Edmundo is the director and founder of a sort of demonstration farm and ecology center run by Amextra. It's on a piece of land a few miles outside of Palenque, with a stream running through it. Amextra is just starting to develop the land. Their plan includes various types of vegetable and fruit crops. The idea is to demonstrate to local people how to increase the crop yields. They are building greenhouses. They've started fish ponds to raise Tilapia and are planning to start raising chickens as soon as they can guard them from the coyotes. Edmundo really believes in permaculture and sustainable agricultural practices. They are also planting trees and doing stream side restoration.
Another part of their idea is to develop as a training and eco- tourist center with cabins and meeting areas and small shops where local artisans could work and sell their products. They were just starting to build cabins and latrines and other facilities when we were there, and improving the access road. It's really quite an ambitious project and Edmundo seems totally dedicated to it, I think he works seven days a week.
We arrived for the second week of a two week outdoor program for youth from various communities around the area. It was supposed to be a leadership training and development program for young adults. Because the facilities were still being developed the students were camping in tents and eating outdoors under a tarp. Volunteers from other organizations came to help with the camp and offer different programs.
Our plan was to teach sanitation and water purification in the mornings and then in the afternoon they would have leadership programs. They would also help with the farming and other projects as well. We had brought a lot of supplies with us for building solar and rocket type stoves and for demonstrating water pasteurization using the WAPI's. Unfortunately, many of the students who had been there for the first week before we arrived didn't return after the weekend. There were several problems, one of which was that some students got homesick. They came from small communities and tight knit families and it was perhaps the first time they had ever been away. Also it was a sacrifice for their families to have them gone for the week, instead of working and helping out. One of the girls was five months pregnant.
Talking to Edmundo we decided to go ahead with our program and just be flexible about the schedule. Some of the students who were still there were among the most dedicated, and also the staff of the camp and others there were interested in our project, so there would be enough participants to make it worthwhile. Edmundo was optimistic that he would have more participation in the future and could use the supplies we brought.
The camp was still pretty rough when we were there. On Monday, Susan took the opportunity to teach how to make simple hand washing items using a large plastic coke bottle and a bar of soap in the toe of a nylon stocking. She poked a few small holes in the side of the bottle so that when someone squeezes the bottle a little stream of water comes out to wash with. They can lather up with the soap bar through the stocking and then rinse off with the water. Susan even provided clean hand towels for drying hands after washing, rather than wiping them on their clothes. Everyone made wash stations to take home had seemed quite satisfied with them. In other workshops we have given out small potted plants and flowers to plant under the wash stations, so that washing hands waters the plant. We didn't in this case since most of the students come from areas where plants and flowers are abundant.
It was a bright sunny day so I set up my solar stove as a demo. It turned out that Edmundo also had a solar reflector stove, a metal one he bought somewhere that comes with an insulated glass cooking bowl. It's nice, and gets things hotter than my cardboard stove can, but costs about $100 dollars. It only took me about an hour to heat about a liter of water to pasteurization temperature. The demo went pretty well, and we agreed that we would make solar stoves the next day.
We got back to our hotel about 4, exhausted from the heat and humidity. There was very little shade at the camp and we poor Oregonians were melting. I agreed to go with Edmundo to look for cardboard for the stoves. That's the problem, it's easy to get enough cardboard for one or two stoves, 3 nice boxes for each is plenty, but if you want to make 8 or 10 stoves it's much harder. By the greatest luck, a super market nearby had a mountain of cartons that we plowed through and found many good ones. We had brought everything else including duct tape and aluminum foil, not knowing their availability. In Mexico that's not necessary any more, as even relatively small Palenque had a Walmart and a number of big super market type stores. The same goes for metal working supplies as there are well stocked hardware stores everywhere.
On Tuesday we brought out all the supplies for the stoves, Edmundo picked us up at our hotel at about 8:30 every morning. Tourism is way down and Susan and I were about the only gringos in the hotel, so the staff followed our activities closely. Plus we were leaving every morning clean and coming home dirty and sweaty which fascinated them.
I also took out my water testing supplies to test the camps system. I wasn't going to teach the students in the camp to test water, but to appreciate and understand the process and observe the results. They were drinking bottled water that comes in big water cooler jugs from the distributor that claims to have purified it, and no one was getting sick so I assume it was clean. However they were washing their dishes with water from nearby river and so I tested that water. They all watched me set up my tests and I told them about how it had to be incubated over night at body temperature by keeping it next to my body while I slept. It's an easy way to keep the sample warm at the right temperature, but they think it's funny to hilarious.
Susan and I then helped everyone make a solar stove. We had enough cardboard for about 6 stoves and plenty of duct tape and glue. I always say it looks like a 3rd grade art project with everyone down on the floor cutting and pasting. The box cutter knives are sort of dangerous, so I always have to warn everyone to be careful. What's fun is that all the stoves come out different, even though they are patterned on my stove. It usually takes about 2 or 3 hours to make them all and then we leave them to dry over night.
Wednesday was rocket stove day. It's funny what is available and what is not. In Palenque almost no one uses a metal chimney and the pipes and elbows are very difficult to find. Edmundo ended up taking apart his own barbeque at his house to get a section of 4 inch stove pipe. For some reason he had some 4 inch elbows and we ended up going to the market at buying someones 5 gallon garbage pail for 2 dollars. We also found a 5 gallon paint can so we had enough for two stoves.
