Speaking to the Listening Heaven

The First Church of La Misión Cristiana is located in Acahualinca, a densely populated and very urban neighborhood of Managua. But the majority of La Misión Cristiana's churches are in the countryside -- small churches serving small and widely flung communities, sometimes a day's journey or more from the capital. Just like in the U.S., there can be a real cultural divide between rural and urban congregations, especially when travel and phone communication are not so easy.

Bridging that divide has been one of the goals of the First Church. For two years now, they have organized youth group trips to plant trees at a farm beyond Waslala owned by the church, and to visit the rural churches in the northern region. This past October, Magyolene and I got to tag along on the trip. There were 11 of us in total: Pastor Enrique, Sonia, Johanna, Mayito, me along with the jovenes (youngsters) Joelia, Melissa, Cinthya, Darichela, Karina and Carlos.

Cinthya and Mayito on the bus.

Just getting to the farm is itself an adventure. We left Managua before dawn on the express bus to Waslala. After arriving around noon, we ate a quick lunch and caught an incredibly packed local bus that dropped us off at the farm in a heap of suitcases, hammocks, rubber boots and provisions. The next morning we awoke with the rooster and tramped up the hill to plant trees.

The farm is known as Las Jaguas. For several years now, la Misión has been working to create a viable dairy operation on the property. With the help of Disciples church from Idaho they have build milking structures, planted fodder and build fence posts. This coming year they plan to purchase their first heads of cattle. The farm itself is fairly large and is quite hilly, with sections cleared for pasture and crops, but big swathes left wild. The paths to the upper fields head straight up the side of the hill, which Juan, the local caretaker, and his family seem to run up without any visible effort. But for the rest of us city slickers, getting to the top without slipping and falling in the mud was an accomplishment to be proud of.

Starting small.

I had a line of poetry from Tagore stuck in my head during our trip: "Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." Given how important forests are in moderating the local climate and water cycle, you could almost read that line of poetry as an instructive ecology text. In many parts of Nicaragua, farming and cattle ranching has driven some extreme deforestation, even deep in the heart of the Bosawas reserve. The good news is that the government does seem to try to enforce the law where they can: last year the church had to get a permit just to cut a few of their own trees to make fence posts. But beyond just caring for the environment, re-planting trees is important for the long-term viability of the farm. It rains a lot here (and I mean A LOT) and floods and erosion are very real threats to Nica agriculture.

Carlos and Joelia, resting for a moment in the shade.

The view.

Uff.

Cinthya, Karina and Melissa.

Hydration is important.

We spent two mornings planting acacia trees. This involved lugging the saplings up from the nursery to the place where they would be planted. Carlos and I were in charge of digging the holes in the sticky, muddy earth, which we did with shovels and a narrow-bladed tool with a replaceable wooden handle. The rest of the group would then plant the saplings along the fence-lines. We got some awesome blisters.

Our goal was to build "living fences" that lined the edges of the fields that were planted with corn. The trees planted by the group last year had survived and were already a decent size. All of us worked pretty hard. We think we planted more than 300 trees during two days, and each night we slept hard in our hammocks.

The group, hiking to visit the ojo de agua.

After lunch on the second day we decided to hike to the ojo de agua (fresh water spring, literally, the "eye of water") that gives potable drinking water for the farm, and the cattle. A few years ago the church paid to run a PVC pipe from the spring down to the farm house, a distance of nearly 2 kilometers. It was a beautiful walk, running through the forest and along the stream bed, following the white thread of pipe through the greenery. We visited the part of the farm where they had planted cacao trees that would soon be giving their first harvest. Of course, halfway to our goal, the daily afternoon downpour caught us, soaking us completely to the bone.

Kenia and Mayra, showing us a cacao tree.

Sonia, seconds before getting drenched by the rain.

Being caught in the rain is a much more pleasant experience in Nicaragua than in the U.S., where you are always a least a little worried about getting cold. Not a problem here. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I wear glasses, I would just relax and enjoy the soaking. At any rate, we pushed on. Juan cut giant leaves to serve as makeshift umbrellas for us. We returned completely bedraggled.

¡Lo hicimos!

Hiking to Las Nubes.

On Sunday, our plan was to visit a local church named Las Nubes (The Clouds). This involved catching another before-dawn bus to nearby Puerto Viejo where we set out on foot (and horse) away from the road and headed up, up, up, up, up into the hills. It turns out that the name is literal; the church is perched almost at the top of a mountain, about a 4 hour hike from the road. Since it was the rainy season, the path was completely choked with mud. And unlike hiking trails in the U.S., Nicaraguan trails are mostly free of switchbacks. We just charged straight uphill and kept going until we got to the top.

Joelia and Cinthya, and horses.

Melissa, on the upward climb.

We got so high up we were looking down on tiny villages.

The gorgeous sanctuary at Las Nubes

The church on the hill was amazing. I have to say it was one of the largest and most beautiful La Misión churches I've seen, including those in Managua. Pastor Eligio told me it had been a six year project to build the sanctuary. The community had risen to the occasion of transporting concrete blocks, bags of cement and metal roofing up the trail we had just climbed.

Karina, Carlos and Darichela teach songs to the kiddies.

