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 (14th and
15th) and Mother’s Day (15th). 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!~
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