Joseph Marino and Philip Beard visit Hogar Amiguitos

– Written by Philip Beard, 17 June 2008

(Background: Joseph Marino, President/CEO of DC Power Systems in Healdsburg, CA, and his longtime friend and facilitator Philip Beard arrived in Nicaragua on May 22, 2008 for a 2-week stay. The main purpose of their visit was to investigate potential sites for solar energy installations, to be undertaken in tandem with Green Empowerment. In 2005, the two had coordinated the installation of a 9-kW photovoltaic system for the María Luisa Ortíz Women’s Clinic in Mulukukú — to date the largest photovoltaic array in Nicaragua. The following are Philip’s notes on the trip.)

Joseph and I were scheduled to meet Green Empowerment’s Gordy Molitor in Matagalpa on May 28. We had a full schedule before then: first to Ometepe for two days’ sightseeing, then to Belén to visit old friends, to Rivas to renew a 10-year-old acquaintance with the ecofarming NGO called CIVITE (Centro integral de vida y tecnología), San Juan del Sur to check our a wind turbine installation there, and Mulukukú to trouble-shoot a serious battery problem. Douglas Gonzales, general manager of the solar contractor Suni Solar who’d collaborated on the Mulukukú installation, hooked up with us for the Rivas, San Juan del Sur, and Mulukukú segments of the trip.

I. CIVITE

At CIVITE we talked for over an hour with the center’s director, Agustín Alvarado, about the directions the organization had moved in during the ten years since I’d first met them. The most interesting recent change from the point of view of potential solar power applications was that Agustín and fourteen other ecofarmers were forming a cooperative to more effectively share information, equipment, bulk purchases, and marketing strategies. And that cooperative group all faced the same serious problem: Their well pumps are all powered by diesel generators, and diesel fuel now costs over $5/gallon in Nicaragua – enough to break them if they can’t find a cheaper source of power.

Querying Agustín for relevant information about farm sizes, daily water requirements, gross annual income per acre assuming adequate water pumping, etc., Joseph did one of his inimitable back-of-the-napkin calculations to conclude that a small investment fund of a few thousand dollars would suffice to finance a pilot installation of several solar-powered, battery-backed well pumps. This capitalization would be lent to the farmers, who would pay back the loan over as few as four or five years after installation of the new system. From then on, they will own the system, never again having to pay a cent for the power they need to get their water out of the ground. And the example they will be setting, in both the agricultural and financing aspects of the plan, should be easily replicable in other parts of Nicaragua and the world at large.

We’ll be communicating with Agustín by email to work out the details of the plan. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to raise the modest investment amount needed through Green Empowerment and other sustainability-oriented funding sources.

From Rivas we motored in our Toyota Prado 4-wheel-drive SUV up to Mulukukú, where the next day we diagnosed the battery problem: Too much heat in the room housing the batteries, a defective automatic battery-watering system, and unauthorized extra loads had contributed to their early breakdown. Appropriate design changes – better ventilation, manual watering, and a more stringent education program to prevent overloading the system – will hopefully preclude any recurrence of this vexing and expensive problem.

II. Side trip to El Cuá with the ATDER – Benjamin Linder Group

After two days in Mulukukú we motored to Matagalpa to meet Gordy at the new “Café Artesanos”, run by our good friend Noel Armando Montoya. It was great to see the joint hopping that evening. It’s become the new hot spot of the city, mainly because it’s the only place in town that serves a wide variety of mixed drinks (some 40 of them). Great coffee too.

The next morning we went first to the main office of Green Empowerment’s collaborator ATDER-BL. (The ATDER stands for “Associación de trabadores de desarrrollo rural” or Association of Rural Development Workers; the BL stands for Benjamin Linder, the first U.S. citizen killed by the Contras during that 10-year war, in which over 30,000 Nicaraguans, or about 1% of the nation’s populace, lost their lives.) The office is located in Matagalpa though most of the hydroelectric work the group does is in the El Cuá - Bocay area further north – the area Ben Linder was working in when he was assassinated in 1987. There we met Aleyda Morales, ATDER’s office manager, who would guide us to El Cuá to meet the redoubtable Rebecca Leaf, a U.S.-born engineer who had been working with Ben when he was killed, and has continued ever since to promote his legacy of hydro-powered electricity for the people.

Our first day in El Cuá, after meeting Rebecca at the local ATDER office, we journeyed perhaps fifteen miles out of town to the hamlet of Pita del Carmen, where ATDER in 2000 had overseen and funded the installation of a 30-kW micro-hydro system that serves 300 families previously without electricity. Here’s the dam:

Even more impressive was our next day’s visit to ATDER’s facility at El Bote that produces nearly one megawatt of power at peak flow. This installation provides all the electric power consumed by the ~ 15,000 people in the entire El Cuá – Bocay area, with surplus power sold into the national grid. Going on line in 2006, it was built over a three-year period with a $2.2 million interest-free 30-year loan from the World Bank, negotiated by Rebecca Leaf. (She recounted that the only hitch was that the loan had to be routed through the Nicaraguan government, and the latter is charging 5.5% annual interest on it! She’s currently lobbying hard to have the interest rate reduced.)

