Lately I have been working out some of the problems that arise with designing a water filtration system. On top of that I have also been faced with being pulled in many different directions. Things are still on schedule for getting done. One of the things I have been trying to work out is how to pay for everything. I want to get a signed contract with the school and church in the Dominican saying that they will buy so much water per month for their use. Once that is in place it will be up to me to find a way to raise the money to see this through.
We are making a lot of progress but the mountain is still ahead of us. The easy part is mostly done. Now we face the battle. I will be making a trip down to the Dominican soon, the dates are still up in the air but it is looking like October for the first trip and then maybe another trip this year as well.
One of the things I am in need of is prayer. I have been seeing lots of up's and down's with this project and there are times I feel it is easier to walk away and do something else than to continue on. Money is also something that is in the back of my mind. It wasn't easy to give up a year of my life right out of college and make zero dollars doing this. I know it was the right decision but the temptation to find a job that would take me away from this is very appealing at times. By the end of the year I hope to have something else to help support what I am doing, something that enables me to continue the water project as well as bring in money to support myself.
Thank you all,
Isaac
Showing posts with label Bavaro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bavaro. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Happy 4th of July
America was founded on the main principle that all men were created equal and that they should be free. There was a lot of other reasons our country was founded too but I have always believed that we had values above all else.
It is nice to see that we haven't fully lost sight of why we are here. But there is a major stereotype of Americans in other countries. Some believe we should just give them everything we have because we have so much. Others seem to believe we are all fat and watch NASCAR. The way we give away our money is depressing, we blindly give it away to whatever charity has the best marketing campaign and never see it again.
Charity:Water completely changed the way they handle a charity's money. They show you exactly where your money goes, this model wont work for everyone though. I mean come on, who has a tech millionaire willing to front all your staff costs. Their model of complete transparency is something of envy, one I do hope to mimic once things get rolling more with adroptodrink.org.
I am trying to gear up for a lot of changes. I want to start doing more and getting things done on the ground. To do that I do need equipment that I have been too proud to ask for. I need a definite answer on how we are moving forward from the church down in Friusa and then its full steam ahead on how much we have to raise and how to raise it. I will hopefully know next week. I am waiting on a clear amount before I start asking for money and I want a transparency on how the money is being spent. I personally don't care if I ever make a dime from this, I found a need and want to see it met.
As part of this 4th of July weekend I want to ask each one of you what being an American means to you, and how you can work to change the perception of Americans in other cultures.
It is nice to see that we haven't fully lost sight of why we are here. But there is a major stereotype of Americans in other countries. Some believe we should just give them everything we have because we have so much. Others seem to believe we are all fat and watch NASCAR. The way we give away our money is depressing, we blindly give it away to whatever charity has the best marketing campaign and never see it again.
Charity:Water completely changed the way they handle a charity's money. They show you exactly where your money goes, this model wont work for everyone though. I mean come on, who has a tech millionaire willing to front all your staff costs. Their model of complete transparency is something of envy, one I do hope to mimic once things get rolling more with adroptodrink.org.
I am trying to gear up for a lot of changes. I want to start doing more and getting things done on the ground. To do that I do need equipment that I have been too proud to ask for. I need a definite answer on how we are moving forward from the church down in Friusa and then its full steam ahead on how much we have to raise and how to raise it. I will hopefully know next week. I am waiting on a clear amount before I start asking for money and I want a transparency on how the money is being spent. I personally don't care if I ever make a dime from this, I found a need and want to see it met.
As part of this 4th of July weekend I want to ask each one of you what being an American means to you, and how you can work to change the perception of Americans in other cultures.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Solving The Water Problem - The Up's and The Downs
As many of you know I took the year after my college career to explore bringing clean water to towns in the Dominican Republic. So far I am a mere 2 months into this endeavor and I feel overwhelmed and behind on everything.
There is a lot that goes into designing a system, especially one that is trying to keep cost to a minimum. I am aiming for a payback period of around 6 years for our water system. The design of it doesn't seem to be the biggest issue though. No, the biggest problem I have faced is fear itself. The fear of being good enough to do this. I am not actually inventing anything, I am hardly even improving on anything that has been done before. All I am doing is what is naturally right for the good of everyone, providing clean water.
We have yet to provide clean water to anyone yet, except if you count what is being done in Cien Fuegos. I want to do so much there and help them expand but it is difficult to help when we wait for them to see the need to help them. Progress is being made there with the water cages that are starting to be installed throughout the city. What's next requires being there, helping the people.
So the question is how can we move forward and stop feeling so overwhelmed on everything. There is not one simple answer but many small steps that need to be done, like a check list. I have a reworked process to clean the water that requires a much larger storage tank, which means no more roof tanks. That also means we have to find a place for the larger tank, in a place where space is very limited.
I still have yet to find a solution to pay for everything down there, even with a 6 year pay back period raising money will not be easy. We will require a lot of different equipment to just get started. A new well has to be dug and a study on the ground water in the area needs to be complete before we can actually start cleaning the water.
We are taking baby steps to get where we are going but its progress. I hope next time I will be able to share some great news on what is happening there.
Thank you all for your support,
Isaac
There is a lot that goes into designing a system, especially one that is trying to keep cost to a minimum. I am aiming for a payback period of around 6 years for our water system. The design of it doesn't seem to be the biggest issue though. No, the biggest problem I have faced is fear itself. The fear of being good enough to do this. I am not actually inventing anything, I am hardly even improving on anything that has been done before. All I am doing is what is naturally right for the good of everyone, providing clean water.
We have yet to provide clean water to anyone yet, except if you count what is being done in Cien Fuegos. I want to do so much there and help them expand but it is difficult to help when we wait for them to see the need to help them. Progress is being made there with the water cages that are starting to be installed throughout the city. What's next requires being there, helping the people.
