Nicaragua: San Jose, Malacatoya, San Jose

11 julio San Jose, Malacatoya, San Jose

Jorge, the Mayor’s agenda advisor, met with us again, this time at the Municipal offices. He discussed the selection of the communities, who are chosen based on their social and environmental capacity. This includes gauging passion for development and desire for energy access and improved health services. The Committee considers three factors when exploring a community project: environmental, economic, and social consciousness. Every potential community should have an economic plan, diagnostic and map, potable water and/or energy uses/needs, school energy and production uses. The community must decide the energy needs and uses, because they know better than the municipality. Most important is the sense of group and a map of each inhabitant and what specific needs that house/business would have. A larger view can be extracted from this.
We had met with the community the other day. They have a waterfall approx. 3km away and a project that can work there. Jorge said that there was a system in L___ before but was destroyed during landslides during Hurricane Mitch.
dispositions of other communities were discussed with regard to the suitability of RE projects.
The upper regions have more forested lands and more availability of water, whereas the middle and lower regions are dryer. In the lower area of Boaco, there is one well that could have the capacity to serve the entire area if it is distributed well. They are currently working on the diagnostics for the lower regions. Reforestation can be helpful when done in tandem with pumping projects.

Jorge then invited us to the Mayoral Committee’s meeting after which we went to Malacatoya. we learned that George had assembled the turbine and the generator the previous day, after all, and that tests were ready to go ahead on three houses before the system started up 100%. it rained mightily! we heard the conga monkey again on our wet walk back which culminated at Paulo's house. they served us some delicious coffee, and we asked where it was from. he pointed to the coffee plants behind his house, and they explained that they roast the beans for their own consumption in the firewood kitchen stove. coffee doesn't get fresher than that!

back at Nonnie’s hospidaje, R had what she termed the “best shower” she’s ever had. with a water hose. i got to wash my clothes with a washboard again, just like the good old days in China. hard to find better traveling companions than this, must say.

Nicaragua: San Jose, L____, Managua

8 julio San Jose, L____, Managua

Juan Manuel is the Committee chair in L____; the Committee numbers five. we got to Vicente’s house, who is the mayor and the only one at this time with electricity, which comes from solar panels on the roof. he has a TV radio, 1 light, a refrigerator, and two outlets. their house doubles as a pulperia. the school also has solar electricity. 33 families live in this community with 6 more families outside the community. the Committee is looking to get micro hydro power from the nearby stream. Anna, Jaime and i went to the falls after Jaime had begged some coffee and tortillas for us. the falls were many but the altura small, so Juan Manuel took us a bit farther upstream where the caudal was larger. they informed us there was a larger falls farther up, and Jaime asked them to get the height and flow of the falls in the next few days. we headed back to Vicente’s house.
Anna asked what other ONGs worked in the area.
members of the Committee asked why solar could not be used instead of micro hydro. if i were to hazard a guess as to why, i would say that they have seen that solar power can be installed on individual houses without the community infrastructure needed to design, implement and maintain a micro-hydro system. Anna and Jaime answered that micro hydro generates electricity 24/7 as opposed to solar which only generates power during sun hours.
Anna and i asked Vicente’s wife about her children’s graduate pictures. Her daughter graduated from secondary school in Teustepe and is currently a secretary in Managua. She comes back frequently, in part to help around the house and assuredly to see her 3-year old son who stays in Lagunas with the rest of the family. Vicente and his wife have three daughters and one son. The son is currently attending school in Teustepe. Even during planting and harvesting seasons, he goes to school on Sundays, which is a sacrifice for the family. We asked her about women’s roles in the community and then whether there was a women’s Committee, as well. the Committee, which deals primarily with matters of health and education, is comprised of 5 women. they are hoping to create a clinic by December 2007 with a health promoter (there is not a nurse or practitioner in the area at this time). It seemed that the clinic would benefit from electricity, and they seem excited by this. The Committee meets always in the afternoons. when asked about health problems in the area, she mentioned calenture, diarrhea, and brijules.
back with the Energy Committee, Juan Manuel came with a clipboard of all the houses, names and numbers of their residents.
We went back to Managua after this to Hotel Los Felipes. Rather expensive for the hotel (though I always think everything is expensive). Plenty of smaller hospidajes for future reference. We met up with H,B, and R in short order.
For dinner, H, B & R had found a swell eatery during their walk. The best fritanga ever! Dona Pilar, look no further. Overarching topics of conversation: availability of water generally, Georgia v. Oregon in terms of conscientiousness, etc.

