Biodigestor Workshop

This past Tuesday I hosted a biodigestor workshop here in my community.  It was a long time coming trying to get this all put together, grant forms filled out, accepted, and then all of the logistical work but it all came together.  Before the workshop a lot of work went into getting the area ready for a biodigestor including setting up a structure for the biodigestor to go.  Many people might be asking themselves what is a biodigestor and in simple terms is just an anaerobic system (air tight) that breaks down animal waste (cow poop) and produces both biogas (which can be used for cooking) and fertilizer (that can be used in the fields).  Last year in July I went to the training of trainers and learned all about the system here in Paraguay and then was able to help with a couple of instillations before finally receiving the grant money to build one here in my community.  Overall the workshop was a great success with over twenty Paraguayans in attendance in addition to 9 other PCV and the biodigestor is up in operation as we speak!  Here are some pictures to help tell the story.

This is a picture before we even began to prepare for the biodigestor.  This is located at a wonderful families house here in my community who expressed a great interest in this technology.  She is most excited about the biogas that can be used for cooking instead of a wood fire every day and he is interested in using the fertilizer for his fields so it was a perfect match!

The first part of the workshop took place at my house Tuesday morning and it was a little bit chilly but as the day went on it warmed up a bit.  It was also great to have 4 of the other biodigestor trainers to help teach the workshop so I could focus more on the logistics of it all.

From my house after a mid-morning snack and important terere session we then moved down the road to the families’ house.  Here we are explaining the two different types of plastic we use on the biodigestors here in Paraguay, polyvinyl and polyethylene.  

Here we were laying out the plastics in the front yard.

 Me crawling through one of the polyethylene tubes with two of the other layers.

A couple of pictures of us cutting a hole for the biogas tube to exit the plastic tube which then routes the gas to a security valve and then into the kitchen.

After filling up the plastic bag with a fan we carried it into the structure that was built and put it all in place before filling it up with water.  

A tradition of PCV trainers to all dunk our heads into the new biodigester before the cow poop is then added and we even had the family participate!

After we all got our heads dunked and my hands a little bit dirty trying to get the first bucket ready to go which consists of half fresh cow manure and half water well mixed together (which is best done with the hands). A big thanks goes out to my fellow PCV's who traveled out so far to help me with my workshop, we had a blast!

Felicita adding the first cow poop to the biodigestor, which consists of 2 buckets a day (½ water and ½ cow manure).

 Annie and I handing out some of our certificates for the community members than came and attended the all day workshop after the biodigestor was done.

A picture of us all together at the end of the day.  We had a great turnout and a lot of fun mixed in with all the work!

On Wednesday after the biodigestor was built we had to make a catchment system for all the liquid and fertilizer that comes out the other side so we used bricks collected from an old house and cement to make a beautiful and effective catchment system.

The final product!

The newly made trough that catches all of the liquid material coming out the other end that eventually they will be able to use as a homemade fertilizer.

After getting everything done yesterday two of my nieces showed up in some traditional PY clothing and they just came from the school where they had a celebration for both PY Independence day (14^th and 15^th) and Mother’s Day (15^th).  They were both so cute together and showed us a little bit of their routine.  

Well the past month or so has been very busy getting everything ready for this workshop so I was very happy when today was a rainy day that I could get caught up on some other things that I had been neglecting.  I hope to continue to visit this family to make sure everything is going good with the biodigestor and to try in about a month try and see if it is producing enough gas to start cooking with on a daily basis.  Over the next couple of weeks as the weather begins to chill down I hope to keep working in some more family gardens and continue my weekly Saturday class, stay tuned!

~Never quit. If you stumble get back up.  What happened yesterday no longer matters.  Today is another day so get on track and move closer to your dreams and goals.  YOU CAN DO IT!~

Fall Projects

The past few weeks as the weather has begun to cool I decided to start on some outdoor projects working with some of the kids in my community and my nieces and nephews.  It has now been about a year since I have moved in and this old school that a year ago was completely trashed has now become my home.  I have had so much fun with the kids coming up with different designs and color schemes and such using recycled material (mostly bottles) found here in my community.  I hope you enjoy the photos and see my new beautiful landscaping!

My nephew Junior after we had been collecting plastic bottles from all around my community and filling them with water and food coloring.  It was a great activity for my students and I made it a game over the course of a Saturday to see who could bring me the most bottles, it also helps clean up the community a bit.  

With the kids in my class on about three different occasions we had cut glass bottles and sanded them down to make glasses but we still had the tops left over.  So I decided to clean up the tops and paint them into a welcome sign for my house.  Also a big shout out to Annie (my site mate) who was very artistic and helpful in painting the letters on the bottles!

