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.

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.