Archive for the ‘Nica2009’ 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
July 25, 2009
Last Sunday we went zip lining through a canopy tour on volcano Mombacho. It was amazing. I think I may have incurred some head trama when we were riding up the mountain because basically no one drives on the ´road´ and it is very rocky. The tour itself was just the right mix of an adrenaline rush and beautiful scenery. I rammed my leg into one of the platforms and have a little bit of a shiner on my leg now, but it doesn´t hurt.
We went to Managua Sunday afternoon and suprisingly enough it was pretty quiet. Sunday was Nicaragua´s 30th anniversary of the Revolution, a pretty big day in their history. There were a couple more policemen out with huge guns, but otherwise everything was the same.
Monday morning we rode back to Sabana Grande in the back of a truck. It was a 3 hour ride and I loved it. I don´t think there is a better way to see Nicaragua than on the back of a truck. I watched the sunrise over the mountains in a truck bed…priceless!
Tim and Jim, other UD students, are here for the week and we also had 5 high school boys, so the Solar Center was full with people this week. Next week we are having 20 teachers from California come down for about a week as part of their masters program.
Wednesday Erin and I set out to try to buy a Daq Pro, which logs temperature because the one we currently have is not working correctly. We had no luck, so we decided to go to Matagalpa to a ´Chocolate Castle´. Sounds pretty easy to find right? …How many chocolate castles can be in this city? We got a taxi and told the driver where we needed to go. He wasn´t overly sure but he assured us that we would find it. The driver asked ´So you want to buy chocolate there´ and we said yes. He dropped us off in front of a supermarket that sold Hersheys chocolate. I laughed for a good 10 minutes here. This taxi driver had to think we were crazy… Two gringo girls that want to buy chocolate from a mysterious chocolate castle. The next taxi with some help from the post office got us there. Their chocolate making process was short but it was interesting to see.
Saturday, today, we went on a hike in Sabana Grande. We went back into a woods and there were a bunch of rocks to climb and small waterfalls. It was really beautiful. Tonight we are staying in Ocatol for the night and going out to eat then going to a local club. Tomorrow we are planning on going to a local baseball game, a couple of the local guys at the Solar Center play.
It is crazy how time is flying by! I really think I am going to miss it here. It has been fun to play big sister and be able to play freeze tag and Jenga.
July 23, 2009
Hello All,
We all went on vacation in Southern Nicaragua last weekend! First, Maria and I ate lunch at the Papa John´s in Masaya on Friday to fuel up for some power shopping. The town has two markets, the old artisan market in a colonial fort and a new market close to the bus station. The old market had really nice hand-made pottery and hammocks, along with souveneir Che t-shirts and FSLN coffee mugs. We spent awhile there mostly just looking around until the torrential downpour started. From there, we took a taxi to the new market. It was a really fun experience. The market is the size of two city blocks and is compeletely covered. Inside, it´s like a maze, with hammocks and clothing looping down into the skinny walkway like vines in a rainforest. And it was as dense as a rainforest too! We couldn´t ever see the end of an aisle, and the artisan section abruptly became the dry goods section, with huge canvas bags of rice, beans and coffee set up in the walkway. After we extricated ourselves Indiana Jones style, we took a bus to Granada.
In Granada, Maria and I checked into a really really classy hostel called Oasis. It had a pool AND lockers! And in Maria´s guidebook, there´s a section called Fine Dining. We were seriously hungry, so we read through and found a German place outside of town called Charly´s Bar and Restaurant. As it turns out, there really is a Charly from Germany, and he cooks great steak kabobs. Also, the restaurant is in a really sketchy neighborhood and Charly is really nice, so Charly´s best friend drove us back to the hostel when they couldn´t get ahold of a cab.
Saturday, TimandJim, Maria and I walked around touring the three colonial Churches. One thing that is different about the Churches in Nicaragua compared to those in the US is that they all have a Jesus casket. Honestly, there is always a Jesus mannequin inside a glass casket along one of the walls, usually next to the baptismal font. Anyway, the Churches were gorgeous, especially Iglesia Xalteva. It had been ravaged by pirates in 1753 and the outside still looked like it had recently taken a few cannonballs, but inside was painted light green, with all the white marble pillars covered in flawless carvings.
Sunday, all of us went on a zipline canopy tour in a rainforest! It was really cool. There were 14 platforms set up on a coffee plantation on the side of Mombacho Volcano, and we wore harnesses and flew to each platform. The scariest part of the trip was the ride to the tour, through the national park. There were 11 of us in the back of an old Toyota Land Cruiser bouncing up the side of a mountain for an hour. Very exciting.