With all of the plastic bottles around my community I also asked my students to bring me the many different tops found on the bottles and we used just some fishing line and the top cut off of a 2 liter soda bottle to make a “wind chime”.  It was so fun to see the kids working with Annie and figuring out what colors they were going to put on their line and the spacing between them.  The students loved the project so much we are currently collecting more so we can make some photo collages with them.  

Some of my new flower beds made with recycled plastic bottles and glass bottles as well as my new composting area.  I had had a composting area there before but with the chickens they were constantly spreading it all around so now they can still get in but can’t make such a mess.  It was quite a task to move all of the rocks that were behind my house and get rid of all the weeds and other things that had accumulated during the five years the school hadn’t been used, but now it was all worth it!

The other glass bottle bed that goes from my bathroom just about all the way around my garden now, still just short a few more bottles to get it finished up.  

Some of the hanging planters we made with 2 liter soda bottles hanging from my bathroom as well as old oil containers that we used to make a mini herb garden!

Just a view of many different things put together as someone would see it who is coming to visit my house.  Overall these activities were a lot of fun and used materials that were all considered “trash” and usually burned in my community to make beautiful designs.  My “problem” now is I want to make many more flower beds with the bottles but all the moms who have seen my projects are now not letting their kids bring me bottles but rather stockpiling them at their own houses to do, a good problem to have I guess! 

Today I am just getting the final things ready to go for my biodigester workshop that I will be hosing here at my house on Tuesday.  I have about 8 other PCV’s coming in tomorrow to help me and also learn about this great project so with 100 invitations handed out we will see how many people show up but it should be a great day regardless, will be sure to have a blog post soon about it.  I hope you all are enjoying the beautiful weather wherever you are!

~You may not always end up where you thought you were going, but you will always end up where you are MEANT TO BE!~

Insect Update

Just thought I would post some of the recent photos I have taken, just a few of the hundreds of different insects I have been seeing lately as our seasons are changing, moving rather quickly into winter here in Paraguay.  Most of these as you can see are taking right outside my door,  mostly I find them hanging out on my bricks or on some of the beautiful flowers planted in my yard.  I am just constantly amazed at all of the different sizes, shapes, and colors of the insects here in Paraguay.  I hope you enjoy!

Semana Santa- Holy Week

So sorry that this post is so late, I evidently forgot to publish the draft once I finished writing it and just found it when I went to get another blog post ready, enjoy even though it is a little late!

Below are some pictures of our Semana Santa celebration with the majority of the photos taken on Thursday of Holy Week.  The first picture is some of the amazing food cooking that we had to eat including wonderful chicken, beef, pork, and even a cow head in addition to the traditional sopa.  I love here how we had three different fires going cooking good food with Diana in charge of keeping away the pesky chickens that kept trying to steel the meat off the grill.  In the middle you can see the cow head cooking in foil.  

Diana so proud of the cow head which had a surprisingly large amount of meat.

Alcides with his family eating a late lunch on Thursday.

A beautiful moth that I came home to find on Friday which just took my breath away with the double white cross.  It definitely was a wonderful reminder of the sacrifice made for us so many years ago.

The Saturday before Easter my site mate Annie and I invited the neighborhood kids over for some traditional "American" Easter traditions which involved dying eggs, decorating rabbits and bunnies, in addition to coloring.  A big thanks to all my church family who send down some wonderful Easter crafts!

The kids when we were all done with brightly colored Easter eggs and many other fun crafts, we had a fantastic turnout and a great way to get us in the Easter spirit and share a little bit of our traditions with them.

Alcides dad also celebrated his birthday the Saturday of Holy Week so we had another birthday celebration.  It was so fun to see him surrounded by so many of his children and grandchildren playing himself happy birthday.  It was also a very rainy day so we were all stuck inside trying to stay dry and his house isn't very large but luckily I was able to escape to the "kitchen" area so just sat around the fire helping to cook lunch.

A little bit later that day, and really any rainy day here lately (which we have had a lot of) Alcides with Rocio and Junior watching Finding Nemo in Spanish.  Notice two of the kittens also joining in on the fun!

Just some of the beautiful eggs that I dyed!

While most were sitting around the table with family and friends eating wonderful Easter food I had made a wonderful chili and cornbread since it was a little bit chilly outside.  That is one thing I am beginning to miss though is special food for the holidays with Easter missing roasted lamb, mom's deviled eggs, and so much more!

I hope you and your family all had a wonderful and truly blessed Easter and Holy Week.  Feliz Pascua from Paraguay!