Joelia and Mayito lead Sunday School for the young adults.

The trumpet player was AMAZING.

Our time at the top was limited because we still had to return back down. But the jovenes of the first church had brought with them materials to run two quick Sunday School classes with the children and young adults. Sonia was asked to preach at the church service and then we had a hasty lunch before heading back downhill.

We returned to the road by another route, and naturally, we were caught again in a torrential downpour just while we were picking our way down a steep path. As the rains came we heard the roar of a troupe of howler monkeys (although we didn't see them). We were all exhausted and muddy when we reached the road. Thankfully the bus came and took us back to our hammocks. The next morning we caught the first of our three buses that would take us back home to Managua.

Cuidar la Creación

Laura Jean and I just finished co-teaching a class at the university called Cuidar la Creación: Medio Ambiente, Ética y Teología (Caring for the Creation: Environment, Ethics and Theology). It was a class that combined environmental science and theology -- I'll let you work out which of us taught which parts -- and it was totally a blast, a really fun and rewarding experience. Right now we're gearing up to teach it again starting in a few weeks.

On the science side I talked about how ecosystems work, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, photosynthesis, food webs, ecosystem services, climate change, deforestation, environmental health and more. Good nerdy stuff! We also touched on some ethical and policy issues such as the Tragedy of the Commons, Environmental Justice and the international climate negotiations. On the theology side, Laura Jean began in the beginning with the creation story and its call for humans to "till and keep" and be good stewards of the land. She also touched on the clear connection between the environment and the biblical call for justice, along with newer lines of thought such as ecofeminism.

The main goal of the course was to start from the students' experience of their own environment and then to apply what they learned about science and theology to their own communities and churches. The first homework assignment was an essay asking them to describe an environmental problem in their town or neighborhood, and to think about what the costs were to the community and whether or not anyone benefited from the situation. The results were a fascinating glimpse into the ground-level environmental problems in Nicaragua.

In a large class of nearly 40 students, a mix of urban-dwellers and campesinos, the three biggest problems identified were the following: (1) trash disposal and open trash heaps, (2) contamination of rivers and lakes, and (3) problems connected to clear cutting and deforestation. Teaching is a wonderful thing because you can learn so much from your students. Here's what I learned.

Anyone who has visited Nicaragua will have noticed the trash problem. In Managua the streets and gutters and canals are clogged with trash. Trash cans and dumpsters are non-existent and a culture of littering is well-established. The government has been working at improving the trash pick-up system, but many neighborhoods still suffer from unofficial dumping spots. Until recently, Managua was home to Central America's largest open-air trash dump, La Chureca, where hundreds of families lived by picking through the trash. (La Chureca was recently sealed and converted to a modern trash treatment dump thanks to a large aid package from Spain, and the families living there were given the option of employment at the recycling and sorting center.)

Among the students in the class, there was a pretty strong consensus that trash was Nicaragua's biggest pollution problem. Essay after essay recounted the same story told in a different barrio or pueblo: open-air dumping pits, children living nearby, no help from the government and a lack of concern by too many people. The trash is a clear public health threat, in addition to being generally unpleasant to live next to. People joke cynically that the Nicaraguan national flower is the plastic bag, which can be seen fluttering in the fields all around the country. The culture of littering goes hand in hand with a lack of infrastructure for dealing with the problem, and an explosion in the availability of disposable stuff -- all of which makes it a tough problem to solve. This year the government rolled out a big initiative called Vivir Bonito, Vivir Bien (Live Beautiful, Live Well), in hopes of making a dent in the problem.

Trash is also clearly connected to the second problem - the contamination of the lakes and rivers of Nicaragua. The country is home to two of the largest freshwater lakes in the Americas, Lago Xolotlán (Lake Managua) and Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua). Lake Managua is severely contaminated, thanks to many decades of industrial dumping by factories that no longer exist, but whose contamination lives on after them. The lake also receives runoff from the city of Managua, which went largely untreated until recently. Cocibolca has avoided most of the extreme contamination of its sister to the north, but is currently at the center of the debate about the proposed trans-oceanic canal through Nicaragua.

In rural areas, overuse of pesticides are one of the major sources of water pollution. In Chichigalpa, one of the major sugar cane-producing regions, is currently experiencing an epidemic of chronic kidney disease. Hundreds of young, healthy men working the sugar cane plantations (owned by Nicaragua's wealthiest family, the Pellas) are dying from kidney failure. The disease is especially tragic since it strikes the young and advances rapidly with no cure. And while it has been difficult to pinpoint the cause of the epidemic, some combination of contaminated water and extreme dehydration seem to be the likely culprits. One group of students from that area of Nicaragua did interviews with community groups and workers as part of their final project for the course (more on which soon).

Since the end of the civil war, Nicaragua's agricultural frontier has pushed further into the eastern rainforest. The main culprit, and the eventual endpoint of the land, is cattle ranching -- profitable but destructive. In twenty years from 1990 (the end of the civil war) to 2010, Nicaragua's forested land shrunk from 37% to 25% of the country (FAO 2010). The maps shown here (Liscow 2012) show the tremendous deforestation in the center of the country, from 1983 to 2000.

