Our trip to the States a couple weeks ago was great. I am so glad we went, it was a much hended break and worth every penny. Sean and Kate´s wedding was a throw-down as expected and the Hokies are still marching on. (I am listening to the championship as I write on commercials)
Comming back to Nica has been good too. We are finally getting to where I want to be; I have tons of useful projects going and I have been busy all day every day since my return. This is great for me but a little bad for you all since I don’t have nearly the time I used to for blogging.
We have plenty going on. The big inauguration for the Noble workshop for solar production on December 12th and we are all working like maniacs to get ready, because as usual none if the Nicas were interested in getting anything done until the red alert goes on 2 weeks before. I am working on repairing and tuning up 12 solar cookers so they are ready for use and display at the inauguration. There also a big project that we are all working on to build a gravel paved path way from the highway to the center, which is only about 50 yards but a TON of work! I totally respect the guys who build new roads. I just spent three days under the Nica sun with a pick ax digging ditches. We are also planning all the details of the celebration and all that stuff, which I really don´t like, but its necessary.
My scholarship program is in full swing now, we have finished all our policies and rules and are now receiving applications from the students. We are hoping to pass out between 8 and 12 full scholarships for secondary school to the kids of women in the Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa group.
Along with all that going on Jenny and I decided to join our fellow volunteer buddies Julio and Martin on a crazy overnight full moon hike up the volcano Telica, near the pacific city Leon. The hike deserves its own blog, so I won´t ruin all the fun until I have time to get it down.
Gotta go, Hokies just took the lead! Go Hokies!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Van Dame doesn’t speak English
Our host family has a dog, Van Dame, I can only assume that they named him after the action movie star; for some reason the Nicas are all about the violent movies with plots no deeper than 2 Pac’s lyrics. Despite the goofy name Van Dame is a great dog. He is so excited whenever we come home. He is partially trained as a guard dog by Marcio to protect the chickens and to ward off nighttime intruders. Needless to say, Van Dame is damn smart. When we come up to the gate he knows instantly that we are friend, not foe, and greets us with his tail wagging. When we get home after dark often times by the time we get to the top of the hill he is already waiting for us at the gate and he will escort us for the 100 yards to the house. Sometimes he runs ahead of us and takes a lap around the house before we get there; checking things out to make sure it is all clear. Marcio just has to make this squeaky kissy noise to Van Dame and his ears perk straight up, his head pops up and he will run out sweeping the property doing for unwelcome guests.
I have always wanted a dog, but with out any responsibility or pain in the butt early morning walks, shoes chewed up, or poop in the house and now I’ve got it. Now its great, Van Dame will come up to our house and visit us every morning to eat our stale bread or what ever we dropped on the floor at breakfast, and sometimes a special treat. At dinner when there is something I just don’t like (like slimy cooked plantains) I can just slip it to him real quick so no one will notice. He knows when I want him to take care of it fast so we don’t get caught and he’ll sneak up next to my chair real slyly and gobble it up in seconds.
The funny thing is that when talking to Van Dame I still have to deal with the language barrier. He doesn’t get “sit”, “come”, “stay” or any of those things; actually, I don’t think he understands them in Spanish either. He only responds to “veni” “afuera”, “si”, and “no”. Sometimes I forget and I tell him sit or hold on in English and he has no idea what I am saying, I change back to Spanish and he responds right away. Its interesting because its just something that you never think about, but all the dogs here only speak Spanish.
Speaking of dogs, there is a totally different dog culture in Nica. All of the dogs roam free all the time. They have TONS of land and open farm area to play around in. None of them have tags or collars or anything though. Basically the only way you know if it’s a stray or not is if you know the dog or who it belongs to. They have a pretty good life. None of them are spayed or neutered, which was kind of weird for us at first because we aren’t used to seeing dogs with all those extra parts. They all have pretty much complete free roam of where ever they want to go, but they always come back home. Its like they have their own social network, Van Dame even has a couple girl friends; although at times that seems like the only social interaction aside from fighting with each other. So, its totally not weird to just pass a dog on the road walking the other direction; you just look at him and he looks at you, just like as if you were both people and we continue walking by.
Most of the dogs pretty much pay no mind to people coming by except if they think you have food for them. At night they get pretty territorial and seemingly more aggressive near their own property. Even if you are on the path, they will bark like crazy and some times run out at you. Luckily they are all a bunch of chickens though and all you have to do is turn around and yell back at them—just make sure you do it in Spanish though!
I have always wanted a dog, but with out any responsibility or pain in the butt early morning walks, shoes chewed up, or poop in the house and now I’ve got it. Now its great, Van Dame will come up to our house and visit us every morning to eat our stale bread or what ever we dropped on the floor at breakfast, and sometimes a special treat. At dinner when there is something I just don’t like (like slimy cooked plantains) I can just slip it to him real quick so no one will notice. He knows when I want him to take care of it fast so we don’t get caught and he’ll sneak up next to my chair real slyly and gobble it up in seconds.
