I am the bearer of both good and bad news. Let’s start with the bad.

Brook and Hugo were driving the bus up through Central America. They were about 3 hours from the boarder of the US and Mexico. At the time, Hugo was driving and Brook was asleep in back. Suddenly, two of the back tires “de-laminated,” meaning they sort of blew-up by stripping themselves. Hugo remembers swerving back and forth violently. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital. Brook remembers waking up suspended in the air thinking, “whoa, this is sort of cool,” and then slamming into the roof of the bus. After that all he knows is that they made it to the hospital. Officials tell them that the bus was reported to have rolled over a total of 3 times before stopping.

Injuries:

• Hugo has a few scars on his face and some torn muscles in his arm. He should be okay with time.
• Brook has a concussion that is mostly better, his collar bone separated from his shoulder but should heal with time; he has a gash on his back, lots of bruising and a few other cuts. He should also be okay with time.

(The good news is that they are alive and will heal with time).

Why it Happened (this is the F@*CKED up part): The tires were almost brand-new, with the appropiate amount of air in the tires. Hugo and Brook were driving on a toll road in Mexico. For those of you who haven’t been, the toll roads in Mexico are often NICER than the roads in the US. When the accident happened, Hugo was on a flat and straight road that was very well paved. The tires blew out spontaneously, meaning that the tires were defective.

Remember a few years ago when those Ford Explorers that had to get recalled because the Firestone tires kept on blowing out? Well our tires on the bus were Bridgestone, which is a sub-company under Firestone. It looks like we had the same shitty luck that those thousands of Ford Explorers had. And as a result Hugo and Brook almost died, a $40,000 bus is wrecked and a bunch of expensive stuff is destroyed.

I suppose it is important to note that this defective tire theory has not yet been proven, but Hugo says the tire looks exactly like the photos in the reports of the tires that would de-laminate on the Explorers. I did a bit of research and Firestone/Bridgestone has a lot of tires that are tagged as defective. I don’t have the tire number (Hugo is working on getting it) it reference, but I am pretty positive that it was just a defective tire. Since the road was so perfect and all, I can’t think of anything else.

Other things you may be wondering:

• The Bus: They are planning on trying to sell as much of the bus as
  they can to a junk yard. The engine is just great, the tranny is fine
  and we’ll see about the rest.
• Our processor: Totally shot.
• Tools and other valuable things on the bus: stolen.
• When are they coming home?
• Hugo should be back up at Whitman next Monday.
• Brook should be back in Ashland next week.
• Insurance: They did have liability insurance, but no wreckage insurance. As such, it looks like we are out $40,000 (unless we sue
  Firestone).
• Other people on the road: As far as I know, no other vehicles were
  involved. Only Hugo and Brook got hurt.

The other question people have been asking me is, “Why wasn’t the rest of the crew on the bus?” The answer to that question is that Hugo has family in Mexico that he hadn’t seen in like 10 years, so he wanted to take some time after the project to visit his family. Brook wanted to take some time surfing and relaxing in Central America. The rest of us wanted to leave Central America right after the project because of various obligations back in the US, so we all bought plane tickets and went home earlier.

Peace,
Joseph

To my friends and family that I haven’t written in quite some time:

To some it has only been a few days and to others of your, this is the first contact in a year or so. This email comes at a time in my life when I am thinking more carefully than I ever have in my life. Maybe it is because this past year I have had quite a few near encounters with death. There are few things like death that can slap you in the face and make you think about your life in such a strong way. Or maybe it is because this past year I dedicated myself more to something than I ever thought was possible. Maybe it was because I gave of myself more than was healthy. I am not really sure. But I felt inclined to share some words with some friends.

You.

