Busy Week

Ok well it has been a busy week. Starting with Sunday and watching part of the superbowl. It was kind of a surreal experience; it was like being at home but then being in Guate. What I have to say about that is Go Saints!
In other news, the week has been full of lots of classes, homework, school practicums, and Spanish. My mind goes into overload occasionally but things are great. We are also getting ready for our week excursion into the field. Where we will meet and see real volunteers and learn all about our job. I´m really excited for this learning opportunity and hope I will feel much more clear and excited about what the next two years really entail for me.
Yesterday, we had a small field trip to two organizations that are working in Guatemala to improve the quality of life of people here while also helping the environment! It was a pretty neat and inspiring afternoon. Our first stop was a water filter factory called ecofiltros. Their website is www.ecofiltros.com and I highly suggest you check it out. A guatemalan invented a filter that is made of a mixture of clay and pine sawdust that purfies even the nastiest of waters and makes it drinkable. It is really pretty impressive. The company just donated 1000 filters to Haiti and they have distributed over 60000 within Guatemala. They are also the leader in this form of potable water technology and have about 14 other factories that are attempting to implement this filter in other places in the world where water is not accessible. These filters only cost 25 US dollars to make! Doesn´t that blow your mind? I was very impressed and even more excited about being in Guatemala. I think 80% of water in guatemala is undrinkable or unsanitary! That´s crazy.
Our second stop was a tech training site where people learn how to make latrines, stoves, wells, and lots of other environmentally useful materials. We learned that we can use this center as a resource if in the future we want to take on secondary projects of this nature. It´s pretty cool to see that you could make a ¨well¨, that holds rain deposits that you can then pump from and use the water in the non-rainy season!
Anyway, yesterday was very interesting and everything is going well. We are learning so much and life here is so exciting. Got to jet back to spanish and the busy life of a pct. Lots of love. Miss you all lots!