My work and other projects around here

I don’t want bore anyone with minutia and technicalities regarding my work, but I should at least give an overview of what I’m doing as well as of the variety of projects that are being undertaken in Sabana Grande. 

For me, the first week was taken up attending the solar course, which included tours of the facilities and installations in the area as well as more traditional course-type work on solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems.  The solar thermal material was old hat, but the photovoltaic material was more novel.  There was also an afternoon session with a summary of Nicaraguan history, culture and politics.  We had the opportunity to repair existing solar cookers for most of 2 days and spent about a day debugging electrical problems with the main panels at the Centro Solar.  We also made solar battery chargers more or less from scratch.  The silicon cells, of course, were purchased, but we soldered, laminated, mounted and wired them.  An interesting (hopefully!) side-note is that the cells here at the center are typically rejects from cell manufacturers, which are cut and salvaged locally.  Up until now, the emphasis has been on local fabrication of the panels from these cells, thus saving some money and giving employment locally.  About a year ago, it became cheaper to import completed panels from China than to purchase rejected cells and fabricate here.  Seems to be a familiar refrain these days...

Solar panel array at the Centro Solar.  Debugging some electrical problems during the course.  The wooden ladder is home-made and the aluminum ladder is not quite tall enough, but then there's no OSHA in Nicaragua.  (This fact is evident over and over wherever one looks.)

One session of the course has morphed into my initial project.  I say initial because things are very fluid here and if the need (or interest) is greater elsewhere, I could switch to something else.  The primary course instructor, Dr. Richard Komp, brought a concept for a collapsible, portable solar cooker that could be easily transported by burro (or llama or camel or even taxi) in remote locations.  We hope to turn this concept into a prototype to test the ideas before I leave.  I’m doing this in conjunction with the solar cooker construction team (a group of 6 women who concentrate on cooker construction and repair).  In the states, with a reasonable budget and access to hardware and material, this would be perhaps a 2-week project.  Here, to find a simple hook and eye like you find on screen doors took a trip to Ocotal and three different hardware stores;  I never did find a buffing wheel and compound.  (Hardware stores here are an eclectic mix of high tech, really nice power tools and accessories with almost no selection of items such as nuts, bolts, screws and nails.)  Susan may be serving as a courier when she comes down in March as there will no doubt be some things we want to try that are not readily available locally.  I’ve met with the team leader and we’ve already identified a couple of problematic areas with the concept, but are still working on a viable alternate.  Since the project is just beginning and in the concept phase, there are no pictures yet.

Other Grupo Fenix projects

Other than my work, there are many other projects that have been done, are in progress or are in the planning stage.  First, there are three different entities here under the Grupo Fenix umbrella, but with considerable overlapping.  The Centro Solar is the oldest of the three and is the place where the technical work on cookers and photovoltaic panels is done.  The Casita Solar is a restaurant next to the Centro Solar that only opened a few months ago and as of now is only serving volunteers, course participants and an occasional pre-scheduled meeting for outside organizations.  Eventually it is hoped to become a more traditional restaurant open for traveler on the Pan-Am Highway.  (An official grand opening will occur this week, complete with TV coverage.)  Finally, the Montaña Solar is a property that is being used for projects/experiments in reforestation, perma-culture, sustainable/organic farming, drip irrigation and natural building.

 For Centro Solar projects, pictures are the easiest way to give a quick overview.  The pictures follow and captions give a bit of information about each.  Pics of the solar panels were shown above.

The Centro Solar seen from the gate with my back to the Pan American Highway.  The solar panel arrays are on the right and the Casita Solar is about 100 m directly to the left.

A solar distiller.  It is designed to be fed automatically from the large black plastic bottle (currently on the ground) and feed the distilled water into the plastic jug.  The water is for the batteries at the center and also for sale as a cash-flow source.

A parabolic concentrating collector with the pot placed at the focus.  This one is capable of burning or igniting things if left unattended.

A trough-type parabolic concentrating collector on a cooker.  This is a donated commercial product and uses vegetable oil as the heat transfer medium.

