June 22- Six weeks down!

As my sixth week comes to a close, I realize that I am over half way through my internship. I had intended on being in Nicaragua for 10 weeks. In order to meet my internship requirement, I needed 5, but I assumed it would be difficult to “hit the ground running” and opted for a slightly longer amount of time. I now realize that my thinking was more than correct. However, after recounting my weeks, I realize that I am actually here for 11 weeks. I am not sure how I managed to miscount them but in a way I am sort of grateful since my estimated 3 week water boiling test is now in its third week with only 2 of 9 tests done. I do not even have a stove yet for one of my testing requirements. I know that this is all part of working internationally though. Even though I seem to fail a lot, I am learning so much and gaining a lot of knowledge about working abroad and about agricultural engineering also.

I think now is a good time for reflection.

1.       It is hard to be viewed as a professional here as a woman. The culture is very different. Men yell inappropriate things at women on the street because it is culturally acceptable. Many women will get married and have children after high school. If they do get degrees, very few will actually use them because they have to stay at home to cook, clean, and take care of their children and husbands. However, I think I will be a much stronger person because of this because I have really had to assert myself about what want to do.

2.       While I do enjoy the food here, I am missing the variety in my diet that I once had. I eat beans, rice, and cheese every day at least twice a day. And although I can get “American” food like pizza, hotdogs, and hamburgers here, they are different and often unappetizing.

3.       It is great to live with a family. I can practice my Spanish and learn to cook with them. They also explain things when the news is on if I don’t have the background knowledge to understand what is going on. They also feed me and even do my laundry.

4.       Finding time to blog is really hard when the internet doesn’t cooperate and I do not actually live in a home with internet. I apologize for my spotty updates.

June 21- Successful Wood Stove Test

Today I had my first successful wood stove water boiling test. It was very exciting and the data looks great. I got up at 4am in order to start my testing. It’s interesting because I thought that I would be disrupting the family by using their biodigester gas, but I am actually disrupting them by using their wood stove. This is because they use their wood stove for tortillas every day, beans, and coffee. These are items that take a long time to cook, so there is insufficient gas. When I use their gas, they can use their wood stove or they can use their propane gas stove. However, normally they do not like using their propane because it is so expensive.

The women of my family are very helpful. In fact, my host grandmother helped me throughout the entire test with the fire to make sure it stayed consistent. She also gave me some tips for starting it and controlling it. She also yelled at me whenever I had to weigh the charcoal or leftover wood out of the stove. I thought this was interesting because I was the one with the gloves. She would just sort of take over and help me out and not use the gloves. Clearly she has a lot of confidence that comes with experience.

The wood stove during testing.

June 19 and 20- Biodigester Installation

Last night, another technician, David, came to San Isidro. He lives in Leon and is an expert on biodigesters. He took Chris and me to Managua for two days to help install a biodigester in a community about an hour outside of Managua. It was a really good experience because David really knows a lot and now I feel I have even more experience with the biodigesters. He also has a lot of good ideas for projects for me to help him with. I am very excited.

The stove with the woman who will be using it.

Mounting the biodigester.

I had my first experience sleeping in a hammock. In order to save money and time, David had everyone bring a hammock with them. The office had a couple that we borrowed. We ended up sleeping at the home of the family we installed the biodigester for. Chris and David slept in hammocks outside. My hammock was the right type for a hammock support, so I slept inside. However, my hammock was not that comfortable because it was essentially meant for a child, so it was quite small. I could not get comfortable and did not sleep much, if any at all.

June 17 and 18-My Birthday!

Sunday

Today I came into San Isidro from Sabana Larga in order to call my dad for father’s day. I also wanted to catch up with the world and use the internet a little bit. Ubania also wanted to come to the office and spend some time with me. She showed up around 1pm with a bunch of fingernail polish and did my nails in preparation for my birthday. They look almost professional! She is really creative, and we had a pretty good time while she was painting.

My manicure

Monday

Well today is my 22^nd birthday. I got up around 5, which is considered sleeping in when living in the country. My host family fed me a really big breakfast and everyone gave me hugs. They then presented me with a birthday cake to take with me to work. It was one of the cakes that we made together on Saturday, but they had made a “frosting” out of milk, rum, cinnamon, and raisins. It was so kind and unexpected that I thought I was going to cry.