I brought tin snips for cutting the tin with, but Edmundo looked at me in disgust and whipped out his machete and used it to cut perfect circles in the cans, much better than I could with the snips. He drove the tip of the machete through the metal then tapped the back of the blade with a hammer to push it forward. So much for my high tech tin snips.
Again it takes a couple of hours to make a stove with everybody participating. It had rained the night before and everything was wet and muddy. Edmundo found some wood ashes but they were pretty soggy. Normally dry ash insulates very well but I think the water in the ashes heated up and the outside of the stove got hotter than I expected. I think though over time as they use the stove it will dry out.
We completed one stove and fired it up. As usual a big flame shot out of the top which is always satisfying to the audience. I recommend keeping the other one open, without the ash, so that people can easily see how it is constructed.
We looked at the results of testing the river water and they turned out positive for E. Coli, with greater than 10 blue colonies on the Petrifilms and fluorescence in the Colilert tubes. This was a surprise for Edmundo as he had been using the river water to wash the dishes with. I suggested that they rinse the dishes in a dilute bleach solution after washing and then air dry them. That should kill any bacteria left on them. If the weather is rainy or something then they should dry the dishes with a clean towel.
Thursday was a split day for me. I came out to the camp in the morning with Edmundo, as he wanted to try out a new idea I suggested. It actually came from my workshop last year in Guatemala, that instead of putting a stove pipe elbow inside of a can and insulating it with wood ash, we could just bury the elbow in the dirt below the fire pit and use it directly. The Spanish word “fogon” translates as “hearth”. Their “fogon” is a low table covered with dirt that they build cooking fires on. The stove pipe and elbow would be buried in the dirt of the fogon so that the flame would come out right under the cooking area.
Edmundo loves new ideas and experimentation, so he immediately started working on a plan for this new stove.. Somewhere he found a piece of heavy gauge 4 inch pipe and we had another elbow left over from Wednesdays rocket stoves, so we started digging out a channel in the dirt of the fogon to hold the pipe. He cut a hole in the end of the table for the pipe and we installed it so that the rim of the elbow just stuck above the surface of the dirt. I wanted it high enough so that dirt wouldn't get in but not so high as to be dented or banged around. We put the three rocks back around the mouth of the elbow and lit the stove.
Some people say that they prefer the open fire because it provides some light and heat inside their homes, especially when it is cold. In a regular rocket stove the flame is enclosed and protected, some stoves even have an extra collar to contain the heat, so its mostly not visible. Our buried stove flame however shoots straight up and provides some light and heat as well.
I brought out some bleach to rinse the dishes in and set up a routine for the cooks to follow. They very thoroughly washed the dishes with the river water and then put them into the bleach water to soak for a few minutes. After that they took them out of the disinfecting solution and rinsed them off again in the river water to remove the bleach! I pointed that out to Edmundo who agreed that the cooks needed some more training. The next day I brought them a nice dish drainer for them to put the dishes in after the bleach soaking instead of putting them back in the contaminated water, or wiping with a dirty towel.
I caught a local collectivo on the highway and went back to town early that day as I was scheduled to give my workshop that evening in town for several different groups that were interested. Edmundo arranged it at the headquarters of Salud y Desarrollo Comunitario, a volunteer doctor group that operates a number of health clinics in rural communities. There also was a group Casa de la Mujer that focuses on helping women. It was a more informal program that evening as several people brought their wives and children. Edmundo's wife Mireya and son Esteban were there. I showed my power point program and taught everyone how to interpret the Petrifilms and Colilert tubes. I had some water samples including the water from the stream at the camp so we all set up specimens to be incubated. We also talked about how to pasteurize water and the various organisms killed at different temperatures, and I gave everyone a WAPI to take home and practice with.
I gave Edmundo the last of my Portable Microbiology Laboratory test kits and about 100 WAPI's, and put him in charge of distributing them as needed. Both other organizations said that they wanted to use the materials in their programs too, so I said that I would try and support whatever needs they had. Edmundo says that FedEx and some of the others are pretty good at delivering supplies to that area.
As with every project, when we are done it seems like we finished too soon and there was a lot more we could do if there was more time. We always talk about planning for next year and what new programs we could do. Edmundo is fully competent to give the programs himself and his wife Mireya and son Esteban are very sharp also, and so I've thought about bringing them along to programs in that area as a way to getting them started doing the workshops themselves. It's always been my goal to train and support other local people to carry on the programs and to work myself out of a job.
After a day Friday at the ruins at Palenque Susan and I traveled to San Cristobal de las Casas, a beautiful town in the mountains of Chiapas for three days before catching our flights back home. We stayed at Na Bolom, the former home of some famous anthropologists who lived and worked there for many years. Before they died they turned their home into a museum, with rooms for rent, and they serve family style meals as well. People with cultural ties and interests with the indigenous cultures often stay there so there are always different people to talk to. I also met again with Don Sergio Castro, a man in San Cristobal who has dedicated his life to treating burn victims among the indigenous people there. They cook over open fires and women and children constantly injure themselves. I showed him my solar stove and rocket stove as ways to help prevent burns and he was very interested in learning more. The people at Na Bolom also were open to perhaps having a workshop, so perhaps next spring we could have a program there in San Cristobal. That would be really fun.
So, who knows what next year will bring. We are grateful for the support of our friends and happy to have made connections with so many interesting and helpful new acquaintances Thanks for reading our blogs and keep in touch.
Tom
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