 

This deforestation is something we have seen first hand on our trips to the campo, and it is one reason behind the church's biodigester project. We have heard time and again from small Nicaraguan farmers about the harm that comes from not conserving the forests -- lack of firewood, erosion, loss of springs and water sources, floods, loss of wildlife and big changes in rainfall patterns.

According to many of our students, the various churches of Nicaragua are asleep when it comes to environmental issues. Several students have told us that the churches are perhaps overly focused on the soul and the hereafter that they forget the body and the present world. But environmental problems continue to grow and occupy a larger space in the national conversation, it's not likely that the churches will remain quiescent for long, at least not if our students have anything to say about it.

Resilience and Change

The question came from a middle-aged woman in the audience. Like many Nicaraguan women of her generation she was slight of build, but strong of voice: "But what if your husband doesn't approve of your work outside the home?" The speaker's reply was a little bit shocking, but at the same time, it brought the house down with laughter.

"We'll he's dead now, so I am free. Thanks be to God."

That morning we had gathered to hear from three women -- Aurora, Maria and Mayra -- who live and work in the area of Santo Tomas and Juigalpa, a rural part of Nicaragua known for its cattle ranching. All three are campesinas (rural women) and activists working to support and educate other women from their area -- especially small farmers, teaching agricultural techniques and organizing cooperatives. Their not inconsiderable task that morning was to explain to us how the world works, and we were lucky to be their students.

Every year CIEETS -- the theology education and sustainable development wing of the university where we teach -- organizes a cátedra (or conference) on women and gender issues in Nicaragua. This past December the focus was on the "Daily Life of Women and Adaptation to Climate Change" and we organized two days of talks and activities, one in Managua and the other in Juigalpa. I confess, I was worried the theme would be a hopeless jumble, but it worked beautifully. (I already blogged a few of the videos and songs from the conference here and here.)

What the speakers showed was that we live in interesting times and that it is the women who must navigate the big changes that have come to rural Nicaragua, just as they have all around the world. A woman's husband may still harbor old patriarchal notions of how families should work, but at the same time the "old ways" are eroding under waves of economic, cultural and environmental change. And women -- who are on the front lines of putting food on the table and keeping the household together even if the men have to travel to find work -- are the ones confronting these changes and finding solutions.

Domestic violence was brought up a lot, and unfortunately, the problem of domestic violence is a critical one in Nicaragua today. It is often said that Nicaragua is the least violent country in Central America, a fact that obscures the violence that happens behind closed doors. Nica feminist groups have done a lot to raise the visibility of the issue with an effective series of ad campaigns, marches and legal advocacy. All three women immediately drew connections between domestic violence and education for women, the importance of building self-esteem among women, of building their economic independence, and of raising the next generation in a new paradigm.

So what does this have to do with climate change, you might well ask. All three women echoed what we've heard from small farmers all around Nicaragua: the rains are different from in the past. They come at the wrong time, or not enough, or they come in one torrential downpour and then nothing, wrecking havoc with the planting and harvest schedule. This may be partially a result of global climate change, but a more immediate culprit is the tremendous local deforestation that Nicaragua has suffered in the past few decades. At any rate, there is a general sense among the farmers that making the land produce is harder now than in generations past. And as with other changes, this is something that affects women first and foremost.

The sprawling nature of the conversation is fairly typical of these events. Once you enter through one door (e.g. domestic violence), you find yourself talking about every possible related topic: education, unemployment, food prices, rainfall patterns, etc. etc. The spanish word that gets used a lot is el desarrollo integral, which means integrated or holistic development. It's the idea that we need to address multiple issues in parallel in order to make progress. It can be daunting or inspiring, depending on your mood.

For my part, I gave a brief talk on the science of climate change, the basics of the greenhouse effect and what rising levels of carbon dioxide might have in store for us in the future. The focus of the talk was on adaptation. Even if the world manages to put in place a binding treaty to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases in the next few years (a depressingly remote possibility at this point), we will still need to adapt to a wave of changes in the next several decades. This is because there is a certain amount of climate change already "baked into the cake" due to the permanence in the atmosphere of CO2 that has already been emitted.

We showed the following video (produced by the UN Environmental Program) about the importance of investing in climate change adaptation measures. Nicaragua has long experience with natural disasters and so the need for such adaptation and preparedness measures is an easy sell. What is harder is securing funding for what needs to be done, and getting reliable regional predictions of climate change impacts (a very hard scientific problem that is woefully underfunded).

The Scorched Earth

"La Tierra Arrasada" (The Scorched Earth).

The vision of this video is of a future Central America, deforested and suffering the effects of a degraded environment. (Sorry for the lack of subtitles!) The story is not so different than "The Lorax," really, but carried out with some beautiful, painted-hand puppetry. We showed this video at a conference last December on "Women and Climate Change," about which, more coming soon.

La visión de este video es de un futuro Centro America, desforestada y sufriendo los efectos de la degradación del medioambiente. El cuento no es tan diferente de "El Lorax" en realidad, pero llevó a cabo con unas hermosas marionetas de mano. Se mostró el video en una conferencia el diciembre pasado sobre "La Mujer y el Cambio Climático," de la que, más información viene pronto.

