Victoria, here. Back in los estados.

And just that fast, my life is changed and I'm sitting in the WaterStep office writing again. And so honored to be sharing this story with you. Thank you, reader, for investing in our story.

I love being able to say "our story" because this journey has become so much more than simply Natalie and I traveling to Panama as ambassadors. Along the way, we were joined by a number of water minded individuals who felt the calling to learn about how they could make a difference in their own country.

Our first trainees were Alejandro and Nestor, on another Saturday well spent at Quality Leadership University. Shout-out to Natalie for building a two-tank manifold model in a record 17 minutes flat!

These two men showed sincere passion by asking questions about how to begin working, how to purchase purifiers and how to get involved in community development. All great questions that refer directly to the pillars of sustainable excellence at WaterStep's foundation. And thankfully, we were able to provide answers to thanks to our own training we received. An incredible feeling to teach someone life saving information that someone taught you.

After the training, we restocked supplies and explored the city. One interesting aspect of Panamanian culture is the influence of immigrants that live in the city. You meet people from as close as Columbia to as far away as China, and some communities choose to segregate themselves to live in different parts of the city. For example Clayton, Panama is an not too far from the US embassy, and thus many Americans retire near there and you hardly hear any Spanish spoken. Not too far down the road, you enter China Town where all the signs are written in Chinese.

This picture is of an arepa, traditional Columbian type of sandwich.


This brought several ideas to mind for me, personally. On one hand, a reminder that our world is meant to be shared. On the other, that conflict between different groups of people is a natural and unfortuante. However, with WaterStep and the Panamanians we met, I believe when strangers understand a shared goal to conquer a crime against humanity, it is much easier to tear down walls of fear and unknown to actually achieve the goal.

And that's what we saw happen in Panama. Twice, in two days.

The first was in Darien, Panama. A region suggested to Americans by the U.S. Embassy to avoid unless absolutely necessary. And as WaterStep knows, safe water is absolutely necessary.

On this trip to Darien, our team consisted Niko from QLU, Xie from the Fundacion Pro Ninos de Darien, Engineers without Borders from California, and Natalie and myself.

This picture is a school located in Agua Fria, and the proud owners of an M-100. And these students were the excited and silly kids who learned about health and hygiene from three members of Engineers without Borders and myself. And lots and lots of glitter. We use glitter to represent germs and how easily they can be spread. And glitter is fun to play with!

When the training was over, the students, engineers and I moved outside for a game of fútbol. Meanwhile during training and playing, Natalie was working diligently with staff members of this school and Niko to solve a problem the school was having with their water treatment system. Apparently, within the last few days they were having a problem and were not running the system. Niko (who installed this system) and the staff members showed Natalie where they using the system and when hooked up to their transformer was not running.

A moment to reflect. Natalie, 22 year old female WaterStep ambassador discussing plumbing and engineering in Spanish with three male community members of Darien and Niko,QLU maintenance man from the city of Panama in the region of Darien, at a school with no doors or windows.

Let's talk gender equality.

Me, simultaneously teaching engineers and a class of students how trap flies and wash their hands so they don't catch something that will likely kill them.

Let's talk collaboration.

This moment was made possible by a divine being who allowed us to be there, the generous souls who provided funding, Panamanians who invited and wanted us to be there and the visionary minds of WaterStep.

Let's talk sustainability.

Back to Darien. Natalie suggests testing the cables on Niko's car battery instead of their transformer, and low and behold the M-100 jumps to life. With this discovery, we were excited to learn it was not the M-100 that was experiencing a problem, but the transformer the school was using. Luckily until they can replace their transformer, they can continue to run the M-100 off of any car battery available, showcasing the M-100's incredible sustainability and adaptability. With this experience, we also made note of this to include in our trouble-shooting guide for D-Learning, or distance learning. Much more on that to come later!

Further in to Darien is an area called Metetí we were introduced to Fundacion Pro Ninos de Darien employees whose daily tasks include experimenting with organic farming methods to learn the best ways to teach universities and communities how to grow plants that can serve the most purpose.

 Fundacion Pro Ninos de Darien guest house on the farm, complete with outdoor fans, kitchen, bathroom and monkeys as your next door neighbor!

When we returned from Darien, we had two days left in Panama to create the culmination of our journey. Which is exactly what happened. And the story I will share with you next time I blog. That's enough for now. 

The WaterStep office is almost as crazy as the jungle this week - Millenial Train, handpump repair with Boston marathon winner Wesley Korir, collaboration with Louisville School for the Blind for a mission to India, and of course, the daily grind. 

With faith and without thirst,

Victoria

Victoria here, excited to share one of the most valuable lessons I have learned thus far while in Panama.

Write your agenda in pencil, not pen.

It seems fitting in the country of one of the greatest water works known to man that we should embrace the theory of going with the flow. This has been an incredible learning experience of how to embrace the importance of human relationships and to not feel as though every minute of our day has to be planned out perfectly. Additionally, it is exciting is to see how all of our endeavors are actually falling into place to create an exciting story that we can share with the world on behalf of WaterStep in Panama.

Now for an update!

Sunday, our day off, Natalie and I had planned to go tour the canal. Fun fact: Nat's Uncle Bud was actually stationed here in Panama for a while, and we wanted to get some good pictures to show him in comparison to how the canal and city looked from when he was here. However, the price of taxis to get to the actual canal was too high, so we opted instead for seeing a different, less famous area called the "Causeway".

The Causeway is a long road leading from the city up to the canal that was actually made of the debris not used to make the Panama Canal. And speaking of debris, the city sure has a lot of it. Which was powerful to see, because it really gave us some weight behind the importance of our health and hygiene training we have taught to over 125 kids this past week.

Below is a the school that Niku, a staff member at QLU, installed an M-100! It's called la escuela primera Guillermo Patterson, in the part of the city called Mocambo. We were able to go to this school, just 25 minutes outside the city, which is located on top of a mountain, uphill of the Panama City junk yard and landfills. We met with the teachers and talked with them how they liked the M-100, if it worked well, if they understood how it worked. We discovered that the M-100 was being used very often, but there could be a greater capacity of potable water as soon as they were able to get some bigger tanks to catch rain water. Also, we saw that they were still buying bleach, and Niku is going to teach them how the chlorine by-products from the M-100 can do the same job a bottle of Clorox can... for free!

But we haven't just worked with kids! As a part of our initiative in Panama to build relationships to create an awareness of social responsibility and sustainable change, we have been spending a lot of time at Quality Leadership University to be with the students and talk with them about why we do what we do. One way we have done this is by working at the QLU annual Job Fair, where about 25 major companies, like Dell, Johnson&Johnson, Proctor&Gamble, come in to the University looking to hire students and alumni. As job seekers approaches our table, at first they would be a little dismayed at our non-profit status of looking for volunteers, but as we would continue to share our mission and philosophy, they became very engaged and ask us many questions. 

So many people can not believe that the M-100 can purify 38,000 liters in one day at full capacity! Especially when they see how small it actually is!

We are very excited for this Saturday, where we will be hosting an M-100 build to train QLU staff, students and community members how to build a two-tank system, learn about a little plumbing, and especially social responsibility and community development. We have our demo parts already to go!

 

Traveling a bit and learning more about how immediate the need for potable water and sanitation is needed in Panama, we look forward to seeing what will happen within the next few days. Nat and I have less than a week left, but we are confident in that time WaterStep will be a presence in Panama in collaboration with QLU and the Fundacion Pro Ninos de Darien that has a strong relationship to work together for Aqua Potable para Panama!