On Monday, we returned to do some work. But, I have good news… The autoclave design is progressing! Anna brought us some new valves and tubes to make a smaller, more efficient autoclave, and the new insulated parabolic cooker reached 126 celsius on Monday. It was a very big day for another reason too. Three students at the Engineering University of Nicaragua (UNI) are interested in researching the autoclave as their thesis. This would be amazing, since we were so worried about who could carry on the research this fall and winter. Finally, this week I´ll be working on fixing our temperature logger since we couldn´t find a new one in Esteli (another story) and building a second prototype.
July 18, 2009
On Monday a new volunteer arrived, Rebekah, she is from the U.K. and seems really nice.
On Tuesday the Solar Center was closed for a staff meeting, so all the volunteers took an hour bus ride to Estelli. In Estelli we went to an Nicaraguan art store, renewable energy farm, and toured a cigar factory. The cigar factory was probably the most interesting because there were about 200 people sitting there rolling cigars. It was kind of ironic because some of the men were smoking a cigar as they were rolling them.
On Tuesday night Erin and I spent the night in Estelli and went shopping for supplies for informational plaques at the Solar Center. We found all our supplies but ran into a few problems… We needed poles for the plaques and we could only buy them in 6 meter lengths, which we thought we would be able to get the place to cut them into 5 foot lengths that we needed – however this was not the case, they would not cut them. So between the two of us we had 3 – 6 meter long poles and 8 pieces of wood 1″x11¨x24¨, a lot to manage between the two of us. We were looking for a truck Taxi, but a man with hand cart approached us and told us he could take everything we had to the bus station. We doubted him, but he actually pulled it off pretty nicely and went through busy traffic to cross the road twice. Once we got to the bus station we waited 45 minutes with our stuff and then got a bus. The bus attendant helped load all our goods and then we were on our way. The bus stopped right in front of the Solar Center and dropped off all our goods. Looking back on it things went rather smoothly, but on that day it was a little stressful trying to plan out how much we could carry and how to get all our supplies from point A to point B.
Friday Erin and I took of for Masaya to do some touristy shopping and then went to Granada. Today 6 other volunteers joined us in Granada for a relaxing weekend. Tomorrow we are planning on going zip linning, which involves a harness and cable and you hanging on for your dear life, we´ll see how that goes! Tomorrow is also the 30th anniversary of the revolution here in Nicaragua, so hopefully it doesn´t get too crazy here! Monday we are taking off from Managua and riding on the back of a truck for 3 1-2 hours back to the Solar Center with some student from UNI (their University here) that are interested in testing the solar autoclave for us. I am pretty excited I really like truck bed rides, they are the most scenic. Also this week we are having 4 high school boys at the solar center to help do grunt work. Tim and Jim, the other UD kids, are also visiting the solar center this week and helping us on our projects.
It seems like this week will be pretty busy!
Take care!
July 16, 2009
After a safe landing, a heat sensor check for swine flu, and the scavenger hunt for all of our luggage, Lauren and I were greeted by Douglas at the airport in Managua!! We traveled from the bustling city, through the varios neighborhoods, commercial areas, and arrived at Suni Solar just in time to eat papusas for dinner. The constant noise of the city brought back memories—children playing in the street until all hours of the night, cars honking, regatone music coming from all different directions, and the sound of mangos falling from the trees onto the corregated roof of the sisters house. It’s great to be back. Where else can you have mango pie for breakfast?
The quick bounce into Managua was followed the next morning with the fantastic four hour bus ride to Sabana Grande, Totogalpa. Along carreterra norte, the full streets of Managua quickly fall to the pace of the country. I’ve found that I remember Nicaragua but a lot of the smells across the country, the heat of Managua, the smell of burning trash in the country, smell of fried food, and the hot rain that comes consistently every single day.
It is amazing to revisit Sabana Grande another time. The Solar Center is located not directly on the Pan American highway, but relatively close. Its location en route from Managua to Ocotal is recognized by the majority of the bus drivers. Slowly but surely, the Solar Center and las Mujeres Solares are becoming a place of interest for many people, local and entranjeros (from outside of Nicaragua). The current focus of las Mujeres Solares is establishing a Solar Restaurant in the same area as the Solar Center. This will give the the women an opportunity to share their culinary skills and knowledge of solar cooking and renewable energy with others. The Solar Center, supported by las Mujeres Solares, the Solar Center staff and the network of volunteers and student researchers, is becoming a model community of the empowerment of renewable energy and entrepreneurship in a rural community.
