I can hardly believe that the semester is coming to a close and my time in the DR is almost over. I will be returning to the US on June 18th to spend time with my family and see what God has next.The semester has been filled to the brim with expedition projects, math competitions, Doulos’ first formal dance for the 9-11th grade, and we will be wrapping things up with service projects and workshops.
One of the most exciting projects this semester was the 11th grade project on water quality. Being the first trained science teacher to design and tackle expeditions for middle school and high school at Doulos has been a huge challenge, but fun. The 11th grade project grew out of my experience testing water during graduate school. The idea grew into a full-blown expedition studying the water quality of one of the largest rivers in the country, Yaque del Norte. The river looks beautiful in many areas, but is dangerously polluted. There is pretty much no solid data on the quality of the river water so we were starting from ground zero.
Collecting water samples from the river as if flows towards the coast was a true adventure. The sampling adventure kicked off with a three-day hike up Pico Duarte (the highest mountain in the Caribbean) to collect water from the river’s source. My recovering knee wasn’t quite up to that adventure so I sent the three boys in the class with our computer teacher who happens to be a video specialist. The weeks that followed were a continuous adventure of trying to find transportation on days that weren’t raining (which is always a challenge) and then trying to find the right roads without any signs just to collect samples around Jarabacoa. Dominicans are extremely friendly people and always want to help, but they are a bit over-eager and will give you directions even when they have no idea where you are trying to go. Needless to say, this all added to the adventure. Our new math teacher (Roddy) was a huge blessing for our trip to the coast to collect the majority of our samples. Roddy happened to have had a job driving around the entire province for years. He volunteered to be our driver and guide for the day as we ventured off-road to little know parts of the river. Google earth proved essential in finding locations where we would be able to reach the water safely.
Once we collected the water samples, we tested them in class for chemical composition and sent samples off to a lab that could test for bacteria. The results were very alarming. The entire river past the source was chock full of dangerous bacteria like E. coli. This was not entirely surprising since in the absence of a reliable city waste plan and water treatment plan, rivers are seen as trash cans throughout the DR. Sewage pipes are released directly into the river and trash bags can be seen floating down the canals in the bigger cities.
Our next step was to address the problem. After writing a formal lab report, the students took their results to the public. Our computer teacher (Jonathon) helped them to create a 5 minute documentary on what is happening to the rivers that will be aired on the local TV stations this summer. Most households do not own a single book besides a bible, but almost everyone has a TV. Media is rapidly becoming the best way to educate and reach large numbers of people.
Our final step is coming to fruition this week as a service project. You cannot completely blame people for throwing trash in the river when trashcans are a scarcity. We are currently painting several trashcans with bright colors and educational facts and pictures about the importance of protecting the rivers.
There were times when I wanted to throw the project in the trash (pun intended) because nothing was working right, but the final product has been well worth the struggle. All of the 11th graders were fully engaged and passionate about this project and learned quite a bit of chemistry in the process. In addition, we have managed to make a real impact on the community and take steps in the redemption of God’s good creation. Now that is a cool project!
Check out my web album for more pictures!
