Archive for the ‘’ Category
August 31, 2009
August 4, 2009
¡Buenas Días!
Just right off the bat here, I should warn you that I have had a pretty productive week with the autoclave, so this blog is bound to be pretty boring 
On the 27th, 22 elementary teachers arrived from California on a minibus packed to capacity and with a mountain of luggage on top. It looked like the sled from the Grinch after he steals all the presents and decorations. It was literally as if someone had dropped my elementary school into rural Nicaragua. And after they had settled in, it was even cuter. They were here as part of a Masters in Education class and worked with the students at Sabana Grande Elementary every morning on projects that related science and art. Because of this, they all wore nametags made of construction paper, hung around their necks with yarn, but they left them through lunch and all afternoon, when they had class at the Solar Center. Furthermore, whenever the professor wanted the attention of the group, she would clap out a pattern. The rest would repeat it, and then fall obediently silent. It makes me wonder what strange habits engineers carry into their personal lives. I guess I do carry a calculator in my purse…
On Friday, the teachers directed a “Sun Fair,” in which the kids sang songs and showed off to their parents what they learned all week. Each grade level presented a different project or song related to weather or energy. It was great. They sang “Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun” but it was called “Sol, Sol, Señor Sol Dorado” and “De Colores.” I cheered very loudly for my little sister Alexandra. After the younger kids performed, my older sister Vanessa and Luis Miguel, Donald and Maricela danced to one of the traditional Nicaraguan songs, all dressed up in beautiful silk outfits. Oh, I almost forgot! There was an absolute downpour all day. The irony was not lost on Adelina, who joked that I had better remember to wear my boots and raincoat to the Sun Fair.
Another good thing about having the teachers here for the week was the food. Typically, the volunteers walk a few kilometers to the house of one of the Mujeres Solares for lunch, which is always delicious. However, last week there were just too many of us to fit in one house, so fearless Dona Carmen and Dona Vidalia brought the food to us! It was like Thanksgiving every day at 1. Amazing. One day, Dona Carmen made pepper-crusted chicken in the solar oven that was so good that my mouth is actually watering just thinking about it. And speaking of cooking, I made something in my little solar oven yesterday! An egg, haha. But it was really good!
So you don’t get the impression that all I do is attend school plays and eat delicious food, I’ll say a little about the autoclave. All last week I did tests comparing the heating curves of the giant solar ovens and that of the Frankencooker. Looks like the Frankencooker heats up fast enough that it can take advantage of as little as an hour of sun, whereas the bigger ovens take up to 5 hours to heat up during days with variable sun. This week, I’m going to seal the insulated space to minimize the heat wasted by heating up the whole box as opposed to just the volume inside the parabolic.
So, things are going well down here. I’ve got a week and a half left, and if I didn’t miss all of you so much, I could stay for much longer. It’ll be really difficult to say goodbye to everyone, but also great to see my American family and friends again.
August 1, 2009
Holy cow, July flew by!
Picking up from last time….
Satrurday we went to the club, nothing to exciting there… Sunday we went to watch one of our Nicaraguan coworkers play baseball, then went to a place about a 1/2 hour bus ride away from here that has waterfalls and the water is said to be holy and very good for your health.
This whole week we had 20 elementary school teachers at the Solar Center. In the morning they would go and help at the school and then in the afternoon they would come to the Center. They had a lot of activities for them this week. We had a traditional Nicaraguan dance lesson for two songs.
This past week we also had a history lesson on Nicaragua. It is so interesting because they had a Civil War not that long ago. People in their 50´s fought in it. Like for us Vietnam was recent, but for Nicaragua, not only were the men affected by it, the wives and children were also involved because it was fought in their backyard!
Last night we also had a ´despedida´ -going away party- for the teachers and also for Edwin. Edwin is a Civil Engineer and lives in Sabana Grande and his contract at the Solar Center ended. He helped in the production of Solar panels, but now he wants to get back into Civil Engineering. They had many games to play and food to eat. It really was a lot of fun because most of the Solar Women and their families came. It was a great opportunity to hang out with everyone.
I am starting to have mixed feelings about the end of my trip. I have gotten to a point where I can kid around with everyone and have some really good friends here, volunteers and locals included. The guys that work at the Solar Center full time are basically like my big brothers. Thursday they were putting up a trellice type of thing to support some type of fruit trees they just planted. I was their little helper and I gave them wrenches and drills, it reminded me of home! A lot of the women will come up and rub your back and are super sweet and we are now comfortable with each other. A lot of the kids I can pretend fight with and joke around with. I walked home with my family last night from the party because it was dark and I held my little sister´s hand while we were walking. I really love the people here, they are very welcoming. Looking back on my first days until now, I am surprised that I have managed to have relationships with soo many people soo fast here. Even my Spanish has grown. I still do not understand everything by any means, but I am getting to the point that somedays I can actually have conversations and communicate with people. It is just kind of crazy, in retrospect, how fast time flew by! The first couple days seemed to be too long and now the weeks are feeling a little too short!
Today we are planning going to a patron saint festival near here. Tomorrow I am planning on going to church, watching a little baseball, and then go to town with my little sister and treating her to ice cream.
It should be a good weekend, but it will probably fly by once again!
- Maria
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