Hello world,
So I´ve been here for four days, having a great time, and here´s what´s up:
Host Family
My whole family is very nice, and the house is too. I live with my host Mom, Dad, and four kids (all boys, ages 19-30). The two youngest kids are around alot, the third walks in and out but I haven´t talked to him much, and I don´t think I´ve seen the oldest. I haven´t gotten to interact much with my host family, the brothers aren´t always around, the Dad gets home late, and I spent most of the past two days on an installation trip (more on that later). They do have lots of cool pets though, several birds, an owl, and a squirl.
The owl doesn´t have a name...
The parrot, Rebecca. I haven´t figured out how to rotate pictures yet....
Three more birds that hang out together, we call them the Tres Amigos
The squirell moves too fast to get a picture... either that or he just saw the Ring...I know, I know... four days in Nicaragua and the only thing I have pictures of are pets... I´m not much of a photographer.
The Country
Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere, before Haiti. The unemployment rate in rural areas is I think around 80%, but I can´t say where that comes from... that´s just what I was told. Lots of people just farm enough for themselves, and find work where they can. All of the work done by Grupo Fenix is to help people out of the poverty cycle by producing jobs and opportunities. Examples include a group of women who make and cell solar panels and solar box cookers, and a company started by a group of UD students, Salud del Sol, that will make and sell solar autoclaves (see the link on the right).
The city I live in, Managua, is the captial city. At least as far as I have seen, it isn´t quite as spectacular as other capital cities. The center of the city was leveled in an earthquake in 1972, and instead of rebuilding the city just sort of sprawled outward. The result is no real city center, and a large geographic area. Most of the city I have seen is just a collection of Barrios, or small neighborhoods, like the one I live in. The whole city is very dusty/dirty, and there is garbadge everyhere. People just throw it on the ground. On my last bus trip, everyone just threw it out the window, and didn´t even think twice. Nothing quite as spectacular as the pictures from the Ecuador group, although the colonial city of Leon is supposed to be nice, and I haven´t had time for trips to any volcanoes or beaches yet.
The one trip I did take to the countryside was nice, but alot of stuff was still brown, but that´s supposed to chance with the recent start of the rainy season.
There is also a big USA-esque mall with a Subway, McDonalds, and Burgur King, in case I get sick of gallo pinto (red beans and rice, the traditional Nica dish served at every meal).
The Food
Gallo pinto (red beans and rice, the traditional Nica dish served at every meal, up to now litterally)
So far though, I like it. There are also lots of tropical fruits like mango and other stuff that I can´t pronounce and haven´t seen before.
The Work
Suni Solar sells solar panels to rural areas, off the gird, to power small appliances such as lights, radios, water pumps, etc. This past Wednesday I went on my first installation trip to install a 124 Watt system that runs a water pump in a well. It was for a coffee plantation. I learned that speaking Spanish is hard.... We slept on the farm and they fed us for the two days we were there, and I got a tour of the coffee processing machines, half of which I didn´t understand. It was interesting spending two days with nobody that speaks english, but I did learn alot of spanish. They also asked me about politics and Obama and Bush and the war, it turns out nobody here likes the war or president Bush. I told them nobody in America likes the war or president Bush either. They also talked about food, coffee, my job, my family, and strippers.
I´ll be spending some of my time on installations (tomorrow is a 160 Watt lighting system) and the rest of my time on a project. The project part is where the hardcore engineering comes in, and the part I´m most excited for. Right now the three opportunities that look like they might develop into what I spend my time on this summer are as follows:
1. A hybrid solar panel/water still. Lead-acid dry cell batteries (used in solar panel systems) need distilled water, and water purification/desalination is always an issue. Solar cells can reach higher efficiencies with lower costs by concentrating the light using lenses, but at higher temperatures efficiency drops, so they need to be cooled. The cells can be water cooled, and the vapor can be condensed into clean water, and you get a 2 for 1: cheaper electricity and clean water. This project was started some years ago, and a paper written, but has been left since then.
2. A biodiesel reactor: Diesel is very expensive, and if Suni Soar could produce biodiesel for their 3 trucks, they could save money. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and can be run in any diesel engine. The problem with biofuels is, given the land it takes to grow the plants that make the oil, and the process of making the fuel, the efficiency of the process is somewhere around 1%, where solar panels can use the same real estate and get 10-20% efficiency converting the sun´s rays to energy. This process has come under increased criticism as a result of the recent food shortages... growing crops to make fuel raises the price of growing crops to make food. However, waste vegetable oil, for example from a food deep fryer, can also be used to make biodiesel. In this small scale operation, we may be able to find enough waste vegetable oil for cheap or for free, that we can make biodiesel at a low price.