As I grow and as I live, I come to cherish the friendships that I have more and more. But as I grow and as I live, opportunities and responsibilities seem to beckon me, pulling me away from the friendships that I have. We are all following our own paths, and our paths intersect were they do, but sometimes I wonder if we could do better to make our paths intersect were they should. We have our whole lives ahead of us, and if I consider you a friend it is because I have seen something special and strong within you. I trust that that strength, and that beauty won’t die with time. It will grow and spread. So with that said, I hope we can do better to maintain what we have, and take what we have and foster it into something more. These years to come will be crazy and wonderful years indeed. The question is: what type of work will we do to plant what type of seed?

I miss you all. And I hope that I can see more of my friends in the coming years. I wish you all the best. I wish you the strength of a warrior. The eyes of a dreamer. The wisdom of a humble man. And the courage to silence the sirens of fear that haunt us all. I wish you endurance needed to grasp hold of your Hope, clutch it in your soul, and to never let go, no matter what may come.

For those of you who don’t know, I spent this past year co-spearheading an international biodiesel project in Central America. I was going to write a long essay for you all describing our experience. I was going to write an essay detailing the lessons I have learned, how I have grown, and what I hope I could share with you all. But sitting here in this hot internet café in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, I realize that writing about this year-long biodiesel journey will take more than a few hours at the computer. I see that we are all busy people, and you probably don’t have time to read my first draft and then another more complete draft later on. However, as all of our crew will contest, we have learned a tremendous amount during this project. And if there is one thing I am sure a friend should do, it is to share as much as possible with his or her friends as possible. Sharing this story, and my thoughts will have to come later (for the most part). In the mean time, below are a few thoughts, and then there is a very short overview of what we accomplished during this project. What I really want to share is the story of what happened, but for now, outlining what we did and a some thoughts on what activism should mean, will have to suffice.

Overarching Philosophy of Whitman Direct Action’s Biodiesel Project

As most all of you know, I have been immersed this past year in a biodiesel project. On face this project may seem to be a project solely about sustainable development. And in ways it is. But this project has been more than just that. The project, in my eyes (and I think in the eyes of my other compadres) has been focused on doing two things. As a side note, many of these revelations and thoughts come directly from conversations that Curt and I had together. Life can often arise out of conversation.

1. Inspiring people to live fulfilling lives.
2. Opening space for people to live more fulfilling lives by providing
   them sustainable living options that are much better than the current
   options that they think they have (using biodiesel as a form of
   community empowerment…more or less).

To bring this point home, I would actually like to start with a story from the night we finished our second biodiesel conference and forum in Managua, Nicaragua (the closing of our project). We were done, finally. And we wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves. As such, one of our Managuan friends took us to a huge dance club. That was what most of the crew wanted to do. Get a bit faded, dance with some hotties, and let loose. Generally speaking, this isn’t a problem. Generally speaking, drinking a few drinks every once in a while isn’t a problem. But then I arrived at the club. And although I can’t make a comment about all the people there, I can tell you what I generally saw. The club is similar to alcohol in that it may start off as a chill activity, but then it has a clear danger of progressing into an addiction. Into something that truly does interfere with you living your life as you truly want to live your life. (This is an interesting little game we play with ourselves: engaging in activities that we don’t actually feel are good for us, and then falling into a pattern of self-deceptive indulgence that we rarely take the time to inspect and break free from). Back on track, at the club you can find a few things: you can find respect, and you can find sensual pleasure in all different forms. Sometimes it is possible to find yourself lost within the rhythm of the music and the community of the dance floor.

But that is a rare gem. Time is a precious thing. Death is always next to us. And we only have so long to engage in that fulfillment that I hope we can come to actively live. With that precious time we have, I saw that clubbing was something that many people did as a focal point of their lives. It is fun right. It is the type of thing that we all did in high school. Go out, party, forget things by the gift of alcohol, and then let our sexual desires pump through us like a Dr. Dre bass line. Word. We’ve been there. And so were these people (most 20-35 years of age).

