We went to Nicaragua to volunteer on a GRID Alternative’s solar project. When we arrived we met the local staff and eight other US volunteers. The next day we had a project orientation and technical briefing that got us really excited about our Nicaraguan GRID project. Then we went by bus to Boaco, and here we’re getting our luggage off the bus.
Boaco is a small town of 60,000 people. Here's the view from our hotel.
There was a festival going on in Boaco, so we took to the streets to check it out. There was a mini marching band playing music.
The main event was a parade of horses. These cowboys were waiting to take their turn to show their horsemanship and their horses' "dancing" skills.
It was quite impressive how the horses were trained to dance.
There were mostly cowboys riding the horses.
But we did see a few women riders.
And here’s the most beautiful horse in the parade according to us.
There were a few young cowboys too.
This boy was enamored of the horses.
The festival was a chance for everyone to break out their cowboy clothes.
After the parade the streets cleared and Peter got this shot of what Boaco probably looks like most of the time.
This is the Boaco church.
The next day we went to a rural village without electricity. Kristina is next to two young Nica volunteers named Ana and Hamy who are in college and majoring in engineering. They participated in the project to get some hands-on experience with solar energy.
This is engineer Karelia, our technical team lead, working with Pete on the group’s first task of setting up the “solar toolboxes”.
GRID’s solar toolbox, with its simple, cost-effective design, houses the inverter, charge controller and circuit breakers, so it's the heart of the solar system.
As volunteers on the project, it was our job to assemble the components and connect about 20 wires into each toolbox.
To ensure the wires in the toolbox were secure, we crimped the connections. GRID Alternatives has been installing solar systems in Nicaragua for more than eight years, and their past projects have included clinics, schools and houses getting electricity, as well as installing solar powered drip irrigation systems.
After assembling the toolboxes, we were given a tour of the “showers”. This time of year in Potrero Sur there’s almost no water in the river, but there was enough water to do bucket showers.
Here’s a view of Potrero Sur with a few of the houses. About 200 people live here, and the houses are spread out so that people live close to their corn, beans and wheat fields.
The village is so remote that it wouldn’t be time-efficient for volunteers to stay in Boaco and commute to Potrero Sur each day. So GRID brings cots to the village and pays families to host and feed us volunteers. One of the most unique parts of the project for us was staying with Rosivel and her daughter Fabiola. This is their house.
And this is the room that we slept in. On the left is the solar panel that we would install. Against the back wall you can see one of the cots that we set up each night.
We joked that this was our roommate. The chickens did have the run of the house during the day.
The chicks felt safest when they were close to their mom.
At night the chickens climbed the tree to sleep, except for the brooding hens who slept in our room.
Fabiola cooked for us. This was a typical meal of bean, rice, eggs with tomatoes and tortillas. She got up each morning at 3:30 to start the labor intensive process of grinding the corn to make the tortillas.
It took our group two days to do fourteen solar installations. First we had a safety briefing in the elementary school classroom from Kelsey, one of the two GRID project managers. Originally from Iowa, Kelsey has been in Nicaragua for three years, which is long enough to be considered “Nica” or local. In 2008 GRID Alternatives had installed a solar system for lights in the school and the village let us take over one classroom for our project.
After the safety briefing we set off to our first house. Pete is carrying the ladder with Will.
The solar panels were already at the houses where we would install them. It was a four person job to get them up to the roof.
Here Pete and Ryan are securing the solar panel to the roof. They are standing on boards so that their weight is distributed and they don’t dent the roof.
For the volunteers not on the roofs, the job was to install lights in the houses. It was great to work with engineer Karelia because she’s a patient teacher with a great attitude.
This is Peter from Oregon. His solar company Energy Wise has installed 7.5 Megawatts of solar energy in Oregon.
And here’s Peter peeking out of the latrine. Power to the People was GRID’s slogan a few years back.
Peter sent out photos from the trip with funny captions. This one was “All hail the solar panel!”
We experienced smiles and applause as we finished installing each system. The families contributed to the costs and clearly had pride of ownership in the sysems. It was very rewarding to bring electricity into people’s homes.
Since there wasn’t a lot of water near the village we walked to an area where we could swim. It felt great to cool off in the water! For some of us, this was the only "shower" we'd have during our stay in Potrero Sur.
Here Pete and Will are working together to install the light fixture.
We like this photo because it shows our team, all of whom could speak enough Spanish to communicate only in Spanish while we worked. From left are Hamy, Karelia, Rosivel's oldest daughter, then Ryan, Kristina and Pete. Kelsey, a GRID project manager, was the photographer.
This photo shows part of our team with one of the multi-generational families who received a solar system.
Some of the families cooked for us as a way to thank us for our work.
This is Lilieth, a GRID intern, and Steve, a volunteer from Chicago. Steve signed up for the GRID project because he wanted to do something about climate change and figured currently it would be easier to make a contribution outside the US.
Teamwork was the name of the game as we installed the systems. Here Ryan is steadying the ladder on the uneven packed earth floor while Hamy installs the light fixture. Notice the graduation photo above Ryan.