Mission Moment

The Global Ministries weekly prayer comes once again to visit Nicaragua. The link is here -- previous mission moments here and here.

Pray for Nicaragua on Sunday, March 10, 2013

Lectionary Selection: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Prayers for Nicaragua:
Beloved Father, you give to us abundantly, when we manage your gifts responsibly, and when we spend them frivolously.  Profligate God, you bless us richly, when we fall at your feet in gratitude, and when we grumble and worry about receiving our fair share.  We thank you and praise you for who you are.  Give us hearts that are generous to our brothers and sisters, that we may rejoice whole-heartedly when the lost are found and the least are served.

We pray for Nicaragua:

• for so many struggling to survive, whose struggle is made more difficult by global economic turmoil and rising prices for petroleum, for transport, rice and beans.
• for children whose parents are too poor to send them to free public schools, because they can’t afford shoes or school supplies, or rely on them to work so the family can eat.
• We pray for La Misión Cristiana (the Christian Mission Church of Nicaragua): as they work to help children get an education, to help families have enough to eat, to train pastors to care for and inspire their churches and communities, to build biogas stoves and plant trees, and to share a vision of a new Nicaragua.
• for the church leadership, as they work to make these visions reality with very limited resources, that the leadership will be inspired by love of the work to which God has called them, and continue to move forward despite real challenges.

In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Mission Stewardship Moment from Nicaragua:
The village of San Pedro is found about an hour from the paved road in the driest, hottest part of Nicaragua. There is no electricity.  Any water for cooking and cleaning must be carried up from the spring in buckets, and to get cell signal you have to climb a mountain. Each day brings only a few vehicles trundling by on the road that passes in front of the church. San Pedro is off the grid. And it was here that several pastors and lay leaders of the Christian Mission Churches gathered last year to kick off a new project -- the building of biogas cooking stoves known as biodigesters.

Rural Nicaraguans typically cook their meals using firewood. This practice often leads to delicious arroz y frijoles or sopa de gallina, but can cause health problems for the women who are in charge of the kitchen. Cutting firewood also accelerates the severe deforestation in the region, which can cause soil erosion, flooding, changes in rainfall patterns and more. And as trees grow more and more scarce, the daily search for firewood can be expensive and time-consuming. For this reason, a good alternative to firewood was one of the primary needs of the community identified by the local pastors.

A biodigester is a technology that converts cow manure (an abundant resource in this cattle ranching area) into methane cooking gas. With the collaboration of several U.S. partner churches, the Christian Mission has now built 3 working biodigesters for families near San Pedro, with plans for 7 more this year. The family who received the first biodigester reports that it is working well and that one bucket of manure yields 3-4 hours of cooking gas a day. The pastors in the region are hopeful that the project can continue and expand to benefit more local families.

Biodigester Update

The biodigester project, which I blogged about previously here and here, has been chugging along nicely. We have been trying to take advantage of the dry season to install as many as possible. In November we met at the village of Tamarindo Malpaso to install our second biodigester at the casa pastoral (parsonage) of the 20th Christian Mission church. Malpaso is another small rural village just a few kilometers up the road from San Pedro. Once again, a core group of local pastors and church leaders showed up to help dig, mix cement, cut PVC pipe, etc. And once again, Davíd from EOS was our guide for the installation.

El proyecto de biodigestores, sobre lo que escribí anteriormente aquí y aquí, ha avanzado bastante. Hemos tratado de aprovechar el verano para instalar el mayor cantidad posible. En noviembre, nos reunimos en el pueblo de Tamarindo Malpaso para instalar el segundo biodigestor en la casa pastoral de la 20a Iglesia Misión Cristiana. Malpaso es otro pequeño pueblo rural, ubicada unos pocos kilometros más alla de San Pedro. Una vez más, un grupo de pastores y líderes de las iglesias locales llegó para ayudar a cavar el hoyo, mezclar el cemento, cortar la tubería, y más. Y una vez más, Davíd de EOS fue nuestro maestro para la instalación.

Here we are installing the black plastic covering for the hole. Aquí se instala el plástico negro para forrar el hoyo.

Pastor Boniche (the national president of the Christian Mission churches) and Victoriano (the pastor of local church #20) listen as Davíd explains the process. Pastor Boniche (el presidente naciónal de las Iglesias Misión Cristiana) y Victoriano (el pastor de la iglesia local #20) escuchen mientras Davíd explica el proceso.

Here are Davíd and Pastor Boniche installing the input tube. Davíd y Pastor Boniche instalan el tubo de entrada.

In December we installed biodigester #3. Hno. Misael is the pastor of the campo (new church start) in nearby La Leonera, but since the campo doesn't yet have a casa pastoral (and is quite difficult to get to without a horse) we installed the biodigester at his family house in San Pedro.

En diciembre se instaló #3. Hno. Misael es el pastor del campo en La Leonera, pero dado que el campo aun no tiene casa pastoral (y es difícil llegar sin caballo) se instaló el biodigestor en la casa familiar de Misael en San Pedro.

Sonia and Pastor Boniche, enjoying the shade and watching the progress on biodigester #3. Sonia y Pastor Boniche, disfrutando la sombra y viendo el progreso en #3.

