Time Flys When....Nicaragua is so Great

Hola todas y todos,

So it has been a long time since I have post a new blog up… really don’t have much of an excuse. A lot has gone on since I last wrote. Sorry for the long post-I know many of you are busy so I created a headline for each event and you can read more in depth for more if you are interested!

Current House Improvements

Well the rain has come and left and finally come again. During the six month rainy season the rain picks-up until about the middle of July, and is supposed to start back up again mid-August. This is called the Canícula, but this year the dry spell lasted two months causing many farmers to worry and some even lost crop waiting for the rain. Now that it has started raining again, I guess I found all of the holes in my roof! I already had my whole roof replaced, but due to the small tiles, holes can appear anytime the tile gets moved-something even a chicken can do by climbing on the tiles. I know that I have so many bad stories about chickens, but they do have a good side to them-like when they decide to hatch some eggs right on my table. I come back from a weekend trip and find three eggs on my table. Other times I find them on one of my shelves. It is like Easter all over again-but not finding the candy inside!I also smeared a new layer of clay/cow manure mixture on my floors to protect the dirt and keep the dust down. Did I just say, ‘COW MANURE,’ yes I know what I said-and actually the manure mixture helps keep the clay together and prevents it from cracking. I spread three different layers over my floor and now sweeping only consists of sweeping the dirt and dust-not actually sweeping away my floor!! And the smell went away after the second day-sleeping the first night was quite interesting!!

Jenna and Nate (Bro & Sis) Visited

In mid-May my brother and sister came down to visit Nicaragua. Unfortunately it was only for a week, but a fun-filled week! They brought down supplies to help me build a new designed biodigestor! This biodigestor had the same concept of fermenting cow manure, (yah I know-this manure is very useful in my life here!!) and producing methane gas to cook with. Only this design is a bit smaller and a lot cheaper. The hope is for this design to be used by people living alone or smaller families. After we built this prototype, we took to exploring the beautiful Nicaragua!

Tech Days/Start of the Bakery

So, when I came in to Nicaragua, I went through three months of training-both technical and language. Well, we just had a new agriculture group come in during the month of June and I was asked to host the ‘Tech Days’ or a week of building technical projects and demonstrating how they work. I organized the food, beds, and projects to be installed in my site. This week was very successful as we build two improved ovens, two improved stoves, a simple pump made only out of PVC pipe, another biodigestor, and an elevated garden. Great news about the two ovens-we built them right in the front of the town so everyone can see them. This received a lot of interest and now I have built several more in my site. The group of people that I have been working with to start the bakery has been using these almost daily-making different kinds of bread and cookies to sell and start a business. We even incorporated using millet and sorghum which is more nutritious in place of wheat flour. These stoves still use firewood, but have reduced the amount of firewood by 75% and a reduced bake time by about 2 ½ hours.

Home for Bro’s wedding
In mid-July my other brother, Ryan, got married with Margie in Council Bluffs. It was nice to take a visit back home to see friends and family. This was the first time back in the states after a year of being in Nicaragua. It was strange-everyone speaking English, stairs, and carpet on floors. I would have to say the thing that I missed the most-other than my GF, would be the carpet floors. All the floors in Nicaragua are dirt, cement or tile.
It was a perfect day for the wedding and the reception was outside on a lake. We took the pontoon boat out for a ride as the guests all arrived. We danced the night away. The next day RAGBRAI started in Council Bluffs-I couldn’t miss an opportunity like this and ended up riding three days through South Western Iowa.
The time flew by in the states and before I knew it, I was back in my site in San José. I got settled back in with projects and received a call from my boss in PC asking if I would be available to meet the new World Director of Peace Corps, Aaron Williams. Of course-this is an awesome honor. He was planning on visiting my site, meeting some of the leaders in my site and look at a couple of projects, but due to time cuts, we were unable to visit my site. Instead I took a two hour ride in a car with him and was able to talk about projects and the future of PC. I was also able to have lunch with him before he headed back home.

