Teamwork
Today Collegiate students gathered in a lovely typical home in Antigua, to begin working on their presentations to the village children about the importance of drinking clean, uncontaminated water. Chris Eaton, operational manager of EcoFiltro divided them into two groups and gave them their instructions.
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| Chris working with "The problems of dirty water" group. |
They of course will present their final version to administrators from ecofiltro:one, Chris, the Senoras and Julio tomorrow, so that they can adjust and modify before we head to the pueblo on Thursday.
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| Kyle and Stephen working on their presentation. |
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
ReplyDeleteUpon being divided into two groups, I was designated the leader of Group A. My group is tasked with identifying the problems of the current water situation in the villages to begin educating the children on Thursday the importance of clean water and that a major issue does in fact exist. We began by listing 10 problems -- some more prevalent and momentous than others -- and their subsequent effects. For example, the practice of boiling water not only is expensive -- sometimes costing the residents over one thousand Quetzales per year -- but also damaging to the environment by adding to another world-wide problem, deforestation. After we identified the problems, ranging from dirty vessels to chlorine and bottled water, we began to put them in order and draw images of the most important issues (chlorine, flies and bacteria, and sugary sodas) to make them more presentable to the children of the villages. I am excited to put the written facts on the poster-boards and the final touches on the presentation tomorrow in order to present to Chris, Lencho, and Sam.
After a delicious lunch of rice, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and tortillas, I attended language school again where we took a field trip to "San Juan del Obispo," a convent build in 1530 and the oldest Catholic building in Central America. One of the most interesting things I saw was the hand-carved wood furniture and doors -- many of which were replicas -- that were present throughout the building. Another part that struck me as fascinating was the private chapel for only Francisco Marroquín, the founder. We were not allowed to enter or take photos, but the interior was covered in gold and silver, all of which, including the altar and the ornate trim detail, are still remaining and authentic since 1530. After visiting the convent, we briefly stopped at a house known for making delicious chocolate. A woman showed us the seeds and the beans and explained to us, among many things, the importance of the best seed quality, capable of affecting the taste, fat content, and other attributes of the final chocolate product. I am very excited to continue reading and writing with my tutor at the language school and to present my group's topic to the ecofiltro:one staff and eventually to the clients. See you tomorrow!
Yesterday we visited the place where the ecofilters are distributed and made. I thought it was so interesting and cool to see workers making these filters that look so basic but are actually so intricate and time-consuming. The amount of work and trial and error that goes into making each filter is amazing, and the strategy for distributing them to rural and urban areas is also really impressive. Since they take so long to make, so many studies have been done and with all of the theories proposing a more efficient system, no discovery has been made that has not been challenged. After seeing the meaning and detail behind the ecofilters, I am very excited to create this presentation for children in Guatemala. The goal is to not only show how useful the ecofilters can be and how they will benefit their lives, but also to educate families on how to maintain healthier habits with water for a lifetime of health improvement. I am really excited to see how the presentation goes on Thursday!
ReplyDeleteYesterday, our group was divided into two groups, group A and group B. Group A was designated to explicate the problem of using contaminated water, while group B has to explain the solution- potable water. I was grouped into B along with Evan Surgey Sidak and Amy. I am excited to present to the children Thursday!
ReplyDeleteYesterday we got divided into our groups for the Eco filter project. We had to work on our projects with our groups which was cool because we had the idea of how we were going to present our projects. I had a great time doing this because it was very beneficial to me.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have been separated into groups for our presentations about water in the villages, we have begun to learn ore about all the advantages of drinking lots of clean water every day. The problem is that the water is contaminated, and they hardly drink any water, because they prefer soda. I am looking forward to meeting these people, as I have heard they have never seen foreigners before. About 5 people today asked to touch my hair because they have never seen red hair before.
ReplyDeleteToday we got separated into groups. Jack Scott was put into my group, which was surprisingly a big help. Our group was tasked with finding the problems with water and presenting them to the kids in Guatemalan villages. We got a lot of work done and I hope that we have a good presentation
ReplyDeleteBeing part of Group A, who needed to identify the problems with the water in Guatemala, was fun but we need to make some changes to our presentation. After we gave our presentation, the "panel" gave us some feedback that we needed to use in order to make our presentation better. Simon Cowell AKA Chris Eaton gave us a 2 out of 5 and said that we have the information but our way of presenting was bad. He said we needed to be more animated and interact with the crowd. We will use the feedback and try and do better next time.
ReplyDeleteI was gladly put into group B whose job was to provide the benefits of drinking clean water instead of dirty water and soda. We were suppose to make a presintation that we were going to present to kids that were six years old to sixth graders. It was a challenge for sure because we had to make sure that the kids would not get bored with our presintations and lose interest. We had to be very creative because after presenting our first practice presintation to Simon Cowell, we got a 3.5 out of 5 and told us that we needed to stay away from putting too much words on the posters. Simon told us that we needed to be more active and ask the kids questions and put on some skits that would engage the kids. We still had much work to do because we had to present our first presintation the next day.
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