Diving In the Deep End

Finished  ditch for the biodigester - and tired arms

These sweet piggys provide fuel for the biodigester

First complete "losa" top for a Cocina Mejorada

Body of an improved cook stove complete and ready for top

Typical open fire - inside the house

After a security hold in Lima last week due to the strike in Canete, it was jumping back into the deep end of the work pool. Monday, we finished forming and pouring concrete on the biodigestor tank Forming is with odds and ends of scrap wood, wedged and supported or tied in ingenious ways; screening gravel and mixing is all done by hand in the wheelbarrow. When you see the size of the digestor tank, you’ll know how much my arms and back enjoyed the experience. . Cut and installed plastic tubing on the rebar hoops. We also moved materials by wheelbarrow over some extreme rocky roads (so rough, the delivery truck wouldn’t go there) to the two cocinas (improved cook-stoves) sites on micro dairy farms along the beach. Everything is so much harder than it would be in the US, with well stocked hardware stores and good roads and easy transportation.

Tuesday, we set forms and concrete cast two stove tops. Just finding a level area to cast on was a challenge. One was done on leveled ground and the other on a scrap of plywood. Each top is custom made, sized using the family’s two favorite pots, which sit in the molds overnight and cause quite an inconvenience to them. In the future, I plan to use a sheet metal strip which should avoid that. The design and construction of these stoves has undergone many changes and refinements over time, and I plan to add a few twists of my own. It really is one of the great joys for a McGuyver engineer like me. Gravel had to be hand sifted and the nearest good water source was about ¼ mile away, meaning the mix had to be transported twice. The saving grace was the excitement of the families and being about 200 feet from the shore. Wave breaks and salt air just make work seem easier to me.

That night, I went to my first meeting of a town water committee, in the annex of La Quebrada – the town famous for its annual Cat Festival where they eat cat all weekend. The main topic of discussion was that no one wants to pay their water bill  – a whopping US$1.50/month – until Canete installs the promised and highly anticipated new water and sewer lines. This lack of funds has caused the water committee to shorten hours of water service drastically and there was considerable shouting about the poor service. The beleaguered president just kept repeating that if people would pay, he could run the pump longer (DUH). Nothing got resolved , except that the president agreed to check (again) with the town to see when the new system is coming, since construction was supposed to start in October. There are currently no meters or connection valves, so the only way to stop service to the non-payers is to dig up their water line and literally cut it, which is not likely to happen. Any body got any good ideas ??

Wednesday, did two more tops and transported more building block materials to sites and cut plastic and styrofoam insulation for the digestor, so group installation would go smoothly (which it did).
The living condition on these farms is tough. Houses are mostly adobe block, with wood and mud flat roofs, with very few (if any) windows. Most floors are dirt and very lumpy, as the beach rocks seem to work to the surface. Doors are usually just a piece of cloth. There is no running water or sewer. Most houses do have pirated electricity, which is generally used to run a TV ( gotta have priorities). Beds are often just blankets on a raised platform, incredibly dirty and flies are everywhere, as farm animals often get into the house. Cooking is done inside over an open fire, so the walls and ceiling are sooty. This is the reason the improved cook stoves are so needed – they vent the smoke to the outside, as well as reduce the amount of fuel needed. They also eliminate back problems from cooking at ground level to cooking on a waist high surface. Young kids play all around the farmyard, putting whatever in their mouths , drinking saline water that is totally untreated and breathing the equivalent of 12 packs of cigarettes a day. This is in an area 2 miles from where I live in relative luxury – with water (albeit only cold) 24/7, electricity (my family has two flat screen TV’s, a computer, but no fridge) and sewer (even if I have to sit to pee).