Me with my birthday cake at the office

We all went to San Isidro together because everyone had errands to run. When we arrived, they got me a bike taxi to take the four blocks to the office since the cake was heavy according to them. It was very nice. Unfortunately, I had about a 7 hour meeting to sit through. Every Monday, everyone from the office gets together for a meeting in the morning to plan for the week. However, this one was very in depth (and long winded) and took a very long time. About 3 hours in we took a break for cake, then two hours later we had lunch, and met for two more hours.

Then after work, everyone was still sticking around. I figured something was up when three guys showed up on motorcycles with guitars, and Ubania sent me a message to tell me to wear my new dress (even though no one else was dressed up). Around 6, Ubania and some other people showed up and the party started. It was a party for both of us since it was also Ubania’s birthday. There was a Mariachi band, appetizers, ice cream, and even little gifts. It was a really great time.

Everyone from the office plus Brittany and Ubania

Ubania and I

June 15 and 16- Bucket Showers

Friday

Today, I decided to not go to the office because nearly everyone was out for the day. Instead, I layed in a hammock all day and read my book. I also had my first experience with a bucket shower because the water has been out for two days due to a pipe break to Sabana Larga. A bucket shower is when you draw a bucket of water out of the well to use for bathing water. I actually pulled a lizard out of the bucket I drew for my shower. There is a bowl that you use to dump the water on yourself. For the people who have to take early morning showers when both the water and air are still chilly, a little bit of water can be boiled and added to the bucket of cold water. I was not this lucky.

Saturday

This morning I learned how to make torta and roskia. They are both oven goods. Torta is very similar to but it is sweeter and lacks yeast. This type also had lime zest in it. Roskia are kind of like cookies. They have cuajada, which is the fresh cow’s cheese my family makes every day, in them. They are a very dry cookie. I will be posting the recipe at a later date for both of these goods.

Then, I went to Sebaco for the afternoon to do a little bit of shopping. I needed long pants, new socks, and dressier shoes. Sebaco is cheaper and closer than Estelí. I quickly realized, however, that I do not have the patience to shop here. It is very difficult to find things. Every store has approximately the same things, but they do not carry very many sizes. Finding pants was a joke. I ended up with a pair of ill-fitting jeans. I did not want to bring pants with me since it is so humid and hot here, but my ankles are raw from mosquito bites. I found a nice pair of black dressy shoes to go with my new dress for when I get it, and I also was able to find new socks since mine are pretty gross. I spent about four hours shopping for these three items. It was kind of ridiculous.

June 14- Success!

There is still hope for me yet. I was in fact able to boil water using the biodigester stove. It was a huge relief. However, I had to alter the testing protocols a little bit, but I will justify them in my write up. For instance, a lid is in fact needed in order to boil water. Without the lid, the heat is not sufficiently trapped and the stove does not have enough fire power to overcome the heat loss and boil the water. This is okay though because I am just going to merge two testing protocols together. One is the water boiling test and the other is the cooking test. The only difference between the two is that I the cooking test uses cultural practices. Then, instead of cooking food, I am just going to boil water. It is much simpler.

After I completed my first successful water boiling test, Ubania, Alvaro’s wife, called and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her in La Trinidad for a couple of hours. I met her in the office, and we took a taxi to a fabric store. She then told me that I needed to pick out fabric to buy because her mom wanted to make me a dress for my birthday. Her mom is a dress maker in San Isidro. Ubania also picked out fabric because we actually have the same birthday, so her mom is going to make her a new dress too. Then, we went back to San Isidro where her mom took my measurements and showed me some of the beautiful dresses that she has made. She told me that both dresses would even be ready by Monday!

June 13, 2012- Boiling Water is Difficult

In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.
- Anthony D’Angelo –

This quote is pretty fitting of my project thus far in my internship. I have failed at every Water Boiling Test that I have attempted (including today), but I have learned a lot from these failures. Today I again could not get water to properly boil, even after using about two hours of the three hours of available gas. I narrowed my problem down to several possible causes.