The funny thing is that when talking to Van Dame I still have to deal with the language barrier. He doesn’t get “sit”, “come”, “stay” or any of those things; actually, I don’t think he understands them in Spanish either. He only responds to “veni” “afuera”, “si”, and “no”. Sometimes I forget and I tell him sit or hold on in English and he has no idea what I am saying, I change back to Spanish and he responds right away. Its interesting because its just something that you never think about, but all the dogs here only speak Spanish.
Speaking of dogs, there is a totally different dog culture in Nica. All of the dogs roam free all the time. They have TONS of land and open farm area to play around in. None of them have tags or collars or anything though. Basically the only way you know if it’s a stray or not is if you know the dog or who it belongs to. They have a pretty good life. None of them are spayed or neutered, which was kind of weird for us at first because we aren’t used to seeing dogs with all those extra parts. They all have pretty much complete free roam of where ever they want to go, but they always come back home. Its like they have their own social network, Van Dame even has a couple girl friends; although at times that seems like the only social interaction aside from fighting with each other. So, its totally not weird to just pass a dog on the road walking the other direction; you just look at him and he looks at you, just like as if you were both people and we continue walking by.
Most of the dogs pretty much pay no mind to people coming by except if they think you have food for them. At night they get pretty territorial and seemingly more aggressive near their own property. Even if you are on the path, they will bark like crazy and some times run out at you. Luckily they are all a bunch of chickens though and all you have to do is turn around and yell back at them—just make sure you do it in Spanish though!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Cleaning Shoes
You will be happy to know that the rains have stopped. I was getting pretty sick of it for a while there, but now we are enjoying beautiful weather. I hardly ever smell mildew anymore… except when I walk near the shoe rack. To combat that, today I’m soaking my sneaks in a bath of bleach water to get them ready for the States. C.J. doesn’t want to clean his… he is planning to buy new ones in VA and just chuck the old.
I have recently realized that the Nicas clean their shoes a lot. I could never figure out why my clothes soaking bucked was always full of really muddy water when I went to wash the clothes, but then last week Alejandra ran ahead of me to dump it out and mentioned that Jeni was just washing her shoes. Of course, she may have told me this 20 times before, and I just didn’t understand until now. Either way, it makes sense... and all the Nicas probably think the gringos are really gross for wearing their muddy shoes. I kind of take the approach that ¨well, they´re just going to get muddy again,¨ but you can always say that, I guess. I’m just glad that the rainy season is over and that the roads, and my shoes, get a chance to dry out.
Two weekends ago, all the volunteers were thinking of taking a trip to somewhere new in Central America to have an adventure and renew our Visas. We ended up canceling the trip, because of the hassle and especially because of all the rain we’d had lately. Instead, C.J. and I went to Estelí for the day. We had read in our tour book that there was a really cool museum called Estelimar which has dinosaurs made out of car parts that are operated by solar energy.
Well, after 4 or 5 sets of crappy Nicaraguan directions and 45 minutes of walking, we found ourselves with our shoes and pants caked in mud up to our ankles and with Estelimar nowhere in sight. Finally we gave up and flagged a taxi who charged us about 10 times what he should have to drive us two minutes down the road to the museum (gringo pricing!) When we finally got there we found 6 or 7 rusty old dinosaurs with rinky-dink simple machines that ¨operate¨ them. And let me tell you about the solar powered one… yeah, it was a triceratops with a solar panel on its back and lights for eyes. When you turn it on, the eyes light up… freakin´ fascinating!
So that was a waste, fortunately, on the way back we were able to hitch a ride in a truck bed and avoid the massive road lakes. That was really nice, but then it proceeded to rain the rest of the day. My shoes still haven´t recovered… thus, the bleach bath.
I have recently realized that the Nicas clean their shoes a lot. I could never figure out why my clothes soaking bucked was always full of really muddy water when I went to wash the clothes, but then last week Alejandra ran ahead of me to dump it out and mentioned that Jeni was just washing her shoes. Of course, she may have told me this 20 times before, and I just didn’t understand until now. Either way, it makes sense... and all the Nicas probably think the gringos are really gross for wearing their muddy shoes. I kind of take the approach that ¨well, they´re just going to get muddy again,¨ but you can always say that, I guess. I’m just glad that the rainy season is over and that the roads, and my shoes, get a chance to dry out.
Two weekends ago, all the volunteers were thinking of taking a trip to somewhere new in Central America to have an adventure and renew our Visas. We ended up canceling the trip, because of the hassle and especially because of all the rain we’d had lately. Instead, C.J. and I went to Estelí for the day. We had read in our tour book that there was a really cool museum called Estelimar which has dinosaurs made out of car parts that are operated by solar energy.
Well, after 4 or 5 sets of crappy Nicaraguan directions and 45 minutes of walking, we found ourselves with our shoes and pants caked in mud up to our ankles and with Estelimar nowhere in sight. Finally we gave up and flagged a taxi who charged us about 10 times what he should have to drive us two minutes down the road to the museum (gringo pricing!) When we finally got there we found 6 or 7 rusty old dinosaurs with rinky-dink simple machines that ¨operate¨ them. And let me tell you about the solar powered one… yeah, it was a triceratops with a solar panel on its back and lights for eyes. When you turn it on, the eyes light up… freakin´ fascinating!
