Guatemala is a beautiful and interesting country, especially the area around Puerto Quetzal and San Jose City. The mystery part of this area is, “Why so many speed bumps?” The area has more speed bumps than any other area that we have traveled so far or that I have seen in my life time. Mobile Home parks don’t have this many speed bumps. Is this area the speed bump capital of the world? As for the mystery water, after many questions within our own group then an email back to Louisville, that question was answered by Kurtis but caused those working that day to wonder as we had never come crossed that bridge before, seeing the water that we saw. Thank you Kurtis!

Speed bumps, speed bumps and more speed bumps. One sees speed bump signs posted along many of the roadways in the communities. The community of Los Angeles was our first MedCap, a community about thirty minutes from the pier where we are docked at Marina Pez Vela. From the marina gate to where the school is located, we crossed, very slowly at times and others a little faster, twenty-nine speed bumps. Every one was a jolt as the fifteen passenger vans were not tour buses. In the community of Puerto San Jose, there was one stretch of road where we crossed four speed bumps every three hundred feet. After relocating to the Santa Isabela Site we thought maybe a reprieve, fewer speed bumps. Yes, but only a few. We went from twenty nine to twenty two. Speed bumps or no speed bumps we accomplished what went out to do, bringing medical help to these communities.

The water was truly a mystery. We have many Hospital Corpsmen working with us but in most cases they do not have the chemistry background that the medical providers may have. And second, we have yet to experience what we experienced while chlorinating water at this stop. BROWN WATER! Yes, after we finished chlorinating clear water from the faucet, we pulled brown water from the bladder. What went wrong?

We were lucky to have the US Army Communications group on site with internet service up and running so we were able to send an email message to Kurtis who was able to answer our question while at the same time provide some solutions to overcome the problem. Our problem, iron and sulfur in the water. The chemical reactions caused a reaction as well as concern for we knew they would not drink the colored water and we didn’t have the equipment or time to clean the water, filling a 2.5 gallon container about every five minutes. Preventive Medicine tested the water earlier and found it to be without e-coli, fecal matter or other dangerous bacteria so it was decided to use their water without chlorinating. After explaining to the medical staff what our problem was and with their blessings, we provided chlorinated water for the hand wash stations.

We did experiment by filtering the water with a doubled up towel. After running the water through the towel three times, the water was clear yet the iron and sulfur smell remained which I now remember how my well water smelled as a youth growing up in upstate New York. It was certainly providential that the Army Communications group was on hand so we were able to connect the EDGE home base and get an answer quickly to what was turning the water brown.

Photo shows a bucket of brown chlorinated water.

Gods blessings to all from the EDGE OUTREACH Team onboard the USNS Comfort.
Ed Walter CP11 Team Leader / EDGE OUTREACH