It's been a long time since the last blog post - nearly a month. That's not because there's nothing been happening and I've had nothing to write about, but at the same time it's not that I've been so busy and occupied that I haven't had time to sit down and write. It's basically just because we have a kind of routine here which revolves around our communal living situation, and it's just too easy to fall into the habit of spending free time relaxing in the lounge strumming a guitar, or sitting out back playing dominoes, rather than knuckling down in front of the computer and writing.
It's kind of ironic that one of the reasons I think I can never settle anywhere for very long is that I have a fear of routine and of time passing me by too quickly. Yet in many ways there is more routine in my daily life here, and time is passing more quickly, than back in Germany. Every morning starts the same - I get up around 7:30, grab some toast and coffee downstairs then head to the office in INATEC where I sit at my computer and work on my projects, occasionally venturing up to the workshop to show my face and see what's going on. At 10 the boy who sells the paties comes round and I buy two of his tasty spicy paties for 10 cordobas (30p). At 12:30 we all head back up to the main house for lunch, cooked by the mamas, and at 1:30 we head back down to the office to carry on working. People start drifting out of the office around 5pm, but I generally stay till around 5:45, when it's getting dark and the street dogs start getting nasty. Once home I have my (cold) shower, dry off and head downstairs to see who's around and what dinner plans are. Occasionally we go out to eat but usually we make something, nine times out of ten some variation on pasta with onion, garlic and tomatoes, or "toe-may-toes" as most people here call them.
And that pattern repeats itself every day, except for the occasional trips out to the communities. All this is not to say that things are boring - far from it. I'm enjoying life here hugely, still learning lots and generally having a great time. I am still working primarily on the 17' turbine and the biodigester. The focus of my turbine report has changed a little in the last couple of weeks. Originally I was supposed to produce a report detailing to our management how much it would cost to develop and build the 17' turbine, and the intention was that blueEnergy would fund it from their R&D budget. However, like all NGOs these days (I guess), money is tight at blueEnergy at the moment and it has been decided to try and find an external funder/partner for the 17' turbine. So I have been rearranging and rehashing the report a bit to make it into a document that can be sent to potential funders as a proposal. That should be ready in the next few days. On the biodigester front, having expored several potential designs, I have now arrived at what I believe is the "right" design for our needs, basically a fairly light modification to a design that's used in a few places around the world already. Things are only really being complicated somewhat by bossman G's propensity to think bigger than is perhaps achievable - every time I show him a design, I see his eyes light up as he dreams of all the extra possibilities that open up. Now he wants to plonk his workshop on top of the digester (don't ask me why). However I'm confident I can rein him in a little and I'm hoping that construction work will start in the next couple of weeks.
This week we had were visited by a group from MIT in Boston. Amy, a PhD student working on charcoal production in developing countries, brought three undergrad students down to visit blueEnergy and see what we get up to, and in return they gave us a fascinating workshop on how to produce charcoal from waste products like coconut husks and sugar cane bagasse. Due to me owning a large, impressive-looking camera, I was given the job of accompanying the group for the week and documenting their trip in photo and blog form. That meant I got to tag along on their trip to Kakhabila, a nice chance to break up the aforementioned routine for a couple of days. There are a few more university visits in the pipeline for the coming weeks, and the report I'm writing will be posted on the bE website as a tool to attract more (and thereby bring some more funds to blueEnergy). I'm hoping to make this a permanent gig and get to go on all the trips these groups will be making.
Whilst on the subject of universities, some good news came in during the three weeks since my last post - I got accepted onto the Atmosphere/Energy Masters program at Stanford University in California! Seeing as probably the main reason for my coming to Nicaragua and joining blueEnergy at all was to strengthen my university applications, it's job done really. But the experience and knowledge I'm gaining here will also help me, I believe, to get some research work with some of the professors at Stanford so that I can help fund my time there. Because a Stanford education doesn't come cheap...
Next week is Semana Santa, or Holy Week, and we all have the week off here in Bluefields. I'm heading out to Little Corn Island for some snorkelling, diving and hammock time. I actually went there a couple of weeks ago just for the weekend, but this time I've got six days to chill out by the blue Caribbean sea. Report and pictures coming up in the next blog!
Phil
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