Peter Tanner & The Rachel Project
What's your Rotary story? How did you get involved?
I was speaking with Jennifer Jacobson about travel in Latin America and Nepal - and she suggested I join. I met Jennifer in a Spanish class in Chatham.
How long has the RACHEL project been going on for? And how did it start?
Along with Jennifer, Linda Goldsmith and Barry Fraser, we were trying to figure out what international project we could get involved
with. We decided to help with the Eastmans work near Barillas, Guatemala - and the water project that they were planning. During my
visit there in August 2017, I attended the Barillas Rotary meeting -where one of the members mentioned that they were actually more interested in setting up a RACHEL project for at least 30 schools. He asked me if I had heard of RACHEL. The funny thing is that I had a RACHEL-Pi in my pocket, as I had been really interested in its potential, and had been hoping to see if there was an interest. I pulled it out - "like this" - and in 5 minutes all the members were browsing the contents of the RACHEL-Pi - and I was appointed Technical Director of the project.
When you traveled to Guatemala, how would you describe the country
and it's people? Did you try any unique food there? Where else has
Rotary allowed you to travel?
Hard to describe in a few words. I have taken Spanish courses in five Latin American countries - and all are interesting. In all cases,
people are friendly, particularly if you make an effort to communicate in Spanish. Guatemala is clearly divided between those living
relatively modern middle class lives in cities like Antigua, with restaurants, smartphones and transportation - and those living in remote
Mayan villages with little of anything.
Food - not really much that is interesting. Much more ordinary than
Mexico, and lacking the interesting things like Guinea Pig, Empanadas or ceviche that you get further south. Actually, my Latin American travels started before I joined Rotary. The
project happened to mesh with my own travel and technology interests.
I did go with Gary Sobotta (6380 Water Ambassador)
to Ecuador to see the results of his bio-sand filter project. Gary had taken the biosand course from A Vision for Clean Water previously.
This, plus my first trip to Barillas, was so that we could decide which
project to support.
What is your profession?
Computer Graphics researcher - 15 years
International Trade Promotion (Cdn government) - 5 years
Business/legal negotiations for small software company which was
purchased by IBM - 13 years
Open source IP consulting (semi-retired) - 10 years