July 16-17: Biodigester Project with Peace Corps

On Monday, we had our weekly planning meeting as usual, which was quite uneventful. Tuesday was a lot more interesting because I went with Walther, Alvaro, and Greg to arrange a large biodigestor project in the country outside of the city of Dario. The project is being organized by a Peace Corps volunteer, Frank. The project is going to fund 14 families to receive subsidized biodigestors. This way, they only pay $40 of the approximate $150 price.

The project is very interesting. This particular village is primarily involved in pig production instead of cow production. Everyone has a half a dozen pigs or more in their back yard. This also makes for some engineering challenges. Some people did not have a back yard big enough to hold the hole required for the biodigestor. In the case of one family, they need to remove a latrine in order to make room. However, it is a type of latrine that was gifted to nearly all the residents of this village. They are very nice looking, but no one really uses them since they still have space inside their old latrines. This is why giving stuff away for free doesn’t really work that well. In the case of another women, her entire yard is a large concrete pen to house her dozen pigs. There is nowhere to dig a hole. She was very upset about this, however, so we are working on a design for an above ground biodigestor supported by concrete walls.

It was a really long day of talking to families about the requirements for the project and the specifics about the hole that they needed to dig before EOS could install their biodigestor. It went quite well though. I had a great discussion with Walther about the differences in schooling between the two countries as well as some specifics about the design of the biodigestor and the stove that goes with it since he is the one who makes the stoves. We discussed a new design for the stoves in order to improve the efficiency, and it is going to be implemented in this project.

Alvaro talking to a group of beneficiaries about the hole requirements.

Future home of a biodigestor

Pig that will be providing manure for the biodigestor trying to keep cool.

July 14-15: Weekend in Masaya INSIDE a volcano

Saturday

Saturday I got up around 9 to find people working already. I had a really hard getting going since I had a little too much fun after the family dinner and was feeling a little sick to my stomach. Of course everyone in the office found it amusing, especially since women in Nicaragua do not drink. People also don’t drink socially here. It is only for the purpose of getting drunk, so only alcoholics drink essentially. The culture is very different here. However, our night was definitely a social event on our front porch.

Around 2:30, Greg, Chris, and I caught a bus to head south to go to Masaya for the weekend. The bus was packed when we got on it. It was a 2 hour ride. A man ended up offering me a seat about halfway to Masaya, but the other two guys had to stand the whole way. I guess it pays to be female sometimes.

When we arrived in Masaya, we went to the Artisenal market. It is a huge flea market near the bus station with nearly every homemade item known to man. It is renowned in Nicaragua. I bought a few things and practiced my bartering even. Then, we grabbed a taxi to head to our hostel, which was located inside the crater of an extinct volcano. The crater is now filled with water.

Our hostel was actually overbooked, but they honored our reservations. Therefore, I ended up with a private room instead of sleeping in the dormitory for the same price ($10 per night). It has its own oscillating fan! Our hostel was right on the lake front. It had a floating dock, so we decided to go swimming before it got dark. The water was crystal clear, really deep, and hot. It was awesome. We watched the sun go down over the crater from the floating dock and then swam back to get some dinner. The hostel was so relaxing that I went to bed at 9pm.

Floating dock in the crater



Our hostel

Sunday

Since everyone went to bed so early, we all got up really early to go kayaking on the lake, which was included in the price of our rooms. Greg and I shared a double and Chris had a single because the hostel didn’t have 3 singles. It was really difficult to get into the swing of paddling without hitting each other or going sideways. We kayaked for a good hour and felt that we had made it to the middle of the crater before deciding to head back.

After kayaking

We then had some breakfast and relaxed on the beach. We had plans to meet up with Salvador, an EOS technician, in Masaya later during the day. We left around 11 to head back to town. We grabbed lunch at a really delicious pizza place near the square where Salvador eventually met us. It turns out he was with his nephew on a school trip. Its intention was to raise money for his 6^th grade graduation. We walked back to the market downtown, which is geared more toward foreigners and is therefore more expensive than the “real” one from Saturday.

While we were waiting for the rest of the group to finish their shopping, we took a horse drawn carriage taxi around downtown for a mini tour. It was really great until we went to pay him. Before we got into the carriage, we had agreed upon 50Cordobas total, which equals 10Cordobas per person. However, at the end of the ride, the driver claimed it was 50Cordobas per person. This happens quite a bit, especially with foreigners. Salvador argued with him a little bit, but there wasn’t much we could do but pay it. Granted, it equals only about $2 USD, but in Nicaragua is quite a bit and it’s the principle of the matter.

