The Last Day in the Community
By Elena Klopfenstein
September 7, 2026
It is colder than I expected in Ecuador. My thinking was ”yeah okay! South America! The land of the hot and humid.” I expected the East Coast, but a lot more jungly. Is that stereotypical? Probably. Wilson and I woke first for breakfast and we were both saying that it was probably the best night of the trip because we both went to bed with more relief that we did not have to do a strenuous, long, and steep hike today. Today we were to just complete the water testing and surveys for Peletetec on the first and last house and do our last main community survey. Breakfast was delicious as usual. Honestly, I expected to be roughing it a lot more on the trip and didn't expect to eat as well as we have on the trip. They don’t serve water unless you ask for it, which I felt off, but the team and I made a fun game out of guessing what kind of juice we were given each day. I've grown to like the routine of waking up early to have breakfast with good company. It feels very productive!
We made the long drive to Peltetec. Knowing that it was to be the last time this trip we were going to make the trip up, made me want to catch every sight there better. There were the boxed apartments, the $13 hotels, the fruit stands, the rolling hills, and the endless fields of corn. Really, though, the fields were put anywhere they could fit. Reminded me of home a bit, but a lot more green. On the way, I like to look out the window and listen to music. That is usually what I love doing on long drives. When we finally got to Peltetec, we were greeted with the usual group of locals. The usual, warm handshakes and the usual “Buenos Dias!”. They are all so kind and have made this trip endlessly better. We split up our work and I strolled off with the technical team to do sciency stuff. Taking the water tests has been my favorite part of the trip so far! I have learned so much! The tools were intimidating at first but having used them only once, I think I got the hang of them. Learning how to use a petri dish was also super cool! I don’t have any formal lab experience, so all of this felt so new and exciting, and I wanted to be a part of it all. I have been heavily involved in water projects on my own reservation in Arizona where we are also concerned about contamination making us sick, which really made this trip resonate with me as an indigenous person from my own home. “El agua es vida”, a woman from the community said. It meant “Water is life.” This is my people’s saying as well and it warmed my heart. Water has always taken a special place in my life and is why I became a river guide in the Grand Canyon.
We spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding whether to start with the first or the last house. While the locals and the Spanish speakers delineated in Spanish, some of us waited on the road while a small, scrawny kitten kept us company. It was so cute, but obviously too tiny for its age. We quickly fell in love with it and played with it as much as we could without touching it. That is another thing! Because of ring worm precautions, we are not allowed to touch or pet the animals. This meant it was torture not to pet the kitten’s probably totally fine grey fur. After waiting ages, we decided to go back up the hill and start with the first house. As we were hiking up the road, we heard a faint, squeaky “hola! Hola! Hola!” We turned around and saw a little boy no older than five years old dressed in a black animal hoodie waving us down from what I assume was his house. He was so cute and asked to come along. His mom probably gave the okay, at least I hope she did or else we stole a child, and he started following us. We went to the first house in the Peltetec sector. We worked like a well oiled machine at this point so we immediately knew what to do. There was one woman there and she looked a bit hesitant unsurprisingly, and it was in scenarios like this some of the locals always accompanied us.
We were allowed to use the water from her hose and we filled a bucket with it. Diego and Camila got to surveying quickly since they spoke the best Spanish and the rest of us started testing.Not even a few seconds later, a pair of sticky little hands were in the water bucket. We all laughed and Paisley knelt down to him. The little boy took his wet hand out of the bucket and before any of us could do anything he flung the water from his fingers in Paisley’s face. His mischievous little giggle all told us that it was on purpose. Then Paisley, taking the high road of course, proceeded to fling more water at the boy. It was hilarious how they got into their own little water war. He was very curious about our equipment and we had to guard the bucket after having to refill it to protect it against more contamination.
Despite all that we finished rather quickly and started trudging down the hill. For me at least, going down is so much easier than going up one of those hills. I enjoy hiking usually but this elevation was torture for at least the first day we hiked. Now, it definitely felt better but it still ached to go up. I wished the van just dropped us off closer, not gonna lie, but it was fine I guess. The next house was the last house, the farthest house on the sector. We did this because the closest and farthest house gave us the two absolutes and then we can estimate the in-between data from there. It was one of the farthest down houses we went to yet. At least it felt that way because the hike was very very steep and the trail was narrow. We went past a large flower bed and saw the kitten again. At this point, Paisley had enough of the cuteness, and exclaimed that she would take the kitten home with her. She looked it up and said that it was not illegal. I was all for it honestly. I would love to as well if I wasn’t allergic to cats. I’m surprised she didn’t go through with it.
The last house was close to the river and I longed to go down there. It seemed like fun until Wilson reminded me that whatever we walked down we would have to walk back up again and the option quickly lost some of its appeal. We started the painful trek up and met with Joelle at the community center where she had scanned the entire water sector workbook so that we would have a digital copy.
The community had the book put together recently to apply for help from the city of Riobomba but were denied due to missing a few things. The community asked for help from more than just one organization, most likely to see which one would stick which isn’t unreasonable especially if they have been having trouble getting help in the past. However, if they were able to get their application approved and get the grant it would definitely exceed the amount we could ever help them with. We’re hopeful we can make that happen for them.
We were presented with an excellent lunch of fried fish, soup, and veggies. The fish was an unexpected treat and was delicious. I think that Emily and Wilson devoured two of them. The strawberry juice was refreshing and sweet. They mixed oats into the juices here and it gives the drinks a texture I haven’t tried before.
Then a loud horn filled the room that was probably heard all the way to Riobomba it was so loud. It was how they notified the community to come to the community center. Carlos, the water board President, blew the horn a couple more times for good measure and we waited and prepared ourselves. I’d love to say I was useful but I wasn’t. It was times like these I desperately wished I had learned Spanish more thoroughly. I would have loved to connect to the locals better. We were greeted again by the locals as they tilted in and took their seats. Camila took initiative and explained to the community what we had done, our results, and what we would recommend. I’m sure it was all very articulate and thoughtful. It sounded that way at least. Even some of the locals stood up and proclaimed their thanks and Carlos explained the plan to the community had in mind and that he would present all of the tests and applications as soon as possible. We left with high hopes and a firm handshake from almost everyone in the room. They were all some of the kindest people ever.
As we headed down the mountain, I again looked out the window trying to capture everything to heart so I could bring it up in my mind and heart whenever I wanted. Then we got down to the larger town below the Peltetec community and stopped. It turned out we had to print a few things out and return to the village again. All that saying goodbye internally for nothing sigh. It was already getting dark at this point. We headed to Carlos’s house to give him the rest of the information.
It took a long while I remember, and when they got back it was already night. We drove the way back and was a bit nervous as roads where next to steep drop offs and we have never driven them in the dark before but I trusted our driver, Don Will, he is the GOAT. We made it back to the hotel the latest we had ever been and I honestly expected to skip dinner but nope we were given another great meal I was grateful for. I have grown accustomed to a cup of tea before bed here. Almost everywhere we have been has had the little cups with the plates. They make me feel so fancy when I use them. I usually helped with the Petri dishes after dinner but this time I was too exhausted and had to go straight to sleep. Despite the drawbacks, I was very pleased with the the assessment trip and the last day of it came to a close and I knew that the rest of the team felt the same.