So that was a waste, fortunately, on the way back we were able to hitch a ride in a truck bed and avoid the massive road lakes. That was really nice, but then it proceeded to rain the rest of the day. My shoes still haven´t recovered… thus, the bleach bath.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
We Won a National Award!
I think I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I was working on a paper based on the project I worked on for the 22 solar cookers we built for the mayor of Esteli. The paper I wrote was for a national competition in the use of renewable energy and energy savings projects sponsored by Eurocentro, a division of the European Union. The challenge for me was that the paper was totally in Spanish and I had very limited help from the Nicas because it was such a busy time. Anyway, we got a phone call last Monday and we were invited to take 10 members from our organization on an expenses paid trip to the award ceremony in Managua. I was also told that only the winners get invited.
It was a really exciting opportunity for the women because they are all pretty poor and don’t get the opportunity to hop on a bus to Managua for a trip or get all dressed up for a high class formal event like this. The award ceremony was really nice. They held it in the auditorium of the Central Bank of Nicaragua. There were ambassadors, tons of organization leaders, news cameras, and journalists attending. They started with the honorable mentions and gave a presentation on each winning project along with a short slide show of a few pictures from their work. We won second prize, which sent us home with a big trophy and a check for C$8,000! (about US$430) First place was another solar cooker project that had been in the works since 1993, so I didn’t feel bad about being second place to them since it was more of a lifetime achievement award and our project had only been over the past few months.
All the women were really excited and winning the award was a great motivator. I have to say that I am really proud of myself too. I worked on the winning project for a month, wrote the paper with some help on grammar, and took all the pictures used in the slide show. Even though I am a dumb gringo with broken Spanish, I think I made a worth while contribution to the community.
It was a really exciting opportunity for the women because they are all pretty poor and don’t get the opportunity to hop on a bus to Managua for a trip or get all dressed up for a high class formal event like this. The award ceremony was really nice. They held it in the auditorium of the Central Bank of Nicaragua. There were ambassadors, tons of organization leaders, news cameras, and journalists attending. They started with the honorable mentions and gave a presentation on each winning project along with a short slide show of a few pictures from their work. We won second prize, which sent us home with a big trophy and a check for C$8,000! (about US$430) First place was another solar cooker project that had been in the works since 1993, so I didn’t feel bad about being second place to them since it was more of a lifetime achievement award and our project had only been over the past few months.
All the women were really excited and winning the award was a great motivator. I have to say that I am really proud of myself too. I worked on the winning project for a month, wrote the paper with some help on grammar, and took all the pictures used in the slide show. Even though I am a dumb gringo with broken Spanish, I think I made a worth while contribution to the community.
Its been a month
I know its been a month. I haven’t posted and its all my fault. So I am just going to use this entry to catch you guys up on everything that has been going on. I am probably notorious for my long blog entries, but I think this one will take the cake, so get a comfy chair and read up.
Its been pretty busy and my trips to the internet café have been fewer. I also got into the habit of trying to write my blogs in the café while I was on the clock and that’s a bad thing. I was finding that I just wouldn’t have enough time to write after I got all my other work done. Ok, enough excuses, I guess I just mean that I am sorry to our blog fans, now back to business.
Where to begin? I think I wrote about all the big organizational meetings we had in Managua to plan for the next quarter of projects and the 2008 annual plan back at the very end of September. Out of this meeting came a lot of excitement and forward momentum on the projects. Since that meeting it has been very busy for the leaders and volunteers, which is a good thing. If there is anything I hate it is not knowing what I should be doing and being bored and unproductive while I am here donating my time for a year. We are finally getting organized and getting things done, which I have learned is completely out of character for a sustainable development NGO, especially one on such a tight budget. Hopefully we can help turn that around.
The biggest project is the Solar Center, which is the one Jenny is helping to manage. We have $8,000 left on the grant for the project and a million things to do with it. Basically all the volunteers and leadership team is involved in executing this project for the next quarter. We have finally finished a beautiful building now complete with a ceramic tile teja roof (these are the tiles that are somewhat characteristic of tropical places and look like halves of ceramic pipe lined up next to each other.) The Solar Center has a gorgeous maroon tile floor and beautiful hand made solid wood doors and windows – all made by my expert carpenter host Don Marcio.
Now that we the building is done you would think that we can blow the $8,000 on all kinds of other good projects, wrong! There are so many details left to consider. One is that we have to build up the earth around the foundation so that we can create a reasonable slope away from it and prevent water from pooling at the base. This means that we will have to truck in dirt from somewhere. We need a permanent pump house instead of just a hastily built wooden shack. We need furniture for the inside, a front gate, money for taxes and permits, fix the entrance ramp, and save some money for the big inauguration on Dec. 12th.