1.       The pots (again). The family found me two pots that I later realized were from a rice cooker. I believe, therefore, that there is an air pocket in the bottom of the pot meant to distribute heat evenly so as to not burn the rice (kind of like a double boiler). This works great for water, but bad for boiling water because the energy is dissipated before reaching the water. I came to this conclusion when all the water in the pot was of one uniform temperature (ie no hot spots) and the bottom of the pot was the same temperature as the rest of the water. The water also stayed at 91C for over ten minutes and the local boiling point is around 97C.

2.       It was a windy day.

3.       I can’t use a lid with the test, but this theoretically shouldn’t affect it at all since water will not really evaporate until it begins to boil.

4.       The stove just didn’t have enough fire power to boil water. However, this was not a logical answer since my host mom and grandma told me they use the stove to boil water all the time. It just takes a little longer than the wood stove.

I ended up spending all day thinking about how to address all the possible causes and decided to address the easiest first: the pot. After consulting with several of my bosses, I have now decided to use different pots for the different stoves as is normal. Therefore, I will be using the heavy pots for the wood stove and the aluminum ones for the gas stove. I guess tomorrow will tell if I can in fact boil water.

June 11 and 12, 2012- Second Failure

Monday

I double checked my calculations and got all my things together in order to prepare for my first biodigester stove test Tuesday morning.

Tuesday

Today was my second test failure but my first failure for the biodigester. I could not get the water to boil at all for my Water Boiling Test, which is integral to the test. I quickly realized that it was probably due to the type of pot I was trying to use. I was attempting to use a heavy metal pot, almost like cast iron. They are typically used for the wood stoves and are not used on gas stoves. However, I felt that it was important to have the same type of pot for both tests to ensure that they were comparable.

My host mom and grandma informed me that aluminum pots would work much better, and they could in fact be used on the wood stoves. They then spent all day looking for two pots that were nearly identical for me to use since there are two “holes” in the wood stove for pots. I decided to stay at home to help them and talk with them instead of going to the office.

I learned a lot about the biodigester and about their farm in general. For instance, they add two five gallon buckets of manure and water to the biodigester two times per week. On the same days that they add material to one end, they have to remove digested material from the other end. Since it has been digested, it is a higher quality fertilizer that will not burn plants if directly applied unlike fresh manure. However, I was saddened to see that they just dump the fertilizer in their cow pen because they do not have a family garden to apply it to.

I also was able to read my book (in Spanish), nap, and watch a movie with the family. Life in the country is pretty laid back. I have been going to bed around 8pm and getting up around 4 when they get up to start milking cows and making cheese.

June 8-10, 2012- My Weekend in Ometepe

Friday

I got up really early Friday morning, so I could catch the first direct bus to Managua. It picked me up outside San Isidro at 5:30am. I arrived in Managua around 7am and knew I would have to get a cab to take me from the north bus stop to the south bus stop. I was told that I shouldn’t leave the bus terminal to get a cab, but all the cabs were filled with men. The idea made me uncomfortable. As I was weighing my options, an older lady, who was also waiting for a cab and had been tired of getting shoved aside by men getting in the taxis, asked me if I wanted to share a cab with her. I agreed, so I picked up her bag of potatoes and helped her carry them outside. She told the cab driver that I would be getting dropped off first then her. She was so kind to me.

After I arrived at the other bus stop, I grabbed another bus to the port and then hopped a ferry to the island of Ometepe. Ometepe is located in Lake Nicaragua. I had decided to go to Ometepe because there is another Iowa State intern who is working on a permaculture farm there. I hadn’t really talked to her about coming, but on the ferry, I ended up meeting the director of the farm where she was working. He invited me to stay on the farm for the weekend.

I traveled with them to the farm and hung out for the night. The farm is really pretty and remote. It is located on the smaller part of the island at the foot of the volcano of Maderas. We played some games and chatted.

View of the volcano Conception from the farm.

Saturday

I got up around 6am, so that I could climb the volcano of Maderas. It is the smaller of the two volcanos on the island of Ometepe, but people can’t climb the other one due to the constant sulfur at the top because it’s active. It stands at almost 1400m tall and has a Laguna at the top in its crater.