A prototype solar autoclave.  It is mounted like a wheelbarrow with individual mirrors focusing on a plain old Presta pressure cooker embedded in the plastic bucket with foam insulation.  The mirror arrays should fold up along the acis of the cart allowing it to fit through doors, however, the wood frame is not rigid enough the focus is lost.  And if in losing losing the focus on the pressure cooker, you gain a focus point on the plastic bucket, that's bad news!

Another project of the Centro Solar occurs off-site and is the making of charcoal from agricultural waste, primarily corn stalks, which would otherwise just be burned in the field.  I participated in the production of one batch of briquettes.  It’s really a rather simple process, but a bit time consuming and very messy!  Any kid who like finger painting would love making charcoa!  I'll post a few pictures showing the main steps in the process.

The beginning of the charcoal process.  The corn stalks on the right are broken up and stuffed into the barrel (with holes in the bottom).  A fine is started and after some time, flames start to appear (as shown).  The flames are allowed to burn for about 10 minutes, then the barrel is covered and sealed both on top and at the bottom with dirt/sand.  It is then left to smolder and cool by the next day.

The burnt cornstalks are crushed by dancing on a grain bag full of stalks.  The cauldron has a mixture of water and grated yuca (cassava or manioc my dictionary says) to form a starch paste.  This is then poured into the other basin and mixed with the corn-stalk powder until it clumps in the hand.  (William should recognize the woman in the cap:  he stayed with her family when he was here 3 years ago.)

The starch-carbon mixture is then stuffed into steel molds and hammered until well compacted.

yuca (cassava, manioc)

The formed briquettes are then ejected from the molds and spread out to dry.  The briquettes in the foreground are drying while a second batch is prepared to mold.  A barrel-full of corn stalks yields about 80-90 briquettes.

The Casita Solar includes many sustainable features often in conjunction with projects at the Centro Solar.  Among these are several alternative cooking methods:  solar cookers, bio-gas produced from the latrines, high-efficiency wood and charcoal using locally produced charcoal.  There are also solar panels/batteries sufficient to run a high-efficiency deep freeze as well as lighting.  They also have a bicycle-powered blender and are looking at other pedal-powered appliances.

The Casita Solar restaurant with the open-air dining room in the front and the kitchen in the back.  The biogas toilets to the right are the only flush toilets in Sabana Grande.  You can't see in the picture, but there are high voltage lines directly overhead, but the restaurant and Centro Solar are both off-grid.

Baking a cake and roasting coffee beans in one of the solar cookers at the restaurant.

A higer-efficiency wood stove and a couple of charcoal burners in the restaurant kitchen.

A second high-efficiency wood stove in the restaurant.

The gas stove that uses biogas produces by the toilets.  The manometer gives the pressure in the digester and they can cook about 5-6 hours at the maximum pressure.

The Montaña Solar is currently a beehive of activity.  Many of last year’s tree plantings (reforestation project) are now watered (by bucket) 3 times per week, but the established trees are able to survive the dry season.  An MIT student is working with a group on a gravity-fed drip irrigation system for the garden and potentially some of the trees as well.  Water will come from a solar-powered pump pumping water to a water tower.  A small warehouse/shed is being constructed (corrugated metal) to hold tools and other materials.  A kitchen is also being built of brick and plastered adobe.  This kitchen will be used to prepare sale items using fruits/vegetables from the trees and gardens, such as jams, jellies, cookies, etc.  A new, elevated, composting latrine is also being built which is the Taj Mahal of latrines.  (It will most certainly be featured in the 5-star category in my forthcoming special latrine post!)  Finally, there is a natural building class with around 15 participants who are putting up a natural building to be used as a classroom/office space.  They hope to have the building 99% finished within 2 weeks.  I got to help a little on pre-course preparations, including going on a bamboo-harvesting expedition.  It’s a much different kind of construction than "standard" in North America, but very interesting to watch the progress.

A group of recently planted trees in the reforestation project.  They plant a variety of trees to maintain more diversity and prevent disease.  The inverted bottles are the way that roots are watered without losing a lot to evaporation.

Another section where banana and castor are planted.  Caster is also planted with the coffee trees to provide shade.

 

New natural building showing the foundation and framework.  The foundation is bags of rock/sand that will be completely covered both inside and out.  You can see the stone facade started on part of the foundation.  All the materials are local.