Now think about that event given the context of a sustainable world. A sustainable world aims to provide people with all of the resources that they need. They have food, shelter, and medical aid, hopefully. The people at the club came to me as a representation of what may arise out of a sustainable world. The people at the club had everything that a sustainable world could possibly provide. And their default mode of living was a mode of living that I find to be very ugly. Please do not take this as a criticism of dancing, drinking and clubbing. It is a criticism of these things given a certain context with a certain end in mind.

Now jump ahead to the second goal of our project. The goal of providing a sustainable living option. What if that is what the world becomes after we succeed in establishing a sustainable and well-balanced world? What if it means bourgeois clothing for all, iPods, jewelry, sexy dancing coupled with crappy music, what if it means a completely unfulfilling life, a life for material possessions and sensual pleasures. Matrix’s version of Zion (I think it was the opening scene of the second or third Matrix) was just what I saw in the club. That was Hollywood’s Zion. That is not my Zion, and for this reason our biodiesel project was much more than promoting sustainable development. It was and still is the promotion of sustainable development to a certain end.

Our project was aimed at providing for the possibility and opening space for people to live their lives as they believe the good life to be.

What we accomplished

To share briefly what we accomplished:

1. Held an international biodiesel workshop, conference and forum in Santa Barbara, Honduras at Sustainable Harvest’s demonstration farm. At the conference we had microfinance organizations, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, cooperative leaders, welders, farmers, heads of campesino NGO’s and other sustainable development NGO’s. We taught people about the chemistry and mechanics of biodiesel processing. The future potential of what will come from this conference is tremendous. All of these different types of people coming together in the same place proved to be the perfect chance for people to begin networking to make things actually start happening. Having the money people, and the NGO people and the farmers, and the welders etc etc come together at our conference helped lay the foundation for forming a network to help push biodiesel forward in Central America. Our attendees truly do have all the tools that they need to start processing biodiesel an a scale of 5 gallons a day to 150 gallons a day. The responsibility now lies with them.
2. Curt, and I with the help of Ethan and Annelle wrote a 120 page biodiesel book that covers the production of biodiesel to the best of our abilities. This book was translated by the hard work of Hugo and Annelle and it represents the best gift that I think we gave. The book will soon be posted on the internet, and is being printed by the NGO in Nicaragua SIMAS. Now, any Spanish speaking person has the resource that she or he needs to make biodiesel. All they need is right there compiled with diagrams and step by step descriptions. We are extremely proud of this book.
3. We built a biodiesel processor and solar oven for Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) in Honduras. What will come from this? SHI is currently working to plant 1.6 acers of jatropha with 70 rural farmer families living in the country side of Honduras. Jatropha is a native weed that is rich in oil. It can grow in desertified soil and it also renutrifies the soil it grows in. It is the golden oil crop. With these micro-jatropha plantations SHI will collect the jatropha seeds and crush them in a community oil crusher. Then with the solar oven and processor that we gave to SHI, they will make biodiesel from the locally produced oil. The farmers can then use this oil in their tractors and farm equipment and sell the extra within their community. This type of project that SHI is doing is the type of project that we hope will come from our conference attendees. This type and more that is… www.sustainableharvest.org
4. We built a biodiesel processor for Jubilee House in Managua Nicaragua that will be used to form a biodiesel cooperative in Managua. They are using waste oil from restaurants in their area to produce biodiesel and use it in their vehicles and then I believe they plan on selling it once they really get rolling. A biodiesel cooperative is a great thing in itself, but Jubilee House is also planning on helping to teach other people in the communities they work with how to make biodiesel, thus further spreading the seed. Josué, Jubiliee House’s biodiesel man is extremely bright and I am really looking forward to seeing where he takes the project. http://www.jhc-cdca.org/cdca.html
5. The last biodiesel processor that we built was for SIMAS which is a Nicaraguan NGO that focuses on information distribution. They plan on both using their processor to produce biodiesel, and also using it as a jumping point for spreading biodiesel information. They are currently in the process of making an instructional video on biodiesel. They have our book in their hands and have printed about 40 copies and will continue to distribute it. Further, at our request they are now planning to host an all-Spanish biodiesel internet forum. This forum is an incredible chance for biodiesel to actually take off in Central America. ALL of the information that we learned (almost) was from internet forums. Truly. Internet forums have the potential to change has movements happen. Free information, free debate, and innovation at its finest. We are extremely excited to see where SIMAS takes their biodiesel project. www.simas.org.ni
6. Biodiesel conference and forum in Managua Nicargua, co-hosted with SIMAS. Woop woop. Number 2. Planting more seeds in a different place. Hopefully the same type of benefits from the first one will come. One major cool difference of the Managua conference was that during the forum the attendees decided to have a second workshop where they made biodiesel without our help. They are planning on reuniting the 19th of August and making biodiesel together. Each participant will be responsible for bringing a few gallons, and collectively they will make a batch of biodiesel. From there they will begin making processors similar to the one we made for SIMAS. If they keep on working together and networking, the potential for building a strong network of biodiesel is truly astounding. The attendees were farmers, engineers, welders, students, finance orgs etc. As such, they have the pieces they need to start actually working for petroleum independence at the community level.
7. Curt worked with an ecovillage with the Patuca people. If that village can actually happen, it can become a shining example of what type of better life could be. It could be something tangible for people to look too. Unfortunately, Curt and I haven’t had time to talk about how his work there went (we divided up after the first conference, divide and conquer…). More details on that to come.
8. We made a lot of friends, and built some true sentiment. We made friends with strong hearted and loving people. Following our personal legends seems to be building the network of people who will create true changes in the future.