I went with another person from the farm that had not climbed the volcano yet, so we could split the cost of a guide. We started around 7:30am and finally reached the top at noon. It took 4.5 hours, which is a bit longer than most people take. However, I still consider it pretty good because it was my first real hiking experience. I also was not wearing real hiking shoes. I was only wearing tennis shoes. The path was almost entirely volcanic rock, mud, and tree roots. It was really steep and muddy because it is in the clouds. I was also blessed with really short legs, which made it difficult it for me to climb fast. I soon realized that it was better for me to go at my own pace rather than to try to keep up with the guide and other guy because I got tired too quickly.

Part of the path

I had a lot of time for reflection during my hike. It was a really hard hike. During the last hour, I really had to dig deep to get to the top. There were so many trees, it was impossible to see the top or where anything was other than the path. It was a great feeling to make it to the top! However, it was kind of anti-climactic since you couldn’t see anything due to all the trees. I did however meet a couple from Iowa at the top. We ate lunch on the top, but the sandwich I bought was awful. Therefore, all I had to eat for the day was two mini bananas and a mango, plus the two liters of water I drank.

At the top!!!

I went at a pretty good pace for most of the way down, which was surprising because it was pretty difficult. However, about halfway I hit a wall and started to slow down. Then about an hour away from the bottom, pure exhaustion hit, and I started to fall down a lot. In all, it took about 3.5 hours to go down, which is about average according to the guide. The best part about the climb down was the howler monkeys I saw. I saw a mom and her baby and then I captured a video of another one eating!

Since the climb took a bit longer than what I thought it would, I missed the last bus out of Balgue. I therefore, had to stay another night at the farm. I had hoped to go and check out Altagracia or Moyogalpa, which are the bigger port cities where the ferry would leave from on Sunday, but I was too exhausted to walk anyways.

Sunday

I got up at 4am, so I could walk to Balgue, to catch the first (and only) bus to Moyogalpa. However, I got lost on the paths leading from the farm and ended up doubling back on accident. Therefore, I missed the bus. One of my goals while in Nicaragua is to learn how to go with the flow and not be an obsessive planner. Therefore, I just sat down and read my book. One of the girls woke up and offered to walk me to town, so I could figure out how to get off the island. She took me to a hostel, where the owner offered to drive me.

I ended up making the second ferry of the day, and as it turned out, a bus to Managua was waiting at the port when I got off the ferry on the other side. Everything ended up working out perfectly. I took the same sequence of transportation back to San Isidro and arrived around 3:30. I decided that doing laundry was essential before going to Sabana Larga because my clothes smelled awful. Overall, it was a pretty good trip. I learned a lot about myself and am hoping that the success of the volcano will follow me into the week as I dive into stove testing.

Thursday, June 7, 2012- Miraflor

Today, I went with the EOS team to Miraflor, which is a nature reserve north of Estelí, for a technology fair. We left around 6:30am, so that we could see a little bit of the park before we had to be at the fair to set up. The park was really beautiful. All of the orchids were in bloom and there were a lot of “mountains”, valleys, and all around beautiful scenery to look at.

We drove through this stream.

Really nice view.

The technology fair was an opportunity for the producers located within Miraflor to learn about sustainable technologies and share information that they also had about things that they were doing on their own pieces of land. We brought a demonstration of nearly every technology that we had to show off. We spent all day talking with producers and having an open discussion about various technologies. We had a great lunch there also.

We got back late enough that I missed the last bus to Sabana Larga, so I had to stay in the office. I then decided that I was just going to leave for Ometepe earlier.

Blogging for the Weekend

So I am planning on doing a little traveling this weekend and will probably not be able to update my blog from now until Monday when I return since I do not have internet where I am living now and am planning on leaving Friday mid morning.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012- Wood Stove Test 1

Today, I was supposed to get up at 4am with the family to do my first boiling test on the wood stove. However, I did not sleep well the night before. I actually ended up putting earplugs in around midnight just so I could get a few hours of sleep. It was a bad idea because then I couldn’t hear everyone when they got up. Therefore, I did not get up until a little before 5. I had a little prep work to do but was finally ready to light the fire around 5:20. The first “test” I did was an epic failure. My timer was at almost 45 minutes and the water was still about 30C away from boiling. When I asked Dona Polo, she laughed and told me water normally takes 15 minutes to boil on a cold stove in the morning.

