Renee Braeuner

Renee Braeuner

Since I heard about this expedition I got excited and interested in the project and, of course, in participating. The first part, the conferences with the experts in the different topics, was very instructive and I found myself amazed with all the things they’ve done. I couldn’t wait for the field trip to begin, and I wanted to thank everybody for this opportunity to learn and share, since I think it will be of the best experiences in my life so far.

Yesterday, March 30^th, we arrived at Panajachel and accommodated ourselves in the hotel. We got to eat lunch and dinner with different people, students and the professionals, getting to know them a little bit more. By now I’m back from my first activity in the Chemistry lab with Emily, and we prepared the standards and other solutions that we'll be using to analyze the water samples. I liked it very much, especially since I had analyzed water samples before at my University but with the reactants ready and using HACH, I had never prepared everything from scratch. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, analyzing chlorophyll and nutrients, and eventually learning to correctly analyze the data.

I'd like to put in practice all that I'm learning here in a near future to help my beautiful country, Guatemala, preserve all the natural resources we still have and manage them correctly. Again I say thank all the ones involved in this project for caring for our Lake Atitlán and giving us the opportunity to learn with you. =) 

Ma.Renée (Rana) Braeuner