Much love,
Joseph

The conference and forum are complete. And they were both quite successful. We had farmers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, microfinance organizations, and community leaders among our 35 conference attendees. We had the conference at Sustainable Harvest’s demonstration farm underneath a large tent.

The conference started with an explanation of why our group Whitman Direct Action is in Central America in the first place. I ended up being the one to give that opening speech. During my short speech I was describing the impacts of petroleum dependence both upon people and the environment, and I could see that the attendees were all in agreement. From that starting point I had a good feeling about the coming hours and days.

Next Annelle explained the general chemistry of biodiesel and had our conference attendees make 1 liter batches. Dan, Brook, Curt and Hugo measured out 1 liter of oil and then poured the methoxide into soda bottles for the attendees. The attendees then shook their bottles for 15 seconds 4 times throughout the hour, thus making their own biodiesel. It was a great opener to the conference.

During the opening presentations Curt gave a very informative presentation on the effects of biodiesel on your car. He covered any necessary precautions one must take, and how to make the switch from diesel to biodiesel.

After people had made their biodiesel and seen the magic happen, Ethan and Annelle went over the process of titrations with people. Titrations are what we do to make sure we add the right amount of catalyst to our reaction. Titrating involves some decently complicated measuring so this presentation took about an hour long. Once they completed their presentation, we titrated a sample of oil that we had preheated in our processor. We used that titration number to make our mix of methoxide so that conference attendees could see a large batch be made from start to finish. Brook explained the adding of methanol and caustic soda, and how to do it safely.

Once the methoxide started mixing, we have about half an hour to wait until the chemicals dissolve, so I had the chance to give an in-depth description of our processor, coving it from top to bottom.

By the end of the presentation, the chemicals were dissolved and ready to be added to the oil. Brook gave an overarching review of the processor as he added the methoxide with Dan’s help.

Throughout the day, Hugo gave a series of excellent presentations covering the environmental benefits of biodiesel, alternative heating possibilities and how to dewater oil.

At the end of the day, Curt and I began our presentation of washing techniques. We covered bubble washing, static washing and mist washing. We used 2L bottles to demonstrate these washes because they are clear and allow the audience to clearly see what is happening. Unfortunately, we had to cut our presentation short by half an hour because it started to thunder and people were distracted.

