Hand-washing in the Colegio with the Volunteers

Last Wednesday was the first day I've partaken in the hand-washing program in the Colegio for a while now, due to a being a bit under the weather lately. It's been going on for about a month now and basically what we do is fill empty Coca-Cola bottles, with the bottoms cut off and strings attached to hold them upside-down, with water and then we loosen the caps a little bit so water spills out and Voila! you've got yourself a ready to go, DIY hand-washing kit. We hold these bottles over a basin and the students saunter over (and with soap of course) wash their hands in the morning at 8 before school, and before and after lunch in the afternoon. I suppose it sounds like a pretty rudimentary system but, hey, it gets the job done and the students start school, have lunch and return to classes all with clean hands.

Myself and Ellie hard at work - washing your hands has never been so fun!

  It's pretty en-heartening to see the sheer amount of the children who are really excited about washing their hands and take to it with gusto. Of course, there's always a few skulking around who think they're too cool for it but, by and large, the whole program seems to be quite a success. That is, of course, for the days when "No hay agua" but thats life in Mineros San Juan.

I almost forgot to mention that the whole scheme is only really up and running thanks to the sterling organisation of another of our volunteers and my flatmate, Phoebe. She organises the roster and makes sure that there's at least three or four volunteers at the school for each session. Not to mention that she's present for practically every session herself. I usually hear her leaving the house every morning at 7 to make the 8 o'clock session while I'm still hitting snooze.

Gracias Phoebe!