Romeo 6: A great sense of achievement and respect

Andrew Kirby looks back on Romeo 6's adventures in Rio Arriba:

We spent our final phase in one of the most beautiful places in the world with some amazing local families who welcomed us into their homes and their hearts. Our mission was to provide them with clean, reliable water directly to their homes. We were finishing Alpha 5's work started in Phase 1 of the expedition.

We arrived in Rio Arriba to a great welcome and were assigned families, we then started settling into new lives for the next couple of weeks. On the first day we were taken on  tour of the village, the work site and the water source before starting work building a tank to connect the source and the village.

After this we were building trenches down from the tank to the main houses in the village, fitting pipes and then covering them up. We worked until midday most days, with a few exceptions when we had good weather in the afternoon.

Most afternoons we met down at the river for a wash and swim after a hot day's work and then went to the main house to teach the children some English. They caught on quickly and did the lessons with enthusiasm and we played some games of Deal as well.

We managed to finish the project and brought clean water to 20 houses, a school and church through our hard work and determination. On our last day in the village we turned on the first lot of taps. We were all excited and happy that we were able to give this gift that we take for granted in the UK with tons of help from the locals who truly become our families in Nicaragua.

We sang songs for them on the last day in the village including Jingle Bells, Rattling Bog and If You're Happy and You Know It, even getting the kids involved. Then they sang some local songs for us.

We moved to another community called La Guarama for the last couple days where we started work on a water project which will be completed by another expedition. Again we welcomed into their homes with amazing hospitality and massive portions of amazing food.

On the last night of phase, the Coopertiva and the locals threw us a party including amazing food and a piñata which we all had a go smashing - some of us almost smashing the nearby house and the crowd at the same time. Some of locals from Rio Arriba came to say goodbyes as well and we took pictures with our families and the Coopertiva staff.

We left Nicaragua in love with the country and its people and a great sense of achievement and of respect.

Romeo 6 photo album

We've collected stacks of photos from the Romeo 6 Venturers and PMs - here are some of the best:

Alpha 5 photo album

We've collected stacks of photos from the Alpha 5 Venturers and PMs - here are some of the best:

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.

Alpha 5: Getting down and dirty in Rio Arriba

Sarah Coyte chronicles the first eight days on Alpha 5's water project in Rio Arriba, Achuapa:  

After a large breakfast of tortilla, plantain, rice, beans, cucumber, egg and coffee we all donned our wet walking boots from the day before and headed up the mountain to the water source. On the way up we radioed into Fieldbase to give an up-to-date sitrep (situation report). At the source we organised ourselves - half of us started digging to channel the water, while the others formed a "Raleigh chain" to move rocks to form a dam - and were thankful to be in the shade.

The locals were very helpful in carrying the big bags of sand to help channel the water. Their current water source is only used in the rainy season, the rest of the year the 209 people in the community use water from the river. The village used to be located very close to the source but they relocated after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Over the next couple of days, Alpha 5 showed some serious "Raleigh spirit", working together and digging the trenches needed to carry the water to Rio Arriba. Each day it was astounding to see how much progress we made especially due to the less than favourable conditions of heavy rain on a couple of days. In many ways it raised our spirits and we all had fun getting very dirty in the mud!

We've integrated into the village very well and we had many funny moments teaching the local children English with a rendition of "Heads and Shoulders, Knee and Toes".

On the ground with Alpha 5

At the next stop on our Nicaraguan trip, Amy and your correspondent joined Alpha 5 on their water project in Rio Arriba, a small village near Achuapa in north-west Nicaragua.

The natural water source for the project is an hour's walk through stunning mountain scenery and on the day we visited the team were laying the first pipes to carry the fresh water down to the village with the help of their local foreman, Chico. The source will provide 60 litres of water every minute, which I'm reliably informed is a huge amount for a natural spring.

A small holding tank was dug around the spring and filled with rocks to create a natural filter before it was covered with plastic and cement to prevent any rainwater contaminating the supply.

Alpha 5 are now cracking on with trench digging for the pipeline and each day they get closer to their goal - providing fresh water for Rio Arriba. 

The locals, who are very excited about having a reliable water supply (currently their taps often run dry), have taken our Venturers into their home and also provide a lot of manpower on the worksite.

Now some photos: