Almost 6 months it’s been since I left my comfortable Midwestern home for a year long internship/volunteer placement in Nicaragua. And as I sit here in the nearly roadless, lightless heart of Boaco, without electricity, running water (much less hot) or many of the comforts I did, and most likely will again in the future, take for granted I can’t help but reflect on my time here and the experiences I’ve had. I arrived as a very excited and, for the most part, clueless gringo from the US, who had dreams and fantasies about the grandeur and importance and rewards of volunteer work. Time has stoked those dreams with the stark need I’ve seen, shaped them with a education only achievable by experience and tempered them with a cold dose of patience and reality, of what can be accomplished, what doesn’t work and what just needs time. In the end a more resourceful person writes this blog. A person more prepared for the ambiguity and difficulty of work in the developing world. A difficulty that stems from general inaccessibility of resources, illiteracy of communities and, at times, indifference of leaders. Yet also I’m more prepared for the difficulties because I know, I’ve seen first hand, that communities do come together, the uneducated can and want to learn, and when, not if, this happens great things are accomplished.

Like a solar water pumping system in a community called Sonzapote. A community of over 300 people where the women and girls of over half the families had to carry water from the public well up a 60 meter (200 ft) “hill” in 5 gallon buckets 5 or more times a day. I saw the leaders of this community, men from fiercely rival political parties, Feliciano a Sandinista and Juan Pablo a Liberale, work together at a time when the country is cursed by broken elections, an untrusted government and very uncertain political future. But instead of letting this environment break them apart they came together, for their family, for their community and for their friendship. They came together to organize their community to take ownership of their project by digging the ditches, carrying the 100 bags of cement up the “hill,” building their water tank and installing their solar panels . They continue to show ownership by offering community technicians who want to be trained in how to maintenance and care for their systems. And finally we know they will always have ownership because, with the help of Asofenix, they have formed a committee to oversee the operation of the system, collect monthly fees for future maintenance needs that are sure to come and address community conflicts or problems as they arise.


Other great things are happening too. Like the development of Asofenix’s own biodigestor projects. These projects, of which two are now installed and operating, capture animal waste (cow, pig, human, goat, etc) and through an anerobic process can produce enough cooking gas to completely offset the cooking traditionally done by using firewood harvested from already deforested areas. This saves hundreds of trees a year as well as the lungs of the women cooking the meals. In addition the waste product happens to be enriched organic fertilizer. All this for an average cost of $300. Many times the problem is getting families to believe it’s possible. For example, talking with La Chica in Bramadero after the installation of her system:

“They all though I was crazy for doing it. ‘You can’t cook with shit’ they told me. But I didn’t listen. I believed Jaime.”
Luckily for her neighbors they’ll have a chance to change their minds, as a group of engineers from Northwestern College’s branch of “Engineers for a Sustainable World,” led by Green Empowerment will be coming down in March to help install 10 more systems.


And there’s also solar irrigation projects, like the one in the house of Jose Felix, which allows farmers to grow crops in the hot, dry summers when the land rarely sees rain. Jose was born in Boaco, a poor agricultural department of Nicaragua. He never went to school, being that there were only 3 in the entire department. Instead he started working at the age of 12, leaving for a textile job in Managua. His hard work allowed him to buy his first “manzana” of land (100 ft x 100 ft) at the age of 14. It wasn’t to last though as the war forced him to flee back to his home, hiding from Sandinistas and Somozas both. After the war he settled down on his land and began his life as a farmer. But still he made time for his education, teaching himself how to read through adult literacy classes located over an hour from his community and the help of an US volunteer. Now his son is the local elementary teacher and attending classes at the university. Jose never asked for help from Asofenix but saw a solar irrigation project as a great opportunity, to make money yes, but also as an opportunity to bring his family together. Now many of his children depart during the summer to cut coffee in Costa Rica. This could change if they had their own crops to harvest.

These are just a few examples of the work being done and the progress I’ve seen. There’s many others that Asofenix is currently working on, including small wind energy, improved efficiency cooking stoves and 2 micro-hydro projects which will provide over 75 kW of renewable electricity to the communities of La Laguna and El Roblar. These projects are to start in Feburary and I hope to provide ongoing coverage as the work progresses and the results become clear. Work that is usually challenging, but results that are always inspiring.