Positive Change, By The People

Previously on Facebook I mentioned a man who relentlessly pursued his vision of bringing hydroelectricity to his homeland.  I got to spend Sunday with this guy, which inspired me to write a top...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/07/1-in-million.html

In KT village we are having a sort of wrestling match with one of the community leaders.  He has not been around for much of the 2 years that our teams have done community mobilization and trai...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-great-and-not-great-part-2.html

I should be writing more and putting some effort into this blog while I am here alone.  Perhaps the reason I have not done that yet is that I prefer to keep myself very busy when I’m alone. ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-great-and-not-great-part-1.html

Flash floods have wreaked havoc all the way across the northern region of this country this spring.  It is crushing to get report after report of new floods.  The government and aid community ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/05/for-fear-of-floods.html

Yesterday I was in MZ village and grabbed a few updated pictures of the irrigation project.  I had not been there for over a month, so it was exciting to finally see how things wrapped up before...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/mz-irrigation-pictures-update.html

This is the village we call "AQ" (May 2013) In 2013 the big project in AQ village was a well for drinking water.  If you would like to read the full story behind this project, just click th...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/aq-village-project-pictures.html

This is the village we call "KT" (May 2013) Here are some pictures from the 2013 work in KT village.  One of the strengths of our project is training and capacity building.  We have a vari...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/kt.html

This is the village we call "MZ" (Nov 2013) For 2013 the big project in MZ village was constructing an irrigation pipeline to move water 1/2 a mile from a mountain spring to the middle of ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/mz-village-project-pictures.html

I wrote the other night about the diversity we find in the villages we work in.  My point (whether I reached it or not is unknown) was that we need to recognize the diversity of people that liv...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/part-ii-its-jungle-out-there.html

A little while ago, while being a part of the mediation of a village conflict, one of the village leaders turned to me privately and said, “Engineer sahib, it’s a jungle out there!”  It w...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/its-jungle-out-there.html

I have been thinking about the situation of the culture and the people that we live among.  For a few years now we have observed their lives, heard their stories, and studied how, why and when ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-irony-of-this-human-condition.html

 When communities approach us with petitions, we rely on quick, reliable, and easy methods of surveying to determine, with the community, whether we can assist them or not.  Learning and beh...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/12/tools-for-surveying.html

Last week I was in the villages last week, and here are the short updates on where the falls projects are at: MZ – The big irrigation water supply project is nearly done!  The checkdam,...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/12/before-snow-flies-projects-update.html

Today is day 11 of the construction of the MZ irrigation project.  Everyone involved is working extremely hard.  I can't remember if I have made 2 or 3 trips out in these 11 days... it's a bit ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/11-days-into-mz-irrigation-project.html

Lately my 3 year old (soon to be 4), has been making massive inquiries into the world around him.  His been asking a lot of spiritual questions, which have been a joy to discuss with him.  ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-tricky-topics.html

 A lot has gone on in the past week regarding the irrigation project that I wrote about recently.  Last week I thought we might have shovels in the ground on Mon or Tues.  That’s hilario...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-it-took-to-sign-contract-for-mz.html

Just a note of hurrah to say that the community of AQ village have successfully dug the trench and buried the pipe for their additional 2 waterpoints.  They are waiting for cement to cure on...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/and-then-there-were-3-water-points.html

Tomorrow I might be ready for our team to sign a irrigation project contract in MZ village.  Of course I could have said the same thing three weeks ago, and between that time and now I have ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/learning-to-do-irrigation-hard-way.html

Today I was in AQ village monitoring the progress on the additional water pipelines.  On Friday the community divided up 400 meters of distance that needed a 1 meter deep trench, and got to work...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/encouragement-never-hurts.html

Right now is a busy time for physical projects in community development.  All the farm work is done so more men are available, and there are a few weeks remaining until it will be too cold t...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/11/before-snow-flies.html

This is a long post.  The meeting that I describe below concluded, then I sat down in a room here in one of our project villages and tapped out the story on my tablet while the local staff w...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-do-you-face-angry-village-elders.html

 Today I went to one of the project villages to look at the latrines being built.  It was the typical trip with lots of little things that I could mention, but usually don't because that req...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/10/latrine-monitoring-in-kt.html

This morning we stepped back into our home in Fize, after almost 6 weeks of traveling, family-timing, holidaying, traveling more, conferencing and networking, and traveling more.  There are ...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/10/returning.html

I don’t have much time or energy these days to write, but I should at least try to keep you updated more, right?  Here’s a few nuggets… The WASH proposal – In my last post I expla...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/08/life-update-on-author-of-most-neglected_13.html

These days I am doing a lot of thinking and networking and gathering information and researching for a new WASH proposal.  My work at this point is entirely preliminary; there has not even b...

http://positivechangebythepeople.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-new-project.html