Ok first, project stuff. So I'm still working on filtration of potable water. There's been a ton of research done and I'm finally starting to try some things in the workshop downstairs. This week I put together my first sand filter using a plastic water bottle and some sand and gravel I found around the yard. I used some horrifyingly dirty water I collected from the river that runs through the canyon behind the house. As it turns out, that water is about a couple thousand times too dirty and turbid for sand filters to handle without getting clogged. So whatever system I come up with, it needs a small settling tank in case the water has too many large particles floating around in it. Since then, I have realized that I need to use material with known sizes if I'm going to make multiple filters with different dimensions and compare results. I'm also going to eventually need to chemical indicators that can tell me how much of whatever nasty stuff is in the water before and after treatment. I need the help of the local university on both of these issues. We're working on it. Working on the projects has been pretty stressful and slow going for all of us so far, and for the same reasons: lack of necessary materials and some communication issues. Hopefully they can be resolved soon, because scooping up gravel from the backyard with my hand and saying "yeah that looks like about the right size" doesn't exactly produce valid results if you're comparing filters that have been assumed to use the same size gravel in the bottom of the filter.
When we were at Salar de Uyuni, some of the guys we were travelling with had this awesome panoramic picture taking app on their iPhones, so I downloaded it the other day and it's pretty sweet. You can actually take a whole bunch of pictures all around you, left, right, up, and down, and if you did an ok job the app will stitch all the images together for you and they look really cool. It's called photosynth. You can share your pictures online and friends and family can look around at them as if they were right where you were standing when you took the pictures. However, this requires wifi, something I don't have here. For now, the best I can provide is a flat, panoramic picture. Here's a few:
Behind the house again.
The road leading out of Mallasilla (this one looks really goofy because I took more than 180 degrees of pictures so it's wrapped around in this U-shape)
and today............
after checking out the festival de Gran Poder, which includes a huge parade that goes on all day and night long with tons of dancers and crazy costumes..........
I went to.......
A WORLD CUP QUALIFYING SOCCER MATCH BETWEEN BOLIVIA AND CHILE!!!!
This is the view from the 4th row seats we got tickets for about 3 hours before kickoff.
They unrolled two enormous Bolivian flags from the upper decks almost all they way down to where we were sitting.
I decided to go up the stairs a few rows and help hold it up anyway.
The game was a lot of fun but Bolivia lost 2-0. They had so many good goal scoring opportunities in the first half, but then Chile scored on a sloppy goal right at the end of the first half's stoppage time. After that happened, the second half consisted of lots of Chilean players wasting time rolling around on the ground pretending to be injured and a Bolivian player getting red carded to pretty much seal the game's result. Chile scored their second goal while half of the Bolivian defenders were complaining to the ref about a handball they saw that didn't get called. Maybe they should have been playing defense instead. Still very exciting though, at least the first half was. It was fun to finally experience a big soccer game in another country. It's like no sporting event you'll see in the states. The fans are seriously organized and they go nuts over just about anything that happens. We learned some of the Bolivian cheers and stuff which was fun too.
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