One of the surprising facts I’ve learned while volunteering with blueEnergy is how desperate developing nations have become for clean, filtered and pure sources of water. Water is the most basic element key to all human’s survival. Advocates during Earth Day raised awareness, often to the unknown observer, that clean water is not as plentiful that we may think.

From kindergarten through college I learned that conserving water is important to save energy and use less of the Earth’s resources. I did learn, or so I thought, that the Earth has plenty of water for its inhabitants. What I didn’t pick up is that clean sources of water are in a state of depletion.

While living in the jungle, I never thought that communities would have a shortage of water. During the rainy season I was blasting the torrential hourly downpours during my walks to the blueEnergy office. Might I add that the “rainy season” never quite ceases in the jungle. It just depends if it downpours hourly, or simply daily.

One of the main functions of blueEnergy is to build biosand water filtration systems and install them in various communities. We teach each community member how to properly use and maintain his or her system. You can imagine their skepticism when we attempt to explain these Easter Island statue lookalikes actually shoot out clean water, especially through the use of bacteria. Wait… what?? Bacteria! Gross.

“Not to worry,” we say, “these are good bacteria that eat bad bacteria.”

I won’t go into the complexity of these systems, because, lets be honest, I’m the business guy for blueEnergy, not the water technician. But, what I do understand and value is the use of these systems because I’ve used our household biosand water filter for the past six months. I often tell our little system how much I appreciate it helping fight against parasites, bad bacteria and other bad juju. A trip to the Bluefields hospital is not on the top of my list.

I hope that if this post caught your attention, consider learning and supporting blueEnergy and other organizations that provide resources for clean, drinkable water.

If you would like more information, you can follow blueEnergy’s Facebook and Twitter pages. There, you can read about our various water projects and how important this resource is within developing nations.

For more on the environment and other sustainability related issues, check out these other posts from La Vida Idealist bloggers.

On the conservation front, we have been under attack because of the restrictions we put on access to the Bladen Nature Reserve (BNR). Only researchers and students are allowed to enter the park after being awarded very specific permits. Belizeans are putting pressure on Ya’axché to open up the protected area for use by all locals. As we continue to emphasize that we are protecting the natural resources of BNR for future generations of Belizeans, we are reminded that most researchers and students entering BNR are foreigners.

On the humanitarian front, I have been concerned that we may be creating a “culture of dependency” among our buffer communities. As our projects focus on poverty alleviation, community development work is integral. This includes agro-forestry projects, organic gardening endeavors, gender-specific programs, and business development training. Because our funders like to see the direct benefits to the villages, we are often just handing free tools, seedlings, machinery, irrigation systems, and supplies to our participating farmers. While this really helps to jump start enthusiasm, it doesn’t build ownership of the equipment. It isn’t surprising to see a $3000 rotor-tiller sitting dormant in utter disrepair because no one takes responsibility for its care. But even so, communities are starting to just expect these “benefits” of their impoverished condition and are putting Ya’axché in the role of a reluctant Santa Claus.

Despite these hard days, it pays to have just one farmer attending an integrated pest management training express particular interest in organic gardening, or one young girl on a marketing field trip ask me to help with establishing a women’s group in her village. It reminds me that we are doing good, and that we’ll continue doing good.

For more information on conservation work in Southern Belize, check out the Ya’axché Conservation Trust website.

I am by no means a heavy consumer – living on the $0 wage of a volunteer, my oatmeal, beans and rice are all bought in bulk. But seeing one of my used cans of refried beans being chucked into a pile of rotting garbage, I instantly was compelled to consume nothing whose packaging was not biodegradable. This, of course, is an outlandish claim to make, something that cannot be reasonably, or sanely, upheld. But it speaks to the root of my primary struggle – striking a balance between conservation and being a mere mortal.

Belize, like many Central American countries, has no nationally implemented solid waste management system. Household trash is usually burned or taken to a nearby open-air dumping place. Batteries are tossed in rivers, and pristine landscapes are littered with plastic bags and Belikin bottles. If I pick up one piece of garbage and bring it back to our garbage can, where will that can be dumped?

In our efforts to reduce our contribution to the rubbish problem, Ya’axché has conducted composting trainings in many surrounding villages, instructing community members on how to reuse their waste. As part of a marketing campaign for organic vegetables in the area, we are giving away reusable, canvas bags to each customer who buys more than $5BZD ($2.50 US) of organic vegetables at our market booth. A new project is underway that will bring inland villagers on day-trips to the coastal reef, as a way to illustrate how interconnected the water system is and where the garbage may end up. These actions may seem small in the beginning, but hopefully they’ll lead to a greater consciousness of consumption and disposal.