We also realized that security is a big deal and our building has none, except for doors and windows that have dead bolts. In Nica, its important to have security, the polices are few and far between, especially out here in the country. Anything that doesn’t have bars in front of it has a good potential of being kicked in or broken into, expecially if there are valuable items inside. We are hoping to use one of the rooms for an office, which will have computers and such. We will also have one room as a stock room with all the wood and other supplies for the work shops. Another thing that we decided is that we will have one room designated for the PV panel workshop and assembly. This means that we could have thousands of dollars worth of PV solar cells and equipment such as batteries and charge controllers in the building as well. Long story short is that we need good security.
I have been put in charge of the security plan along with another volunteer from Canada, Noel. The challenge is that with the teja tile roof, it is very difficult to have a secure building. The tejas are just set up on the roof one on top of another and the bottom row is cemented in. The rest can easily be lifted up and someone could descend down from the ceiling into which ever room they choose. The other volunteer couple here (Charlotte and Johnathan) have already been a victim to this; they had a laptop, mp3 player, and camera stolen while they were away on a weekend trip. Noel and I are the right guys for the job and we have got a great, crazy security system all planned out. First we are going to have motion sensor spot lights on all four corners of the building. This should deter most approaching people because it is something very uncommon for Nica. We will also have a simple alarm system with a couple motion sensor lights inside that will be set off if any one enters the building. I have no idea how this is all going to work with the bats, large bugs, and stray dogs passing through the perimeter and occasionally inside during the night; hopefully we won’t drive the neighbors nuts with our lights and alarms. In addition to the motion sensor systems we will also put up the ever so popular berja, which is fancy metal bars, over the windows and ceilings of two secure rooms. The secure rooms are the office and “bodega” or stock room. The other problem with the teja roof is that it is like all other adobe buildings in Nica and it has a 6” gap between the top of the wall and the roof. Also, on the sides of the roof, where there would be a large triangular opening if you didn’t fill it in, there are huge triangular openings. Anyone with a ladder can just climb up the wall and jump in. So to combat this problem we are going to install a matrix of welded rebar over our two secure rooms, which will appear much like a drop ceiling made of a metal grid. It should be relatively unnoticeable and it won’t contradict the classic adobe architectural intent of having an open aired breezy building that is naturally cooled. I have to say that this building is sweet to sit in. It is easily the coolest building around, which is a big advantage when the temperatures get to mid 80’s daily and higher in April and May. The solar center also already has a chest high barbed wire fence around the perimeter of the whole property. We will be putting a large locking iron gate, big enough for a truck to pass through, in the opening of the fence along with a small door for people to enter. Our final security provision will be a guard shack on the front corner of the property. We plan to install all of our systems as soon as possible, then once the solar cooker and PV workshops get up and running with a stable source of income, we can pay a company for a professional security guard every night. The reason why we are so worried about security is that before I arrived they had already installed a solar panel with a pump for the well to help them get enough water to make the adobe bricks. The PV panels are very expensive and the one 75 watt panel was mounted on top of the pump house, which was stolen one night. This was a huge setback for the community and we can’t afford to have that happen again. I forgot to mention that the entire solar center including all the power tools and saws that we will have for the workshops will all be run completely off grid exclusively by solar PV electricity. That means we will be hooking everything up to 12 Volt DC power or a 120 Volt AC inverter. In the end the plan is to have as many as twelve 75 Watt PV panels outside. These PV panels and their support equipment have their own security strategy as well. The 2 PV panels that we currently have are mounted on a stand alone frame that is at the roof height. The panels were contrarily mounted onto the North side of the building solely for the advantage that the nearby neighbor, and member of the Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa, would be able to keep an eye on them from her house. We are planning to have every mounted panel be permanently welded to the frames, which are cemented into the ground so that they cannot be taken. Also, the batteries and charge controller will be placed inside a solid wood locking box inside the office, with venting for hydrogen off-gassing, of course. That’s our security plan, it will cost us about US$1500 to implement, with the biggest ticket items being the metal bars in front of the windows and above the secure rooms. I hope it works!
Along with the security project I have also been working with one of the local leaders, Nimia, on the Solar Production project. The Body Shop from England donated US$9400 to the women a year ago to help them start up their business of making and selling solar products such as solar cookers, solar driers and the products that can be made using them; like solar cooked food, and dried medicinal herbs. We have used about half of the money and I have to turn in a report in English (thank God) to the Body Shop on how we used their money and what we are planning for the rest of it.
One of the things that we have done recently with the money is carpentry training sessions for a small group of the women who will be building solar ovens and solar driers in the workshop. The course was taught by none other than our host Marcio. I attended the sessions to take photos and I also ended up unexpectedly learning a few things about carpentry. One thing that is very different here is that they don’t have a Home Depot where you can buy all your wood. The wood is all purchase directly from the guy who cuts the trees and prepares it. First of all the wood comes in very rustic fashion, its rough and in big blocks with no standard sizes for the planks. Everything has to be cut to size. If you want a 2x4 you may be cutting it from a 10x6. Also all the wood has to be shaved, smoothed and squared with a planer before you use it. I am so used to the wood coming all smooth and pretreated, and cut to standard dimensions straight from the store. I learned out to properly use a planer, which is definitely a skill that is developed over years of practice. In the end the women built two benches and two stools for the workshop at the solar center. All beautiful natural pieces made from solid pine.