Starting to add a mud-straw mixture to the walls.  The walls demonstrate various techniques, hence the wire mesh on one wall the woven bamboo on another.  The bamboo was harvested about a kilometer or so from the site.

Daily life in Sabana Grande

As all of you are aware, I’m not a sociologist, a psychologist nor a social scientist of any type, so. what follows are observations by a gringo with a bit over 2 weeks total experience in Nicaragua and a limited (to say the least!) ability to follow nuances of the language.  With that disclaimer, here are some observations.

Day to day life in Sabana Grande is challenging, if not plain hard.  This is not an easy place for the weak, the infirm or the old—I don’t think it would be possible to exist here is a wheelchair and very difficult with crutches or any mobility impairment.  I can witness some of this difficulty by observing the husband in my household , who manages with a crutch as a result of a landmine injury from the Contra war.  His solution is to get around by horse.  This is definitely not a place where one aspires to live long enough to become impaired.

The primary streets are dirt/gravel and often have large rocks sticking up or large ruts left from the rainy season; typically they have fords instead of bridges.  Secondary streets are similar, but are often about the width of a narrow driveway.  Tertiary streets are essentially ditches and not even passable by 4-wheel drive.  The streets are generally lined with undergrowth and/or hedges of some sort and there are almost always chickens everywhere.  When walking and not really paying attention, I am often startled when a chicken pops out or there is sudden rustling at the roadside.  Apparently chickens must have a decent homing instinct because they wander everywhere during the day.

A typical primary street passable by car or truck.  Usually much rougher than typical rural gravel roads in the US.

A secondary street that is much narrower, but still very passable by car (although two cars meeting can be a problem).

Another secondary street, but with ruts left over from the rainy season.  These streets generally require 4WD when it rains.

For reference, here is a picture from last May showing what I call a secondary street in the rain.

A tertiary "street."  The scale might not be apparent, but the gully right in the middle is about 5 feet deep.  These streets often require mountain bikes to be carried.  (Looks like a good civil engr. design project.)

There is also, of course, la Carretera Panamericana which is a well-paved 2-lane road with considerable traffic, though certainly not congested.  Vehicles range from ox carts (usually on the shoulders), to horses, bicycles, cars, buses and semis.  From observation, solid yellow lines mean absolutely nothing.  What is a bit frightening is that many pedestrians and cyclists are on this road at night without lights or even reflectors. 

La Carretera Panamericana--The Pan-American Highway.  Shown is a local bus (i.e., chicken bus) typically loaded.  These are usually old US school buses, although often painted much more creatively.  Note the considerable pedestrian traffic.

Evidence that pedestrians are sometimes victims.  Just as in the US, small memorials are erected along the highway at the location of fatalities.

For the vast majority (my house being an exception), water must be carried and pumped by hand from a common well generally within one-quarter mile, but sometimes considerably farther.  The path is often up/down relatively steep paths.  The water is carried on the head in 5-gallon buckets, apparently always by women.  I've seen many women walking with water balanced on their heads, but have not yet seen how they get 40 lbs of water up onto the head and back down again without losing it all.  This water is for everything:  drinking, washing, bathing, pets/livestock and cooking.  From personal experience at a well, pumping 5 gallons is a job in itself, then add the walk after that and it is a significant effort.  The pumps are a simple rotating crank-type, not like the typical reciprocating rural or state park pumps in the US.  The crank moves a rope strung with spaced ceramic balls in a tube about the ID of the balls’ OD.  The water is carried up between each pair of balls.  It is a simple system and easily repaired if something goes wrong.  Well depth seems to vary from 50-150 ft.

stubs

Example of a typical well installation.  The local community building is in the background.

Most of the wells and other improvement projects (including latrines, but I'll focus on them in a later post!) are funded by foreign governments or NGOs, among them the European Union, Spain, Netherlands, Canada, the US, Oxfam, Mennonite groups, etc.  Some projects also include Nicaraguan government or municipal funding.  Each project includes a large sign making sure credit for the project is appropriately given.  These signs seem to be permanent and some are 15 or more years old, dating back to the time just after thecontra war.  Today, the well water is generally safe, as long as you have immunity to the particular microbes, so foreigners are typically advised to drink only bottled water.  (Bottled water is provided as part of my volunteer fees.)

One of many signs advertising the donors and beneficiaries of various development projects.  This one is financed by the city of Valencia (Spain, I assume), the agent was a group called Valencians for Nicaragua and execution was by the Instituto de Promocion Humano.  This particular sign is only about 3 years old.

Any major shopping must be done in Ocotal and involves a one-half hour bus ride plus a 25-30 minute walk each way on each end.  For small items, there are “pulperias” scattered about, which are essentially small stores run out of living rooms.  (In fact, my house is a very limited example because you can recharge minutes on cell phones or modems.) 

An example of a pulperia.  It looks very much like a house, but there are usually a few signs (often soft drinks, candy, or cell phone) and sometimes a split door (Dutch door).  This one is actually about 30-40 m off of a main street, so you need to be aware that it's there to find it.

You need to know which is the appropriate pulparia for a specific item as they don't all carry the same items.  They will often be a 15-20 minute walk each way.  In addition, local women walk door to door with a few eggs, or tomatoes or other fruits and vegetables from home plots for sale.  Since doors are never closed, they often simply walk in and sit down to chat for a bit, and then either close a sale or simply get up and leave after whatever is deemed an appropriate time.  Some items, such as bread, may be delivered more formally by men.  The bread man at my house is over 60 and rides his mountain bike about 40 miles per day delivering bread.  The bike is outfitted with a large cardboard box to carry the bread, which is protected by a plastic sheet in the rainy season. There are also, of course, numerous bars scattered throughout the countryside and it is not uncommon to see men passed out along the streets (from the night before) as late as 14:00.

Tomas, the bread man with his bike.  I've seen him riding on the highway and he moves pretty well on a good surface.  His day starts so early that it's completely dark.  He has no light but does wear a reflective vest.

For women, the day is mostly spent in the kitchen, around the wash basin, carrying water or gathering firewood (the women associated with the solar projects being notable exceptions as they are involved in the development of a coop-type business and each has one or more roles in that enterprise).  The day starts before dawn (around 5-5:30) and generally doesn’t end until 21:00 or later.  Their kitchens have open-fire stoves, generally without chimneys.  Smoke escapes either through tile roofs or windows.  The health is one of the motivations for the development of solar cookers, the other being prevention of deforestation.  In addition, Grupo Fenix works on the introduction of more efficient wood and charcoal burning stoves with proper venting and the making of charcoal from agricultural waste.

A traditional kitchen in the house I stayed in last May.  Although the stove is really quite beautiful, it is not very healthy.  Note no chimney and the slotted windows for smoke (the cracks in the tile roof are not visible, but you can see how black the beams and rafters are).  Since May, this room was coated with what's called tierra blanca and is much brighter now.  Also note the ubiquitous coffee grinder on the post to the right and the water supply (bucket) of water under the counter on the left.

Two boys carrying firewood.  Two sisters and their mother are ahead of them with similar loads..

For the men, life is perhaps physically even harder, as most are in some form of agricultural work, which is all done by hand or on foot behind teams of oxen.  This includes plowing, planting, harvesting, threshing, etc.

Plowing with an ox-team.  The plow is a sharpened stick with no steel tip.  (This was actually taken in May when I was here.  January is dry season, so planting is not going on now.)

Cows (and a couple of burros) heading up to the mountain to graze for the day.  This is right across from my house.

This is some sort of threshing stand and I believe this field is a relative of sorghum.  In any case, the grain is put in the high enclosure and the farmer stands on the lower platform (behind the bush) and beats the grain with some kind of flail.  I haven't been up-close to see what the construction details are.

They also tend fruit and coffee trees and there are small herds of cattle driven down the streets each day on the way to or from grazing land.  However, the advantage for the men is that darkness falls at about 18:00 throughout the year, so farm work stops at about that time.  They therefore have time to sit, socialize or watch TV while dinner is served by the women.  In my house, the TV is dominated by sports, but telenovelas are quite popular as well.

One thing that stands out here when one first arrives is the amount of litter and trash that is everywhere.  (I remember that this was even worse in Yucatan, perhaps because Mexico is more prosperous and can afford more junk?)  One very common item that confused me at first is what looked like small plastic bow ties.  I discovered these are the bags in which snacks are sold on buses;  they are tied rather than using twists or tape.  One major contributor to the trash problem is that there is no trash collection in rural areas.  Cities and towns generally have some collection, but dumps are often just that:  an open dump with no land-fill coverage of the trash.  Therefore, even trash that is disposed of properly by individuals may end up scattered across the countryside.  I collect my trash and take it with me to Ocotal, where there is a legitimate landfill with some modest recycling.  One of the first times I walked along the Pan-American Highway, my thought was that someone needed to adopt the road like we do in the states.  However on reflection, I realized that people here work so hard just to live that there is very little energy left over for other things, such as aesthetics.  On a more positive note, there is some movement to develop better solid waste management and recycling in urban areas, but it has not reached the countryside as of yet.  This may also be changing, at least in Sabana Grande, as a new volunteer just arrived with the goal of working towards developing a viable model for trash collection here.

Day to day living

(Note:  I've just got a modem, but it is still a bit frustrating as it's about the speed of the old phone modems and I've been dropped twice during this post.  Hopefully I'll be in a bit better contact from now on.)

Some of this I’ve touched on before, but I’ll write some about my day to day living.   As mentioned before, I’m living in a relatively prosperous household.  (If you look at the map of Sabana Grande that I posted, I’m at house # 16)  In addition to those mentioned, some other marks of prosperity are:  a motorcycle (parked in the main living room), the satellite TV with 37 channels and a bio-digester that supplies gas to a cook stove (although not enough to avoid burning wood).  There appear to be about 8 permanent residents (some from 3 generations) and 2 gringos at present.  The two smallest (a girl about 2 and a boy about 5) are quire shy, but are starting to warm up, especially the boy.  He is particularly fascinated by sailboats on Lake Superior (I brought several post cards with pictures from WI, IA, IL and MN, plus pictures from some of our family trips).  

View of my room standing just outside the door.

 

Other corner of the room showing bed with malaria netting, although I've not seen any mosquitoes in the current dry season.

My room is about 9x9 with plastered walls, a concrete floor, no windows, a corrugated galvanized roof and a single CFL bulb.  There is about 1 ft of opening above the walls directly to rooms on both sides as well as to the outside, so light, sounds, smells all travel quite easily.  In general, the is quite active until 10 or 10:30, then settles down household (humans at least).  As mentioned, the roosters start about 3:30 or 4, then the “traffic” (most all on foot or horse) at about 5 or 5:30.  There are also intermittent dog fights whenever some brazen canine tries to enter a space that is already claimed.  Yesterday I had a surprise when I left for a few minutes without closing my door.  I returned and was reading with I was startled by a chicken that clucked and hopped down from my bed (the netting was tied up).  Later, when getting ready for bed, I found a fresh egg on the bed!  I'll try to keep my door closed from now on, but most common areas (kitchen, living room) do not have closed doors most of the time, so chickens, dogs, cats, ducks, etc., wander in from time to time.

View of ceiling/roof with my light.  The light is free-hanging and note the staples, bare wire and the wire disappearing into the plaster to the right of the door.  You can also see the open space between the roof and walls.

Our house is on the grid, but the wiring is very “interesting.”  It is basically a knob and tube style with separate, uninsulated wires for hot and common.  These are passes through simple electrical staples in the rafters.  The wires then disappear under the plaster and reappear at switches and outlets.  The outlets have 3 prongs, but I don’t find any ground wires.  The house is organized more or less as a “C” around a courtyard with outdoor “hallways,” somewhat akin to schools in CA.  The main entrance and main room are at one end facing onto the street and the kitchen is at the other end of the “C.”  In the central courtyard is the communal wash sink for dishes, shaving, hand-washing, laundry, etc.   

View of the front from the main street.  Note the satellite dish and the water tower at the right.  This part has the main living space with the TV and stereo.

The blue section is behind and perpendicular to the main part and has several rooms.  Mine is to the right mostly hidden behind the plants.  The white to the left is not attached and contains the kitchen and a bedroom.

