If you are reading this, thank you for checking back in with us. In this year sanctioned by the United Nations as the "Year of Water Collaboration" what we are realizing more each day here in Panama is how vital it is to be actively connected with organizations of all kinds in order to save lives with safe water.
Let's talk cultural shock for a moment. We knew upon arriving in Panama that there would be moments when we would not be able to anticipate social encounters. But the way Panamanians like to do meetings is right up our ally. The following story is not exaggerated.
Lunch time Thursday, our first full day in Panama, we find ourselves chatting with Quality Leadership University staff at a little local Panamanian restaurant complete with frozen mango Popsicles (try them with a little salt sprinkled on top, and you'll be glad you did.) At our street table, we are sharing travel stories and ketchup when the men at the table next to us lean over to interrupt a story to ask what is WaterStep and why is it on our shirts? Half an hour later, we have shared our pitch to save the lives with safe water with who we now know is a QLU neighbor and retired military officer of 25 years and he has an appointment set up for us with his friend, the Subdirector of ONPAR. ONPAR being the Oficina Nacional para la Atención de Refugiados, which is a branch of the national government. Which brings us to Friday morning...Alberto, QLU neighbor/retired military/networking machine meets us at the McDonald's outside the ONPAR office, breezes us by lines of people waiting for the secretary to set an appointment and introduces us to ONPAR.
One thing we love about WaterStep is how easy it has made our job of sharing its technology and passion of empowering people with training and technology with others. How can someone not be interested in a tiny, robust and sustainable machine that purifies 10,000 gallons of water in a day, is fully functional in under two hours of assembly and runs on a handful of salt and a car battery? Especially when it is so logically partnered with educational curriculum of health and hygiene, and THEN you throw hand pump repair into the mix! All this to say, it was a very productive meeting and we are excited to continue conversations with this organization on how we can embrace this year of water collaboration.
After our meeting, our good friend and QLU staff member Melvis drove us to the Centro de Panama where we met the very smart kids at Apojusan to learn about some fun health and hygiene strategies, like how to wash our hands and make fly traps! One interesting colloquialism we learned here is they do not use Senor or Senora, they simply call anyone who has not yet retired or under 65 "el joven" or "la joven". Good news for all you Mr.s and Mrs.s out there not wanting to feel old!
After a productive day we were starving and headed to the causesway of Panama to eat seafood, listen to a little live Panamanian music and realize how blessed we truly are to be here in Panama and share WaterStep around the world.
Today, Saturday, we were back at it and spent an hour and half with about 50 teens at QLU to have a conversation about the world water crisis and social responsibility. What an amazing group of teens. We truly believe they are going to add some serious fuel to the movement of agua potable para Panama. We were very impressed at the solutions they developed when presented with initiatives of how to address unsafe water right here in Panama. We are so excited to continue to work with them and develop plans of actions from their ideas.
So where are we now? What's next? Glad you asked! We have developed the foundations for some important partners of water collaboration, and so far we have trained over 80 youth and adults in health and hygiene, water awareness and water ambassador leadership. Not a bad three days. Next week, we will be hosting the first ever M-100 chlorine generator build at QLU, leading more youth workshops, testing our D-Learning module, building more partnerships and seeking out new initiatives to infuse Panama with WaterStep technology and training. Coffee will be an absolute must.
Stay tuned for more stories to come!
Without thirst and with faith,
Victoria and Natalie
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