My SM Year in Bolivia: 9. Heroes

Actually written on Thursday, September 27, 2012

There we were, Juan and I. Against all odds. Trying to save the world’s problem: water.

On this day, nature was our worst enemy. During the previous evening, the rain attacked from above. Rain drops the size of bombs struck our humble thatch-covered shanties. It not only bombarded us, but hit us where we were weakest, our water supply. This thunderous rain, lasting more than five hours, pelted our modest pipes of slim build.

Therefore, there we are. Trekking along a 5-mile path to the source of the problem. This path journeyed into the heart of the rain forest. The ants were stinging, almost doubling me over in anguish, the branches were reaching out to me with their thorny limbs, and the sun was stealing all of my water supply via evaporation.

Nonetheless, we pursued our mission. We met with another fellow who joined us in our quest. This guy has dealt with these pipes for more than 10 years and has mended them millions of times. With him, we found the problem: clogged and dislodged pipes. We then used bamboo to increase the water pressure, and manually shook the pipes to clean them.

However, one problem remained; cracked pipes and loose valves. They usually utilized rubber to solve this problem, but were all out. They were about to leave the water as it was with poor water pressure. Up to this point I had merely been someone to trail blaze with a machete and to carry the saw. But now, I was able to save the day. I had brought my duct tape!! With it, we solved three of the problems, and the orphanage had water the next day as the tanks filled. My two amigos patted my back over and over. I felt like a true hero!!! I tried to retain a humble countenance, but my true emotion was probably quite obvious…a mere lanky, American had assisted the two experienced native Bolivians…not bad for a gringo in these parts!!

While quite exaggerated, I had a pretty amazing time. As we returned, I was “rewarded” with three scorpion sightings, a rare frog, and a burst of colorful butterflies and fairytale-looking, neon pink dragonflies. It belonged in an animated Disney movie like Snow White. The welcoming and expressions of gratitude from the rest of my family didn't help my increase in ego either... :)

As if I wasn’t already exhausted enough, I returned just in time to start making bread. Ughhh! A six-hour process of bread pounding. I am more tired after kneading and punching bread than after my nightly 40 minute work out sessions with Juan. However, today, due to faulty yeast, our usually fluffy bread turned out to be more like bagels with quinoa. However, I savored it anyways. No matter how awful it may be in the future, I feel I will love it anyways…like a problem child I created. How can you not love something you made. Who knew I would get a parenting lesson from bread?

I better induldge in my hero experience, it doesn’t happen very often. J