Here's the completed biodigester, as seen out the window of the house. Aquí se encuentra el biodigestor  terminado, visto a través de la ventana de la casa.

Misael and his wife, showing off the new gas burning stove. Misael y su esposa, mostrando la nueva cocina de gas.

Both biodigesters #2 and #3 will need 50 buckets of manure and 50 buckets of water before they start working, so we're planning to do some follow-up next time we visit the area. While we were in San Pedro the last trip, Davíd was able to visit the site of our first installation to check up on it and give some maintenance advice on how to keep it in working order. I was also interested to see that the local churches had recently installed small solar panels, giving them a bit of daily electricity.

Ambos los biodigestores #2 y #3 necesitarán 50 baldes de estiércol y 50 baldes de agua antes de comenzar a funcionar. Por eso vamos a dar seguimiento durante la próxima visita a la zona. Mientras estábamos en San Pedro para la última visita, Davíd pudo visitar el lugar de la primer instalación para verla y dar unos consejos sobre el buen mantenimiento del biodigestor. También me interesaba ver que las iglesias locales habían instalado unos pequeños paneles solares, dando un poco de electricidad cada día.

It Works!

When last we left the biodigester, it had been successfully installed but was not yet functional. The biodigester's big plastic bag needs to be first filled with 50 buckets of (ahem) cow poop and 50 buckets of water (perhaps with a dash of molasses). And then we wait for the bacteria to do their work. The bag begins to inflate with methane gas and after a few weeks it is ready for use.

Pastor Eustachio had told me when I saw him in March that the biodigester was working really well, but we had not been able to return to see for ourselves.  Thankfully a visiting group from Ohio was really excited to make the 3 hour trip to San Pedro to learn about and see the biodigester project. [*]
So, as you can see, it works!  This is the fully inflated biodigester, with the beginnings of a brick protective wall around it.
Pastor Eustachio explains to Hno. Boniche (the presidente of La Misión) and members of the Ohio group how the biodigester works.
And here's the result: a successful blue flame coming out of the stove-top!
A daily bucket of manure and another of water provides about 4 hours of gas for cooking. The one drawback is that the big pots used for soup or other large dishes don't fit on the small range, and so the family still uses the wood stove for some meals. So the biogas is not replacing 100% of the family's wood use, but it's a start!

This month we are laying plans to build the second biodigester (rainy season permitting) in the nearby village of Malpaso. The generous help of several of the groups who have visited La Misión Cristiana this summer--including the brothers and sisters from Ohio who trekked all the way to San Pedro--has been key to moving ahead on this project.

[*] Actually we just said goodbye to the eighth group (out of nine) who has come to visit and spend time with La Misión Cristiana this year. This may help explain why blogging has been light non-existent over the last few months.

Biodigester!

I'm excited to announce the start of a new church project that we are helping out with.  It's been a long time in the planning, but it's finally kicked off!  On February 18, members of the Christian Mission churches in the western region of Nicaragua gathered to build their first biodigester.  (Español sigue abajo.)

Now what, you might be asking, is a biodigester?  A biodigester is a relatively simple and inexpensive piece of technology that converts animal manure into cooking gas.  While city dwellers often use fossil fuels for cooking, rural families in Nicaragua have traditionally used firewood as their means of preparing food.  Collecting firewood requires a large amount of time and effort (or money) by the family, and the breathing in of woodsmoke is harmful to the health of those who prepare the food.  In addition, the use of firewood contributes to deforestation.

Because of this, there is a great opportunity to improve health and to conserve the environment at the same time.  For the reasons above, people have long realized that the developing world needs better options for cooking their food. This has led to the development of many types of "appropriate technology" including solar cookers and fuel-efficient stoves such as the ones developed by Guatemalan Cultural Action (another Global Ministries partner).  Biodigester projects have been especially successful in China, but a number of Nicaraguan groups have also had success in the hot, western parts of the country, and there are even big plans to expand.

The first beneficiaries of this project are Eustachio Pineda and his family.  Eustachio is the pastor at the Christian Mission church in San Pedro, a small village not yet connected to Nicaragua’s electrical grid. Because the pastors are moved every 3 years, each church comes equipped with a parsonage, and it was there that we gathered that morning.  A team of 4 church members had already done the back-breaking work of digging a pit—3.5m long by 1m wide by 1m deep—in the rocky soil.

David and Eustachio, without shoes

Our leader that morning was David Hernandez, a representative of Emerging Opportunities for Sustainability (EOS), a non-profit organization founded by a pair of former Peace Corps volunteers.  Both David and EOS have several years experience building and installing biodigesters (and other technologies) in this corner of Nicaragua, and in fact David is a friend and neighbor of the regional minister for the Christian Mission churches in that area.  With his expert guidance, the training of the group and the installation of the biodigester only took a few hours.

The basic concept of a biodigester is a large bag made of thick plastic which is then filled with 50 buckets of cow or pig manure and 50 buckets of water.  When animal waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic decomposition) the chemical reaction releases methane gas, commonly known as “swamp gas,” which can be used for cooking.  The methane gas bubbles up to the top of the bag where it exits through a PVC tube, which is then connected to an ordinary gas burning stove in the house.