Here’s the dam, and the powerhouse below the falls:

In all, some very impressive testimonials to ATDER’s wonderful work. Ben Linder would be justly proud indeed. And Green Empowerment should be proud of its support for the group’s continuing work.

III. The “Hogar Amiguitos” Protection Center for Abused Children in Jinotega

Gordy, poor fellow, came down with some pretty debilitating back and leg cramps the day after our visit to El Bote, and had to spend the next three days mostly resting at our hotel in Matagalpa, where he was ministered to by acupuncturist Natalí Montoya (Noel Armando’s sister; the Montoya clan is very well represented in Matagalpa!). That meant he couldn’t accompany Joseph and me to visit the so-called “orphanage” in Jinotega that Joseph had learned about, to see whether it was indeed the strong candidate for a donated solar energy system similar to the one we’d installed in Mulukukú. So we set off without him. Jinotega is about an hour north of Matagalpa on a not-too-pot-holey road, and thanks to its altitude enjoys an even pleasanter climate.

Hogar amiguitos (roughly “Little Friends’ Home”) isn’t really an orphanage, it turns out, though everybody calls it that. Only two of the currently 18 kids living there are without parents, but all of them have been severely abused – beaten, raped, the works – so they might as well be orphans. The place is run by a 32-year-old lady from Mississippi named Joy Pulsifer, who’s been overseeing it for the past three years. It’s one of three such outfits in Nicaragua, all under the umbrella of Globe International, a faith-based NGO with programs for disadvantaged children in many countries.

I’ll be honest: I was worried that we’d find an institution heavy into proselytizing à la the Pentecostal churches that have sprung up all over Nicaragua in the past ten years, that favor high volume (achieved via monster loudspeakers) over devotional substance. But my fears were assuaged after just a few minutes’ talking with Joy. Her dedication to the welfare of the children in her care was palpable, her demeanor calm and purposeful in the midst of the sort of kids’ cacophony that one would expect at a place where happiness rules. Yes, the home has its devotional side: They say grace before meals, and at least on the Sunday we were there (and perhaps on weekdays as well), a morning hour was spent studying the bible. But as Joy explained it, her core purpose lies in providing a productive, participative future to kids whose past lay in the opposite direction.

The children are healthy. All attend a public school within walking distance of the Center. The Center’s parklike, farmlike grounds cover 6-plus acres. The children and staff raise chickens, pigs, and rabbits; they also plant tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, beans, and bell peppers, as well as tending various tropical fruit trees. They participate in the upkeep of the orphanage and care of the animals, and in all aspects of farming and gardening. Older kids help care for the younger kids.

Joy’s goal is “to give them a hope and a future. They’ve come out of the worst situations, but we help them become the best they can be, including taking responsibility for their country and their environment.”

So why does Hogar amiguitos need help, when they’re doing so well?

Joy receives no salary, a sparse budget of $2100 a month to meet all the Center’s expenses (including electric power; food for the children, herself, and her intern staff; expensive gasoline and repairs for the center’s jeep which frequently must journey 3 hours to Managua other incidentals) – and she says she’d rather be nowhere else in the world, doing no other work.

But her electric bill comes to $375 a month – nearly 20% of her whole budget. Joseph and I envision installing a donated photovoltaic system that (depending on the level of funding we can raise) will provide from 50% to 100% of the center’s electrical needs, thus freeing up its tight budget for other crucial purposes such as staffing increases and diet enhancement.

The children’s safety is also an issue. Kids don’t stop running around just because the lights go out, and the inefficient, foreign-owned, badly-maintained national grid sees to it that the lights go out often. Obviously, running around in the dark is not safe, nor is losing the ability to communicate with the outside world. The new photovoltaic system, with its battery backup, will keep strategic light circuits, office circuits for external communication, and other crucial functions up and running when the grid goes down.

So we’re issuing an appeal. We’ll put up $15,000 toward the cost of installing the system – assuming others will match that amount. Once we’ve achieved the match, we’ll up the ante till we’ve reached the total amount we need for the system that will come closest to matching the Center’s energy needs.

Before we can know what that ultimate system will be, we need to get the results of some assessments we’re having run. The above-mentioned Suni Solar will send an electrician to fully analyze the grid supply to the Center and all its wiring, and a structural engineer from Asofenix, another Green Empowerment collaborator, will accompany him to assess the carrying capacity of the Center’s roof, which may need to be reinforced. (We made these arrangements two days later at the Asofenix office in Managua, with the mercifully restored Gordy leading the discussion. Natalí had given him the name of a good acupuncturist in Managua, and he’d had the first of his two very helpful treatments there. I know what kind of health care I’ll seek out next time I have a muscle go weird on me.)

Here’s our new friend, Joy, with Joseph:

The next day, our last of the visit, Joseph and I sought out three other solar contractors doing large amounts of business in Nicaragua – Asofenix, Nica Solar, and Ecami – and had good, substantial discussions with them about how best to promote the solar business there. We were especially interested to learn that Ecami, Nicaragua’s oldest solar installer, has won the contract funded by the World Bank to collaborate with the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the private grid utility owner Unión Fenosa on the development of specifications for widespread grid intertie arrangements for free-standing solar and wind power installations. Assuming cooperation on Unión Fenosa’s part – not a given, unfortunately, because this Spanish corporation has stiffed the Nicaraguan people and their government since it took over the grid four or five years ago – this development bodes well for the popularization of solar energy in Nicaragua. It couldn’t come at a better time, as everyone, there even more than here, is struggling with the effects of ever-higher fuel prices.