At that point, I decided to call the morning a bust since I was interfering with their morning schedule. I needed more practice. However, both women assured me that I was not interfering with them, and they wanted me to try again. They also had some advice for me. They informed me that I was being too frugal with my wood usage and that I should really be breaking the wood in half. After removing all the hot coals from the stove and weighing out more wood and water, I was ready to go again.

This time the first part of the test was a success. The water only took 20 minutes to boil. However, I hit another snag when I realized how inefficient my weighing system was. I have to weigh the water and wood before and after the test. The water is obviously in a pot and after the test, is very hot. I also have to weigh the hot coals to see how much wood is consumed. I do not have an actual balance, so I am using a luggage scale. It basically has a hook on it and you hang the weight from it. I had made “baskets” for everything out of rope, but soon realized that the cheap rope was melting. Speed is really important between the three different parts and when all was said and done way too much time was spent. Then, once I finally did start part 2, it took over 40 minutes to boil the water again because the wood was a little wet from the storm from the night before.

The second test ended up being a bust also, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons from this experience.

1.       When in doubt, I just need to ask. Clearly, the women of my household really want to help me and have a lot of experience.

2.       Metal is a much better choice than plastic rope for baskets. I went out and bought wire.

3.       Practice is really important.

4.       I would NEVER want to cook with a wood burning stove. I burned my finger and inhaled copious amounts of smoke during the four hours I was testing. I can’t imagine using one for my entire lifetime.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012- The Bus Mishap

The only downside to living in the “campo” again is getting used to the sleeping schedule. The family goes to bed at 8 and then gets up around 4. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. It is relatively quiet, but there is a dog that barks off and on all night long outside, which then wakes up the roosters. Therefore, I did not get up until a little after 5.

During the morning, I basically just observed the routine of the family. They all get up around 4am to start chores. Don Polo, which means Mr. Polo, goes out and milks the cows that can be miilked. He does it in a corral by hand and brings the milk to the yard. Then, Dona Coco and Dona Polo (because of how last names work here Dona Polo is his mother not wife) separate out some of the milk for cheese and  put the rest in buckets to be sold at market. Next, one of them starts to clean the house while the other one starts preparing breakfast. Then, one of them gets up Luis for school and helps him get ready while the other makes tortillas. After breakfast, they both focus their energy on making cheese, which takes about an hour.

After they were done with their morning routine, I decided I had to get a couple of things done. I boiled a pot of water to see what the local boiling point was. Due to elevation, it was in fact lower than 100C. I also had to determine the average moisture content of the firewood that they are using, so I did some pre-measurements and put the wood in the oven to dry it out.

After lunch, I took the bus back to the office, so I could get more stuff and use the internet, but there was no internet. Therefore, I just grabbed some more stuff I needed. I have decided not to move everything I have to the host family since I will still be at the office a lot, and I will only be with them for about three weeks.

I wanted to get back before dark, so I decided to catch the 530 bus back. However, there was no bus parked when I showed up at 525, which is really unusual. The buses are normally on time in Nicaragua. As I was waiting, a taxi driver came up and told me that I had missed the last bus to Leon. It had left at 520, but he would be happy to take m where ever I needed to go. I immediately called Salvadore, who assured me there would be a bus at 6 and one at 630. However, as I waited, more and more people came up to me to tell me that I had missed the last bus. Finally I went into a store and asked, and they confirmed also. I called Salvadore back, and he said he would drive me home since a taxi would be pretty expensive. I felt pretty dumb, but I guess I know now when the last bus leaves.

Monday, June 4, 2012- My Host Family

Today was a pretty big day. We had a staff meeting this morning and went over the week’s plans. During the meeting, Alvaro mentioned that my new host family would be at the office at 10am to talk (it was 9am at the time). I was nowhere near ready to go. In fact, I had washed all my clothes and the only things that were dry were what I was wearing. Luckily, they just talked with Alvaro and left to run errands.

After the meeting, I started to get my stuff together for my first experiment. I went to the store and bought two identical pots, which were very hard to find. Then, I found the thermocouple and tape measure I would be using. I also gathered a night’s worth of stuff in case I ended up staying the night. I got on the bus to head to Sabana Larga around 3pm. It took about a half an hour to get there even though it is only 17km away.  