The Solar Production grant has about $4,300 left in it and we also have a million things to do with a limited amount of money. Both type of solar production, agricultural and carpentry, need completed tool sets to be successful. We have planned to spend $630 on tools. We also are planning on having a series of classes for all the women to learn how to pack their dried fruits, herbs, and toasted coffee correctly. Along with learning how to pack correctly we also need the equipment to do it, so we have budgeted for a bag sealer, vacuum packer, and a label printer. We need to use some of the Solar production money to extend the telephone and cable lines into the solar center so that we can conduct a legitimate business with internet access for research and a land line telephone, which will set us back about $2000. We also need to use the money for research, design improvement and prototyping, more seeds to plant the herbs and fruits, and some money to move all the equipment we have from the personal houses of the Mujeres Solares to the solar center. So I have been working on this report and budget plan for a while. Another challenge we have to deal with is bureaucracy. For anything that we buy, whether its goods or services, we are required to get three written quotes before the money is sent from the office in Managua.
In addition to my involvement with the solar center security and the Solar Production grant, I have also been working on several other smaller projects. The summer volunteers from Cornell left some money behind for several projects around the community that they were unable to get to. One project is the reparation of the 28 solar cookers dispersed around the community. One problem that many women have with using the solar cookers is that some of them are old and damaged and others have broken glass tops that just don’t retain heat anymore. So I spent an entire week traveling from house to house to review each and every cooker individually and taking detailed notes on everything that wasn’t right. I also made a budget for the items we will need to purchase, including the three written quotes for every darn thing down to the replacement hinges. We have assembled a solar cooker reparation team and once the money is sent in from Managua we will buy the parts and probably spend two weeks repairing the ovens, just in time for the sunny season.
I am also still working on the scholarships for secondary school with a small committee of the women. We have written up a set of fair, objective selection criteria, complete with required activities for the recipients. Along with the new scholarships that will start with the new school year in February, the Cornell volunteers also left some money for a separate scholarship. So I have also been administering an essay contest in sustainable energy. If anyone is interested in donating to the secondary school scholarships please email me (cjcolavito@gmail.com) and I can tell you how to do it.
I know that being busy is no excuse for neglecting the blog, but its true, I actually do work hard here in Nica. The great thing is that even though I work hard, don’t get paid a penny, I have never been less stressed in my entire life. The occasional surprise tarantula crawling down the wall at night gets my heart going, but that stress is only momentary.
Its been pretty busy and my trips to the internet café have been fewer. I also got into the habit of trying to write my blogs in the café while I was on the clock and that’s a bad thing. I was finding that I just wouldn’t have enough time to write after I got all my other work done. Ok, enough excuses, I guess I just mean that I am sorry to our blog fans, now back to business.
Where to begin? I think I wrote about all the big organizational meetings we had in Managua to plan for the next quarter of projects and the 2008 annual plan back at the very end of September. Out of this meeting came a lot of excitement and forward momentum on the projects. Since that meeting it has been very busy for the leaders and volunteers, which is a good thing. If there is anything I hate it is not knowing what I should be doing and being bored and unproductive while I am here donating my time for a year. We are finally getting organized and getting things done, which I have learned is completely out of character for a sustainable development NGO, especially one on such a tight budget. Hopefully we can help turn that around.
The biggest project is the Solar Center, which is the one Jenny is helping to manage. We have $8,000 left on the grant for the project and a million things to do with it. Basically all the volunteers and leadership team is involved in executing this project for the next quarter. We have finally finished a beautiful building now complete with a ceramic tile teja roof (these are the tiles that are somewhat characteristic of tropical places and look like halves of ceramic pipe lined up next to each other.) The Solar Center has a gorgeous maroon tile floor and beautiful hand made solid wood doors and windows – all made by my expert carpenter host Don Marcio.
Now that we the building is done you would think that we can blow the $8,000 on all kinds of other good projects, wrong! There are so many details left to consider. One is that we have to build up the earth around the foundation so that we can create a reasonable slope away from it and prevent water from pooling at the base. This means that we will have to truck in dirt from somewhere. We need a permanent pump house instead of just a hastily built wooden shack. We need furniture for the inside, a front gate, money for taxes and permits, fix the entrance ramp, and save some money for the big inauguration on Dec. 12th.
We also realized that security is a big deal and our building has none, except for doors and windows that have dead bolts. In Nica, its important to have security, the polices are few and far between, especially out here in the country. Anything that doesn’t have bars in front of it has a good potential of being kicked in or broken into, expecially if there are valuable items inside. We are hoping to use one of the rooms for an office, which will have computers and such. We will also have one room as a stock room with all the wood and other supplies for the work shops. Another thing that we decided is that we will have one room designated for the PV panel workshop and assembly. This means that we could have thousands of dollars worth of PV solar cells and equipment such as batteries and charge controllers in the building as well. Long story short is that we need good security.