Horse drawn carriage

After the market, we took a bus to a mirador near Masaya. It is basically a vantage point. It showed the Laguna de Apoyo, which is the lake and crater that our hostel was located on. It was great to actually see the whole thing and realize how large it is. Greg and I now think we did not make it to the middle of the lake in the kayak. We walked around took in everything. It was great. We then rode with the group back to San Isidro. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

View of crater and lake from the mirador

July 10-13: Nicaraguan Hospitality

I apologize for my laziness at updating my blog lately. I have been pretty busy, but I am going to try much harder to update it every few days. I only have a little time left and a lot left to do. I want to keep everyone updated.

Tuesday

Since Monday was so crazy with everyone being in Managua and running errands, the weekly planning meeting was pushed back to Tuesday. The whole team planned for the week in the morning and then was on their own for the afternoon. I ended up being pretty unproductive because I had to unpack from the weekend trip and repack to go back to the host family for the week. I hate bringing four days’ worth of dirty clothes back for my host mom to wash. Therefore, I strategically picked out the articles of clothing that would be the most difficult for me to wash (like jeans and shirts with stains) to take back. They are much more skilled at washing clothes by hand than I am. I have already decided that most of my clothes will not be making the journey back to the US due to my poor washing skills.

Wednesday

I finally completed my final biodigestor stove test after nearly 6 weeks! There were only three but with so many “learning experiences” (ie failures), it took MUCH longer than what I had expected. However, I am happy with the data that I have gotten out of the tests. I have only done the simple calculations, but I believe I have been successful. I had to make so many alterations to the standard testing procedure that my results will never be accepted into a scientific journal (such as using a lid on the pot), but the data is definitely good enough to be used for grants and promotion for EOS after more analysis has been run. This is the real goal of the team here, so I am incredibly happy to have success in the end!

Thursday

This was a day that ended up getting away from me. I got up in the morning and helped my host family make tortillas in the morning. It is actually very difficult. They mill the corn to make a flour and make a dough from it. Then, without ever measuring, manage tto pull out the exact amount of dough to make a perfectly sized tortilla. Then, they use their hands to form the round flat shape, which I found to be very difficult. I made three. The first was a disaster and my host mom totally re-did it for me. The second one was better but the amount of dough was not consistent across it, so she had to fix it so it would cook evenly. The third one was better but the edges had to be cleaned up. I chatted with a lot of the employees quite a bit about their families, Nicaragua, etc., so I didn’t actually get a lot accomplished. I learned a lot about a lot of different topics but have nothing tangible to show.

Friday

Friday was a pretty big day for me. I completed my final wood stove test in the morning. It went very smoothly with very little smoke like last time. I also walked away with no burns and having inhaled very little smoke. My host family said I did a much better job with handling the fire. It really takes experience. Even though I have been around camp fires and such and understand fire, it means nearly nothing. Wood stoves are very difficult to work with, and I have a lot of respect for all the women all around the world who have to work with one every day. I should also add that I never actually started the fire due since I wanted consistency in the results. I had to handle and weigh hot coals and burning wood at several points during the test. It creates a lot of excess smoke and makes it difficult to see and breath.

There was a death in my host family early in the week. In the Nicaraguan Catholic culture there is a ten day wake culminating in a celebration of life “party”. I was unable to determine exactly who in the family died. It was a distant relative, but they lived in Sabana Larga, where most of the town is related. The death put me in an awkward position. My family was participating in church services every day, and since there were a lot of people coming and going through the house every day in order to carry the cross and candles from my family’s home alter to the church in the morning and night. It is kind of like a parade where everyone sings while carrying everything. It is awkward because my family is not used to having a foreigner in their house, and I felt like a gawker.

Therefore, since I finished my testing and had already overstayed my intended 4 weeks by at least 2 weeks, I told my family I would be moving back to the office. What I did not was how upset my host mother became by this. She started to cry and didn’t want me leave. She told me that they would keep my room and bed, so that I could come back whenever I wanted to stay the night. Then, when I attempted to pay her (since she had cooked for me every day, provided me with my own room, and done my laundry), she downright refused. Only when I told her how important it was to me did she finally take it.

The whole thing was very emotional. I was also crying and second guessing my decision. I thought that they would be somewhat relieved to see me go since they were so busy, and even though I try, I am zero help. I had also well overstayed my intended 4 weeks there. It really made me realize how deep Nicaraguan hospitality goes. I was always given the most amount of food even though I told them there was no way I could finish it all. They also always gave me the best cuts of meat and fresh fruit drinks. Greg had a great analogy.

