Archive for the ‘’ Category
June 17, 2008
By Diana Rosetti, CantonRep.com
Leaving for college, Lori Hanna had a focus on math and science along with a desire to make a difference in the world.
Less than four years later, that trio of interests coalesced into the Wadsworth native’s refinement of a solar-powered autoclave providing a way for third-world communities lacking electricity to sterilize surgical instruments. The development will allow rural surgeons with limited surgical tools to perform more operations instead of turning away the needy for want of sterile equipment.
June 12, 2008
We have finished the construction of the solar cooker! As I write, Pete is back in Sabana Grande, dutifully painting the thing blue. (I´ve asked why it´s blue and not black, and apparently it just has to do with the fact that blue and white are Nicaragua´s colors. But that´s ok, blue is pretty good). Our special cooker has a 10-inch clearance on the inside, rather than the usual 6 or so. This allows for several things, such as a stand for the pressure-vessel and instruments, or simply a pressure cooker. The focal point of the Fresnel lens is at about 7.16¨, so this allows for that too. Anyway, a big thanks to CJ and Peter for helping me so much with construction, and to Anna for doing most of the painting. It has turned out quite excellently, and everything fits like a dream.
I have found that I am quite the carpenter, and also that I am capable of working a lot. I have worked pretty hard, with few breaks, and even overtime, to try and get stuff done. Even when it come to other projects, such as digging the ditch, I found myself saying ¨Let´s do it right the first time so that we don´t have to do it right the second time,¨on at least 3 separate occasions. I´ve turned into my father. There must be something in the food here.
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June 11, 2008
After a full weekend of work in Managua, it is comfortable to be back in Sabana Grande. Finishing the grant for the SEED award for Las Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa was a team effort all weekend long. I worked along side of Susan Kinne, the director of Grupo Fenix, to combined all of the bits and pieces for submission of the grant Monday morning. We worked in the office of another affliated organization, Suni Solar, where fellow UD grad Vince Romanin is volunteering this summer. Suni is a company that provides Photovoltaic Panels for organizations in rural parts of Nicaragua that are not connected to the electric grid. They work with approximately 40 different clients per month and in a market of 300,000 rural homes without elextricity, they are developing a marketing plan to grow this number over the next year. Suni works directly with Microfinance Institutions who are providing small loans for entrepreneurs in rural areas of Nicaragua. The PV installations are a great investment for these companies.
While Managua was full of work, I really enjoyed the people that I was working with. Douglas, the Operations Manager of Suni Solar, provided Market Analysis insight for their company as well as a supply of caffine and good company. Susan, Katherine, and other past volunteers from Grupo Fenix dedicated a great amount of time to making sure this grant was submitted on time, phew!! Also, the hospitality of the Sisters from Mexico who were hosting me for the weekend. Ice cream after lunch three days in a row… can´t beat that!
This week in Sabana Grande has been a break from inside computer work. I have been able to help with various projects around the Solar Center, including the completion of the solar autoclave! Yesterday was painting day and this afternoon Dan and CJ were finishing the brilliant blue solar autoclave. Tada! Dan is really looking forward to finishing this so he can begin the testing of the sterilization, just in time for Lori to get here on the 18th, Wednesday of next week!
- Anna
June 8, 2008
Another half-week has come and gone. Unfortunately, I am not finished constructing the autoclave yet. Classes take up much of the morning, there are usually a few meetings in the afternoon, and the center (where we work) closes in the evenings and on weekends. We are close, though. We have created the frame, put in the installation, and attached the reflective material. So, essentially, the main part of the body is done. There is still much to do, however.
Tons of other progress has been made in its place. Friday, I was not able to work on construction because we were all asked to help dig a ditch behind the solar center. When it rains, which is a lot for a few hours every day, a large ¨river¨tends to form right next to the center, ruining some of the gardens. To combat this, we dug a very large, very deep ditch that diverts the water into a natural runoff. It was a long, hot day of difficult work. But, no sooner than were we done digging the last little bit of it than did it start to rain, and rain hard. We ran for cover under an overhang of the center, and then just sat outside because there was nowhere else to go. So we chatted and watched the rain. After about 5 minutes, Matt went to investigate our ditch, and yells ¨whoah!¨. We all went to check, and, sure enough, a very large, fast, strong river had formed in our ditch and was flowing exactly where we wanted it to go, and was diverting the water exactly where we wanted it to stay away from. We whooped and hollered around in the rain for awhile, and the girls next door were watching us crazy gringos. What can we say, it was a long day.
It was a success, and now my back hurts.
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June 8, 2008
After two weeks of living in Sabana Grande, among the beautiful mountains of Northern Nicaragua, I made the trip back to the capit
al city of Managua. I traveled with Mauro Perez, who works within the PV Workshop of The Solar Center, on the 4 hour bus ride. Sitting in the front of the noisy school bus with R&B music in Espanol blaring from the speakers was not conducive to conversations. Especially with my still developing ear for understanding Spanish. Which by the way, has improved drastically. Or maybe everyone else is becoming more accustomed to speaking with me. Either way, the daily spanish classes are helping. I´m really enjoying learning how to put all of words together and create a coherent sentences during conversation, rather than aimlessly piecing words. Poco a poco…
The past two days I have been in Managua working with others from around the world who are deeply involved with the grant writing process for the SEED Award. The final information for the grant must be submitted Monday morning. Without going into too much detail, below is the mission statement of the business plan for the Solar Women of Totogalpa (SWT),
To operate a Solar Center that fabricates and sells solar energy products and services in order to generate employment in the immediate community and satisfy the needs of its clients, and that provides educational opportunities for all people interested in understanding and using solar energy technologies.
