Jessie Lyon - Appropriate Technology Technician in Nicaragua

I write you from La Casita Solar, the restaurant of the Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa. The dining room is spacious and breezy, and in the kitchen Doña Adelina squeezes fresh oranges for lunchtime.  Mauro, the only man of this twenty person cooperative, hoes the vegetable garden beside the restaurant.  Nimia, the cooperative’s administrator, hosts a meeting in the gazebo by my table.  This is where I work and this is who I work for.

I arrived in Sabana Grande after two weeks of Spanish immersion in El Lagartillo, a thirty-family community southwest of here.  Four hours of Spanish grammar everyday quickly gave me the skeleton for a new language.  Soon I was squawking away with my teacher Rosa, and the other students at the school.  El Lagartillo is an exceptional place, grinning with pride for their school, a solar-powered library, a children’s drama program, stunning landscapes, a strong socialist history and their community band, Los Rusticos.

Five hours across the rural Nicaraguan badlands took me and my backpack to the side of the Pan-American highway.  After great confusion I found Sabana Grande and my host family and new roommates, a grandmother and her two grandchildren.  I fit so comfortably in this girly house, and before I knew it I had a rhythm to my days and a whole new life.

Working for the cooperative takes the schedule and pace of typical Nicaragua—relaxed, calm yet meaningful and demanding.  I contribute half my time to current projects started by the Mujeres and their partner NGO Grupo Fenix, and the other half to my own initiatives.  With fellow intern Benjamin Pedro, I build and install bottle lights and work to improve los fogones mejorados, a project in which three solar women sell wood-efficient stoves.  Last week I helped a group of students install a solar system in a local house and built a solar cooker with Reina and Rumalda, two members of the cooperative’s construction committee.  I am in the process of putting pictures and biographies of each member on their website, and organizing English and music classes for kids during their Christmas holiday in December and January.  Today I prepared plans and rootings for a medicinal herb garden.  My favourite project promotes local micro-enterprises for a youth group here.  I am applying for a small grant to start a bicycle rental company for volunteers and tourists.  Entering the world of funding has been an incredible and inspiring challenge.

So, life is grand, and I feel exceptionally lucky to be a Falls Brook intern.  Between work days, my friends and I travel to canyons, waterfalls and beaches.  We snack on fresh guava fruits and tiny bananas.  We follow the ups and downs of Sabana Grande’s baseball team.  Nicaragua remains generous and warm.  I am so looking forward to what is to unfold in the chapters ahead.

Romalda drills the frame for a solar cooker. 

Jessie helps Grupo Fenix volunteer Alex, improve his design for a new solar
cooker.

Ben, Jessie and workshop attendees install a solar system into a local home.