Tuesday: I got up at 3:30 AM, caught the 5:20 flight to Houston, and landed in San Pedro Sula, Honduras before noon. We rented a 4 wheel drive Nissan pickup and drove all the way to Danta Uno, about four hours to the east. We quickly assessed the problems they were having with the system and determined that the problem is with the inverter. We were able to power the grid with the diesel generator for a while until we came close to running out of fuel. Walter says the lights were on and then BOOM, the lightning hit somewhere nearby and the lights went out. Oddly, none of the circuit breakers were tripped.
We spent the night on a mattress on the floor of Walter's kitchen. Shortly before lights out, a huge scorpion (3 inches long) was walking on the floor two feet from our bed. While I was sleeping, a June bug the size of a cat landed on my back, twice. The chickens woke us up at 5:00. We had coffee and tamales for breakfast, and then a second breakfast twenty minutes later. The second breakfast was oatmeal made from fresh milk. When I say fresh, I mean it was in the cow an hour earlier.
We drove to Jutiapa and bought five gallons of diesel for the system. Then we left. After we were gone, Sergio came and directed the first billing time. One family had a 400 Lempira bill; about $20. That's about five times what we expect the average to be. We are unclear about the details, but we think Sergio said they collected 3200 Lempiras since the system went online ($160).
Wednesday: We drove a LONG way to the city of Copán Ruinas, an ancient city built near Mayan ruins. The streets are cobble stones and very narrow. It looks like what I imagine Old Spain to be. The hotel is nice and we are going to the first conference events in a few minutes. See http://projecthonduras.com/conference for information about the conference.
Oh yes, when I registered for the conference Monday, I offered to give a presentation about our work, and they said OK. So we are giving a presentation sometime in the next few days, maybe.
We spent the night on a mattress on the floor of Walter's kitchen. Shortly before lights out, a huge scorpion (3 inches long) was walking on the floor two feet from our bed. While I was sleeping, a June bug the size of a cat landed on my back, twice. The chickens woke us up at 5:00. We had coffee and tamales for breakfast, and then a second breakfast twenty minutes later. The second breakfast was oatmeal made from fresh milk. When I say fresh, I mean it was in the cow an hour earlier.
We drove to Jutiapa and bought five gallons of diesel for the system. Then we left. After we were gone, Sergio came and directed the first billing time. One family had a 400 Lempira bill; about $20. That's about five times what we expect the average to be. We are unclear about the details, but we think Sergio said they collected 3200 Lempiras since the system went online ($160).
Wednesday: We drove a LONG way to the city of Copán Ruinas, an ancient city built near Mayan ruins. The streets are cobble stones and very narrow. It looks like what I imagine Old Spain to be. The hotel is nice and we are going to the first conference events in a few minutes. See http://projecthonduras.com/conference for information about the conference.
Oh yes, when I registered for the conference Monday, I offered to give a presentation about our work, and they said OK. So we are giving a presentation sometime in the next few days, maybe.
1 comment:
I stumbled at the scorpion! I thank God for His grace to you to endure or overcome or whatever it is you do to continue with your plans in the face of such...eeeek! ...such....disturbances.
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