Joseph and I are very happy to have had this opportunity to learn more about the activities of Green Empowerment and its network’s activities in Nicaragua, and to collaborate in expanding them. We look forward to continuing the work, and thank Gordy Molitor in particular, and the whole Green Empowerment community, for their support of our own energizing efforts.

– Philip Beard, 17 June 2008

What’s a Biodigestor?

The ultimate in closed-cycle resource use: The Biodigestor. You put cow manure in one end and get out usable cooking gas and organic fertilizer. The odorless gas is piped into the kitchen where it can be burned for 4-5hrs a day, replacing the need to collect firewood. The liquid fertilizer is rich in nutrients to boost crop production. And, the patio is no longer littered with cow manure. Biodigestors are relatively simple to construct and made with cheap local materials. It’s basically a huge plastic bag laying on top of straw, insulated between adobe walls and covered with a roof.

Last week a team of adventuresome students from the University of Portland came to Peru to visit the community Micro-hydro and Wind projects, and then get their hands dirty building a biodigestor with a local family…

Thanks UP for making it happen!

A Journey to Q’ero

After a Q’ero friend died giving birth, Juano and Barbara convened a meeting at Juano’s house in Cuzco. The injustice of the death inspired Juano and Barbara to want to help build clinics, but the Q’ero said no, we have our own medicine; we need to improve the education of our children first. The vision of improved schools, with light and electricity, led Barbara to seek out Green Empowerment in Portland. We put her in touch with our local partner in Peru, Soluciones Practicas-ITDG who sent an engineer out to the remote Q’ero area. On a 10 day rain-soaked horse-back journey, he measured the abundant mountain streams which are perfect for micro-hydro power, the most efficient way to bring electricity to schools and the entire communities.

 

Juano, from Cuzco, and Barbara from Germany via USA, have co-lead trips for people around the world to learn about the cultural richness and mystic traditions of the Incan and their living descendents, the Q’ero in the highlands of the Andes. Now, they have pulled together a network of NGOs and government agencies to help make the Q’ero´s wish for improved education and modern energy into a reality. Last week we journeyed up to the mountain passes to attend the big meeting of the Q’ero nation.

 

After acclimatizing to the altitude in Cuzco, we drove to Callacancha, and unloaded our bags from the truck. Kids gathered around curious and pushing. I gestured and smiled, but my ignorance of Quechua kept our conversations to counting and giggling. We met up with Hernan, Augustin, his son Lorenzo who brought horses to haul us, and our camping gear, on the journey. Augustin, as most Q’ero men, wore a colorful embroidered hat with triangular earpieces from which dangled big pompoms of yarn. This hat is topped with a felt brimmed hat, as if the Spanish influence was just placed on top of the Incan culture, and he made use of both for different things (in this case cold and sun). Augustin and Hernan threw everything into plastic sacks and roped them to the hearty beasts. We threw ourselves up on the saddles and lumbered off…

 

The meditative rocking of the horses, step by step, was a rhythmic background to observing the stunning views. As we walked, Lorenzo the 15 year old son of Augustin, led the horses, on foot through ice-cold creeks and over 13,000ft high mountain passes, with just sandals made of rubber tires. He went to 2 years of primary school and has never been past Callacancha, the dusty end-of-the-road town with not much going on (he says, they have everything…)

 

After 2 days on the trail, we made it to Hatun Q´ero, the center of the 5 Qéro villages. The village is a simple grouping of rustic stone buildings with dirt floors and straw roofs. This used to be the base of the hacienda (estate), when all the Q´ero worked the land for the Spanish master, until the agrarian reform in 1970. Today, there is no ´master´ but they still work the same land in hard conditions.

 

First we went to the school, since part of the project that we are putting together is to improve the educational infrastructure, and eventually instruction, in these remote villages. At the school we met the teacher, from Pacaurtambo, the seat of the district. When we walked in, the kids were going over a drawing of the human body.  The students were almost all boys, which in part is due to the fact that most have to walk for hours to get to school, which most parents don’t feel comfortable sending their little girls out to do. We asked the teacher about the condition of the school, and he pointed to the ceiling. He had put plastic lining on the ceiling so that the bats don’t come in and give the kids illnesses…The windows of the schoolhouse had been broken, letting in the frigid air. We went to his living quarters, which were a corner of a room in the municipal building. He had put a few chairs together, placed a board on top, covered it with straw and some blankets, and called it a bed. I now understood how teachers considered going to teach in Q’ero as a punishment. Apparently teachers don’t usually stay the whole week, and this was the first time Barbara and Juano had seen teachers in action, after all the years of coming to Q’ero.

 

The project includes improving school infrastructure, building latrines and potable water systems for the schools, and building decent teacher’s quarters with electricity and internet. The next phase would be to strengthen the teaching model. The first step would be to strengthen traditional education for the elementary students; teaching the old stories in Quechua and reaffirming their unique culture. Then, they would receive the basics of western education of math, science, history, reading and writing. The Q’ero even want to build a secondary school in Cuzco to get their kids up to speed and able to pursue higher degrees.