Project Fair / Drip Irrigation / Washstand

In August, my community and I organized a project fair with INTA, the local agriculture government organization, to present all of the projects we have built or started. This fair was aimed at attracting other Nicaraguan’s in outside villages to come view our projects and appropriate technology. This was a huge success as we had over 150 people while only expecting 100. After this fair from the publicity created, we have built three other improved ovens in villages in the mountains.
I am also currently working with two farmers in San José to install a drip irrigation system into their quarter-acre plots to grow vegetables during the dry season. This project is being designed and funds provided by EOS International. The Drip Irrigation team leader came down to Nicaragua for an initial visit to scout out the plot and prepare for the final installation in October. More information about this project can be found on the EOS Intl website in the next coming weeks. http://www.eosintl.org/
Finally, I am working on a washstand project for my community. My community members and I have planned out a budget for this project to create a sustainable process of making washstands for all of the houses in my community. If you are interested in helping out, please visit the EOS Intl website and click on the Donate tab. I appreciate all of your help with this and would love to hear how all of you are doing!!

Also I have a new phone number +011 505.8.360.9381

Cuidate (Take Care),

Wes

Livin´, Learnin´, & Travelin´

Hey everyone,

First off, my cell phone number will change April 22nd, as the national phone system didn’t look very far into the future and plan for an increase in numbers. They are adding an 8 to all cell phone numbers and a 2 to all land lines.

My new cell phone number: (505) 8409-0366.

Sorry for the long lapse, but I have been traveling quite a bit for workshops, presentations, Easter Week, and, technology fairs. Needless to say, I haven’t been in my site very much. In Spanish we would say I am vago, or always traveling. This was a good thing as all of these workshops helped increase my knowledge on appropriate technology and community development.
The first workshop that I attended at the beginning of the month included an agro-business presentation in Granada-a very pretty city located next to the largest lake in Nicaragua (also the only freshwater lake where you can find the only freshwater sharks in the world!!) I brought along a member of my community to come up with new project ideas for our community. After the workshop, I returned for a couple of days and went back to the capital, Managua, to pick-up three friends at the airport-Greg McGrath, Lando Roberts, and Charles Fisher. They came down here for a week to see what Nicaragua has to offer, and also as an EOS Intl trip to install a Drip Irrigation system in my village. The day after we arrived, we took a 4:00am bus to Jinotega to run a ½ marathon race organized by Peace Corps and a Nica Ag organization. Other than being exhausted, the race was beautiful and the climate was slightly cooler, as the elevation is higher in Jinotega.
The four of us finally returned back to my site and successfully built a drip irrigation system utilizing mostly local materials. We constructed a stand using tree branches to elevate a 50 gallon drum to store water for the irrigation system. Leaving the drum, we connected a series of pipes, filters, valves, and finally the ‘drip tape’ which the water flowed through and leaves in tiny holes spaced 12” apart. What is unique about this system is that it puts water directly to the root of the plant without evaporation which is very prevalent in my HOT and DRY community. After four days of hard work installing this system, we headed off for the beaches of Leon to cool off and volcano boarded down ‘Cerro Negro’ one of the many active volcanoes in Nicaragua. Yes, I said boarded… basically we took a ride out to the base of the volcano in the back of a pickup truck (very Nica style), hiked up the volcano on the back side which was less steep and somewhat of a trail. We then slid down the steep side of the volcano with a thin piece of plywood-similar to a sled. The volcano slope ended with a 45 deg angle, so yes it was quite fast and very exciting!!
I then said my goodbyes to my friends at the airport and headed south to Carazo for a week-long language workshop to improve my Spanish. We were split up into groups of four people each with a facilitator to teach us more Spanish! After the workshop, I traveled all the way up to my site, only to leave two days later for another workshop about Community Banks. Basically a community bank is a group of people in one village, mostly women, who meet twice a month to save money, take out a loan if needed, and make other profits from making and selling foods. This idea of mirco-credit was started from Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh and is now implemented throughout the world in developing countries. In this workshop, we learned either how to start a bank up in a new community, or how to utilize the bank’s resources if there is one there from an existing PC volunteer.
Finally, last week everybody celebrates Holy Week or Semana Santa in Nicaragua. With our vacation, I decided to hike Nicaragua’s biggest active volcano, San Cristobal. A group of six volunteers all agreed to go on this three day hiking and camping trip. We all headed off for the trip not knowing very much about the volcano as there isn’t very many resources or a National Park System to make maps and trails. We reserved a full day to hike from a sign that we saw on the main road to the base (this sign was the most information we had on the volcano-an arrow pointing in the direction (obvious) and distance), and got very lucky finding a farmer with a beautiful coffee farm nestled at the base of this grand and beautiful volcano to camp at. He also knew of a ‘guide’ who needed to take temperature readings at the top and agreed to lead us up the volcano. We planned on leaving at 5am, before sunrise, but after breakfast and preparing our water, we left at 6am. The total hike took 8 hours including an hour break on the top, a couple of quick sprints across the top lava crater as the sulfur and gasses made it impossible to breath(scary), and finally a jog down the volcano on loose gravel!! The trip was a ranging success and the mission was started… to hike all 16 active volcanoes in Nicaragua before the end of service in two years! I got a head start hiking a volcano when my girlfriend, Chelsy, came down to visit, and just recently the volcano boarding one! Three down 13 to go!
This past week I was able to catch up with work back in my site. With my community members, we treated 1,000 different tree seeds and planted them in individual plastic bags filled with a good mix of soil, sand, and manure. Now we are taking turns watering the tree nursery twice a day. We also planted onions, peppers, radishes, and tomatoes into the newly installed drip irrigation system and are also adding 30 gallons into the barrel each day! All of these plants are being grown in the school garden, which is a great way to teach children how to grow, offer fresh vegetables for the children’s lunch, and for me to try projects within neutral property-without offending any of the community members.
Seeds for 1,000 trees…why is that necessary? Well as is the case for most developing nations, deforestation is a very big deal here. People cut down trees for cooking three or more times a day, they cut down trees for building, and finally they cut down trees to sell for wood. On top of this, trees near rivers and wells are used, causing the water to dry up during the dry season. We carefully selected seeds of trees that will provide for good firewood in the future, possible shade for cattle, straight trees for fence posts, dense wood for furniture, or trees to help reforest this area.