I want to continued writing to tell you about day two and the presentations we gave, and everything that happened, but I don’t have my notes in front of me. I am worried I may have even botched up the order of the first day (especially Hugo’s speeches). So I’ll write more soon. But I will say that it truly was an excellent conference, and I feel we did a very good job. We got great reviews from attendees, and some of them even made personal donations beyond the conference fees (we let them know our financial situation). I am really very happy with how things turned out.

I’ll write more soon, we are in the midst of planning for our trip to Nicaragua for our second biodiesel conference and work with the Jubilee House.

Peace,
Joseph

Brook and Ethan got into town a couple of days ago. The bus is currently being repaired. Thankfully, Ethan and Brook were able to bring our processor from the states. They did this by having our 55 gallon drums strapped to the tops of various buses as they made their journey from Antigua, Guatemala to here (Xela). It must have been quite the journey.

Hugo, Annelle, Ethan and myself are headed to Ana Cafe 2 hours outside of Xela to work on acid estrification before our conference. We need to get that tech down before we got to Honduras. Meanwhile, an engineer from 3M named Dan has joined our forces. He seems like a genuinely sweet and intelligent man. Curt, Brook and Dan will be finalizing our methanol evaporization and recovery system over these next days. Dan has over seven years of exerpeince as an engineer and I am excited to see what he contributes to our group.

The solar oven should be finished today, and now that brook is here, we can actually get the heat exchanger rolling.

As always, we are encountering challenges, but as always we are overcoming them.

Ben and Jo will leave today as well to go to SHI’s demo farm to make sure the conference preparation is going smoothly.

Our group is dividing to take on the hundreds of tasks we must complete to make all this work worth something in the end.

Strength and Hope,
Joseph

Quetzaltenango is one of those towns where just about anything, and anyone, can be found. Serendipity is the unspoken law. Pure chance brought me here, sore and with a headache from the rapid altitude increase that I’d traveled since the Mexican border, and pure chance brought me into Whitman Direct Action.

The only destination that I had last Wednesday was Xela Teco, a local ecological technology organization where I planned to offer whatever skills I could. As it turned out, they were in need of some improvements in their solar hot water systems, and I just happened to work as a solar thermal system installer before going to college. I would soon find that my knowledge and past experience would bring me many more opportunities than just those found in a workshop.

On Thursday evening I briefly met Joe and Curt, the “biodiesel bros,” as I would soon know them, and a brief introduction was all we needed to discover a mutual interest in each other’s ideals. They needed someone to help design and build their solar biodiesel heating system, and I just plain wanted to get involved in as many interesting alternative energy projects as possible. Friday allowed us to get properly acquainted and to begin the long process of designing solar panels and ovens using only the cheapest and most locally available resources. MacGiver had an easier time.

These last few days I have spent just getting to know their project and really coming to appreciate the devotion and perseverance of those involved. It is obvious that they are up against some formidable challenges, but so far I’ve only seen them face each day with a good sense of relaxed humor and committed personal discipline. I would not say that their goals are impossible to reach, in fact far from it, but there is a lot of ground to cover before the dream can become reality. When you really think about it, though, dreaming about sustainable fuel and energy systems is much more grounding and realistic than believing that the current situation can and will last.

At the moment I am a bit torn in my personal direction. I only intended on staying in Xela (as Quetzaltenango is commonly known) for a week or so before continuing on my journey, but now I am starting to rethink my priorities. It is not very often that I find a group of intelligent, conscious youth out to really start some positive initiatives in a developing country. Not to mention the fact that my background fits into their mission like a missing puzzle piece. Who knows what will happen next, but for now I am truly excited to work with such amazing people, to enjoy the communal enthusiasm and cooperative spirit, and to offer my services to something that I actually believe to be both beneficial and feasibly useful. I’m not making any promises, but you can probably expect to hear from me again.

Hasta la proxima,
Tanner Welsh