Nicaragua: Managua, San Jose, Malacatoya, San Jose

7 de julio Managua, San Jose, Malacatoya, San Jose

Jaime picked us up in his white truck about 8am, and we headed out for San Jose and points beyond. San Jose is about a 1 ½ hour trek from Managua with roads that faded from traffic to rubble and dust and culminated with San Jose’s “Samoza” blocks that run about 4-5 blocks in any direction from the center of town. stopped at a house with a swanky, small wooden spiral staircase that turned out to belong to a fellow named Jorge, the one who directs the Mayor’s agenda. the discussion went a little something like this:

there is a Committee in the north and one in the south. the one in the north seems to have less motivation or vision for development than the other.
regarding Malacatoya, the installation will take place either on tuesday afternoon or wednesday morning.
the demand is the same in most of the communities, but the applications and uses are different: some communities need energy and water, others primarily water; some can benefit from micro-hydro, others will require solar. regarding hydro-electric, they discussed how water delivery and electricity can be offered in tandem. the water confluence is pretty large, but its source is not one large waterfall but many sources that flow into the same flow. the majority of communities do not have adequate water delivery service. most have wells of some sort, but they are by and large manually-pumped and not suitable for the quantity of people they serve. the manual wells have the additional issue of claves breaking, rendering the wells unusable. Communities already identified as needing water projects were identified by name. 25 of the communities in the area have already been identified as not having sufficient water. Union Fenosa apparently has a scheduled increase of 2% annually for its utility services, which makes the system even less tenable to rural communities. Currently, water is for consumption in most communities but not for anything else like irrigation. if there was more water available to those areas, it could completely change the economic capabilities and lifestyles of the zone. just a little irrigation will allow a lot of crop cultivation. corn is a difficult crop to grow because it is expensive to buy the seeds for the first plant. it’s also difficult to ensure the quality of the seeds, and farmers have to buy the seeds every year. the priority is to provide energy where there is none, but Jorge also mentioned that some communities that have energy could benefit from a backup system because the national grid is less than reliable. there will be more rationing in future (Managua alone requires 500 mW). on Malacatoya: it is near the grid, but there is no electricity available to speak of. the only alternative is an independent system. the assembly of the turbine and generator should take place on tuesday afternoon.
we got to Malacatoya by way of San Jose (a “settled” town). along the way, we encountered a number of folks that knew Jaime by sight. he is obviously well known and liked by the community (we started calling him "Antonion Banderas"). the jeep took us as far as it could which was to the base of an incline where mud (“lodo”) prevented further driving. up and down and some slips later, we got to the site of the micro-hydro plant. the building has been constructed, the penstock about to be fitted, and the turbine and generator are sitting on the plant floor. four guys are currently working on seating the penstock, which needed an additional four metres. George is coming on tuesday to install the turbine and generator. Jaime explained that the injector controls the flow into the turbine the canal around the plant keeps water from washing against the wall and potentially weakening (?).
Anna said that she and Suzanne Adatto had been out a few years earlier when there was no building. everyone seems VERY excited at this stage. one fellow named Orlando accompanied us back to his house where we talked about the project at greater length. there was a good deal of discussion about tariffs: whether it would be by household or by appliance (a suggestion Anna made). Jaime explained that tariffs would help keep consumption down to what and when people need it. who will enforce and set up payment? the Committee. will there be a paid operator and technician, or will everyone be volunteers? Orlando explained that a technician would not be paid and that tariffs would go to maintenance. the Committee will check the plant from time to time. Anna asked about pulpadoras; Orlando has one in his backyard which we went out to see after the discussion. throughout the conversation, the women kept on the outskirts of the room. Orlando’s wife came out at one point, and the younger women came in and snuggled behind her, peeping out at the others. another worker at the plant (Tony?) came in the doorway, and his wife stood behind him and rested her head on his back. after we had gone back to the truck, we mused how amazing it was that so much change in a project could happen in such a short time.
got back to San Jose and looked for a room of which Jaime knew. needed prep, so we went down the street to a comedor. Anna turned and asked, “isn’t it funny how, in Nicaragua, the first thing you ask when you go into a restaurant is, ‘is there any food’?” it’s pretty hilarious. at Snack Brisas near the Quaker House two days before, they didn’t have rice and beans, though later they confessed to having gallopinto (which is rice and beans mixed together). we got some Really Delicious eggs and rice and beans. then to the room, then Anna and Jaime worked on a proposal while i went to a cyber and typed up notes. good reggaeton, so i stayed for an extra hour. fireworks outside sounded like gunfire. the paved streets (with “Samoza” blocks, according to Anna) and clip-clop of the horse hooves which made for good transportation made it sounds for all the world like a traditional western show. San Jose’s streets are paved well, but in some ways it feels like a town on stilts because all the roads leading to/from it seem to lead down and quickly become rubble and dirt/mud roads. the pulperias sell horseshoes right next to the refrigerators holding juice and coca-cola (“gaseosa”).
when i got back from the cyber, Anna and Jaime were just finishing up their session on the proposal, beer was requisite at this point. lot of young children out at night we found. over Tona, we mused as to whether women have any organizations or Committees or gathering places in Malacatoya. also brainstormed other ways to get statistics regarding health in communities. plan to stop by clinics or hospitals in the area of San Jose to get information including diseases, ailments, reasons for doctor trips or any issues that could relate to water or nutrition as it might relate to distance of water carrying.