 

In the municipal building there were several computers, all powered by a solar array donated by the First Lady, some 5 years ago. Amazingly, there was a young Q’ero there who had gone to a technical school in Cuzco and returned to Q’ero and worked at the municipality. He had a laptop computer with him and a video camera. He showed a small group of us in the municipal building-teacher’s quarters, a video he’d produced. It consisted of interviews with potato farmers who had lost their entire crop this year due to an early frost. The farmers, all speaking in Quechua, pointed to the blackened leaves of the potato plants and pleaded with the Ministry of Agriculture to come to their rescue. The video would be distributed to government authorities. It was an impressive example of how indigenous people can use the latest technology for uses very relevant to their everyday lives. Seeing the pictures of the burnt potato crops from the unseasonable cold spell also brought home the effects of climate change. Climate change is not an abstraction here, it is a real felt experience of temperatures and weather patterns out of whack, melting glaciers and dramatic effects on the patterns of agriculture that have been developed by generations.

 

An Ancient Culture Faces Global Issues

 

Slowly the Q’ero men sifted in from the surrounding communities. About 100 men edged the courtyard formed by the small settlement. Most had the beaded and embroidered knit hats, with pompoms at the ears and down the back. Eventually the president convened the meeting and started down the agenda which included land titling, a mining concession, energy and electricity projects, elections, and health campaigns.

 

The community had recently come to agreement to try and title a large swath of open lands that the Q’ero have been farming for lower-altitude crops. These untitled lands form part of a watershed that leads down to the Amazon. A Peruvian environmental NGO, had tried to convince the Q’ero to put the lands in the NGO´s name as a Forest Reserve. The NGo would hire a few Q’ero guards and lead eco-tourism trips. They also said that this Forest Reserve would produce carbon sequestration credits. Some Q’ero were in favor of the plan, but many not. After much internal debate, the Q’ero decided to try and legally title all of that land into communal ownership. With the title in their name, they could then decide how to use and manage it. Even if they wanted to set it aside as a Forest Reserve, they, and not a distant NGO, would be the direct beneficiaries of any eco-tourism or carbon credits. Juano has been helping them navigate the beaurocracy and has laid out the roadmap to titling. The municipality is offering funding for the survey work necessary to title the land. The titling also gives them legal ground for defending the land against a mining company that has been prospecting in the area. At the meeting the community decided to establish a committee of defense against the mining company.

 

This was the second time mining came up along our journey. The first time was the day before, when we had stopped for lunch on a treeless field overlooking the vast canyons. There was a group of young men in hard hats sitting around on the other edge of the field. Always curious, I walked over to them. They were drinking alcohol and taking a break from cracking the rock with their axes, looking for gold. These low-tech local miners are referred to as ¨artisan¨ miners. While on the magnitude of environmental impact of these artisan mines is small compared to the mega mountain-moving mines of large (often US) companies, the artisan miner do not have any PR pressure to enact any environmental mitigation activities and can be haphazard with their use of toxic chemicals.

 

After several hours of meeting, sitting on the damp ground and the cool fog rolled in and have a mystic haze to the whole environment. Finally it was Juano and Barbara’s turn to give the update on the Energy and Education projects. Juano reported in Castellano, which was then translated to Quechua, that they had met with the Ministry of Energy and it looks promising that they will be contributing to the projects. The Regional government and signed an agreement to work with the Ministry of Energy to promote rural electrification, but what exactly that will look like (Grid extension? Renewables? To which communities?) has not yet been unveiled. Barbara and Juano have been invited to meet with the director of the ministry in Lima next week. On the Education front, we are still seeking funding and partnerships to start this initiative. (link to proposals)

 

There were a few other non-Q’ero who had hoofed their way to the meeting: a ¨regidor¨ (registrar from the Provincial Government), a health worker, three men from the Instituto Nacional de Cultura which recently recognized the Q’ero as a living national heritage site, two French and Peruvian masters students investigating the establishment of agro-biodiversity zone and the threat of genetic patenting of quinoa and potatoes.  It was interesting to see these representatives, and ourselves, as the points of contact with the outside world.

 

Hybrid Cultures

 

Here, the conquest is recent history. Its legacy is the defining character of this land, these people. And in a way, it seems like that process of colonization is still just getting going. A road is just now being cut into Q’ero territory, and growing daily. The contact with “Western culture”, which came in the form of servitude and Christianity, now comes in the form of roads, education in Spanish, philanthropic efforts to bring potable water, and yes, electricity. Walking though this barren land, you can distinguish between what was pre-Spanish (llamas, alpacas, potatoes, coca leaf, Quechua language, Apus and earth-focused cosmo-vision, stone and straw huts, indigenous last names) and what came after the Spanish (sheep, horses, rice, Spanish first names, adding Christian icons to rituals, mostly western clothes, interface with the state in the form of health workers, schools, government registrars, municipal structure). 