In the United States, if I showed up at someone’s house to get ready to go to a party, but didn’t have anything to wear; I would be given a shirt that my friend barely wears. However, in Nicaragua, I would be given their best shirt. They would want me to show up in their best shirt; probably the one that they were going to wear.

After a very tearful goodbye, with promises to visit before I leave, I grabbed a bus for San Isidro. All I did was enter data into my computer for the final water boiling test. Then, we threw together a “family dinner” of sorts. Denis (with a little help from me) made some pasta with sauce made from tomatoes, ketchup, and random spice with some boiled eggs stuffed with guacamole. We also had some cooked banana on the side. For $2 (it was the food we had laying around in the kitchen), the dinner fed the 8 people who were still in the office at around 7pm. It was really great.

The Weekend of July 6-9 in Leon

Saturday

On Saturday, all of us (Greg, Chris and Tracy, Chris, and I) travelled to the city of Leon for the weekend to have some fun. We arrived around 2:30pm and immediately grabbed some lunch near the market where we got off the bus. I had some fried shrimp and was very satisfied. Then, we walked quite a distance to the hostel where we wanted to stay, which was located near the Central Park.

Our hostel was only $8 per night for a dorm bed. It came with bedding and access to nice bathrooms, a pool, pool tables, wifi, and some other amenities. It was pretty quiet and laid back, which I really liked. After we arrived, everyone but Greg decided to go check out the main cathedral in the central park. It is where Ruben Dario (a really famous poet in Nicaragua) has his tomb. It took over 65 years to build and is nearly 200 years old. It has World Heritage Site status.

Then we toured a museum dedicated to the revolution in Nicaragua. Our tour guide had actually fought in the war and gave a great quote: “War is good because you are liberating your country but war is bad because you are killing your countrymen.” He gave a really great history of the revolution from the early 1900’s until about 1980. We were also able to go onto the roof of the museum, which used to be a courthouse. It is relatively tall and was actually used for snipers during the revolution.

View from sniper roof.

Inside the museum

After the tour, we met back up with Greg and had a great dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant across the street from our hostel. It served some great pizza, appetizers, and drinks.

Sunday

On Sunday, we all got up relatively early, so we could go volcano boarding. We walked to a nearby hostel that runs tours and signed up for the 9am session. At 9am, we were all in the back of a truck with people the UK, Israel, Germany, and the US heading to the volcano called Cerro Negro. It was about an hour away.

Cerro Negro (the front face)

The climb up was pretty short because the volcano itself is only slightly more than 700m. It is the most active volcano in Central America and the youngest in the world. In fact, it is getting quite hot and is due for an eruption soon. It currently has spots where sulfur is emitted in the cone. Due to the wind direction and the way the volcano erupts, the front part of the cone has only “black powder”. All of the large rocks are forced to the backside by wind while the lava comes out of cracks in the base.

At the base

Sulfur in the cone.

Once we reached the top, everyone put on a bright orange jumpsuit and some goggles. After a quick lesson on how to steer and brake our plywood sleds, we were ready to go. Our guide insisted that the females go down first. The Israeli girls refused to entertain the idea of going first, so that left Tracy and I.

She was pushed off first and I followed about 30 seconds later. I thought things were going really well until the board started to go sideways, and I realized I was going to crash. It started to roll. I got the breath knocked out of me and ended up having to climb quite a ways back up the volcano to retrieve my board. It was like snow. My feet sunk in and it would just give way. It was really hard work. I remounted the board and took off again. Just before I hit the 45 degree drop off, the board slid sideways again and I rolled. However, this time I held onto the board, so I wouldn’t have to retrieve it. I hit my head, but it wasn’t that bad. I remounted and was able to finish at 32kph, which is about 20mph. It’s really not that great, but I feel content considering I am confident I wiped out the first time at a much higher speed than this. Greg hit 57kph, which is 35 mph after taking a nasty fall also.

After I finished with my board

Greg coming down

Greg after the fact.

After everyone finished, we took the truck back to the hostel where we started. As a part of our tour fee, we were given two mojitos as a job well done. Then we went back to our own hostel to shower since we were covered in volcanic ash and rock. Then, we went out and checked out a little of the night life and grabbed dinner before calling it a night.