Installing the big bag

Fresh animal manure is dumped in one end of the bag and the processed manure exits out the other end, and can then be used as a very rich organic fertilizer.  A steady diet of one bucket of manure and one bucket of water will provide a family with up to 5 hours of cooking gas each day.

David, with the completed stove

The first task of the morning was to dig the input and output channels, and then to line the pit with black plastic to protect the plastic bag containing the manure.  The plastic bag is the most important component of the biodigester and a leak or puncture could cause a real problem.  It’s also important to provide a roof for the biodigester since exposure to the sun will greatly reduce the lifespan of the bag.  At each stage in the process, David showed us ingenious ways of getting the work done.  To secure the black plastic in place he fashioned “staples” out of the spokes of an old bicycle wheel and he used a 1.5 liter soda bottle to create an overflow valve to prevent excessive gas buildup.

With help from a few other EOS workers, David retrofitted a simple, commercial, two-burner stove and connected it up to the PVC pipe.  To reduce the diameter of the pipe to match the stove fitting, he partially melted the plastic, refitted it and froze it in place with a splash of water.  Once again a very clever and efficient method, although breathing burning plastic fumes is not generally recommended. The final stages were the input and output basins, constructed out of cement, a handful of bricks and an unused plastic bucket.  All that remains is to fill the bag with enough manure and water so it starts producing gas.  For a fully inflated biodigester check out this video:

The western region of Nicaragua is hot and dry for half the year and suffers from increasing deforestation, which means that each year obtaining firewood becomes more and more time-consuming and expensive.  The clearing of forests brings consequences such as increased soil erosion, biodiversity loss, the loss of freshwater sources and reduced protections against flooding.  Last year, during the rainy season the region experienced catastrophic flooding which led to widespread loss of crops. Globally, deforestation is the second largest cause of carbon emissions, and Nicaragua is one of the countries most at risk of climate change in the coming century.

Just add manure!
Pastor Eustachio told us that the church pays 350 cordobas a month (about $15/month, or $180/year) to buy firewood for the pastoral family.  In comparison, the materials for the biodigester total around $150-$200, meaning that the project will pay for itself within a year.  In this region, which has numerous herds of cattle (and therefore abundant inputs for the biodigester), a biodigester can provide enough cooking gas for a family for several years, is cheaper than buying tanks of propane and has the advantage of being neutral with regards to carbon emissions.

Delicious soup, and a lot of smoke

The benefits are even greater when you factor in improvements to health.  A traditional Nicaraguan wood stove produces delicious food, but also releases a lot of smoke into the house and kitchen.  This smoke can lead to serious health problems for women, who do almost all of the cooking, small children and the elderly.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of firewood within the house increases the exposure to harmful substances such as fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide.  These substances increase the risk of illnesses such as pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and other health problems in children and adults.

Undoubtedly, one of the most immediate positive effects will be the reduction in time dedicated to gathering firewood.  Local church leaders tell us that in some communities families have to walk up to two hours daily in search of firewood, or buy it from vendors at a high price.  Often the collection of firewood is the responsability of the children of the family.

It was clear from the assembled crowd watching that there is a lot of interest in project.  In addition to the local church members, a number of pastors and leaders from the other regional churches showed to help and observe.  Many in the crowd were taking notes on the installation process and asking when it might be extended to other villages.  We are hopeful that we can continue this project and benefit many more families and churches in the region!

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Estoy emocionado de anunciar el inicio de un nuevo proyecto de la iglesia con que estamos ayudando.  Ha sido un largo tiempo en planificación, pero por fin comenzó!  El 18 de febrero, los miembros de las iglesias Misión Cristiana en la región occidental de Nicaragua se reunieron para construir su primer biodigestor.

¿Y ahora que, se pregunta, es un biodigestor?  Un biodigestor es una tecnología sencilla y económica para convertir estiércol animal en gas para cocinar.  Mientras los habitantes de las ciudades a menudo utilizan combustibles fósiles para cocinar, las familias campesinas han utilizado de forma tradicional la leña como medio para la preparación de sus alimentos.  Para recoger leña requiere una buena cantidad de tiempo y esfuerzo (o dinero) por la familia y la respiración de humo es perjudicial para la salud de las personas que preparan la comida.  Además, el uso de leña contribuye a la deforestación.

Hay entonces una gran oportunidad para mejorar la salud y para conservar el medio ambiente al mismo tiempo.  Por las razones anteriores, se han dado cuenta que el mundo en desarrollo necesita mejores opciones para cocinar.  Esto ha llevado al desarrollo de varios tipos de "tecnologías adecuadas" incluidas las cocinas solares y cocinas economicas, tales como las desarrolladas por Acción Cultural Guatemalteca (un otro socio del Ministerios Globales).  Proyectos de biodigestores han sido especialmente exitosas en China, pero algunos grupos nicaragüenses también han tenido éxito en las partes calientes y occidentales del país, y aún hay planes para expandir.

