Finca Venezuela

Dave's out at a community right now with Kate and Kyle testing a ram pump. We'll probably post photos and diagrams of that to excite you later. But in the meantime, that explains why Dave hasn't posted for the past week.

In July Kate and I went to a community called Finca Venezuela to study the feasibility of installing a ram pump to pump water from a stream up a tall hill to where their community will likely expand in the coming year. Almost none of these communities have access to running water and regular pumps are prohibitively expensive for people living off of a few dollars per day.

We spent most of the day talking with the locals. Sometimes it can feel like work takes place at a snail's pace because of all the formalities and talking you have to do. We had two goals for this community visit:

1. Feasibility of installing a ram pump in the community.
2. Questioning the community members about their candle usage for light.

The first was accomplished by trudging around outdoors, which is always fun: getting dirty, getting exercise, worrying about dengue fever and malaria. The conclusion was that the ram pump was feasible, but not exactly what we were looking for for an experimental installation (the technology is not yet fully developed).

The second was accomplished by trudging around from house to house eating and drinking coca cola talking to whomever was there. The conclusion was that people were spending over a dollar per night on candlelight. Compact fluorescent bulbs can produce WAY more light for a fraction of the price. One of the things that keeps poor people poor is the lack of capital to actually purchase a system that would let them save more money. One of the newest things that XelaTeco is researching is microfinancing their own products so that they could go in and tell a community that they could finance a small hydro system which would save them money in the long run.

Anyway, on to the photos:

This is what we have to work with. Neither the biggest nor the cleanest stream.


We're building a little dam to force all of the water through a narrow passage to measure the flow


I am writing notes and discussing where to install pipes.


The interior kitchen of one of the community members' house.


The eating table (I can't really call it a dining room without sounding like a sarcastic jackass).


Bed.


Other beds. The box of clothes is what they can afford instead of drawers.


These are some edible snails. They were attempting to breed them. I think it would be a good thing if they were successful, because whether they could buy more meat or could eat the snails directly, they'd be consuming more protein.


Two turtles they were also trying to mate, or at least feed for a while as pets before eating them.


There's Dan taking a split second camera pose break from his eager devouring of a giant passion fruit. Why can't we import passion fruits this big at home???


Kitchen. Luckily this one is outside, because it produces more smoke than heat.



Finally! A chicken on a chicken bus! This shot was taken super stealthily, which might explain why it's so shitty. The woman is wearing "traje" which are the traditional clothes the Mayans wear.

I hope you enjoyed our time together...

Dan.