This is the young woman in the high school graduation photo that was taken last year. She is 18 and her kids are 2 and 3. It's common for females to be married very young in Potrero Sur, so we were impressed that she had stayed in school after getting married at age 14.
We often had an audience watching us work.
Then it was Kristina’s turn to be up on the roof.
With Karelia supervising, Kristina and Evan are mounting the solar panel to the roof.
Kristina is holding the boot that she'll mount on the roof and then feed the wires from the solar panel down to the solar toolbox below.
Behind Kristina and Pete are the interior components that we installed in the house that we stayed in. On the left is the battery, which stores the energy generated during the day. It's about the size of a car battery. And in the middle is the solar toolbox, now hooked up to the solar panel on the roof.
Here is Fabiola, our 16 year old host. That evening her house came alive with villagers hanging out to charge their cell phones and listen to music - all made possible by the new solar energy system. The systems we installed were only 250 Watts each, but it was enough energy to make a difference in their lives.
There is no high school in Potrero Sur so the older kids go to a neighboring village on Saturdays for high school. This year Fabiola had started learning English, and she spent time each afternoon with Kristina working on how to pronounce English words.
Kristina brought a few gifts for the kids in Potrero Sur. Here she’s giving Jamie a notebook and some pens.
Ysayana in the middle also received a notebook.
Fabiola was proud of her single-speed bike. Getting to know the people in Potrero Sur was one of the most meaningful parts of our trip.
Here Danny from Alabama is with Jamie’s brother Aniel. They became good buddies.
Back at the schoolhouse after all the solar systems had been installed it was time for reflection on how the project had gone: the consensus was GREAT!
In the school room were several drawings of the solar system that GRID had installed in 2008.
And here’s photo of the school solar system.
We knew Karelia had an engineering degree, but we didn’t know she could also ride a horse.
On our final day in Potrero Sur we had a party. Here are kids and volunteers lined up to play “hand smack”.
Steve and Damon filled the minion piñata with candy.
Kristina is with her buddy Jamie, who is dressed in her school uniform.
Then they turned on the music and it was piñata time!
The youngest kids didn’t have to wear a blindfold.
This girl was so cute. She would dance a few steps, then swing the stick, dance a few steps, then swing.
Finally the candy came raining down.
Here's a photo of the GRID project volunteers: nine from the US, one from Canada and two from Nicaragua.
After saying goodbye to our new friends in the village, the GRID team went to Granada for a couple days. We were all happy to be back in civilization. For Evan, Will and Steve, this meant beer for the first time in four days.
In Granada we stayed in a hotel with a nice pool.
This is Roberto. Like Kelsey, he's a GRID project manager. He’s also a semi-pro cyclist sponsored by Cannondale. Go Roberto!
Granada is a colorful city.
Probably its best known building is the Granada Cathedral.
We liked the bright yellow paint on this gallery with its pink door.
Here's a look down the street near our hotel. The roads are one-way and fairly narrow.
These doors had toucan motifs surrounded by bright orange walls.
The translation of this graffiti seemed particularly relevant to US politics, "Hell is empty, the demons are here."
This is the Guadalupe Church, beautifully lit at night.
One of the fun activities we did in Granada involved chocolate. We started with a breakfast of chocolate crepes.
Peter's father was a candy machine engineer. Peter decided to wear a chocolate mustache in honor of his father.
This is Ismael, our suave chocolate guide. He's got a bowl of fermented cacao beans in front of him.
First we roasted the cacao beans. Kristina is stirring.
Next we shelled the beans and then crushed them in mortars with pestles. Damon is using a molenillo to blend Cacahuato, a Mayan chocolate drink. We were surprised to learn that the Mayans used pepper, paprika and cinnamon, in addition to chocolate, water and a little honey in their bitter drink.
Pete’s a blur as he stirs Xocula, the Aztec chocolate drink. It's made with chilies so it's spicy.
In the late afternoon we took a boat tour around Lake Nicaragua to look at some of the little islands that were created during the Mombocho volcanic eruption in the 16th century.
We could see what's left of the Mombocho volcano from the lake.
The islands seem to be owned by rich people from all over the world.
This tree had lots of egrets in its branches.
Here's Kelsey on her birthday. She loves living and working in Nicaragua, and after this trip we could see why.
We spent the day at Laguna de Apoyo.
The Laguna Beach Club had nice grounds.
Steve and Karelia are enjoying strawberry daiquiris.
Kristina is enjoying fresh pineapple juice.
After swimming in the lagoon and playing around on stand up paddle boards, we had fun hanging out.
On our way back to Managua we stopped to look at the Masaya volcano.
It was impressive to look down into the crater.
While it's called an extinct volcano, we could see some lava inside the crater and there was lots of sulphur smoke.
The sulphur smoke made the sun look like it was setting, a fitting end to our work in Nicaragua.
Next we fly to Costa Rica, the final country we'll visit on this trip.
