Eureka!
This morning was harder than usual, harder than the morning after the first day of work! Yesterday after work, we all went up to the waterfall to have lunch and most of the team decided to jump off the cliff while I hesitated, but ended up mustering the courage to do so at the last minute thanks to Jonathan, David, and Alia. I took a few deep breaths and leaped off the cliff, everything was going well until the very last moment when I, for no reason, decided to lift up my legs and ended up in the upward dog position and slapped my thighs on the water surface pretty hard and got some gnarly bruises that just got bigger and darker over night which led to soreness in the morning :-) Besides my inability to sit down (or walk) comfortably, the morning went on as usual, we had breakfast prepared by the wonderful Adriana, met up with the team, and walked up the hill to La Biofabrica. On the way there, I felt a slight sadness because it was the last time my commute to work would be surrounded by green mountains and accompanied by the neighbors' dogs running and playing around all the way up the hill. However, I was excited to finish our project, so we hopped on the back of the truck and headed the Trout Farm!
Once we got there, we immediately grabbed everything we needed and picked up where we left off the day before. Everything was coming together, the tanks, the bioswale, everyone was so determined we didn't even stop for the usual break time. We finished all the piping, covered the tubes, and secured the tanks, and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We hopped back on the truck, picked up our lunches, had lunch and went back to work! All we had to do was cut out the filters for the small tanks, build the inner sleeves for the big tanks, and plant the plants in the bio garden. Seeing the plants in place really brought the whole project alive even though we weren't finished. Once everything was done, Brandon turned on the faucet for the tanks and we waited patiently for the first drop to arrive...and EUREKA! Here it was, a flow of water coming through. I remember clearly everyone screamed with happiness and looked at each other with amusement and satisfaction knowing our hard work paid off! However, the water still needed to flow through the entire system. Due to the big tanks' volume, we had to wait another period of time for the water to flow into the smaller tanks, but alas it happened and that was another small victory for us, then the last step was for it to flow into the bio garden, which was done soon after and was followed by laughs and smiles of accomplishment. The best part would probably be seeing Janer, the owner of the Trout Farm, so happy and smiley (and almost teary!) after all the work we've done together. Knowing that a smaller farmer like him acknowledged his impact on the planet and cared enough to make a positive change by welcoming a group of strangers into his home to help keep one of the world's cleanest rivers, clean, gave me a lot of hope for the planet, and a new sense of purpose. Janer showed his gratitude with coffee, a hot cane sugar beverage, and pastries!
I forgot to mention the bio garden was filled with boulders, gravel, and volcanic rocks, and the water that flowed into it kept being absorbed, which is a good thing, but we weren't able to see the filled pond so we kept the overflow from the Trout Farm on so hopefully when we check back in tomorrow it's 100% done!
Pura Vida!
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