 

Walking through these communities, and being engaged in helping them get electricity, demands reflection on isolation vs. connectivity, tradition vs. modernity. Is there a way to form a hybrid culture? (After all, all culture is an ever-changing hybrid). Is there a way to help them fulfill their expressed desires for formalized education, health, electricity and roads without washing away the last traces of pre-colonial culture? In all of my time in this field of renewable energy I have asked people if they have ever offered to help a community to access energy and been denied by a community that preferred to preserve the old ways of kerosene and candles. No one I’ve met has had that experience. There is one man who is a staunch activist against the energy projects….he dresses as a Q’ero, but is an Argentine who lives with the modern conveniences of Cuzco.  How can you force a people into being a living museum when that often implies a poverty we would not choose ourselves? Everyone that I spoke to about this issue was confident that the Q’ero would maintain their traditions. After all, they have been interfacing with western culture for about 500 years. Quechua and the spiritual worldview is deeply rooted and has survived centuries of outside influences.   

 

I asked Hernan, the Q’ero man who was leading the horses, what he thought about the idea of having electricity in his house. He said it would be good because they could weave at night.  Electricity can be used to make life a little easier, save eyes and lungs from kerosene smoke and reduce expenses for home lighting and Hernan’s answer makes be believe that electricity can be consistent with cultural preservation.

 

Pachamama

 

It is easy to see how the Q’ero believe in Apus (Mountains as Gods). In fact, it seems irrational not to believe it, walking past these giants. Pachamama, the spirit that resides in the earth, seems to be so obvious here. The earth seems so alive, the elements all around you, the water rushing past, the intense blue sky and clouds continually shape-shifting.

 

Apparently the Incas took from Christianity what made sense to them. They too believe(d) in an overarching God (Yiracocha), and this masculine god has its pair in Pachamama, the feminine earth. To them Mary was this feminine earth-bound spirit, and together these two created mankind, the son of god, Jesus. Apus are like the angles and saints, lesser gods you can go to to ask for things. Machu Pichu became San Francisco. In Andean belief system, things come in pairs of opposites that join: man and woman, sky and earth, left and right. And everything works on principles of reciprocity. Give to your gods and they give to you. Wealth is defined by how many reciprocal social relations you are involved in. A “poor” man may have many things but lives alone. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you…

 

The last day we stopped for a snack, and lounged on the grass. Augustin took out his ever-present bag of coca and passed it around. Everyone took about 3 leaves, held them up to their lips, blew on them and made a blessing to the surrounding Apus (mountain-gods). Augustin said I could also make a blessing to the Apu of my country. I blew on the leaf in honor of Mt. Hood, the Apu that protects my home…

 

Quechua, is a poetic language in which ‘thank you’ is roughly translated as ‘my little dove, my heart’. Luckily, they knew enough Castellano to understand my sincere ¨Gracias¨ as we parted ways…

Health Post Tech and Characters of San Pablo

At 5 am I waited until other passengers came to fill up the taxi. Eventually there were 4 of us in the back seat, 3 up front, and 2 in the hatch-back trunk. The car was so full that I didn’t feel that bad about my sleepy head bobbing on the shoulder of the woman next to me. A few hours later we made it to Chilete, and from there, another overstuffed taxi up the green hills of the Andean valley, past an abandoned mine and finally to San Pablo. The town of 2000 homes and the seat of the province was draped in thick fog.

I found the clinic, with colorful murals of cartoon like drawings of such ills as malaria and the bubonic plague, and touting the virtues of hand washing. There, I met up with Juan, from La Mancha, Spain who was leading a workshop with the nurses from all of the rural districts to get a sense of the need, and willingness, of the medical network to adopt new technologies to improve communication. We had made little drawings of phones, radios, computers, solar systems, and electricity icons for them to paste on a big map showing each of the 10 health posts in the province. Juan facilitated a discussion of how these telecommunication technologies were being used, who used them, who maintained them, and what are the missing links. The information was also put up on a map, and at the end one of the nurses commented how the visual representation helped put the whole picture together. The workshop was one step in a participatory evaluation process to see how telecommunications could strengthen the network of rural health posts.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know the local characters. We ate lunch (quartered guinea pig) at the 1 restaurant in town with Fidel, from the municipality. When I say I’m from the US, people either ask about the new free trade deal, George Bush or about school shootings…

Then we headed to the house of Wilson, who runs “Tropicana Stereo” radio station who is glad to make any announcements for any programs. We also met his mother who invited us to a gathering to sell “OmniLife” vitamins in a pyramid scheme. “Unfortunately,” we had to head over to the municipal building to greet the local officials. The building, as most in San Pablo, is an old thick-walled adobe building with a courtyard and rickety wooden balconies. Inside, a famous battle against the Chileans, is remembered in graphic paintings.

From there, we stopped by the electrician’s shop/house since we heard that he was selling solar equipment. I was especially interested in meeting him, since we are gearing up for a Provincial-wide renewable energy program, and I was excited to hear that there are already some local resources. The San Pablo electrification plan was also born out of numerous workshops, interviews and surveys. It envisions solar power, micro-hydro and wind turbines for all of the villages that are out of reach of the national grid. We’re working on finishing up the plan, and identifying funders, to begin implementation this year.

Next we walked to see the big construction work on the edge of town, the “Colosio Multiuso” (multi-use coliseum). The massive structure will seat 5000 people for bull fights, soccer matches and concerts. Apparently, a doctor from San Pablo went to the US, and made it rich. He said that he would sponsor a bull fight, complete with Torreros from Spain, if the municipality built a new, larger bull ring (since the existing bull ring in San Pablo is in bad shape). Thinking that that was a good deal, the municipality invested half a million dollars in the first stage of the multi-million dollar coliseum, which is supposed to eventually have a roof that mechanically opens. The foreman, and the (very drunk) workers were quite excited and proud of the work of progress, but I couldn’t help but recall the statistics at the health center that 36% of the province doesn’t have piped water, and 86% doesn’t have light.