3. A bycicle generator: A bike + a generator + a battery charger = electricity. The system could charge large car batteries for lighting, or small batteries for flashlights and small appliances. Nothing too complex here.
As I do more research and talk to people I will find out what I´ll be doing.
sorry for the long post,
Vince
P.S. feel free to leave comments!
P.P.S. The spell checker is in Spanish so sorry for any misspellings.
The Country
Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere, before Haiti. The unemployment rate in rural areas is I think around 80%, but I can´t say where that comes from... that´s just what I was told. Lots of people just farm enough for themselves, and find work where they can. All of the work done by Grupo Fenix is to help people out of the poverty cycle by producing jobs and opportunities. Examples include a group of women who make and cell solar panels and solar box cookers, and a company started by a group of UD students, Salud del Sol, that will make and sell solar autoclaves (see the link on the right).
The city I live in, Managua, is the captial city. At least as far as I have seen, it isn´t quite as spectacular as other capital cities. The center of the city was leveled in an earthquake in 1972, and instead of rebuilding the city just sort of sprawled outward. The result is no real city center, and a large geographic area. Most of the city I have seen is just a collection of Barrios, or small neighborhoods, like the one I live in. The whole city is very dusty/dirty, and there is garbadge everyhere. People just throw it on the ground. On my last bus trip, everyone just threw it out the window, and didn´t even think twice. Nothing quite as spectacular as the pictures from the Ecuador group, although the colonial city of Leon is supposed to be nice, and I haven´t had time for trips to any volcanoes or beaches yet.
The one trip I did take to the countryside was nice, but alot of stuff was still brown, but that´s supposed to chance with the recent start of the rainy season.
There is also a big USA-esque mall with a Subway, McDonalds, and Burgur King, in case I get sick of gallo pinto (red beans and rice, the traditional Nica dish served at every meal).
The Food
Gallo pinto (red beans and rice, the traditional Nica dish served at every meal, up to now litterally)
So far though, I like it. There are also lots of tropical fruits like mango and other stuff that I can´t pronounce and haven´t seen before.
The Work
Suni Solar sells solar panels to rural areas, off the gird, to power small appliances such as lights, radios, water pumps, etc. This past Wednesday I went on my first installation trip to install a 124 Watt system that runs a water pump in a well. It was for a coffee plantation. I learned that speaking Spanish is hard.... We slept on the farm and they fed us for the two days we were there, and I got a tour of the coffee processing machines, half of which I didn´t understand. It was interesting spending two days with nobody that speaks english, but I did learn alot of spanish. They also asked me about politics and Obama and Bush and the war, it turns out nobody here likes the war or president Bush. I told them nobody in America likes the war or president Bush either. They also talked about food, coffee, my job, my family, and strippers.
I´ll be spending some of my time on installations (tomorrow is a 160 Watt lighting system) and the rest of my time on a project. The project part is where the hardcore engineering comes in, and the part I´m most excited for. Right now the three opportunities that look like they might develop into what I spend my time on this summer are as follows:
1. A hybrid solar panel/water still. Lead-acid dry cell batteries (used in solar panel systems) need distilled water, and water purification/desalination is always an issue. Solar cells can reach higher efficiencies with lower costs by concentrating the light using lenses, but at higher temperatures efficiency drops, so they need to be cooled. The cells can be water cooled, and the vapor can be condensed into clean water, and you get a 2 for 1: cheaper electricity and clean water. This project was started some years ago, and a paper written, but has been left since then.
2. A biodiesel reactor: Diesel is very expensive, and if Suni Soar could produce biodiesel for their 3 trucks, they could save money. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and can be run in any diesel engine. The problem with biofuels is, given the land it takes to grow the plants that make the oil, and the process of making the fuel, the efficiency of the process is somewhere around 1%, where solar panels can use the same real estate and get 10-20% efficiency converting the sun´s rays to energy. This process has come under increased criticism as a result of the recent food shortages... growing crops to make fuel raises the price of growing crops to make food. However, waste vegetable oil, for example from a food deep fryer, can also be used to make biodiesel. In this small scale operation, we may be able to find enough waste vegetable oil for cheap or for free, that we can make biodiesel at a low price.
3. A bycicle generator: A bike + a generator + a battery charger = electricity. The system could charge large car batteries for lighting, or small batteries for flashlights and small appliances. Nothing too complex here.
As I do more research and talk to people I will find out what I´ll be doing.
sorry for the long post,
Vince
P.S. feel free to leave comments!
P.P.S. The spell checker is in Spanish so sorry for any misspellings.
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