I have been put in charge of the security plan along with another volunteer from Canada, Noel. The challenge is that with the teja tile roof, it is very difficult to have a secure building. The tejas are just set up on the roof one on top of another and the bottom row is cemented in. The rest can easily be lifted up and someone could descend down from the ceiling into which ever room they choose. The other volunteer couple here (Charlotte and Johnathan) have already been a victim to this; they had a laptop, mp3 player, and camera stolen while they were away on a weekend trip. Noel and I are the right guys for the job and we have got a great, crazy security system all planned out. First we are going to have motion sensor spot lights on all four corners of the building. This should deter most approaching people because it is something very uncommon for Nica. We will also have a simple alarm system with a couple motion sensor lights inside that will be set off if any one enters the building. I have no idea how this is all going to work with the bats, large bugs, and stray dogs passing through the perimeter and occasionally inside during the night; hopefully we won’t drive the neighbors nuts with our lights and alarms. In addition to the motion sensor systems we will also put up the ever so popular berja, which is fancy metal bars, over the windows and ceilings of two secure rooms. The secure rooms are the office and “bodega” or stock room. The other problem with the teja roof is that it is like all other adobe buildings in Nica and it has a 6” gap between the top of the wall and the roof. Also, on the sides of the roof, where there would be a large triangular opening if you didn’t fill it in, there are huge triangular openings. Anyone with a ladder can just climb up the wall and jump in. So to combat this problem we are going to install a matrix of welded rebar over our two secure rooms, which will appear much like a drop ceiling made of a metal grid. It should be relatively unnoticeable and it won’t contradict the classic adobe architectural intent of having an open aired breezy building that is naturally cooled. I have to say that this building is sweet to sit in. It is easily the coolest building around, which is a big advantage when the temperatures get to mid 80’s daily and higher in April and May. The solar center also already has a chest high barbed wire fence around the perimeter of the whole property. We will be putting a large locking iron gate, big enough for a truck to pass through, in the opening of the fence along with a small door for people to enter. Our final security provision will be a guard shack on the front corner of the property. We plan to install all of our systems as soon as possible, then once the solar cooker and PV workshops get up and running with a stable source of income, we can pay a company for a professional security guard every night. The reason why we are so worried about security is that before I arrived they had already installed a solar panel with a pump for the well to help them get enough water to make the adobe bricks. The PV panels are very expensive and the one 75 watt panel was mounted on top of the pump house, which was stolen one night. This was a huge setback for the community and we can’t afford to have that happen again. I forgot to mention that the entire solar center including all the power tools and saws that we will have for the workshops will all be run completely off grid exclusively by solar PV electricity. That means we will be hooking everything up to 12 Volt DC power or a 120 Volt AC inverter. In the end the plan is to have as many as twelve 75 Watt PV panels outside. These PV panels and their support equipment have their own security strategy as well. The 2 PV panels that we currently have are mounted on a stand alone frame that is at the roof height. The panels were contrarily mounted onto the North side of the building solely for the advantage that the nearby neighbor, and member of the Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa, would be able to keep an eye on them from her house. We are planning to have every mounted panel be permanently welded to the frames, which are cemented into the ground so that they cannot be taken. Also, the batteries and charge controller will be placed inside a solid wood locking box inside the office, with venting for hydrogen off-gassing, of course. That’s our security plan, it will cost us about US$1500 to implement, with the biggest ticket items being the metal bars in front of the windows and above the secure rooms. I hope it works!
Along with the security project I have also been working with one of the local leaders, Nimia, on the Solar Production project. The Body Shop from England donated US$9400 to the women a year ago to help them start up their business of making and selling solar products such as solar cookers, solar driers and the products that can be made using them; like solar cooked food, and dried medicinal herbs. We have used about half of the money and I have to turn in a report in English (thank God) to the Body Shop on how we used their money and what we are planning for the rest of it.
One of the things that we have done recently with the money is carpentry training sessions for a small group of the women who will be building solar ovens and solar driers in the workshop. The course was taught by none other than our host Marcio. I attended the sessions to take photos and I also ended up unexpectedly learning a few things about carpentry. One thing that is very different here is that they don’t have a Home Depot where you can buy all your wood. The wood is all purchase directly from the guy who cuts the trees and prepares it. First of all the wood comes in very rustic fashion, its rough and in big blocks with no standard sizes for the planks. Everything has to be cut to size. If you want a 2x4 you may be cutting it from a 10x6. Also all the wood has to be shaved, smoothed and squared with a planer before you use it. I am so used to the wood coming all smooth and pretreated, and cut to standard dimensions straight from the store. I learned out to properly use a planer, which is definitely a skill that is developed over years of practice. In the end the women built two benches and two stools for the workshop at the solar center. All beautiful natural pieces made from solid pine.
