Hi all,
Happy 2010! The pictures I'm attaching have nothing to do with the post; they are from December -- Shreya's last art class and a picture of Shreya and me in Tikal. We took a quick trip over there to check out the famous Mayan ruins (a great investment for a 36-hour trip).
Our team is back in Nebaj and we're excited to take on new projects for the year. I'll still be following up with campaign support, and I'm hoping to go back to Rio Azul yet again in late Jan/ early Feb to offer solar lamps to the community. I'm sure that will be an amazing experience -- once the lamps clear customs. There were production delays and it sounds like there was a five month lag between ordering the product and it docking in Guatemala. The other problem is that the lamps were purchased in dollars and with the Guatemalan currency, the Quetzal, weakening against the dollar, the products are more expensive to clear through customs. These extra duties will drive up the cost of the products significantly. I am concerned to see how the people will react when they hear the new price of the solar lamp. We will have to see. I have seen that people really value these solar lamps, especially since the solar panel also carries adapters to charge some cell phone models (= huge value to communities without access to electricity). I can't wait to see what happens as we finally sell this product in all the communities.
Back to corn cobs... at the end of November, I was finally successful in making contact with someone from the MIT D-Lab who had worked on the corn cob briquette projects (actually should be applicable to agricultural waste in general). Amy B. has been great to share their process with us re: how to make a charcoal press. If it succeeds, we can offer the community an alternate fuel source to firewood. Families spend so much time and money collecting wood for their stoves. Some families go directly into the forests to chop down trees to collect their firewood, so it will also help with the deforestation problem. We see women and children (and men) carrying logs on their heads (see one of the Rio Azul pics where I note the Mayan way to carry heavy loads). I will take pictures of these people because it's hard to explain why it hurts when I see it. It looks painful to me; I know the methods demonstrate the resilience of the Mayan people, but also their poor situation. Ricardo and I talk about how we respect the people in the community when we see that they are fighting hard to make a living to support their families, and this circumstance applies. However, if we can introduce other options that can help alleviate some of this backbreaking work, it will be amazing.
I'm giving myself the month of January to characterize this project. We've secured materials for the charcoal press and the oil drum. We'll be working on securing corn cobs this Monday. Ricardo and Miguel both have offered locations we can use to develop the briquettes. It'll be interesting to run experiments to get the process down to make the briquettes, to increase the yield, to see how well the briquettes ultimately burn. It's a low-tech project, but we do have some issues that could be deal breakers. One challenge is that Nebaj is currently very cold and damp. I'm not sure how we'll be able to dry the briquettes if we have no sun. (if anyone has any suggestions, I am very open to them). I'll keep you all updated as we make progress.
If you're curious about how it works, I'm attaching a link to a youtube video made by the MIT team. Amy Smith is the mastermind behind this great work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqI63IEg3MM
Oh, I guess I should say mention that I just moved my return date home to April 2. I decided I wanted to plan for success with this briquette project and think that I need three months to make it work (provided we hit the development milestones along the way). That's only a month extension on top of my two-month extension. =) Shreya is joking that I'll never leave, but that's not going to happen. Wish me luck, guys! I'm really excited to work on this project because I believe that it has the potential to make serious impact in the community. If we are successful, I already know I can leave this project in the hands of Ricardo and his brothers because they are really excited by this project already and have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Hope all is well!
Helen