The constant development of las Mujeres Solares is incredible. The SEED Award has allowed them to move forward with legalized status. In the near future, they will officially be established as a cooperative in Nicaragua! This particular form of organization aligns with many of the social norms of las Mujeres Solares and will balance their desire to become a sustainable business, with the social standard of working collectively to achieve their goals in unison.
It’s energizing to see the momentum and potential of las Mujeres Solares. Just as exciting was talking with the current Grupo Fenix volunteers who are supporting this work in Totogalpa and Managua. While all of the staff have different experiences and roles, and perspectives on the future of all of the organizations involved, they share the common desire to support and guide the work of the Solar Center. Sustainable development of a community requires somewhat of an exit strategy for the extranjeros involved. The current Grupo Fenix employees supporting Susan in her work have such a fantastic outlook on development work. I have been constantly impressed by the current Grupo Fenix employees, Cody, David, and Bruno who are managing the work; they are great partners for Salud del Sol, Inc. to be working alongside.
Cherling, is adorable, it’s amazing how much she has grown in one year! While Maria Antonia was working in the Solar Center for the afternoon, she came with and mosied through the garden, sat pensively among the staff, and waited quite patiently while her grandma was cleaning the garden. She also asked me if I knew who Hannah Montana was—ha. Marvin and Masiel were not at the house for the most part, which was sad because I loved spending time with them, but they both staying with their families. One night after dinner, I was able to help Maria Antonia write back to a past UD student who had stayed with her at the beginning of May. While I looking for paper and a pen to use, Maria Antonia explained that she never had the chance to learn to read and write in school because there was always so much work to do around her family’s farm. It was only after she had her own family that she was able to teach herself to read and write. After she finished writing the note, she had me read the note for clarification– to make sure the UD volunteer would understand the message. It was a rewarding experience to be able to support Maria’s continued communication with other UD volunteers, and made me admire her entrpreneurial drive for learning.
It was incredible to see that along side of all of the changes that are happening within the community, there is still the same feel of the people– their dedication to improving the lives of their family members and their drive to learn about the world.
July 11, 2009
Whew, once again a lot has happened since I wrote last. Below you’ll find details regarding our trips to Granada and Leon as well as stuff about the last week before leaving. I can’t believe I am almost home!
A couple weekends ago all the UD ETHOS volunteers and I were going to go to Granada, Nicaragua together, which is a gorgeous Spanish colonial town and the number one tourist destination in Nicaragua. We planned to leave early on a Friday morning; however, I woke up to hear that Erin had become very ill overnight and was in the hospital in Ocotal with her mother. I rounded up all the other volunteers and, after taking some time to figure out what we were going to do this weekend, we finally went to see Erin at the hospital. It turned out that she had an infection of the intestines and was vomiting frequently. Her stomach was “being torn apart” as she would say and she actually ended up staying Friday night in the hospital as well. I wanted to stay in Sabana Grande for the weekend, but it was one of the last chances that Nathan and I had to go to Granada with Tim and Jim before we left for home and before they left to go on more installations. Therefore, Maria stayed back in Sabana Grande for the weekend, in case Erin needed anything, and Nathan and I went to meet Tim and Jim in Managua to go to Granada.
So, we met them in time for lunch at The Galeria – a really, really nice mall on the edge of Managua. Here they have a great movie theater that puts Cinemark to shame, as well lots of very lavish stores and restaurants. The four of us chose to eat where else but Papa Johns. Oh. My. It was some of the best pizza I have ever had (although it’s still hard to beat Donato’s or Dewey’s Pizza in Dayton, Ohio). It was mostly just nice to have a classic American meal after eating so much Nicaraguan food for the past eight weeks. Nicaraguan food is excellent (and healthy!), but nothing will ever replace my Donato’s, Chipotle, Outback and Panera’s. Anyway, so we had a large, tasty meal in The Galeria in Managua and then soon made our way to Granada. As we neared Granada, the road became much nicer, the area cleaner and the scenery more lush and beautiful.
We arrived and went straight to our preferred hostel, Hostel Oasis, which is the same place that I stayed with the other volunteers when I was in Granada last summer. It is gorgeous and relaxing (highly recommended if you’re in the area!). For a great value, you also get free internet, a swimming pool, free coffee and tea all day and use of the many comfortable chairs and hammocks around the hostel.