Another view showing the kitchen to the left and the sink for laundry, dish washing and kid bathing.  Note the PVC pipe and ball valve for the running water.

Also there is a shower, with water from an elevated tank fed by an electric pump.  The water is unheated and the shower enclosure is open-topped with a tattered curtain for the door.  The door opens onto the main street and breezes can easily blow the curtain completely open.  (I also discovered that when the spigot at the sink is turned on, there is absolutely no flow to shower, but at least there’s no danger of being scalded.)  Luckily I don’t have my glasses on when showering, so since I can’t see anyone else, I’m sure they can’t see me!  The shower arrangement also highlights a couple of advantages of being on the older side:  first, if someone did happen to go by when the curtain blew open, s/he would likely try to avoid having to look anyway and second, I think you reach an age at which vanity simply disappears.   

View of shower taken from near the street.  The kitchen door is to the right.  The dark things to the lower left are horse manure--this is where the horse is parked.

Close-up of shower, again with PVC pipe and a ball valve for control.

Toilet facilities are on the far side of the courtyard with 3 complete outhouses (all one-seaters).  They are standard metal latrines from various development projects of the last 10 or 15 years.  (Daughter Sarah has expressed an interest in having a more complete review of latrine facilities, so a later entry will be dedicated to that topic.  Sarah, of course, is a conesiour of latrines.)  Otherwise the courtyard is filled with trees, many of them bearing fruit, but there is generally no ground cover.  However, there are some flower beds and rose bushes, though not much is in bloom right now.

View from approximately my door across the yard.  Kitchen is to the right, the sink about the middle, the green metal latrine just below the jeans on the line and the shower is just to the left off the picture.

My breakfast and dinner are generally served in the main room or sala and I often eat with Liz, a natural builder from Maine who is here to teach a course next week and is constructing a natural building for the use of Grupo Fenix.  It is also possible to eat with food in your lap, either in the kitchen or outside.  We never eat with the family as a group and, in fact, the family never eats as a group.  It is something like a short-order restaurant with folks eating on their own schedules.  It is interesting that if Liz and I are served together, I am given my food first, which feels very odd to me.  The meals always have rice and beans.  In addition, one or more selected from cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggs, meat (very little and not very frequently), bananas, pineapples, and various fruits and vegetables that are not familiar to me.  For the noon meal, I always eat in the Casita Solar, which is a new venture by the solar center that recently opened.  It is to eventually open to the public and will help support the solar center’s programs.  As of now, it is purely for volunteers and other pre-scheduled events.  We are also supplied refreshments mid-morning and mid-afternoon, which consists of juice, tea or coffee (locally grown and roasted in the solar cookers) and crackers or a variety of local pastries, although “pastry” does not imply sweet in Nicaragua.

Hopefully this gives a somewhat accurate picture of my accommodations here.  I’ll try to include more about general community life and other aspects as I learn more about this place.  So far however, I’m feeling quite comfortable, but my Spanish causes occasional unprovoked hilarity by the locals.  (And to think that my kids keep telling me that I’m not funny!).   As an example, after we had salvaged a piece of broken glass by using silicone to put it back together.  My comment was “Lo salvamos,” which I took to mean we saved it or we rescued it…which it sort of does.  However, apparently the implication here his that we saved it in sense of the glass being born again and guaranteed an entrance into heaven, which the women I was with found unbelievably funny.

Arrival...and getting on the net

Augusto Sandino International Airport tarmac.

Busts of women representing various continents and nationalities in the airport.  Each stand contained a literature or poetry excerpt related to that particular country/culture.

Ruben Dario mural on the wall of the airport.  The first airport I´ve seen with a poet prominently displayed.

I finally today figured out connecting to the net, so an updated post.

Flight arrived about one-half hour late, but customs was a snap. The only hitch in the airport was that I couldn’t get on the internet even though the computer indicated that I had a good wireless connection—I hope that’s not an omen of computer problems!   The Augusto Sandino International Airport is about one-fifth the size of one concourse in Atlanta and we were the only plane at the gates.  When the plane landed, instead of turning onto an adjacent taxiway, it had to turn around on the runway and taxi back on the runway itself.  The terminal is quite modern (but not air conditioned) and is perhaps unusual because it has a large mural of a poet—Rubén Darío—one of Nicaragua’s heroes.   It’s rather nice to find a country that has a poet as a hero, I think.   The airport also has busts of nine women from different cultures/countries with a short poem or prose excerpt extolling the virtues of that particular culture.