Monday

We got up pretty early to catch a 7:15 microbus to Managua on Monday morning. The intention was to meet Alvaro for a meeting, and then take Chris and Tracy to the airport. However, it did not work out this way. Instead, we spent about two hours in the airport waiting. By the time Alvaro arrived, we could not take them to the meeting with us and instead just said our goodbyes.

We then figured out that the meeting was cancelled and started to make our way out of Managua. This was easier said than done because there was a huge demonstration of some sort that had stopped traffic completely on the Pan American Highway. While we were trying to get through, I even saw a guy with a small mortar gun wearing a bandana over his face. It was kind of scary. Luckily we had 4 wheel drive and could just drive off the road and go around.

We ran a few errands in Dario and Sebaco, which took most of the day, so we didn’t get back to the office until around 5. It was too late to go back to my host family’s home at that point, so I just stayed in the office. Plus, my foot was swollen and bruised from volcano boarding and I had popped a huge blister, so I needed to take the time to really clean it up well.

July 2 to July 6

I apologize for not updating my blog very often. I am thinking that biweekly updates may be the way to go, but I think it will depend on the activities. I really should have updated this before now because I have done a lot this week, but I have been on the go and haven’t had much time. Please excuse the lengthiness of this post.

Monday

Today we had a pretty long planning meeting in order to prepare for the arrival of EOS co-director Greg McGrath, who will be in Nicaragua basically for the next six months. Coming with him, was a member of the board of directors, Chris Deal and his wife Tracey. The meeting was trying to fill their week with technology installs and activities to keep them busy.

After the meeting, I wrote two proposals for a new project that I would be starting. One was in English and one was in Spanish. I also went to Sebaco with Brittany because I needed balloons for my new project and I also needed to go to the bank. She had to buy some new stuff for her new house. I returned to my host family’s home after that.

Tuesday

I got up and completed a wood stove water boiling test even though I was sick with a bad cold. The stove seemed to produce more smoke than fire and only made me feel worse. I ended up burning myself too. I do not envy the women here who have to use those stoves on a daily basis. Then, for the rest of the day, I revised my new project proposals and cleaned a little bit as the three new guests would be arriving. I ended up having to leave to go home before they got to the office though.

Wednesday

I helped to milk cows at 4am with the rest of the family. I was incredibly difficult, and I was unable to get the hang of it. I am glad I have the experience now because it is very different than in the US. The cows they use are also not for milk. It is a breed known as a Brahman. They are good for beef and can be used for milk because their milk production does not decrease with intense heat. They produce, at most, 1.5 liters of milk and are only milked once per day. That is quite low compared to a Holstein in the US that can produce up to 30 liters a day. However, if left to nature, they would only be producing 3-4 liters per day.

After milking, I laid down for a while because I was still feeling sick and had not slept well due to my cold. Then, I got ready and went to the office for a little bit to meet everyone and join in the next planning meeting about the rest of the week. After the meeting, I then met with Salvador and Alvaro about my new project and it was agreed that I would start Thursday.

Since the group would be going to my host family’s house to look at the biodigester and improved oven in the afternoon, I decided to go home around noon. I was still not feeling well, so I laid in the hammock until they arrived. We looked at the farm, the biodigester, the old and new baking oven they have, and talked quite a bit with my host mom. She was very willing to explain everything and give her thoughts on the technologies and impacts. It was a really great visit.

Since it was the 4^th of July, the people at the office had something planned for a celebration, so I decided to stay in the office for the night. I am glad I did. There was great food and the mariachi band even came. The mayor and vice mayor from La Trinidad also came to have some drinks and to enjoy the celebration. We did not get to bed until incredibly late. It was well after 1 by the time everyone left and everyone was going to sleep.

Thursday

Even though we all went to bed really late, everyone still had to be up before 6. I went back to my host family’s house to do a biodigester test and everyone else was going to do an oven install. I started the test, but it didn’t end up being successful because it was too windy. Therefore, I still have two tests left: one for each type of stove.

I then went back to the office once again to start my new project. The manure was “delivered”, but due to a breakdown in communication, I was short on a couple of materials. Instead, I organized everything I was going to need for the test and discussed some more things with Alvaro.

At 4, the people remaining in the office left for La Trinidad. We had been invited to dinner by the Mayor and Vice Mayor. It was a really cute bar/restaurant that was out in the country, and it had really great food. We were there for quite a while. After we ate, the lack of sleep really hit me. We ended up getting back around 11, and I went to bed at 12:30.

