family to join us later.

We tapped into the district's "guest" WiFi but it wasn't very strong in the parking lot, so we created our own "hot spot" with our phones. 

And we waited, and we waited.  Nikki had some friends who were camping also and we received a text from her asking if  one of her friends could make use of our bathroom rather than the facilities provided in the parking lot.  She came by and we talked.    Nki and chickadee came and we played with the green slime she made at school, she and I went for a walk and then we attended a meeting where the rules and expectations were explained.

Family arrived with supper and after we ate "bootleg chicken" we left it with them.  Grand daughter and son-in-law went home to sleep and Nki and her friend camped.  They had heard that about midnight people would begin arriving to stand in line to register.  Let me explain-- the 50 with parking permits would be allowed in to apply for transfers first, then those who were standing in line would be allowed in according to their place in line.

 This picture was taken from the window of the camper at 6 am and the line runs from the front door of the central office  (the far end of the building  in the distance on the left of the picture) past where the camper was parked.  I'm guessing that to be about 100 yds.  I was told that someone who arrived to get in line at 4am was # 50 in the line. (Remember that is after all the camping permit numbers)

The doors opened at 7:30, the paperwork was done, and camper was returned to our house before 10 am.

The problems with this transfer system are that those who can't camp out for whatever reason, don't get as much access to transfer availability, that transfers should be handled in a more equitable manner using computer access and random selection and finally for us anyway, there are no guarantees.  People are signing up for a place on a waiting list that may or may not become available.  In Kindergarten, especially, no one knows what openings will be available until all the neighborhood kindergarten children register and are accounted for.

We completed the adventure by cleaning out and returning the camper to Cleburne.  A camping trip to be remembered.