Nicaragua: Bocay, El Bote, Matagalpa

1 de julio 2007: Bocay, El Bote, Matagalpa

woke up and had breakfast the same spot as the night before. tortillas and queso seco. Aleyda explained divorce in Nicaragua, which happens more frequently now than before (i don{t think this has anything to do with renewable energy, by the way). people who marry the 2nd time can have a civil marriage, but church weddings are not really ¨done¨. she mentioned marriage encounters (encuento conjugales), which seems a predominant way for catholics to work out communication difficulties in their relationships. my parents went on a marriage encounter once that saved their marriage, so we swapped stories.

we said godbye to Bocay with its Benjamin Linder banner and headed to El Bote!!

our first stop before the hydroplant was ATDER{s telephone station. we met with ATDER{s agronomist, Buonoera, who talked about the harvesting and planting methods for coffee, plantains, bananas, beans, and rice. th major question was ne of incentivesÑ farmers need reason to change farming habits that are more immediate than promises of llong'term sustainability and social quality. farmers are paid to plant the initial harvest and maintain sustainable techniques.

he had pictures of all the farms to be bought with corresponding maps of their plots. very impressive!

in the midst of this, i met Eric and his friend Lester as well as Lester{s sister (who was too shy to introduce herself). Eric started working for ATDER'BL a week ago since school is out. he helps Rebecca as a manager, though i was unclear in precisely what capacity. i walked across the street after being beckoned by the owner of the pulperia. he asked where we were from and how we were involved in the project. Anna came over, and he sat us down in his house and asked rather pointed questions about the funding. apparently he was worried about a new government being bought by foreign interests. as auxiliary mayor, Alcade came with us as we looked at the fence marking the watershed and coffee plants growing under the shade of banana trees. they plant posts which end up sprouting leaves and roots. it{s called a ¨cerca vivo¨. satisfied with the reasons for our visit, he was dropped off back at the pulperia before we headed up to the hydroplant. it´s HUGE!
1 mW, 2 turbines with 2 injectors eachand 2 generators, with one control panel to rule them all. the transformers can be easily found just above the plant and fed into the grid. behind the plant was a small house with the falls beyond. El Mexicano said that the falls have 3 tiers, 2 of which were high enough that we couldn{t even see them. we thought that roaring falls would prevent sleep, but the noise was much diminished inside the thickly'walled house. hopefully, the walls will also filter some of the noise from the generator which will be rather intense when it{s operational. Doris and daughter Maria have lived there for the past 4 months. Maria will start school in the next session, a 20'30 minute walk upsteps of the falls. we walked back into the plant where Buonoera, _________, and the El Bote plant operator were looking over designs. a lightning bolt had hit the plant the night before and knocked out one of the parts of the control panel. Rebecca had apparently alreadycome by and taken the part to be replaced.

we left the plant and headed back to ATDER{s telephone headquarters (Eric was there to greet us) and said goodbye to everyone there as well as Alcade across the street. we followed the lines back to El Cua (beuatiful pillars and endless lines). we saw the lechedora on the way back. i had hoped that we would pass by the Iglesia Luz Eternal which we passed in El Bote just before the telephone station, but no such luck. a quick goodbye to El Mexicano, and then the bus back to Matagalpa. there were plenty of stops and starts along the way: sacks of beans loaded, a boisterous group of guys kicked off the bus for being ¨too drunk¨and kicking up a fuss in the street, a woman with a LOT of lipstick shuffling her children to the back of the bus, beans unloaded, etc etc. being the last bus, it was nightfall before we were halfway to Matagalpa. the fireflies lit up parts of the field. pulperias were open into the night. music could be heard from the road all along the countryside under El Bote{s electrical lines. a few houses could be seen across the hillside. it was magical. i{ve never noticed how much a little electricity ca change an entire region. Alcade, when asked how electrcity had changed his pulperia, said that there was ¨more protection and safety, more goods to be sold, more customers¨. he has had the pulperia for 18 years, since well before the electricity cam. he remembered Ben Linder.

