Alpha 5: Incredible progress has water flowing close to Rio Arriba

Sarah Coyte reports from Alpha 5's water project in Rio Arriba:

Alpha 5's progress since the last blog update has been fantastic. None of us can quite believe what incredible progress we have made in the last couple of weeks. Our jefe, Chico, seems to be very please with the group as our efforts have ensured we completed our section of the project ahead of schedule.

In just 14 days, Alpha 5 - along with a lot of local help! - have dug, layed pipes and refilled over 1.5km of trenches, which will carry water from the source to the big water storage tank by the village. We have also capped the source, helped build large and small pressure tanks and made progress toward our goal of providing the Rio Arriba with fresh clean drinking water.

It hasn't all been hard work though. We've had a day off at a nearby waterfall, which was stunning, and enjoyed many group swims in the river, a great way to relax after a day of digging and teaching English to the local children.

We also took a day trip to Achuapa, a town about two hours walk from Rio Arriba, where we learned about how Raleigh works with the local Cooperativa, the farmers cooperative. It’s an organisation that helps its members sell their produce and grow crops more effectively (among many other things). We had a tour of the main offices and found out about how funding and support gets distributed to the local farmers.

We will all be sad to leave Rio Arriba as our host families genuinely couldn’t have been more kind and hospitable. We really felt accepted and welcomed into the community (which was further highlighted by our farewell cultural evening) – it was an unforgettable experience.