To escape the rain, we headed back to the 1 restaurant, and hung out in the kitchen for a few hours, eating Chinese fried rice (interestingly a Peruvian national dish) and hot-out-of-the-oven cake and enjoying the conversation. It was Friday night so we hit the streets to see what ‘the scene’ was and who else we could meet. On the main strip, there were a few people hanging out in the street in front of the school-supplies store. In lieu of a bar, young people play loud pop music off the computer in the store (with no lights on), drink juice and gossip until late into the night. The young people seem to lament that there is nothing going on in San Pablo and yearn for the bigger cities and at the same time, the older generation worries that the young people don’t go out to the real countryside anymore.

The next morning, at the simple old Hospedaje, I decide not to take a shower, given the sign that says, “Dear Clients, Please do not take a shower for longer than 6 minutes, as you may experience an electric shock”.

Today we have another session back at the health center. Juan asks questions to rate the functioning of their current communications, management, and adaptation to change. The nurses, medical technicians, obstetricians, and administrators write their answers on cards and peg them on the big paper on the wall. A few hours later they draw some conclusions of what kind of changes they’d like to institute and hopefully all of this will be channeled into a proposal for the next stage of the project.

After lunch with an American peace corps volunteer living in San Pablo, a few of the nurses, Juan and I squish into another taxi heading back to Chilete. But there are more adventures in store. The wide muddy river had risen during the day of rain, and was impassible to cars. A few men, without pants, sloshed through the currents on foot, but most people waited on the banks for a bigger vehicle to come by. Luckily, a huge old bus barreled down the valley, and stopped to haul us across the whitewater rapids.

In just 2 days I felt like I had already gotten to know some of the local characters that give life to this sleepy town, and I’m already looking forward to going back.

Portland’s 2nd Moonrise Film Festival

TALES OF COURAGE, LOVE, LONELINESS AND WONDER
Portland’s 2nd Annual Moonrise Film Festival Showcases the Philippines
and Environmental Awareness

PORTLAND, OR– Just in time for Earth Day, the 2^nd Portland Moonrise Film Festival invites you to learn about the issues facing rural farmers, indigenous groups, and gain a sense of the history of one of the largest archipelagos on Earth, the Philippines.

The Festival, hosted by Green Empowerment and Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon (PACCO) Kabataan, will be held at the Holladay Park Plaza (1300 NE 16th Ave.). A Filipino dinner and slideshow highlighting community-based energy and water projects helps kick off the Festival on April 25th, 2008 at 6:00PM followed by the screening of “Batad, Sa Paang Palay”, this year’s featured film. A matinee that starts at 4:00PM and evening show at 7:00PM closes the event April 26th.

The Festival showcases independent films and documentaries originally shown at the Moonrise Film Festival in Quezon City, Philippines. Moonrise Film Festival, a critically-acclaimed tradition now in its third year in the Philippines, is organized annually by the Center of Environmental Awareness and Education (CEAE) – a leader in environmental education and environmental awareness initiatives in the Philippines.

“Independent films and environmentalism are cornerstones to Portland’s culture; and Portland’s ties with the Philippines are becoming stronger every year. We need to use our traditions of art and activism to help ensure the Philippines’ sustainable development,” shares Gordy Molitor, Green Empowerment’s Executive Director.

Moonrise is proud to present the critically-acclaimed film, “Batad”, named for a region in the Philippines whose breathtaking rice terraces are considered the Eighth Wonder of the World. Benjie Garcia and Vic Acedillo, Jr tell the story of a young Batad boy who must work in the local market while his father repairs rice terraces in order to help support his family. However, the boy’s true heart’s desire is a young girl and the seemingly impossible purchase of a pair of new boots that he believes will make her love him. He is pulled at turns by the promises of the modern world and by the traditions of his parents. “Batad” has enjoyed several nominations for the 4th ENPRESS Golden Screen Awards and was one of the finalists for Cinemalaya Philippines Independent Film Festival.

“The film festival straddles two celebrations: Earth Day and API Heritage Month, and so it comes at the intersection of these passions, concerns and responsibilities,” says Festival organizer Aimee Santos-Lyons. “Filipinos living in Portland are blessed to have the
experience of living in a city respected for its strong ‘green ethic’ and are now able to bring this perspective to the environmental challenges besieging the verdant island we still call home. The films in this series demonstrate that we cannot rest on our nostalgia but that we need to continue nurturing this relationship, raising our awareness of the problems and be part of the solutions being forwarded.”

Tickets are available through Green Empowerment

(www.greenempowerment.org) or at the door. Proceeds from this event will go to Green Empowerment’s partners in the Philippines and to CEAE.

For more information, please contact Jason Selwitz: (503. 284.5774, jason@greenempowerment.org), or Steph Routh (503.284.5774, stephanie@greenempowerment.org).