June 4, 2008
All the people seem to love and hate
Everybody makes the same mistakes
Divided by these walls
Together we are one
We are the same blood
Currently listening to: Same Blood
Artist: The Academy Is…
Current mood: reflective
Good news! I am finally getting a camera! It is arriving here with Lori when she comes to join us from the States on June 18th. (For those of you who don´t know, Lori is my fellow colleague and the Executive Director of Salud del Sol). I have not seen it, but apparently it is an Olympus, and this means that I will be able to take pictures and (hopefully) post them! I am sure that the content of the blog itself has been interesting enough, but I am also sure that it looks quite boring without pics, and for that I apologize.
Thank you all for at least checking in and leaving comments. Know that I do read them and appreciate them, and they always make a day brighter by letting me know people are thinking of me. Facebook posts work too. Peace to you all, congratulations to those who are graduating, and good luck staying dry.
- Daniel
June 4, 2008
The conference session on Monday was very interesting. It consisted of three parts. The first was a presentation of three finalist universities competing for a large grant from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation (JRCPF). These community service-learning projects were very interesting and inspiring to hear about. California had a project called “Tutor Connection” for foster children, Georgia had CAD–Computer Assisted Debate program for at-risk students, and Oregon had a Portland Community Watershed Stewardship Program. The winner, Oregon, was announced yesterday.
The second part of the conference was about us students–the CASE grant winners. CASE stands for Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur, and these are $1000 grants to promote community service-learning, sponsored by the JRCPF and the Kellog Foundation. They chose four winners to present… each showed YouTube videos (watch mine here), gave each two minutes to provide an update, then moderated a question and answer session. The other three students were Andrea Walker (watch her CASE grant project here), Mary Gossett (watch YouTube here), and Joseph Hamby (watch YouTube here). All of the projects were wonderful, and the energy in the audience was incredible. After the first two parts of the session, all in attendance could see how beneficial university-community service-learning projects can be.
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June 3, 2008
Yesterday, I got to present at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, Georgia. I presented in the second session yesterday, “University-Community Partnerships: A mutually beneficial alliance for students and community.” About 300 people attended, and all were very interested in the good that can be accomplished from university-community partnerships. The projects chosen to present were representative of the successes seen. More tomorrow–I’m still exhausted from my same-day arrival and departure flights!
June 2, 2008
Salud del Sol News
June 2, 2008 – Lori Hanna, Executive Director of Salud del Sol, presented the solar autoclave project at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, Georgia. The solar autoclave project was a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation CASE grant winner in January 2008 (see ServiceBook.org). Four such winners were invited to present during the conference’s second session on Monday, “University-Community Partnerships: A mutually beneficial alliance for students and community” at The Carter Center, moderated by Dr. Sue Sehgal, Foundation president and founder. See the link below for more information on the conference.
While there, each of the four students’ videos were presented (view Lori’s YouTube Video), followed by a short update by each student and a question and answer session. The presentations, questions, and answers were incredibly energetic, and many people are interested in the possibilities of cooperation between universities and communities. The opportunity helped to expand the network of Salud del Sol, as business and personal information was exchanged with many groups interested in helping with or learning from the evolution of the autoclave project. Visit the link below for more information on the CASE grants, service learning, and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation.
June 1, 2008
Once again, hey all!
So things are still going smooth here. The difference now is that everything is very wet. Hurricane Alma (meaning ¨soul¨) has come through and hit Managua pretty hard, the capital city about 3-and-a-half hours south of us. It rained pretty rough here for a while, and made everything quite muddy, but I was more concerned for Vince, who is staying in Managua. They recieved 20 inches of rain and had flash floods. Homes were destroyed and people displaced because of it. Coincidentally, I have not actually talked to Vince since then, but I am sure he is allright.
Hurricane Alma came at an exciting time: El Dia del Madre! Friday was Nicaraguan (Latin American?) 
Mother´s Day, and it is a huge deal. People here understand how much work the domesticas perform, and gladly show their appreciation. Wednesday afternoon, starting at 3, was a meeting of all the mothers and their families in the community at the Solar Center (see photo to the right). Or at least I expected a meeting. When I arrived in my work clothes, I was surprised to see every single one of them looking beautiful, all dressed up and formal. Concordantly, I borrowed a bike and, instead of making the 15-minute walk back to my house, sped there with haste, put on some nice clothes, and sped back to the center. Apparently I was to be a judge of a beauty competition for the mothers.
It was a fiesta! Children sang, danced, and shared stories, volunteers produced skits, and staff had the mothers play games. Then we announced the contest winners and all had a snack, and then the dancing begun. Of course, I couldn´t resist dancing. However, everytime I went to sit down or get a drink of water, one of the girls would pull me back up again. In the end, it was a blast, and went on until about 6:30 or so.
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