Aleyda{s husband and nephew, Ditmar, came to pick us up when we hit Matagalpa at 8:30m or so. they were kindenough t take us to a hotel. Anna and i went foraging for dinner and passed up a pizza joint for platinos and friojles molidas (and cerveza!). at the end of the meal, the proprietress asked where we were from and divulged that 3 children of hers lived in LA. everyone seems to have some connection to the States. Anna and i walked back to the hotel by way of the church which had a banner hanging next to it advertising, ¨Cowboy Festival, Toro Mecanico¨. for the previous night. bummer.

Nicaragua: El Cua, La Pita, Bocay

30 junio 2007: El Cua, La Pita, Bocay

had breakfast at the same spot in El Cua. tortillas and ¨queso seco¨. funky cheese, as Anna calls it. we met with Inocencio, or Ël Mexicano¨(called this because he spent 12 years in Mexico), who drove us in ATDER´s 4x4. we headed for La Pita, one of the micro-hydro plants. El Mexicano works in the taller, or machine shop, of ATDER-BL. they have a few lathes, a few drill pressesand the obligatory tabgle saw among other tools. their shop is often used to make pieces for the turbines, etc. that are easier and cheaper to make than they would be to hunt down and buy.

when we got to La Pita, El Mexicano showed that a few parts he had created were at work in the La Pita turbine. i wondered what he did while in Mexico and later learned from Anna that he worked as a taxi driver.

a number of folks were kind enough to greet us in La Pita - Dionysio, who was sporting a CARE tshirt, Euclides, whose jacket had Ben Linder´s logo on it, Isidoro and Lionel. they first showed us the plant, which had one turbine and one injector. Dionysio said that he was n charge of helping coordination within the community. there are three types of meetings with reagrd to the plantÑ assemblies, coordinator meetings, and general meetings with prncipal leaders. the oordinator meetings are often with 20 people or so and serve to discuss legal and logistical matters. i believe the principal leaders are principally for logistics and tactics. assembly meetings often involve 100 people and focus on consent and visioning for the community. Anna learned from Euclides of some businesses in town the welding shop (soldadura), carpenteria, and more pulperias than you can shake a stick at. they said the biggest problem that they had was lack of meters, which caused a loss 0f revenue and theft of more energy than houses are supposed to consume. until they have these, they are basically losing money and electricity.

we went next to the co'op, a place where bananas are treated and washed so that they will fetch a higher price on the market. it{s a cooperative with over 30 people. we went around the area a little more and checked out the welding area, complete with rusted trucks and junkyard dogs. on the way back, there was a family of four women. when asked how the light had changed them, they said simply, ¨we have light. our house is beautiful now¨. they seemed happy at being called guapas. the adjective or my bad spanish? you decide.

next was a meeting with everyone involved with the plant back at the telephone office. there was a cinematographer with cameras draped like leaves awaiting us from ASOLPIC hat made us feel better, what with our cameras. i will assume Anna can describe the meeting better than me. El Mexicano and i went back to check out the school which was closed. it is a primary school. the secondary school students go to El Cua. El Mexicano said he came back from Mexico 4 years ago and started wrking for ATDER shortly after that. before, he was working as a taxi driver in Mexico City, which is not nearly so beautiful as La Pita. not hard to imagine.

going back to the meeting, the fellow from ASOLPIC asked everyone to say what they thought of GE. he first just asked Anna and i our impressions of La Pita. the most important questions asked of any of the three women present seemed to be ¨soltera o casada?¨ this pretty well sent us on our way to Bocay.

on the way t Bocay, we stopped by the lechadura, complete with its own generator. the lechadura keeps the milk cold, about 45 degrees when we visited.

Bocay{s generator does not currently have the second injector installed, which will augment both the number of people and the wattage. i believe the main issue is just one of connecting. it was amazing to see the amount of water that could generate s much energy.

in Bocay, there s a new school named after Elisabeth Linder. when we were there, there was a computer course in sesion teaching basics of spreadsheets. Ella, the office manager for the school, said that students who learn will use new skills for further study but will most likely stay in Bocay.

Chepito, manager of APRODELBO, was pretty darn forthcoming on a lot of issues. one of the most interestingaspects of the conversation was corporate social responsibility. let{s just say he wasn{t a fan.

we went to dinner and discussed different types of music. everyone seemed to like ranchero, no one understood the abiding love that Anna and i have for reggaetown. the restaurant was open after dark with at least 2 refregerators. whole trucks were in town for saturday evening religious services. Felix was right: the music and lights seemed to make everything festive. walked back after dark, we noticed most houses were still lit with music and talking coming from within. we walked under at least three lights.