The Solar Production grant has about $4,300 left in it and we also have a million things to do with a limited amount of money. Both type of solar production, agricultural and carpentry, need completed tool sets to be successful. We have planned to spend $630 on tools. We also are planning on having a series of classes for all the women to learn how to pack their dried fruits, herbs, and toasted coffee correctly. Along with learning how to pack correctly we also need the equipment to do it, so we have budgeted for a bag sealer, vacuum packer, and a label printer. We need to use some of the Solar production money to extend the telephone and cable lines into the solar center so that we can conduct a legitimate business with internet access for research and a land line telephone, which will set us back about $2000. We also need to use the money for research, design improvement and prototyping, more seeds to plant the herbs and fruits, and some money to move all the equipment we have from the personal houses of the Mujeres Solares to the solar center. So I have been working on this report and budget plan for a while. Another challenge we have to deal with is bureaucracy. For anything that we buy, whether its goods or services, we are required to get three written quotes before the money is sent from the office in Managua.
In addition to my involvement with the solar center security and the Solar Production grant, I have also been working on several other smaller projects. The summer volunteers from Cornell left some money behind for several projects around the community that they were unable to get to. One project is the reparation of the 28 solar cookers dispersed around the community. One problem that many women have with using the solar cookers is that some of them are old and damaged and others have broken glass tops that just don’t retain heat anymore. So I spent an entire week traveling from house to house to review each and every cooker individually and taking detailed notes on everything that wasn’t right. I also made a budget for the items we will need to purchase, including the three written quotes for every darn thing down to the replacement hinges. We have assembled a solar cooker reparation team and once the money is sent in from Managua we will buy the parts and probably spend two weeks repairing the ovens, just in time for the sunny season.
I am also still working on the scholarships for secondary school with a small committee of the women. We have written up a set of fair, objective selection criteria, complete with required activities for the recipients. Along with the new scholarships that will start with the new school year in February, the Cornell volunteers also left some money for a separate scholarship. So I have also been administering an essay contest in sustainable energy. If anyone is interested in donating to the secondary school scholarships please email me (cjcolavito@gmail.com) and I can tell you how to do it.
I know that being busy is no excuse for neglecting the blog, but its true, I actually do work hard here in Nica. The great thing is that even though I work hard, don’t get paid a penny, I have never been less stressed in my entire life. The occasional surprise tarantula crawling down the wall at night gets my heart going, but that stress is only momentary.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Rain, Rain, Go Away
So it´s been raining for days and days and it is starting to put me into a bad funk. Our laundry has become an insurmountable pile, but even if I wash the clothes, they won´t dry and will mildew. I hate mildew and I smell it everywhere. I have dreams about clean apartments with bathrooms and washing machines. Well, on the good days I do. On the bad days I dream that there are snakes in our bed and I wake up screaming. C.J. says that I talk a lot in my sleep now - mostly stressed or anxious babbling. I´m sure I´m probably grinding my teeth too, but wearing a mouth piece is just so unattractive.
We´ve been trying to make our home more comfortable here. We bought a hammock, which has been a big improvement, but we didn´t get the nice one that we really wanted. When we were in Managua (the last two times) we never had a free minute to buy one, so we settled on a plastic one, sold in Ocotal for 50 cords ($2.50), which Noel said is quite comfortable. He was right, and I was enjoying our hammock until I sat on Charlotte´s again. Now I´m back to really wanting a soft rope hammock.
Around here it just rains and rains. The roads are horrible and my feet are perpetually wet and muddy. I can´t wait to visit the States in November. I´m so excited to see everyone and to enjoy all the comforts of home. It´s going to be hard to come back.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Real Rain
Jenny and I got to Nica at the very end of July, which is right about mid-way through the rainy season. I figured that we were right in the meat of it and any rain we have seen in the last 2 months is a good sample of the rainy season. Wrong! I have recently learned that just before rainy season turns into don’t-rain-for-6-months-season, it gives one last good shot. Apparently October and the beginning of November are the last hurrah of rainy season and it really kicks up a notch. Before this shift rainy season was really no big deal. We would get rain nearly every evening with out fail and every once in a while there would be a down pour, but usually nothing special. The paths all through Sabana Grande are dirt and mud and of course after a good rain the “roads” would get much muddier and we have a few large pool areas that are hard to pass through, but all in all its reasonable.