I met up with the group who’ll be taking the solar course the first week here and we were on the bus by 15:30, arriving Sabana Grande at about 19:00.  The course only has 2 other participants and amazingly, I’m not the oldest.  Miguel is a year older, a native Cuban currently from Hawaii and here just to take the course.  Greg is a recent college grad who’ll be here as a volunteer the entire 3 months that I’m here.

I’m staying with the family of Marco and Vidalia and still need to figure out the kids’ names (or even who their kids actually are!).  Doors are always open in Nicaragua and neighbors/friends simply wander in and join the conversation.  This family is much more prosperous than the one I stayed with in May and the accommodations are, in fact, relatively luxurious.  They have an electric pump and a water tower, so there is actually a shower (though not heated and outside), The latrine has a door and is tall enough to stand up in, I have a light and power in my room, and they have satellite TV.  As I was eating supper, I saw the last couple of innings of a baseball game (the season is just starting in Nicaragua) and left for bed just as the movie Serpientes a Bordo (Snakes on a Plane) was starting. 

After a good night’s sleep (although just as in May, the roosters start about 4:00), started a slow introduction to the course with a tour and discussion of the reforestation project and the associated solar water pump and drip irrigation system.  In the afternoon, we walked to La Muta (another sub-community in Sabana Grande) to hike down a very beautiful valley with cascades, pools and waterfalls.  Those who know me well will be very surprised that I actually went swimming.  After hiking, the water was quite refreshing although the temperature here in the highlands are very comfortable—mid 70’s in the day and mid 60’s at night.  This contrasts with highs in the high 80’s or low 90’s in Managua.  The final surprise today was a decent rain shower (maybe .1 inch), although this is reputedly the dry season and there should be no rain at all.
I'll try to add some photos next time.

T-minus 2 days...

Two days to go and hopefully all is under control.  I filed for an extension on my tax return today, so I will not have to worry taxes until I'm back.  Packing is pretty well done and and loose ends are tied up.  We purchased tickets for Susan to come from March 1-11, so she'll spend her birthday in Nicaragua this year.

Tomorrow, Susan takes me to Rockford where I'll stay in a motel and catch an early bus to ORD on Friday.  We're keeping and eye on the weather (and fingers crossed), however...after a springlike start to January, winter storm advisories are now posted for the precise time that I begin the trip!

Before I leave, I thought I'd post some maps so you can get an idea of exactly where I am.  (If you go to Google Maps and look at this location, you'll find that the satellite pic was taken when the area was covered by a cloud, so you can't see anything.)

The first map shows the entire country and the arrow points to my location.  I'm only about 30 km from the Honduran border and the highway mileage (kilometerage?) is about 212 km from Managua.  I'm located in the Department of Madriz, the town of Totogalpa, and the community of Sabana Grande.  If fact, as you'll see below, Sabana Grande is further divided into neighborhoods.

 The second map is a blow-up of the northeastern part of Nicaragua, again with an arrow pointing to my location.  The darker, wider roads are the Pan American Highway.  The highway splits at Yalaguina with the northern branch (passing through Sabana Grande) heading to Tegucigalpa and the western branch heading to San Salvador.

  Finally, this is a map of the community of Sabana Grande.  The Carretera Norte (yellow road going top to bottom on the left) is the Pan American Highway.  It is a two-lane road, but nicely paved, and in fact, the only paved road in the area.  The orange roads are roughly equivalent to rural gravel roads in the States, but are typically quite rutted and streams are forded rather than bridged.  These roads are, for the most part, passable by two-wheel drive cars.  The blue "roads" are more akin to gullies with a footpath on each side.  Only four-wheel drive vehicles (or perhaps a motorbike if you're willing to get off occasionally and push) can typically navigate these roads.  The "clouds" with the names represent the neighborhoods and I'll be staying at one of the houses with the number code.  After arrival I'll post my exact location so they'll know where to send the drones.  The green star is the headquarters for the group with which I'm working.