Alumbre Slide Show

This poem was written by Vicente Huaman Huaman, from Alumbre, in honor of the inauguration of the ITDG-led wind power project. He shared it in front of the whole village, the press, NGOs, local government representatives and the Vice Minister of Energy for Peru…

1

Una obra de calidad <br>

de una buena ONG

así es el trabajo señores

de la equipo de ITDG

2

Es lo obra de ITDG

un apoyo desinteresado

apoyando a los campesinos

un trabajo mancomunado

3

En el Alto Valle Llaucano

un proyecto de los mejores

en el Alumbre inauguran

Los aerogeneradores

4

En mi tierra de el Alumbre

Pedro Gamio esta presente

Para inaugurar este trabajo

honrado por toda mi gente

5

Gracias ITDG

te agradezco de corazón

porque la hora celebramos

de este sistema la inauguración

6

Donde nadie a llegado

ITDG si pudo llegar

Para apoyar al campesino

y un buen recuerdo dejar

7

Este poema les dedico

a mi inspiración y memoria

ahora escribe ITDG

otra pagina mas en la historia

8

Con nueva tecnología

apoyando al campesino

sigue tu rumbo de Luz

dejando huella en el camino

9

El que compone este poema

Huamán es su apellido

Les dedica con cariño

en calidad de Lirio Linda Florino

10

Ya no tengo más que decir

ya me paso a retirar

Los errores que he tenido

que me sepan disculpar

Recuerdo de Vicente Huamán Huamán de Lirio Linda Flor

Windmills as Butterflies

We caught the 4:00am combi up to Alumbre. Franc and Walter of ITDG, and I, and as many people as could possibly physically fit in a minivan zigzagged up the bumpy roads, and just after dawn arrived in Alumbre, the community with 22 small wind turbines. Mules were just hauling the big silver jugs of fresh milk to the road side for the daily pick-up of “Leche Gloria” the big milk company. We had a breakfast of potato soup, toasted corn nuts, and hot milk, and I got to talk to a few women one on one. They are so much more chatty when not in the presence of men. These women were slated to get their wind turbines in the next few months (with the pending WISIONS funding) but were impressed with the systems of their neighbors’ recently installed systems (thanks to the Andina event and University of Cataluna/Ingeneria Sin Fronteras). They call them “mariposas” or butterflies watching their 3 wings spinning. They say they are “bonito” (pretty) because of the light the produce. Women get up to start cooking at 5am, so the light will make their daily chores just a bit easier. Later a man expressed his enthusiasm of being able to do carpentry and use a sewing machine at night. He said the wind just blows candles right out.

Their one concern was that they move so fast that they are afraid they are going to break. The turbines are designed so that when the wind is too furious, the tail blade acts as a rudder, and turns the windmill out of the direction of the wind. But, when the wind whips from every direction, a few blades have broken. The systems are being replaced this week, and ITDG, the small-business that manufactures the systems, and designers from the Universidad de Cataluña are working on improving the design and precision manufacturing. The community of Alumbre are the pioneers in this new technology and I have learned that small wind is more complicated than small solar, since every nook of this varied dramatic geology has different wind characteristics, which means that each system, at each household, will behave a little differently.

As the time approached for the big community meeting, someone blew a lifeguard’s whistle across the valley, and slowly people made their way to the school building. About 30 adults, on small wooden schoolroom chairs, gathered in the classroom with dirt floors and broken windows. The leader of the Ronda Campesina (the real authority in town) called the meeting. Everyone rose, took off their straw hats and baseball caps, put their hands over their hearts, and sang the Peruvian anthem. Walter, the community organizer of Soluciones Practicas, first discussed the upcoming Inauguration Ceremony of the project. Next week the Vice Minister of Energy and Mines is coming from Lima, along with local officials of every rank, to formally inaugurate the wind project, the first of its kind. Everyone signed up for roles, from giving the welcoming address to cooking to putting up decorations.

Then, came the moment of announcing who will be the technical administrator of the wind project, and run it as a small business. After reviewing the criteria (good community member, participated in all aspects of the project, did well on the training exams, etc) Walter announced the names of the new technical administrators. They mayor gave words of encouragement to those that were not chosen, saying that they can still serve their neighbors with their knowledge of the systems and that everyone did a good job. Then, the winner gave a Grammy-award-style address; “This is such a surprise, I never knew I could do this, I want to thank those that have made it possible…” It was impressive to see how this service to the community is a real honor.

Everyone (although less input from the women) discussed the financial issues and regulations. At first, they talked about a 35 sole financial incentive for the technical administrator for 4-5 days of work (collecting bills, bringing the money to the bank, reviewing each system, greasing the systems, etc). But a few people spoke up and felt that they wanted to save more money into the maintenance account for eventual repairs. The newly elected technical administrator then voluntarily agreed to lower his financial support to 20 soles/month (about $7) and requested that he be given a meal when he comes to review the wind systems. The legal ownership will be in the name of the municipality who will also have an oversight role. Ideally, this is a way to combine the entrepreneurship of small businesses with the accountability of public oversight.

As we are embarking on a much larger program of a Provincial Plan for Rural Electrification in San Pablo, with decentralized solar, micro-hydro, and wind projects in over 40 villages, we are working out the management models which I believe are the key determinant of long-term sustainability. The project in Alumbre is a pilot both in the technical implementation of the project, but in seeing how a community can organize to sustain it.