Thursday was showtime for the biodigestor. My fellow Peru 18ers Katy, Meredith and Will showed up in force, joined by Dan and the three tech people from the seller’s firm. We got the trench lined with two layers of plastic and 1” Styrofoam insulation and then rolled out the big plastic sausage (5.5 ft diameter x 30 ft long) on a tarp and proceeded to inflate it. This involved plugging the output, drainage and gas taps and attaching another big plastic sleeve to the input tube. Then we caught the sea-breeze to fill the sleeve, quickly closed it and squeezed the air into the sausage. Process was repeated several times until the monster was inflated. After coaxing it into the ditch, the real fun began. We made about 250 gallons of “pig shit soup”, wherein pig pen droppings are broken up into bite-size bits in a slurry and salted to taste. The elixir is then poured into the input tube to begin the anaerobic digestion process that will produce a liquid fertilizer (pig shit is NOT usable as fertilizer) and methane gas for cooking. The final touch was the installation of our custom made hoops to support a greenhouse type cover, which will add heat and protect the bio-digester. Many of the other local farmers stopped by to see the project, and if this pilot unit works as advertised, there may be many more in the area, lowering pollution from pig shit, providing “free” fertilizer and cooking gas. I also gave my compatriots a tour of the eco-bano situation and showed off my custom cook stove tops. The family treated us all to a really fine lunch, the van back to town actually showed up on time, so Will had time to catch a few waves. All in all, an outstanding day.

Maybe I should explain the eco-banos a bit. They are also known as composting toilets. The liquid urine is separated from the solids in a two part toilet bowl. In the Peace Corps design, the pee is stored in a plastic drum until it is diluted with water and used as fertilizer. The British NGO who built the 240 beach units chose to just drain the pee into the ground, which is probably just as well, given the awkward logistics and maintenance of the pee storage. After each use, a handful of ash is thrown in to the accumulating poo pile below. After a few months, the access door below is opened and the pile turns into a beautiful, fluffy, nutrient rich soil amendment. We removed a load from one of the banos and can confirm this.

Problem is that the Brits used cheap metal hinges on the doors and bolts to hold the access door, which quickly rusted solid in the salt air. In addition, urine seems to combine with the ash to form a crystalline plug in the urine tube, which they neatly cast into the concrete slab (why does no one ever consider the poor maintenance man?). My project plan for this is to survey all 240 units, determine why each is not being used, devise fixes, train locals to do the fixes and re-educate about how to use the things. The banos are extremely well built and it seems an absolute shame to waste them. I figure every one rehabbed is like building a new one. (see photos on my FB page)

Another interesting note from the beach area, is the profusion of 20x20ft USAID shelters, which were built as “temporary” housing after the big quake in 2007. These are just frames with woven plastic coverings, but they have held up REALLY well, even in the roasting sun. So well, that few folks have bothered to rebuild adobe houses. Kind of nice to see that USAID logo all around. They give folks here a constant reminder that Americans don’t always show up with guns and drones.

The improved cook stoves are a popular Peace Corps project. Most folks outside of town cook on an open fire trench inside the house. Not only does this provide the equivalent of 12 packs a day of smoke particulates to every family member, it coats the ceiling with soot and grease. If a flame ever makes it to that ceiling, it would combust instantly. In addition, huge amounts of heat are wasted, as the fire burns outside of the pot bottom and the cook has to work bent over.
The German design that we are using (see photos on my FB page) uses a small, closed burn chamber with grate to burn wood (or corn stalks or yucca stalks) very efficiently. The heat then flows past two pots, which are set into custom sized holes in the chamber top (thus the custom nature of each unit) and out a sheet metal chimney stack. The result is that the family can use less than ½ the fuel, with virtually no smoke or soot, at a comfortable working level. After learning the craft, my project plan is to train local masons, who will be able to build the units for about US$40 each.


You may notice that, while I will be doing some of the work, my main goal is to set up a system that will continue to operate after I’m gone. Peace Corps policy (with which I completely agree) is SUSTAINABILTY. It’s the old “Feed a man a fish or teach him to fish” paradigm.

Friday was a “light” day, hauling wheel-barrows full of building supplies to the various construction sites along the beach and suspending a tarp over my room to give some shade to relieve the afternoon (totally un-insulated) ceiling heat in my room. Another fine example of McGuyver field engineering, if I do say so.


Saturday, I made the 3 hour bus trip to attend the monthly regional PC meeting. It was great to see  my homies from Peru 18 training and enjoy some outstanding chicharones (roast pork) and say Adios to the departing volunteers.

There is a speech in the remake of Fame that goes something like : “Success is not about power or money or fame. It’s about waking up every morning so excited about the day that you fly out the door. And going to bed every night, knowing you did the best you could and that you maybe helped some people and made the world a better place.” Just about how I feel. Every day.