When I arrived, Dona Coco was waiting for me. She lives in the home with her husband, son, and mother in law. They have about 70 head of cattle, 50 chickens, and two pigs. They are pretty well off because they sell milk and fresh cheese every day in San Isidro. Since they only have two bedrooms, they made me a bedroom so I could have my own. They hung some sheets up in the living room that cordoned off about a quarter of the room. They also gave me a brand new full sized bed to sleep on. It was still in the plastic and everything.

Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3, 2012- Fishing and Relaxing

Saturday

I am going to throw the entire weekend together because I did not do much Sunday. Saturday I got up really early, so we could leave by 6am. But that’s actually kind of a lie. I was not expecting anyone to be at the office to pick us up on time (and we were up really late the night before), so I did not even set my alarm until 6am. However, it turned out to the one day that everyone arrived on time. Alvaro was even 10 minutes early, so Chris had to get me up. I ended up being the one that kept everyone waiting.

Then, we all drove up to Jinotega to the lake to go fishing. We got there a little before 10 because we went through Matagalpa to pick up one of Alvaro’s friends and also stopped to get some food to go. This time, I brought extra clothes and wore my swim suit. Chris and I both put on sunscreen too. The weather was a bit chilly and the sun really didn’t come out much. However, we considered ourselves lucky in that it really didn’t actually rain much. It only started really raining as we were leaving.

Cool picture of the clouds near the end of the day.

 I fished for most of the day. Milton brought along an extra spear gun, weight belt, and goggles for me to wear. However, the weight belt had 13lbs on it. With that much weight, I was unable to tread water. I could swim with it, but was also unable to swim with a gun in my hand. Therefore, I did not venture out in water that was much deeper than I was. A few times I ventured too far and was able to drop the gun and swim but only because the gun was attached to a string on a float, but I felt uncomfortable doing this. Subsequently, I did not catch (or even see) any fish. Milton caught a ton though.

Me fishing!

They told me I was a girl and therefore, would not be able to lift the fish so I did haha.

Better picture with all the fish.

We stayed on the lake from about 10 until 3 and then decided to head back since it was going to thunderstorm. They gutted all the fish while we were still there and everyone had to change into dry clothes. Since it was still daylight and it was raining, we asked some people in a random house near where we parked if we could change in their house. It was definitely an experience. We then took the long way home because there was a bridge that may have potentially been under water. We did not get back until late last night.

Sunday

Since I have been up late (and up early) every day this week and weekend, I decided to be lazy today. I have just caught up on some stuff and watched some online television. Chris and I both had laundry to do (all of our laundry). However, there isn’t room for everything on the string outside. He did all of his because he had dumped his all in water. I could then only do my towel (which smelled), my clothes from yesterday (also smelly), and something to wear tomorrow. Then, tomorrow morning I will finish up my laundry. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate.

Friday, June 1, 2012- Fluid Mechanics

I can’t believe that it is already June and half the year has already gone by. It is really crazy to think about. Today, I did a lot of stuff, but it is really boring to talk about. The main thing is that I worked on, essentially, a fluid mechanics problem for most of the day. I actually took my fluid mechanics class to fulfill my requirement for engineering. I am proud to say that I got an A. However, a real world problem is a lot harder for me to think through. I was also trying to talk out what my reasoning was with Dennis and Walter in Spanish, but my vocabulary is still very limited. Needless to say, it was a bit difficult. The reason I need to solve this fluids mechanics problem is to know how much gas (volume) is in the biodigester before and after my water boiling test while only knowing pressure and some basic measurements of the PVC. Physically measuring the digester will be much too inaccurate for what I am hoping to accomplish.

Since this ends week three of my ten week stay in Nicaragua, I think it’s a good time to reflect on this week.

1.       Hot showers are a nice luxury that I definitely took for granted in the US and sorely miss now.

2.       I need to wear bug spray during the day. I do not feel bugs biting me, but my legs are a disaster and definitely have new bites every day.

3.       I need to look up technical words before I enter into a technical conversation. It would make things go much smoother, and I would be able to anticipate what words I need to use. I also need to get better at using my little notebook for writing new words every day, so I can continue to expand my vocabulary, especially verbs.

4.       I also realized that I only have a weeks’ worth of clothes. I really wish I would have brought more shirts to wear. I am definitely learning how to be a better packer.