Boston Event 03.27.08

Sustainable Development

Our Role in Our World: An Evening in Three Acts

Thursday, 27 March, 2008
6:00PM – 8:00PM
Nexus Green Building Resource Center38 Chauncy Street, Seventh Floor, Boston, MA
http://www.greenroundtable.org/

Act 1: Case Study about Sustainable Development
Green Empowerment partners with rural communities in the developing world to implement renewable energy and water systems in order to alleviate poverty and improve the environment.

Green Empowerment currently works in seven countries in Latin America and Asia: the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and Malaysia. An important goal and outgrowth of the mission of Green Empowerment is to conduct outreach, education, and training in the United States to promote understanding of the global indivisibility of environmentalism, social justice, and sustainability. Fundamental social and environmental problems cannot be solved without a global perspective.

Act 2: Short Film about Social Justice, Renewable Energy, and Juggling in Nicaragua
AMERICAN/SANDINISTA
Director: Jason Blalock

In the 1980s, a bloody civil war between the socialist-influenced Sandinistas and the U.S.-backed Contras ravaged Nicaragua. Thousands of idealistic Americans descended upon the Central American nation, determined to lend their skills and labor to the revolutionary Sandinista movement. Blalock tells the story of a small group of controversial U.S. engineers—including Portlander Ben Linder—who went further than anyone expected, and paid the ultimate price.

Act 3: Group Discussion As You Like It
Bring your thoughts, your experience, and share them
Some possible questions:
How can we ensure that our good intentions affect positive change?
What is our role and responsibility as global citizens and residents of the developed world?
Which resources are most essential to providing basic needs for communities?
What can you do to help ensure a more sustainable and just world?

For more information, please contact steph routh:
stephanie@greenempowerment.org
503.284.5774

The Winds of Change

 

There is finally alumbrado (light) en Alumbre, the village where ITDG installed 20 small wind turbines. The 500watt turbine at the top of the wind-blown hill was spinning rapidly, charging the batteries that supply light to the school’s classrooms, DVD player, and new computer. The municipality had donated a few computers. We unpacked them, turned on Linux, and went into the other room for a meeting. By the time we came back, the 1 school teacher had typed up a letter to all surrounding villages to come together on a certain date to help fix the road. I was glad to see that he was comfortable with computers, and could be the village teacher.

 

Today wasn’t windy enough to turn the 100watt turbines at each house, but apparently when the batteries are fully charged, people can still use the light for 15 days. Everyone we met seemed genuinely happy with their new lights. They said that they no longer needed to buy candles, that kids can study at night without noxious kerosene fumes, and that the light is brighter. We met one man who had hand-made a radio transmitter, and set up a radio station out of his own little adobe house. He plays old tapes of Peruvian music over a microphone and makes announcements. In fact, while we were there, he made a radio announcement that the village authorities were supposed to go up at the school for an important meeting. Turn the switch of electricity, and who knows what ingenuity you’ll unleash. Now that people have electricity, they want TV signals. While sitting in a smoky kitchen hut around a pot of hot boiled potatoes, toasted corn and grain soup, we had an interesting conversation with a village leader about how as one need is fulfilled, others are created. Maybe that is human nature. There are no simple answeres in the process of social/cultural/economic change.

The community organizer from ITDG, Walter, and I met with the village’s “Deputy Governor” and the “President of the Ronda Campesina”, which is a group of men who take turns walking the community at night, and take the law into their own hands. The Rondas emerged during the Shining Path era as a way for communities to keep an eye out for any intruders in areas far from any official police system, and now considered a respected authority in most rural villages. We were meeting with these authorities to finalize the decision on who would be the operator/administrator of the village’s new wind power electrical systems. Anyone interested (about 8 guys) came to ITDG’s renewable energy training center (CEDECAP) to learn all about the technical, administrative, and financial aspects of managing the systems. At the end, they took a written quiz on accounting and business operation. Walter and the village authorities filled out a table for each candidate based on the criteria of how much they participated in the installations, how well they did at the training, their general behavior in the community and participation in communal work. They reached a consensus on the person who will be the operator, and responsible for collecting a tariff of 10soles (about $3) from each household each month for a battery replacement fund. The micro-enterprise will be legally registered, and the money kept in a bank account requiring 3 signatures. The entire community will meet every 3 months to review the books. The operator will even have an official uniform and helmet which ITDG has explained helps build the legitimacy and the level of responsibility of the small business.

 

The seed funding was provided by Green Empowerment donors who attended the Caramarquena-owned Andina restaurant in Portland and Ingenieria Sin Fronteras/Universidad Politecnica Cataluña. I had helped ITDG to write a grant to WISIONS for the project, which will allow ITDG to install 13 wind turbines for the remaining homes in the next few months. So, it was neat to see project concept transformed into real action. People who thought (and were right) that the electrical grid would never arrive, now have their own sources of power, blowing in the wind.

Sonia, the Solar Administrator

Sonia Piaguaje, whose native language is Secoya, has been managing the solar systems in her village of San Pablo for almost 3 years. She collects the monthly financial contributions from 67 households, deposits them in the bank, and teaches all the users how to manage the use of the battery. Her subtle yet powerful presence was respected by all.