Los primeros beneficiarios del proyecto son Eustachio Pineda y su familia.  Eustachio es el pastor de la iglesia Misión Cristiana en San Pedro, un pueblo pequeño que aún no está conectado a la red eléctrica de Nicaragua.  Debido a que los pastores se mueven cada 3 años, cada iglesia tiene una casa pastoral, y era allí donde nos reunimos esa mañana.  Un equipo de 4 miembros de la iglesia ya ha hecho el trabajo más duro de cavar una fosa—3.5m de largo por 1m de ancho por 1m de profundidad—en el suelo rocoso.

Nuestro líder esa mañana era David Hernandez, un representante de EOS, una organización fundada por ex voluntarios del Cuerpo de Paz.  Ambos David y EOS tiene varios años de experiencia en construir y instalar biodigestores (y otras tecnologías) en este rincón de Nicaragua, y de hecho, David es amigo y vecino del presbitero de la Misión Cristiana en esa zona.  Con su asesoramiento experto, la capacitación del grupo y la instalación del biodigestor sólo tomó un par de horas.

El concepto básico de un biodigestor es una bolsa grande de plástico grueso, la cual se llena con 50 cubos de estiércol de vaca o de cerdo y 50 cubos de agua.  Cuando se descompone los residuos animales en ausencia de oxígeno (la descomposición anaeróbica) la reacción química libera gas metano, conocido como “gas de pantano,” que se puede utilizar para cocinar.  El gas metano burbujea hasta la parte superior de la bolsa donde sale a través un tubo de PVC, que se conecta a una cocina convenciónal de gas en la casa.

Estiércol animal se vierte en un extremo de la bolsa y el estiércol procesado sale el otro extremo, y se puede utilizar como un rico abono orgánico.  Una dieta constante de un cubo de estiércol y un cubo de agua proveerá una familia con hasta 5 horas de gas para cocinar cada día.

La primera tarea de la mañana era cavar los canales de entrada y salida, y luego para forrar la fosa con plástico negro para proteger la bolsa grande que contiene el estiércol.  La bolsa grande es el componente más importante del biodigestor y una fuga o una punción podría causar un gran problema.  También es importante tener un techo para el biodigestor ya que la exposición del sol puede reducir en gran medida la vida útil de la bolsa.  En cada etapa del proceso, David nos enseñó maneras ingeniosas de hacer el trabajo.  Para fijar el plástico negro en su lugar, él formó “grapas” hecho de los radios de una rueda de bicicleta vieja y ocupó una botella de gaseosa de 1.5 litros para crear una valvula para evitar la acumulación excesiva de gas.

Con la ayuda de otros trabajadores de EOS, David reajustado una sencilla cocina comercial y la conectó a la tubería de PVC.  Para reducir el diámetro del tubo para que coincida con el accesorio de la cocina, él parcialmente derritió el plástico, lo reparó y lo congeló en su lugar con un poco de agua.  Una vez más un metodo muy ingenioso y eficáz, aunque no es muy recomendable respirar los gases de la quema de plástico.  La etapa final era las cuencas de entrada y salida, hechas de cemento, algunos ladrillos y un cubo.  Todo lo que queda es llenar la bolsa grande con suficiente estiércol y agua para que comience producir gas.

La zona occidental es cálido y seco durante la mitad del año y padece una creciente deforestación, que implica que la busca de leña se hace más costoso y gasta más tiempo.  El despale de los bosques trae como consecuencia el incremento de la erosión de los suelos, la pérdida de biodiversidad, un mayor riesgo de inundaciones y la pérdida de fuentes de agua.  El año pasado, durante la época lluviosa, la región sufrió unas inundaciones catastróficas que condujo a la pérdida masiva de los cultivos.  Globalmente, la deforestación es la segunda causa mayor del cambio climático y Nicaragua es uno de los países más expuestos al riesgo del cambio climático en el próximo siglo.

Pastor Eustachio nos dijo que la iglesia paga 350 cordobas por mes ($15/mes, o $180/año) para comprar leña para la familia pastoral.  En comparación, las materiales para el biodigestor suman a $150-$200, que implica que el proyecto se pagará por sí mismo dentro de un año.  En esta zona, que cuenta con bastante ganados (y por eso, insumos abundantes para el biodigestor), un biodigestor puede proveer suficiente gas para una familia por varios años, sale más barata que comprar tanques de propano y tiene la ventaja de ser neutral con respecto a las emisiones de carbono.

Los beneficios son aun más grande cuando se toma en cuenta las mejoras a la salud.  Una estufa tradicional nicaragüense produce una rica comida, pero también libera una gran cantidad de humo en la casa y la cocina.  Este humo puede causar problemas graves para la salud de las mujeres, que hacen casi todos de la cocina, niños pequeños y los del tercer edad.  Según la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), el uso de leña para cocinar dentro de la casa aumenta la exposición a sustancias nocivas tales como las partículas finas y el monóxido de carbono.  Estas sustancias incrementan el riesgo de enfermedades tales como la neumonía, la bronquitis crónica y otros problemas de salud en niños y adultos.

Indudablemente, uno de los efectos positivos más inmediatos será la disminución del tiempo que las personas dedican buscando la leña.  Los líderes de las iglesias locales dicen que en algunas comunidades, las familias tienen que caminar dos horas cada día sólo en busca de leña, o la compran a los vendedores a un precio alto.  A menudo la recogida de leña es la responsabilidad de los niños y niñas de la familia.

