Day Two of the Guatemala Summit

One of the many great aspects of our annual Guatemala Summit is exposing new friends to the beauty of Lake Atitlán. Further, it is a joy to introduce these new friends to the wonderful people living in the communities we work with as well as the intelligent individuals we collaborate with to organize and complete water and sanitation projects.

On day two of this year's Summit Ms. Shari Ranney of the Petaluma CA Rotary Club wrote the following which we are excited to share with you!

Good morning, Lake Atitlán!!

This morning we had the privilege of hearing Dr. Paul Wise, Stanford University Medical School and beyond, give us an inspiring orientation of Public Health issues in San Lucas and surroundings, particularly as they pertain to children under the age of five. After establishing the importance of the integration of risk and access, we learned that it primarily boiled down (no pun intended, since boiling is too expensive) to WATER. Access to, quality of and quantity of water for a community has far reaching effects on health, economics, power, etc within the community and beyond.

It was awesome to witness first hand the collaboration of those in the room with the sharing of knowledge and experience to further the goals of elevating communities. Dr. Wise had some good info for Dr. Will Boegel, who has challenges in his school and community. John Barrie, with his Appropriate Technologies organization, is always coming up with innovative ways to utilize technology to problem solve. Joe Wakely and Bruce Clemens also had some interesting contributions to the conversations, while Todd Thompson insisted he is just a guitar player! Us Petaluma Rotarians just soaked it all in.

The below photos share a bit of the beauty and collaboration we witnessed today (along with Bruce enjoying an organic spider snack).