ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Reporter's Notebook
SOURCE: Lisa Applegate
For three years, they raised money.
Four Virginia Tech graduate students sponsored a 10-kilometer race, a benefit concert, an ultimate Frisbee competition.
They raised $3,000. In just two weeks, they spent it.
Steve Brauner, Vickie Burris, Sudhir Murthy and Steve Starbuck used much of the hard-raised money for pipes, toilets and a septic system.
Not a typical summer break expense, one would think. But in June, these four headed to Bolivia - the small South American country that sits between Brazil and Peru - to a town of 750 people called Vilomilla.
The farmland, surrounded by lush, green mountains, produces much of the country's food. But, for five months of every year, "it's like a dust bowl," Brauner said.
The town had no toilets or clean drinking water. They used stagnant rain water, gathered in basins, or the irrigation ditches, for washing and drinking.
Just the kind of problem most engineering students drool over. Well, maybe not every student would be interested.
It takes special kind of people willing to design a bathhouse in their spare time - at night, usually, when the fax rates were cheaper. They'd send their ideas to university students in Bolivia to fine-tune the plan.
And, it takes a lot of dedication to set your sights on a trip three years ahead. Brauner said members have come and gone from their local chapter of Water For People, a branch of the American Water Works Association that provides drinking water supplies for people in need.
But the three officers of the chapter and another member benefited from their perseverance. They learned Spanish quickly (especially words like "septico" and "agua residual"); they worked every day with the people of Vilomilla.
"The people all pointed to their children as getting the benefits from this. They wanted them to grow up big and strong and healthy," Brauner said.
The bathhouse, complete with two showers, six toilets and three sinks, should be done at the end of this month. Brauner said he and his travel mates want to go back to help with other projects, perhaps installing solar-powered hot water systems.
The College of Engineering contributed $3,000 to this trip, and Brauner said he hopes a scholarship can be set up for other students to take advantage of the experience.
When you're there, he said, "above all else, you got down to the most important things in life, which is that everybody is healthy and that you give something back."
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