Friday

I feel bad for Chris, Tracey, and Greg who after getting back so late had to be up at 3:30 to do another technology install. I slept in until around 7:30 and then got up to get my project together. There are two main goals of my project. They are to see what materials, if any, have the potential to increase gas production in a biodigester. The other goal is make sure that these materials will break down in a biodigester.

I do not want to hurt someone’s biodigester, so I am using 5 gallon buckets to simulate a biodigester. Inside the bucket there is a mixture of half cow manure and half water, just like there would be in a current biodigester. However, in 5 of the 6 buckets, there is also another material. In one there is cheese whey. In another grass and weeds, and there is also coffee, rice, and beans. Every bucket is mixed well and a tight fitting lid is put on them. A tube is then put into the top of the lid. This is where any gas will escape. At the other end of the tube is a balloon, so gas production can be visualized and eventually measured. After 3 weeks, the buckets will be opened and the buckets will be strained to see what materials have not decomposed.

Using a roofing tile to redistribute manure.

Stirring the manure and water mixture.

Bianny helping me while I seal the tubing with duct tape.

Adding cheese whey to a bucket.

Closeup

Me with my buckets

June 25-July 1- My Week w/ David in the Campo

On Monday David travelled from Leon to attend our weekly planning meeting. He had attended the World Congress on Biodigesters held in Managua at the beginning of May and gave a report to the rest of the EOS team. After the meeting and finishing up a couple of things, I travelled with him back to his house for the week in order to do a water boiling test with his stove and to complete a survey of some of the beneficiaries of the biodigesters in the area.

He lives in the San Antonio Valley near the city of El Sauce. It is very rural. They do not have electricity yet, so if families want power, they need to use batteries and solar panels. There is no running water so I had to use an outdoor shower and latrine again. There was actually no cell service either. It was a great week for reflection and speaking nothing but Spanish.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday were the same for me. I hung around the house in the morning because David had work and their two kids had school. This meant that Rosa, his wife, had to be home in order to work at their little store at the front of their house. Then, once the kids came home around noon, their eleven year old daughter Kimberlee could run the store for the afternoon. Therefore, Rosa went with me both days to conduct interviews in the afternoon about the biodigesters. On Wednesday, I also did my first stove test. The reason I am doing a test on David’s stove is because he was willing to hook up an “artisanal” stove to his digester. It is a homemade stove that EOS promotes. It is cheaper than a store bought stove but it is not very nice looking. It is just a metal pipe with some rebar around it to support a pot.

On Thursday, I was able to do an entire day of interviews because the kids did not have school. I also attended a women’s empowerment meeting with Rosa. Friday, I conducted my last two stove tests and also helped David make a tortilla maker, and Saturday I made my way back to San Isidro. Throughout the week, I also helped Rosa cook and helped David with fruit plants. I also had some great conversations with David about his experiences with biodigesters and technologies in general. He is a very smart man who has a lot of experience and knowledge about a lot of different things. He also likes to invent things, like the tortilla maker.

I have not had time to actually process the survey information but there were a couple of patterns that really stuck out. The first is that everyone loves their biodigester, even if it was malfunctioning at the time. They only had good things to say. They have recognized how much it has improved their lives by using less wood and inhaling less smoke. They also love the extra time they have now that they do not have to spend time trying to light wet wood. The second pattern is that people only use cow manure. They would not even consider using any other type. The third pattern is that everyone seemed to have a slightly different management protocol. Some families only added a bucket of manure every two weeks while others were adding manure almost every day.

I am looking forward to processing the information from the surveys and then figuring out additional patterns, strengths, and weaknesses of the biodigester as is and potentially thinking of ways to improve it using the data from my water boiling tests. Things are really starting to come together!

Purifying water for me to drink using a solar oven.

Tortilla maker that David made that forms tortillas instead of doing it by hand.

The latrine which has no roof or door in the middle of a horse field.

David's biodigester.

June 23 and 24-The Survey

Saturday I went into the office for the whole day for a meeting with Dennis about my biodigester survey. He helped me reword questions, so that they would make sense to people living in the campo who may not have graduated high school. He also helped me organize my thoughts and really focus on my goals about what I wanted to get out of the survey. It has basic questions about how often they use their biodigester gas stove, if it has had problems, if they want to improve it, how they maintain their biodigester, and some general feelings about the biodigester in general.

Sunday I completed another biodigester stove test with my family in Sabana Larga. I also wrote up some ideas that I have about a new project idea and packed for my week in the department of Leon with the technician David. He is an expert on biodigesters and there are approximately 20 biodigesters in his community.