Slowly but surely things are coming together. Don Prudencio FINALLY finished the welding on our processor. However, we are a bit concerned because he only tack welded the conical bottom onto the bottom of our drum. He then used silicone glue to seal it. We are pretty sure that with time, the chemicals we are using will eat through that glue. This means more time that we have to spend waiting for welding to be completed before we can put the rest of our processor together. But the good news is that except for that, the welding on our processor is complete.

Also in breaking news: Amit and Tanner (after some long discussions with Curt and I) finally came to a great plan for the solar box that they are planning on building to heat the oil for our biodiesel process. They are planning on building the box tomorrow, while Don Prudencio welds them a heat exchanger.

I can’t wait to finally get my hands on some palm oil. We’ve been here a week and a half, and I still haven’t made any biodiesel. It is a bit strange not making biodiesel for such a long time. I am very anxious to start making biodiesel here because most of the oil that people have access to currently is palm oil, and our team needs to have experience with this specific oil before we can teach people about it. Once the processor is complete we will go to Ana Cafe. We will do our experimentation on the farm, because it is at a lower elevation and is warmer (which is better than making biodiesel up in the cold mountains of Xela proper). The owner of Ana Cafe has agreed to give us 200 gallons of palm oil to experiment with.

The other night Curt and I had a really good conversation about how we both are unfortunately harboring quite a bit of resentment within us. Many many people have let us down throughout the course of this project. We have encountered countless obstacles, and bared witness to the more tragic side of human nature (including our own) quite often. But still, we have remained strong because this is something that we care about and because it is something we both set out to do. Yet still, that anger sits within us. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many beautiful moments in this project, but in the shadow of the many other huge let downs it is hard not to become a bit jaded.

But that conversation somehow freed me. It re-centered my understanding of why I am doing this project. If anything the best thing I can do for me is to not let other people’s failures contribute to my own. And the best thing I can do for them is to show them what it means to actually dedicate one’s self to something. Perhaps they will refuse to see that lesson, most people hate to admit their failures (that is something I have had to come to terms with in myself many times over throughout this project).

Regardless, I am feeling like less of a jaded activist, and more like a person surrounded by good people trying to do good things. But as I write these words, my pulse quickens a bit at the danger of those words. Too often in this world that general sentiment leads to a sort of group feeling that says “look, we are doing good things with our lives” which can often cause people to not work as hard because they become stagnated by that feeling of fulfillment. The feeling of approval. We must continually push ourselves to the limit if we want this project to be a success. Getting stuck at the border for a week, and slow welding has put us significantly behind schedule. As such, now is more important than ever.

New update: Well I thought that the welding was done, but I have now begun to check the quality of the work and thus far I have found five different leaks in the welding job. It was quite a disheartening discovery because the welding took over a week longer than it was supposed to, and now we are you appoxy to patch our processor up. The appoxy is not a long term solution, but it is resistent to the chemicals we are using, so the processor will be good for a couple of months (assuming I bought enough appoxy to fix all the holes I am continually finding).

The bus: brook and Ethan are coming tonight. For this I am soooo thankful. Those poor guys have been through so much. First the border was hell! (Since our bus driver ditched us our paperwork wasn’t in order and that set us a week behind). Then, the bus broke an hour outside of the border of Mexico and Guatemala. The good news is that the original owner, Gwen, paid for the bus to be towed to Guatemala because Mexico doesn’t sell the parts that we need. Gwen is also paying for all of the needed repairs, which is incredibly generous in him.

Currently I am waiting for the appoxy to dry and I will test our processor to see if it is leak free.

Hugo had a great insight: this project is like one incredibly hard video game, and every time you think you got the level beat, some random monster jumps out and puts you back siginificantly. The key is to just keep working at it, learn from your mistakes, and stay strong.

The conference is fast-approaching and there are so many details that still need to be worked out. I’m cautiously optimistic that everything will be okay. However, caution and optimism basically cancel each other out, so I’m not sure how I actually feel.