Cheers....Wes

New Projects to Empower the Poor

Hey everyone!! Things here are great as usual. I have just moved into my new home located closer to town. It is a beautiful house with plenty of space. My walls of my home are made of dried adobe or a mixture of dirt and horse manure (the manure helps makes the dirt stick together better). Luckily the bricks are dried very well so there is no trace of smell in the bricks. The roof is made of brick tiles arranged so water won´t leak, but after a heavy rain the water will soak through just a little. I also have a kitchen which is right beside my house. I have been using a wood stove to cook on, which have been getting easier and easier to use. It started out taking up to 30 minutes and about 20 matches just to get a good fire going, but now I am down to less than 5 minutes and only one match!! I am also learning about different foods that I can cook. Cooking takes a lot of my time as there isn´t the canned food or pre-made in the package. I am still usually eating rice and beans, but with a few extra veggies.
I think that I am finally getting used to some of the Nicaraguan cultures, as I catch myself saying some of the normal clips, si hombre(yes man), or que tawny(that's cool)-along with some of the famous hand motions used everywhere here!
As far as projects are coming, my primary goal is concentrating on getting my Spanish level higher. I am able to communicate with everybody here, but would just like to understand more. I am currently working with my community to start up a bakery. I have a new design for a more improved oven consisting with a metal 50 gal. drum and bricks. The oven is fairly cheap and easy to build. The hope is to build a couple of these throughout the community and make enough bread to supply the town and the other neighboring villages. Right now they buy their bread from a truck coming from the capital city-more than 3 hours away. Other projects include a water irrigation system for small gardens. Right now is the dry season and the dry weather will last for the next 5 months. Food shortage becomes a problem with a lack of food throughout all of Nicaragua, and with these irrigation systems the people will be able to grow their own crops and vegetables during this harsh time of the year.
Another project high on my priority list includes building a wash stand for the women to wash their clothes on. They currently take their closes to the river to wash-putting harmful chemicals in the river(Sadly I have to do the same as I don´t have a place to wash my clothes). This new design that I am working to find funds for includes a cement sink with a pipe out the back to drain the water. I have also designed a drainage pipe to travel into the ground to drain the water. The hope is to build a garden over this drainage pipe to capture some of the humidity from the water. As you can see I am staying busy with projects and improving my Spanish!



Hope you all are staying warm up there amongst the freezing weather! If you have a chance-check out this website for Emerging Opportunities for Sustainability EOS International, a company a couple of friends and I started up to help empower people in developing countries with appropriate technology. We just became incorporated and got the website up and running. Give me a shout-out if you have any comments!! http://www.eosintl.org/
Cheers,

Wes