That day we spent most of our time in the swimming pool, but then that night we met up with Maria (another volunteer from the Solar Center who happened to be in Granada that weekend as well) and all had a nice dinner and then went to a club for the evening. It was good that we did this on the first evening, because then people started getting ill
We all went for a short bike trip through Granada, checking out the nearby cemetery and visiting the Dona Elba cigar factory. At the factory we were all given a cigar to sample along with a glass of wine for free, as well as a free tour of the factory! However, as the afternoon went on, Tim and I started to get a fever (Tim had just recovered from a fever just a few days earlier) and eventually Tim went to a clinic in the evening to get checked out. I wasn’t feeling too terrible, so I just stayed back and slept. That night Tim found that he had a respiratory infection, so I was worried I might have the same thing as well. The next day my fever became stronger, so I, too, went to the clinic. I did not have the respiratory infection, and in fact I started feeling better shortly after my visit to the clinic. I just went back to the hostel and slept again and by morning I was fine again. Nevertheless, while it was very relaxing to be someplace as nice as Granada, and while we still enjoyed many of the sights and restaurants there, most of the vacation was shot due to illnesses.
Nathan and I eventually made it back to the Solar Center on Wednesday of that second-to-last week and got a few good days of work in. I had been working on a large sign for the Solar Center to post by the road and get traffic attention, because as of now you can only see the Solar Center if you’re right in front of it due to trees, and you can only read the current sign if you are close to it due to its small size. Therefore, this sign is made to be very large to announce the location of the Solar Center and advertise the new solar-cooked refreshments that are sold here. It will go up across the street directly in front of the Solar Center where it can be seen from long distances in both directions (the building is on a straight portion of the PanAm Highway). I got this all put together and mostly painted by the time the weekend rolled around.
For the weekend all of the volunteers decided to make a last-minute quick trip to Leon, Nicaragua, which is the second largest tourist destination of Nicaragua. While not as nice as Granada, it certainly is very nice and has lots of history around it. We were able to walk around, see some historic chapels and do some shopping. However, the best part was Saturday afternoon when we went to the beach on the Pacific coast, about 45 minutes outside of Leon. We followed some Peace Corps volunteers who knew where they were going, and we ended up at a hidden gem among the villages along the beach called Playa Roca, meaning Rock Beach. This is a hostel with an outdoor bar and restaurant on the beach as well as plenty of hammocks and chairs in the sand. We all went swimming for a good amount of time (I went in my shorts because I didn’t have my swim suit), trying our best to body surf the very large waves crashing down on us. For official record, the beaches on the Pacific coast here are rather dangerous, where the locals warned us of strong riptides. However, when we arrived plenty of people were already swimming. While the current certainly was strong and dangerous, that wasn’t enough to stop us from jumping in for a refreshing swim (the water was the perfect temperature!!).
That evening we all went out for dinner and then, once again, to another club in Leon. With a very large group it felt like we were taking over the club. In fact, there are so many volunteers in Sabana Grande now I think we are the majority.
This brings us to our last week in Sabana Grande. Basically, there was a lot to do and so little time to do it. I spent most of it preparing to pass on the autoclave data and report to Erin and Maria, who are here for another month. This means that I spent Wednesday and Thursday writing the start of the report to give them a starting point from which to continue. Monday I finished second-coating all the paint on the sign so that it is ready to go. I wanted to make a backing frame for it (since it is a large, unwieldy piece of zinc that will basically act like a sail), but ran out of time for this as well because of my work on the EVA project. Tuesday I made another 1-watt solar panel for EVA testing. In order to try making a solar panel without allowing any air to become trapped in the EVA, David The Volunteer Coordinator and I tried putting the solar panel inside a back and vacating the air using a pump. The vacating the air worked well but I was not able to test the process of melting the EVA in a solar box cooker (thereby seeing if any air was trapped or not) because it has not been sunny. So, unfortunately, this is a test that they will have to perform without me.
All in all, however, I managed to get a lot done! It has been a great 2-and-a-half months, but now I am ready to make it home! I will be leaving Managua early in the morning on Sunday, going to Houston, and then finally arriving home on Sunday evening. Of course, that’s not without a fun weekend in Managua with TimandJim first!
Sunday evening, Chipotle won’t know what hit it…
-Daniel J Hensel
July 11, 2009
This week Dan and Nathan left for home, so now it is me and Erin left from UD.