Any other grand ideas for a country that lacks solid waste management?

For more information on the conservation strategies implemented by Ya’axché Conservation Trust, check out our website at www.yct.bz. Interested in more creative solutions by other volunteers? Check out these entries: All-Female Transport in Mexico, It All Started with Our Apple IIGS…, and When Microenergy and Microfinance Meet.

Interesting surprise on a pair of shorts.

One of the main reasons I chose my volunteer position was the free housing provided at the field center.  Prior to making the move, I asked my standard first question: “Are there tarantulas?” The response was just short of laughing in my face. Aside from tarantulas, we are also the proud hosts of visiting rats, bats, scorpions, moths the size of birds,  and an array of mystery creatures that seek refuge in our clothing.

After a fellow volunteer got stung by a scorpion in the shower two nights ago, I thought it might be a good idea to offer a peek into the world of jungle accommodation, being sick abroad, and how best to coexist with our beastly little friends.

An important consideration before choosing a volunteer position should always be international health care. Whether your program offers it  (Jesuit Volunteers Corps and Peace Corps both provide excellent health coverage) or if it is easily accessible from your location is definitely something to keep in mind. For less serious health concerns, I have found Ibuprofen, anti-diarrheal medication, vitamins, aloe, bug repellent, anti-itch spray, and a bug net to be my weapons to alleviate all discomfort.

Coming down with a bug net for my bed was a result of it being foisted upon me by my mother. At first I regarded it as merely contributing to ambiance, but it has proven to be a lifesaver. It has protected me from bats flying overhead, tarantulas lurking on the floor, and persistent biters buzzing around the room.

The boys have taken to calling him Randolph.

Often times all of these unwelcome visitors create a battle to get a good night’s sleep. There are times when I feel like I could stay up all night scratching. Additionally, sleep isn’t quite as sacred in these cultures. Therefore, the morning rituals of slamming doors and blasting the radio aren’t considered even slightly inconsiderate. To combat this, I always have a book, my headphones and iPod in bed with me. If it’s just too early for me to rouse myself or if I need a distraction from the painful itching, I settle in with soothing music and hope for another hour or two of shuteye before stumbling awake. It also has become quite natural for me to start winding down as the sun sets, and I’ve gotten over my initial resistance to 8 o’clock bedtimes (just one more hour! Please Mom!). Changing sleeping patterns can make all the difference.

In the end, no one is strong or lucky enough to avoid all health mishaps abroad. It might always be upsetting being sick without the comforts of family, friends, or Full House reruns to watch on T.V. We all want to remain tough, but sometimes you have to break down and give yourself a day or two to deal and heal.

For more information regarding life abroad, check out these other La Vida Idealist posts: “The Experience: Enjoying Your Time As a Volunteer,” “Seeing the World in New Ways,” “Living in Two Worlds at Once,” and “Talk to Me!”

I have had similar experiences taking photos of children. They are amused and pleased by almost anything and it is a heartwarming feeling to know that I can make a child’s day simply by spending a few extra minutes playing with my digital camera. On a sadder note, however, this same phenomenon often plays out with children who have virtually nothing to play with at all. Marbles are a luxury in some places and objects found on the ground or even in the trashcan will easily substitute for a toy that can amuse them for hours.

A 6 -year-old collecting water out of the pila so he can flush the toilet

What is most impressive is that this resourcefulness definitely persists into adulthood. I have seen holey buckets patched up with tape, and plastic chairs split in half and then strung together with rope. People here wash their clothes by hand, they sell homemade juice out of plastic bags in the marketplace, they “mow” their lawns with machetes and they turn their own living rooms into shops and paint “pulperia” or “libreria” above their front doors. At the program I work for and even in my own casita, all of the water I use (to bathe, to wash clothes, to cook and to flush the toilet) is all rain water. All homes here are strategically built to collect it, with angled roofs and gutters that lead to one big basin.

Turning old soda bottles into planters

On the one hand, it is a sad realization to make, that people here just don’t have the same opportunities or resources. They are forced to improvise with so little, while so much of the rest of the world has so much. It just isn’t fair. On the other hand, this ingenuity is refreshing because most of the time I feel like I come from the land of too much. We have anything we want at our fingertips, literally with the mere click of a mouse. To see that not everyone lives such a wasteful life is inspiring. When I am living in a place where people need to rely on their creativity to simply survive, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around how people in other parts (including myself, at times) can live so extravagantly, always buying the newest and the latest or the biggest and the brightest.

Come to think of it, we could probably all take a few lessons on conservation from the folks down here.

[For anyone interested in watching a clever 20 minute video about how our desire for more and more things affects the planet and the people around us, please check out The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.]