August 4, 2008
The past two weeks have been spent in a lot of thought. I was sick for a good part of it… hence, the lack of blogging. But don´t worry… it was just a really long fever and cough–I slept for four days straight–I didn´t even know that was possible!
I´ve had some good time spent with my host family. Heyling and I went on an excursion to Dipilto, where a holy site called La Virgin de La Piedra is. It was a beautiful area, frequented by many pilgrims. And I had so much fun riding in the back of pickup trucks and eating bananas and peanut butter with Anna, Pete, and Heyling! I also got to go to another Noches Segovianas in Ocotal with my family… Adelina, Heyling, and Alexandra came this time. We got dinner on the street, then watched the show. Alexandra was ecstatic, because she rarely gets to leave Sabana Grande.
We were at work one day, when a guy stopped at the Centro Solar on his bicycle. He was a year and 21 days into his bicycle trip from Alaska to Columbia, where he´s originally from. That´s right… 24,000 km into his trip. He goes 70 to 100 km a day, drinking 7 liters of water a day. When asked why he´s doing it, he said, ¨algunas personas tienen sueños, pero se quedan sueños,¨ or ¨some people have dreams, but they remain dreams,¨ but not his!
The Solar Culture Course arrived while I was sick, so I missed out on a lot of time with them. I did get to witness, or actually, just hear the reunion of Anna and her sister, Kelsey. Lots of squeals! The course participants are so great… really interesting people, from all walks of life. I have been able to join them in some activities. We all went to Somoto Canyon last Sunday, an amazingly beautiful place to hike and swim. During the week, we all took classes from Dr. Richard Komp, a solar energy expert from Maine who is a technical advisor to Grupo Fenix. He taught us all about his passive solar, off-the-grid house in Maine (which of course got me really excited!), followed by a lesson on photovoltaics. These classes were all-encompassing, providing information on everything from the sun to the Roman Empire!
Tuesday night was our Despedida party, as well as that of the course. It was the best despedida I´ve ever been to! It included lots of dances, songs, and games by gringos and Nicas alike. Jessica, Anna, and I really put ourselves out there with a dramatic interpretation of Total Eclipse of the Heart, which is a song also well-known in Spanish. Pete taught the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance–so fun! My sisters and others danced, we all ate, and the members of the community beautifully thanked all of us for our contributions.
Anna, Kelsey, and I spent two days in Managua. We had an amazing meeting on Friday with Onell Morales, his advisor chemistry professor, and three students from the UNI, as well as Richard and Susan. We outlined all of the current autoclave design choices, discussing all of them in technical detail and providing improvement suggestions. We made decisions as to the future, as well. The UNI students, as their theses, are going to work on the lunch tray model improvements, as well as adding reflectors to the pressure cooker model, and doing experiments on both. We´re going to stay in contact regarding progress in both Dayton and Managua.
Friday afternoon, we got a tour and meeting with the Jubilee House (http://www.jhc-cdca.org/jhc.html), a community development organization in Ciudad Sandino. Ciudad Sandino is a city full of people displaced from around Lake Managua by Hurricane Mitch. 15,000 people without homes or jobs, with sweatshops going up around it–strategically placed so as to force hopeless people to work there, and likely come out poorer than they started. We got to see the area, as well as a tour of their two clinics. We talked with their nurse and lab tech about their sterilization needs, and had a great overview of this amazing organization. We learned a lot, and Jubilee House is highly interested in helping us to test an autoclave prototype.
Saturday, we met with Will Burke, a guy who works with a women´s group in Nicaragua to sell their dried fruit in the U.S. It was really insightful, and encouraging for the work we´re doing, as well as for Las Mujeres Solares to be able to sell their dried fruit and even crafts sometime in the future.
I´m in Leon right now, waiting for a meeting later today with ProMujer, a microfinance institution that also provides some healthcare services. In the meantime, we spent the weekend on the beach Las Pañitas, soaking in the gorgeous rainbows, waves, and sunsets full of lightning. The estuary in front of our hostel acted as a fast-moving, winding river as the tide went out–fun to ride in and try to swim against. Highly recommended if you ever travel here… the hostel is called Barca de Oro.
If I don´t get a chance to write again before coming home, I hope that you all have a great week, and that I get to see you soon!
- Lori
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