So the question is how can we move forward and stop feeling so overwhelmed on everything. There is not one simple answer but many small steps that need to be done, like a check list. I have a reworked process to clean the water that requires a much larger storage tank, which means no more roof tanks. That also means we have to find a place for the larger tank, in a place where space is very limited.
I still have yet to find a solution to pay for everything down there, even with a 6 year pay back period raising money will not be easy. We will require a lot of different equipment to just get started. A new well has to be dug and a study on the ground water in the area needs to be complete before we can actually start cleaning the water.
We are taking baby steps to get where we are going but its progress. I hope next time I will be able to share some great news on what is happening there.
Thank you all for your support,
Isaac
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Water 101 Friusa and Cien Fuegos
Water 101
We all need water to survive. If we don't have it we won't live very long. We require our water to be free of parasites and most minerals.
That's a pretty tough order for us to survive. If our water gets polluted we have three options. Option one: stop drinking it. Option two: drink it anyways. Option three: ship it in from somewhere else.
Option three is the best option of those options but still not ideal. You can buy water at every supermarket here. A normal bottle cost just 10 pesos. For a gallon it's 85 pesos. Each bottle pollutes the earth and if we have to drink 3 or 4 a day at a minimum then that is a lot of waste if multiplied out.
So how can we solve this problem? What is option 4? Well option 4 is not the easiest option and it costs money upfront. That option is to clean the water and deliver it back to people. We can do this with chlorine filters and reverse osmosis.
The concept is not new. It is what every major American city does. So why is this not done all throughout the world? In some areas there is just not enough Capitol to do a project of this size. When the average person makes only 6,000 a year it is hard to save up enough money, even as a group, to pay for such an investment.
To build just one filtration plant for roughly 2000 people it's about $15,000 US dollars as an investment. Not including the land or a way to pipe water to them, they have to come to us.
Option 4 offers the most Eco friendly and long lasting of the goals. For just $7.5 a person this goal can become a reality. It's not that the people in these areas don't have the money it's finding 2000 people to just give up that money and ten wait for us to build the plant and then they still have to maintain it. Plus the $15,000 is probably a very low number. And being able to bring in that volume of water each day can be a big challenge.
What we want to do is start giving people the option to have clean water. One world one goal: clean water. Help us reach this goal, we cannot do this alone.
We all need water to survive. If we don't have it we won't live very long. We require our water to be free of parasites and most minerals.
That's a pretty tough order for us to survive. If our water gets polluted we have three options. Option one: stop drinking it. Option two: drink it anyways. Option three: ship it in from somewhere else.
Option three is the best option of those options but still not ideal. You can buy water at every supermarket here. A normal bottle cost just 10 pesos. For a gallon it's 85 pesos. Each bottle pollutes the earth and if we have to drink 3 or 4 a day at a minimum then that is a lot of waste if multiplied out.
So how can we solve this problem? What is option 4? Well option 4 is not the easiest option and it costs money upfront. That option is to clean the water and deliver it back to people. We can do this with chlorine filters and reverse osmosis.
The concept is not new. It is what every major American city does. So why is this not done all throughout the world? In some areas there is just not enough Capitol to do a project of this size. When the average person makes only 6,000 a year it is hard to save up enough money, even as a group, to pay for such an investment.
To build just one filtration plant for roughly 2000 people it's about $15,000 US dollars as an investment. Not including the land or a way to pipe water to them, they have to come to us.
Option 4 offers the most Eco friendly and long lasting of the goals. For just $7.5 a person this goal can become a reality. It's not that the people in these areas don't have the money it's finding 2000 people to just give up that money and ten wait for us to build the plant and then they still have to maintain it. Plus the $15,000 is probably a very low number. And being able to bring in that volume of water each day can be a big challenge.
What we want to do is start giving people the option to have clean water. One world one goal: clean water. Help us reach this goal, we cannot do this alone.
Friusa Dominican
We arrived safely in the Dominican Republic! We only got lost once trying to find our first hotel.
When we first arrived nothing really shocked us. This is our first time In a country like this. The airport was very nice and the people where friendly. What did shock us was the fact that most of the people here speak 3 or 4 languages. English not always being one of them.
One regret I do have is not learning more Spanish before we left. The people ere are so friendly and patient with us while we struggle to find the words to say.
We decided to walk to the first site in Friusa today. It was only about a 10 min walk. We didn't have a clue where we were going at first but we gave it a go. We found the back entrance and found someone who spoke French and I was able to ask if we were at the school.
We have been blown away by the great food and the wonderful hospitality of the people here.
One guy we came across today at the market went out of his way to help us find our hotel. He didn't want any money for helping us, a rare occurrence. Him and his wife said that they knew we must be with pastor pasquel, probably spelling his name wrong, and said he is a friend.
Tonight we are going to a young adults group at the church in Friusa and tomorrow starts the work we came here to do
When we first arrived nothing really shocked us. This is our first time In a country like this. The airport was very nice and the people where friendly. What did shock us was the fact that most of the people here speak 3 or 4 languages. English not always being one of them.
One regret I do have is not learning more Spanish before we left. The people ere are so friendly and patient with us while we struggle to find the words to say.
We decided to walk to the first site in Friusa today. It was only about a 10 min walk. We didn't have a clue where we were going at first but we gave it a go. We found the back entrance and found someone who spoke French and I was able to ask if we were at the school.
We have been blown away by the great food and the wonderful hospitality of the people here.
One guy we came across today at the market went out of his way to help us find our hotel. He didn't want any money for helping us, a rare occurrence. Him and his wife said that they knew we must be with pastor pasquel, probably spelling his name wrong, and said he is a friend.
Tonight we are going to a young adults group at the church in Friusa and tomorrow starts the work we came here to do
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