We picked up Q, Suzanne, Gwen and Robert at the Loreto airport and did a quick lunch and tour of Loreto before heading up to Mulege on Sunday, 2/5/17. We Moved our RV to an RV park just outside of town, Hotel Serenidad, while the rest of the group stayed at Las Casitas, a hotel and restaurant in Mulege. Everyone was anxious to try the Margaritas. (After a week of taste-testing, I think Las Casitas -owned by local Rotarian-won!)

On Monday we gave the group an orientation. We went up to the Mission, from where you could see the mountains and watershed, the river and beautiful date palm oasis, and out to the lighthouse and Sea of Cortez. A beautiful sight! We also visited the wells, pumps and pilas (water storage tanks). This provided a good overview of the area and water supply.

Then it was time for "training". We developed two routes for water pressure testing, and we completed both routes with the whole group so everyone could recognize all of the homes, know where the water spigots were located, meet any homeowners and dogs, etc. Then we finished the day with our first round of community interviews with local translators. We knocked on doors asking questions about water availability and pressure, and also trying to get ideas for future Rotary projects. The people were amazing. We were strangers -- but even worse we were Americans -- and they were friendly and gracious. They invited us in to their homes and we had great conversations. At this time, when our relationship with Mexico is a bit more strained, it felt so good to sit in their homes and visit and laugh, and just try to understand their situation, one human to another. We were never treated as "Americans", but as friends.

And so the week progressed ... we broke up into two rotating teams, allowing everyone to have a little time off each day. We recorded the water pressure at 13 home sites on an hourly basis so we could understand the availability, the pressure, etc. Team #1 did water pressure readings from 9 to noon, then did community interviews from 3 to 6 pm. Team #2 did water pressure readings from 1 to 4. As the week progressed, the temperature increased, and believe it or not we were all exhausted by Friday.

We found that some people had water every third day, others (who we didn't even sample) had no water service, others only had water at night. The residents in the lowest elevations (in the flood zone) had strong and consistent water. Because the community is constantly recovering from floods, the government wants people to move to higher elevations -- where there is currently poor (or no) water service. We learned that the importance of the new pila is not just that it improves the water pressure and availability, but more importantly it will allow people to move to higher elevations, out of the flood plain, and have water. That is the goal, anyway.

Because this project relies on Grant money from Rotary International, we are required to get a statistical analysis of the current water supply, and conduct a comparison study after the project is completed. We must document the need, the improvement, and also provide a plan showing the sustainability of the project.