Quedó claro que en la multitud reunida viendo que hay mucha interés en el proyecto.  Además de los miembros locales, los pastores y líderes de las otras iglesias de la región llegaron para ayudar y observar.  Muchas personas en el grupo estaban tomando notas sobre el proceso de instalación y estaban preguntando cuando podría extenderse a otros pueblos. Tenemos la esperanza de que podamos continuar con este proyecto y beneficiar a muchas más familias y las iglesias en la región!

Rains and Floods

For more than a week now, all of Central America has been smacked by tropical storms dumping heavy rainfall and causing dangerous flooding in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.  Where we are in Managua we haven't seen too many strong downpours but it does seem like it's been raining for days. This post from Global Voices rounds up a bunch of videos of raging rivers and flooded houses from all around Central America.

We've heard news from several Misión Cristiana churches outside of Managua who have seen serious flooding and other problems.  The past two weekends, we had planned to visit churches in San Juan de Limay and El Sauce, but both trips were canceled because washed out bridges and surging rivers made the roads impassable.  There have been some deaths reported, as well as many displaced families and a lot of damage.  Even more worrisome is the risk of families losing their fall bean harvest.

Nicaragua, of course, has a long history with extreme weather.  Hurricanes Mitch (1998) and Felix (2007) are still fresh in people's memory.  Mitch had an especially tragic impact, leading to 3,800 deaths in Nicaragua alone -- 2,000 from a enormous mudslide that basically buried several villages.  These rain storms are nowhere near as catastrophic, but it makes you think...  A recent study ranked Nicaragua 4th on the list of countries most at risk from climate change, mostly due to the risk of extreme weather events.

In Managua, the main danger is the rising level of Lake Xolotlán.  Much of the northwestern part of the country drains into the lake, so torrential downpours in faraway mountain towns end up doing double damage as rising waters flood the Managua neighborhoods along the lake's edge.  La Prensa has some video of the encroaching water in the Acahualinca neighborhood, where the First Church of la Misión Cristiana is located and does its work.  Last year, a similar rise in the level of the lake displaced hundreds of families, and some predict that this year may set a record for highest recorded lake level.

Disaster response has long been one of la Misión's ministries and folks are already talking about how the church should respond to the pastoral needs of its members and their communities, once the problems are known.  If the crop losses turn out to be bad, the food security project may need to be re-tooled and expanded.  But for now, we're waiting to hear news and keeping our umbrellas ready.

Reading Material

I wrote an article for the Global Ministries website about climate change and God's call for us to do justice in the world.  You can read it here; it's basically a more polished version of some earlier blog posts on the subject.

Also, if you just can't get enough of climate and religion, check out the cover of Sojourners magazine this month.  They have a bunch of articles on talking to climate skeptics and overcoming denialism (free w/ registration).

San Juan de Limay

Last weekend I gave a seminar on climate change to the churches of the western region.  For the talk we traveled to San Juan de Limay, a small pueblo far to the north, near the Honduran border.  To get there, you drive for a little over an hour on dirt roads, up over a beautiful mountain ridge and back down again.  San Juan de Limay is famous for its soapstone artists and the road there is lined with about a dozen large stone statues like this one:



At the top of the mountain we saw a few coffee farms and gorgeous views of the mountainous northern region.

The climate change talk took the better part of a full day and a group of 40 hardy souls showed up to listen to my stumbling Spanish.  The talk was divided into: (1) what is climate change (the greenhouse effect and all that), (2) what are the likely impacts of climate change, both worldwide and in Central America, and (3) what should we do about it.  We also did a small science experiment to learn a little about absorption and reflection of sunlight (thankfully, it worked!).

The most interesting part for me were the stories from the participants.  Many of the church members and pastors in that region are farmers by trade and the church is developing a seed bank project in the region to help provide a little economic security for them.  After yapping at them for a while, I divided them up into four groups and asked them to think about the changes in their local environment and what the old folks in their communities said about the past.

To a person, they all stated that farming had become more and more difficult.  Years ago, good harvests were more common and required less investment of effort and money.  Nowadays, they said, crop pests were more common and farmers had resorted to using stronger and stronger pesticides just to stay even.  They also said that the rains were becoming less reliable and were causing havoc.  Now it is difficult to say for sure if these changes are climate related (after all, a lot of other things have changed over the years too), but I think this experience of environmental change made the other parts of the talk more relevant to their lives.

Dios es Amor // God is Love.

For this latest voyage we were joined by Sonia, Carlos & Cindy and their kids Camila and Cristian.  Quinn had a blast running wild, getting extremely dirty and playing with the other kids at the church while the adults talked.

San Juan de Limay is a ways off the tourist trail, but its actually a really beautiful little town.  It's nestled in the mountains and (maybe thanks to the artistic influence) the town itself is colorful and peaceful and well-tended.  After the talk ended, we headed out of town and saw a gorgeous sunset over the mountains.  We continued another hour through the dark over rough roads to El Sauce, where we stayed the night before returning to Managua the next morning.