June 10, 2009
So it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. I’ll have to see if I can remember everything!
Last weekend we stayed in Sabana Grande. I ended up going to mass three times. Mother’s Day was still being celebrated and I like going to their little fiestas. It was just mass and then coffee and snacks afterwards, but I know a lot of the people who go to mass there so it was fun. But I went once on Saturday and twice on Sunday, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Otherwise I just hung around, read a lot (as usual) and even watched a movie or two on my laptop. On Saturday for a few hours in the afternoon Nathan and I went for a long walk into Santo Domingo, which is the village just on the other side of the highway from us (the side of the highway that the Solar Center is actually located on). I was awed by going someplace new that I had never been before and seeing what it was like. It was definitely beautiful, and quite different from Sabana Grande – more lush and secluded. Very far into our walk, however, we still encountered Nathan’s sister-in-law at a church there… she must go a long, long ways for mass every week!
The week was a pretty productive week. On Monday I built my first tropical-style hut with the palm roof. This is a casita by the road in front of the Solar Center and is meant to be a stand for the women to make refreshments and sell to passers by. This will serve as an excellent marketing tool for the solar restaurant in the works, as well as even generate some funds towards it and/or pocket money for the women. On Tuesday I spent most of the day making a sign for the casita, as well as renovating (repainting and rewriting) the other signs for the Solar Center.
Wednesday was Gringo Wednesday, where I go into town and have lunch with some other American workers in Ocotal. I met Allison randomly in the internet café several weeks ago, and so of course we said hi, and then we made plans to have lunch on a Wednesday. After that, we said we would have lunch next Wednesday, and then after that, lunch the next Wednesday. Now Wednesdays are Gringo Wednesdays, and Nathan, David and Allison’s new roommate, Jessica, sometimes join us. We have since become close friends and we end up doing other things together as well. They have come to the Solar Center to visit and will likely come again very soon, and we are all making plans (including Tim and Jim in Managua, and Erin and Maria when they come) to go to Granada together. We are excited, it will be a blast!
So anyway, Wednesday is my Ocotal day of the week now, where I do my shopping and internet. It works out well because there is always something that I need from Ocotal for work, and emails to check and send for work also.
While I have been testing the autoclave every day (Wednesday it was administered by Nathan who did not go into Ocotal), Thursday and Friday were solely autoclave days in which I set up a new test, cleaned the box cookers, uploaded data, began the new testing, and so on. Several times now we have achieved very high temperatures, and on one cloudless day we easily achieved the temperature we needed for the amount of time that we needed. It just went to show that this is doable, so long as the weather cooperates. Here in the rainy season we will have some more trouble, but I am confident that this would work well in their summer (our winter). Among the new testing I am doing includes pressure testing, so I am essentially testing the entire system now. The results and progress have been exciting, although the weather forecast for the next few months is bleak.
Once again Nathan and I stayed around in Sabana Grande this past weekend. Saturday we had some time to kill, so we ended up going to Ocotal for the day, mostly because we had heard that there was a carnival going on. While there was a carnival, it turned out that it wasn’t operating until that evening, so we ended up just milling around and getting lunch. When we got back I relaxed and played some volleyball and cards with my family and neighbors. I have a new card-buddy that joins me when Skarleth is not around: Wendy, the 13-year old girl next door. Her mother is part of Las Mujeras Solares, and she is another cute, very smart girl in the area. She understands all the games that I teach her that most others here do not.
Sunday I went to mass again. I talked with my friend, Catherine (a native), after mass and she said that she is playing with her soccer team on Friday and that I should check it out. I had no idea that Sabana Grande had a women’s team too! I definitely plan to see that this weekend. She also told me there is a fiesta (another high school dance?) in Totogalpa this weekend, which I also plan to go with her to. In the afternoon, after lunch, I walked with Maricela (a 20-year-old-or-so who used to work at the Solar Center) to see the caves in the mountains. Once again, I had no idea there were caves here! She was telling me that people used to, and still do, come here to the springs to do laundry and bathe. In fact, as we were leaving to head back to the village, we passed by Nathan’s sister who had a bucket with a towel and soap in it, and she was on her way to the spring to bathe. Crazy!
Finally, this week has rolled around and I am continuing the autoclave testing. I have also found a new project that I will work on. This is a big one and may take me through my time here, alongside the testing. I will be working on using EVA instead of silicon to make the solar panels here, which could save Centro Solar a lot of money if I can make it work. This is a project started by Richard Komp (who basically invented solar energy) a little while ago, that one volunteer tried to pick up but couldn’t quite get it, and that I am going to pick up and give a shot.
Two new volunteers have arrived this Monday: Cody, who has been here 4 times previously, and Maria who is from Greece. They both will be working on the SEED grant that the Las Mujeras Solares were awarded last year, basically working with the women to get things moving and splitting the money, and so on. Nathan and I are excited for Erin and Maria, the other ETHOS students from University of Dayton, to come this weekend. It will be fun having them around. Then the weekend after, Tim and Jim are going to come visit from Managua, so we will finally all be together!
This morning I carried water on my head from the well to the house for the first time. I had to try to balance it, and I spilled about a 1/3 of it on the way, but I did it! Sometimes I don´t understand how the women do it, but then again they´ve been trained since they were little. I have lots of pics of me doing this (as well as everythign else I´ve talked about, I swear!), but I cannot upload them on this computer because it takes an unnaturally long time that I don´t know if it would ever finish.
Whew! That’s a lot in one blog. Well, it is Wednesday, and it is now about lunch time, so you know what that means… Gringo Wednesday. Hasta la proxima vez,
-Daniel!
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