The Sika Experience

G’day to all!

Time flies and so does the memory of my camera! I managed to find time out of my busy schedule to download all the breathtaking pictures of Bogotá and it’s surroundings. I perceive this city to be one full of culture and history. This is a city of approximately 10 million residents. Given this massive population, congestion and pollution are two downsides to this city. The lack of subways and trains is a contributing factor with respect to the daily jams.

Nevertheless, there is an awesome take to this city – Monserrate. This is a hill overlooking the city of Bogotá. If luck is on your side and the weather permits, a picturesque scene awaits. You would be able to view the whole of Bogotá, from north to south and east to west. West is where Monserrate is. Above this hill top is where a monastery will be found as well as restaurants besides the beautiful view of this South American city. A black virgin – ‘Madonna Negra’ greets visitors as you stroll up this must-see attraction in Bogotá,

La Candelaria, the old town of Bogotá is where all the culture is. Churches, museums, street vendors, buskers etc all congregated in one location. It is the most lively area with a hint of colonialism as depicted from the buildings. These include both French and Spaniard architecture denoting the colonial past of Colombia.

I could go on narrating about the city of Bogotá but I believe as many would agree, a picture is worth a thousand words and these photos accompanying this post will allow the chance for all to further immerse yourselves in this Colombian capital.

On behalf of this trip by Sika Colombia. I wish to extend my greatest gratitude and thanks to Catalina Guerrero of Sika Bogotá, Tocancipá for her help in organising this excursion.

I hope these pictures will allow all to better gauge this Latin American capital.

Till my next post,

keep well!

Anderson

Buenos dias!

I had a self-cooked meal with jalapeño chillies last week as I love food with a little spice in them. Never did I realise the strength of the jalapeño!! It was indeed extremely spicy!! The pleasure of jalapeño left me with a little more than an uncomfortable weekend….

Now, its Monday again and its back to work. To all those celebrating the Lunar New Year, I wish you all a happy and propitious Dragon year ahead!

Till then, all my best!

G’day all!

“And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet.” – St. Marher, 1225 -

In modern English, this translates to ‘the tide abides for, tarrieth for no man, stays no man, tide nor time tarrieth no man’ or more commonly known as the widely used phrase ‘Time and tide wait for no man’.

Now, marks the half-time of my Sika Experience in Colombia. Time flies when you’re doing what you really love and its great! With regard to this, I had submitted my first official preliminary report to the Global Nature Fund (GNF) in Radolfzell, Germany on Monday in relation to my ‘Constructed Wetland Proposal for Wastewater Treatment’. This is an excellent progress in the stride of my team and myself as we had met our deadline making us a step closer to our goal. Also, this is akin a milestone as to where we are and where we shall be headed in the weeks to come.

As a follow up, my proposed trip to Fúquene this week had to be rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances. Hence, this week has been filled with research and report writing.

Till then,

cuidado todos!

Anderson

Hi all!

A Happy 2012 ahead! I hope the first 10 days of the New Year has been good for all and will remain the same if not better for the next 356 days.

My progress at Fundación Humedales has been fruitful this far. Right now, I have been delegated with the task of elaborating a constructed wetlands database. This indeed is getting technical. In short, I am to evaluate study cases and illustrate them in matrices. This is to establish a relationship if any between the organic loading rates, climatic characteristics and removal performances of current and past constructed wetlands. This study will be done on a global scale.

Each case study will be documented with site descriptions which includes the origin of the wastewater to be treated, climate of the area, plant design, structures of wastewater treatment, constants imperative to the design such as bio-kinetic constants and fudge factors necessary for the feasibility of the treatment of biologically contaminated wastewater, waste removal performance and post-operational and maintenance issues.

These are to be correlated to the population of the area of interest, average temperature, average precipitation and the superficial area of the constructed wetland. Other measures to be taken into account in this study include the hydraulic loading rate (HLR), organic loading rate (OLR), hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) percentage of removal.

I believe, this blog has been technically inclined and apologies if it sounds alien to some. Nevertheless, I trust that following updates would ease the ambiguity if there may be.

Till then, keep well!

Cheers,

Anderson

My Colombian experience has been so far so good. Time flies and it is now over three weeks and I have gathered lots of experiences since then. I have been travelling back and forth between Bogotá and Fúquene in the past fortnight. My task is to communicate with three local communities or their representatives with regard to the needs of the communities in relation to waste water. These settlements, namely San Miguel de Sema, Saboyá and Cucunubá are situated in the vicinity of Fúquene, each within a 30 minute drive from the other. Data collection which mainly entails census data of these communities are to be collected and then analysed along side our proposed constructed wetland project. This is to ensure our proposal accommodates to the needs of the three communities without causing any detrimental effects to the environment or the livelihood of the communities.

Prior to the third Fúquene trip, Felipe (my partner in this project), Sandra (a colleague from Fundación Humedales) and myself made a trip to assist the local community in Fúquene set up Christmas decorations at their little handicraft stall. Their craft are made out of water lilies obtained from the Fúquene Lake (Laguna Fúquene). It was amazing as they were overjoyed with all the Christmas decorations ranging from the quintessential Christmas element – the Christmas tree, Christmas lights, table runners and all the other minute details which brings a sense of festive cheer to the local folk. Putting a smile on their faces was the best thing I could have ever done on that day!

On the downside, I sustained a cut where I was domiciled in Fúquene from a protruding door latch left ajar. A flu then followed and I am on the path to recovery as I blog. Nevertheless, everything I have done, lived, experienced and more has been absolutely fantastic. One I shall cherish in years to come.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates. My sincere apologies for any delays in blogging due to the limited internet accessibility in Fúquene.

Till then, take care!

Anderson