Now let me tell you about the real rain. Our first indication that the season was changing was about a week ago. Jenny and I left on a Friday afternoon for Ocotal around 1pm, we did our usual thing, then returned on the 5:45 bus. Another thing that I am noticing this season is that the night is coming sooner and on this day it was pretty much pitch dark by 6:00 instead of 6:30. I realized that it had started raining while we were at the internet café but didn’t think much of it. By the time we left the café it was a drizzle and when we arrived at our stop the rain was over. We started our hike back and dealt with the normal sloshy muddiness that is typical right after the rain. A few minutes into our trek we just stopped and stared. I wish I had my camera. An area that was bone dry with a track of grass in the middle that was about 6” high was completely under rushing water. We couldn’t see the grass; it had turned into a river sometime between when we left at one and when we came back. Usually there is a rock, a dry patch, or a shoulder on the road that you can use to pass the really wet muddy parts or the large pools of water that gather. This time there was nothing, just a rushing river. You could see the water pouring in both sides from the neighboring fields joining the river running down the middle of the path. Not a single rock or patch or grass sticking up to at least indicate where it was shallower. So we stared. We were just amazed that this path that was completely bone dry when we left had turned into a river in just a few hours. The river was kind of cutting through the path way and we could see land again about 15 feet ahead, muddy land, but better than a river. It was too far to jump with a full back pack so I decided to take a couple huge steps and try to get out of it with only one wet foot. Jenny did the same and we continued through the mud.
A few minutes ahead we came across the same thing, only this time it was in an area that was usually a little muddy. Now, I like to tell a good story, but this is purely factual. If the last one was a river, then this was nearly worthy of rafting. Well, at least I wish I had a raft. We couldn’t see land on the other side. It was bigger, deeper, and flowing faster. There was no way around and I was actually pretty nervous about just walking through this one because it looked so menacing. We stood there and stared again, discussing back and forth about what we should do. While we were standing there baffled, a small old Nicaraguan man passed by, paused, and then started walking right through the river like it was something he expected. I figured if he can do it so can we. The river lasted for about 40 yards of pure rushing water; it was as deep as half way up my shin, I estimate between a foot-foot and a half. We crept through carefully, occasionally stepping into a really deep spot where a normal puddle would have been, until we finally reached higher ground. When we arrived at home our host family thought it was hysterical how wet we got and then mentioned that they meant to warn us about this time of year. Marcio said that we shouldn’t come home in the late afternoon or evening because that’s when it’s flooded the worst. He said next time skip the bus and pay the 70 cordobas for a cab to get home. I have no idea how a cab would drive through that, but Marcio insists that they will do it and I am happy to pay less than US$4 for it. It took my shoes 4 days in the sun to finally dry out. In the end it was actually kind of fun; Jenny won’t admit that she liked it but she was laughing the whole time.
Now let me tell you about the real rain. Our first indication that the season was changing was about a week ago. Jenny and I left on a Friday afternoon for Ocotal around 1pm, we did our usual thing, then returned on the 5:45 bus. Another thing that I am noticing this season is that the night is coming sooner and on this day it was pretty much pitch dark by 6:00 instead of 6:30. I realized that it had started raining while we were at the internet café but didn’t think much of it. By the time we left the café it was a drizzle and when we arrived at our stop the rain was over. We started our hike back and dealt with the normal sloshy muddiness that is typical right after the rain. A few minutes into our trek we just stopped and stared. I wish I had my camera. An area that was bone dry with a track of grass in the middle that was about 6” high was completely under rushing water. We couldn’t see the grass; it had turned into a river sometime between when we left at one and when we came back. Usually there is a rock, a dry patch, or a shoulder on the road that you can use to pass the really wet muddy parts or the large pools of water that gather. This time there was nothing, just a rushing river. You could see the water pouring in both sides from the neighboring fields joining the river running down the middle of the path. Not a single rock or patch or grass sticking up to at least indicate where it was shallower. So we stared. We were just amazed that this path that was completely bone dry when we left had turned into a river in just a few hours. The river was kind of cutting through the path way and we could see land again about 15 feet ahead, muddy land, but better than a river. It was too far to jump with a full back pack so I decided to take a couple huge steps and try to get out of it with only one wet foot. Jenny did the same and we continued through the mud.
A few minutes ahead we came across the same thing, only this time it was in an area that was usually a little muddy. Now, I like to tell a good story, but this is purely factual. If the last one was a river, then this was nearly worthy of rafting. Well, at least I wish I had a raft. We couldn’t see land on the other side. It was bigger, deeper, and flowing faster. There was no way around and I was actually pretty nervous about just walking through this one because it looked so menacing. We stood there and stared again, discussing back and forth about what we should do. While we were standing there baffled, a small old Nicaraguan man passed by, paused, and then started walking right through the river like it was something he expected. I figured if he can do it so can we. The river lasted for about 40 yards of pure rushing water; it was as deep as half way up my shin, I estimate between a foot-foot and a half. We crept through carefully, occasionally stepping into a really deep spot where a normal puddle would have been, until we finally reached higher ground. When we arrived at home our host family thought it was hysterical how wet we got and then mentioned that they meant to warn us about this time of year. Marcio said that we shouldn’t come home in the late afternoon or evening because that’s when it’s flooded the worst. He said next time skip the bus and pay the 70 cordobas for a cab to get home. I have no idea how a cab would drive through that, but Marcio insists that they will do it and I am happy to pay less than US$4 for it. It took my shoes 4 days in the sun to finally dry out. In the end it was actually kind of fun; Jenny won’t admit that she liked it but she was laughing the whole time.
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