This week on Thursday and Friday I went to Managua (Nicaragua´s capitol) for a couple meetings with Salud del Sol (the non-profit who created the solar autoclave). Our first meeting was actually right outside of the city limits. It was with a group called the Jubillee House. Apparently 15 years ago 4 families from North Carolina moved down to Nicaragua into an area that has an unemployment of about 80%. They saw a need for health care and they wanted to make a difference. I have to applaude them because it would be soooo hard to relocate your family and hope that what you are doing is worth all the risks. We talked with one of the Gringo founders and she said that the little village we visited has a lot of women who work the street and she would not be surprised if in a couple years there is an AIDS outbreak in that area if this keeps up. Basically the way their clinic works is that you can pay for your doctor or dentist visit one of two ways: you can either make a donation or you can work in the clinic for a day to pay off your debt. This is a really good option considering the unemployment rates. The lady really seemed interested in the solar autoclave if we get it to work. She also mentioned that she was taking a group of people to a smaller clinic without electricity up in the mountains at the end of July, and I think it would be really neat to see an actual clinic that would benefit from the solar autoclave.
The next meeting we had in Managua was with UNI (the private university in Managua). They gave us suggestions and told us that they have three engineering students who want to test and work on the solar autoclave as their project. So that was pretty exciting that the research will not stop when Erin and I leave for the summer.
Erin and I went shopping for supplies in Managua and it is soooo unbelievably hard to find copper tubing here for the pressure release valve for the autoclave. We decided that their plumbing isn´t very developed. Most houses, if they have running water, only have cold water. So there is not a need for copper tubing. We ended up spending $10 on taxis around the city and don´t have anything to show for it…..I am about to send an S.O.S. to Lowes….
Have a good week!
July 11, 2009
Lunch
Nicaragua moment: This morning, a chicken laid an egg in my bed. It was raining and I forgot to shut the door to my room, so when I went in for my raincoat I had to chase all seven chickens from under my bed. But I missed one hen: the late big evil one’s girlfriend, who was sitting on my pile of dirty clothes on top of my bed. Don’t worry Mums, it was the dirty clothes pile. I swatted at her with my towel and yelled at her in Spanish (because they honestly don’t listen if I speak English). After pecking at my fingers she got up, revealing what would become my lunch. Delicious.
Thursday and Friday, Maria and I went down to Managua with Anna and Lauren for a meeting with the Jubilee House, who started an organization called Center for Development in Central America. As I understand it, a bunch of nice church people from North Carolina decided to help a whole lot of very needy people at once. They operate in a huge shanty town called Ciudad Sandino, where 170,000 people live with 80% unemployment. I cannot believe that people exist who could even comprehend that level of poverty, much less feel like they could make a difference to the people who live there. If you want more of an idea, the website is www.jhc-cdca.org.
The woman we met with was named Kathleen, and she had been living in Ciudad Sandino for 15 years with her family, developing the clinic. Whenever she spoke to her son, who was acting as partial translator, she reminded me so much of Paula Deen. Anyway, she showed us around the clinic and had great ideas for the autoclave. Even though the Jubilee House clinic already has access to enough autoclaves, she invited us to accompany one of the Ministry of Health doctors to a rural health center in a few weeks. There, she thinks we will be able to ask the nurses questions about current sterilization methods, patient load and the instruments used. It will also give us a chance to get some general first impressions of the autoclave. Although, the autoclave currently looks a little imposing. In fact, last night on the bus back to Sabana Grande, I asked a man if he could please pass me the “ugly apparatus with the pipes,” and he knew just what I meant, haha. Maria and I are working on another prototype, and maybe it’ll look cuter in a smaller version. We can only hope .
Also, Maria and I got to stay at Dona Claudia’s house with TimandJim. This was especially exciting because Dona Claudia also owns a bakery, so we had the best pastries of all time for breakfast on Friday. And, Dona Claudia’s mother is an amazing cook, so Maria and I were really spoiled. It seems like the parts of the weekend that didn’t involve the autoclave were spent eating. Ice cream, chocolate cake, pastries, pizza (twice!) and rosquillas. It was amazing.
Yesterday, we met with Susan Kinne and the researchers from UNI who are also working on the autoclave research. It was a great help to be able to ask questions like “Where can I find copper tubing in Managua?” and, “What kind of shiny material do you recommend for the solar oven?” We also exchanged emails, so we will be able to communicate the results of our testing as well as set up researchers for when Maria and I return to the US.
Finally, Susan and some of the coordinators from UNI are coming up to the Solar Center on Monday, so Maria and I get to show off the insulated parabolic Franken-Cooker. We have decided to try using the inside of chip bags as our first reflective material for the parabolic, so I have all the women in Adelina’s house eating Nicaraguan Doritos, called Ranchitas. They have decided to help me out by eating however many bags I buy, for research purposes, of course.
I think that’s all for today. I’ll make sure to post the results of our first temperature tests with the parabolic. Wish us luck!
