U of C & CONAPAC unite

Wow-time flies!  I've been home for about month and a half and now it’s time to leave again for my next travel trip with James.  A lot of work has been squeezed into a small space but overall it’s been highly productive.  The students from the University of Colorado, who come each year to audit our water program, have come and gone.  What a great time we all had amongst a lot of hard work.  We now eagerly await the results of both the community surveys and water quality testing which were conducted in 11 villages along the Amazon and Napo Rivers.  Now our U of C intern, Lia Brune, continues on with this year’s pilot project until the middle of October.  She’ll be living and working in a variety of communities during this time.  Her goals are to observe how operators are actually treating the water not just what they tell us. She’ll then play with different outcomes from water samples looking for the optimum combination of treatment chemicals from different water sources typically used in the jungle villages where we work. Once she’s done with this part, she and our CONAPAC staff will work on training manuals and workshop modules for all our operators.  Our program of monitoring, training and testing continues to evolve with each step.  I continue to strive for excellent return on investment for my donor base and consistent quality for our water plants and the community members which they serve.  Both deserve nothing less!

Sunset in the jungle

In the middle of July, the jungle and Explorama had an unexpected guest—the President of Peru, Ollanta Humala!  He and his whole staff of ministers were in the city for a meeting on Explorama’s own Amazon Queen!  They cruised down the river and had their cabinet meeting on board.  It was interesting to see security around the visit.  Certainly nothing like our own president would have received but nonetheless, an exciting process to watch. I’d happened to return from the jungle just a short 15 minutes before he arrived.  He came through and shook many employees’ hands, including my own!  I doubt I’ll even have the chance for the same experience with a US president but I suppose I can now add this to my resume J A couple of week’s later he was back—why?  Well, in case you missed the news, the Rio Amazona or Amazon River has been voted one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world. As you might imagine, there was a grand celebration in Iquitos with all kinds of activities, music, dances, parades, demonstrations and good fun was had all the way around.  Unfortunately, this time I missed it as I was in the jungle--but there was some live coverage on the TV at the Yanamono Lodge so I got a peak of the action. http://www.n7w.com/

Water workshop at Leon Isla

The rhythm of life continues here—the river’s up, the river’s down and it’s summer year round.  I love it but shortly I’ll be leaving for a different kind of summer as I travel to Greece and Turkey with James.  This will be my first visit the region and I’m very excited to experience a new place and culture.  James has made all the arrangements so it will be a real vacation where I won’t have to think about any details other than just showing up and enjoying myself.  Also, it will be a non-working vacation.  I will not have a computer or smart phone nor do I plan to visit Internet cafes while I’m gone other than to let my family know I’ve safely arrived.  It’s been a long time since I didn’t have to “check in the office” while I traveled.  Sunny and dry weather, beautiful landscapes, good food, good wine, good friends and a great man in my life—what more could I ever ask for?  Once again, I count my many blessings knowing that I’m a very lucky woman, indeed.