I am reminded of when I was a state officer for DECA in Oregon, an international marketing club for high school students. (Yes, I’m a dork.) There is a large state conference every year for Oregon DECA in Portland. Since I was a state officer, I was at the event site before the conference and saw everything come together. A lot of people with a lot of experience are needed to make that conference run smoothly. What I now realize is that I had no idea how complex the conference planning process is.

Yesterday was officially the last day that we were accepting applications to our Honduras conference from July 14-18. I am excited to see the interest and dedication of diverse actors who all want to learn about and promote biodiesel. However, many people send back their applications without filling out important information or writing information ambiguously. So, I have to keep track of what info is missing from whom and make sure that we get everything we need for the conference to run well. Communicating through email is an imperfect, slow process, so this has been difficult.

We have a good number of applicants to the conference, and we will probably be adding more people as we work out how we will get our friends in Guatemala to the conference. For example, Erick Gonzalez and Edelman Monzon are two engineering professors at the Universidad de San Carlos in Xela, Guatemala. They are building a 1000 gallon biodiesel processor and would be a great asset for the conference. However, their university has to authorize their absence. I hope they can come, as they would learn a lot from other attendees and help us with our own production process.

I will be leaving Monday morning, bright and early, for the conference site in Sula, Honduras. I am apprehensive. I have been communicating well with Yovany of Cosecha Sostenible; however, there are many issues that need to be resolved before the conference. I feel good about the work that I’m doing, but I need to see more concrete results. The conference planning process is drawn out and there are few instances where I can say, “Yes! We’re making progress.”

There is progress, but it’s slow and steady. So, I can’t gauge our success. I look forward to meeting face-to-face with the many people who I have been speaking with for the last month and a half. I think I will get that feeling that we have really done something important when people from Costa Rica to Nicaragua to Holand learn about biodiesel and share that knowledge with their organizations and communities.

Aside from my personal work, our group is really developing and moving forward. Brook and Ethan came yesterday with our original processor. This is a huge relief as Brook and Ethan have important biodiesel and chemistry knowledge. Also, our original processor is solid which is crucial considering we have had leaks on the processor built in Xela. Three members of our group will be going to Anacafe Monday to work on processing palm oil, a key process that we have not tested yet. Others will continue working on solar, quality testing, and different heating elements for our process.

The Whitman Direct Action biodiesel team remains separated with half the team established in Xela, Guatemala while the other half continues to navigate the Whitman biodiesel bus down through Mexico to Guatemala.

The team on the ground in Xela is engrossed in work with XelaTeco, a local NGO with an alternative energy focus. The team’s biodiesel processor was welded yesterday, though it now requires a slight alternation as the temperature gauge was originally placed directly above the heating element, a flaw that could result in inaccuracies during use. This error is expected to be fixed by this afternoon, however, so that the team will be ready to start more of the mechanical work later today. Yesterday, Joe, Ben, and Curt successfully purchased nearly all of the parts for the processor set up. They found all of these items were both readily accessible and reasonably priced. After drawing up a new design for solar heating, Tanner and Amit purchased parts for the solar project this morning. Assembly for both the processor and solar heating system are now fully underway.

Yesterday night, the biodiesel bus broke down about an hour west of the Guatemalan border. The transmission now requires maintenance and possible replacement. Thus, Ethan, Brooke, and Hugo will be further delayed in their arrival, but they expect they will be able to have the bus repaired within the next few days and should arrive in Xela within the week.

I have been in Central America since last Tuesday and it has been a nonstop adventure. I arrived in San Pedro Sula, Honduras through Atlanta after a red-eye from PDX. I woke up from an uncomfortable nap as we were flying over the Caribbean and into San Pedro. I looked out the window to see vibrant green and blue coastal waters border lush agricultural land. As we dipped closer to earth for our landing, I got my first reminder of the work I would be doing here. Huge palm plantations surrounded the San Pedro airport. Palm oil can be used for biodiesel production; however, palm as a mono crop is horrible for soil health. Palm is also typically held in large, individually-owned plots, meaning the economic benefits of its cultivation reach few Hondurans.

The San Pedro airport is a shack next to a single runway. As soon as I got off the plane, the stifling tropical heat engulfed me. How does anyone work in this heat?! Anyway, I found a cheap taxi and made my way to downtown San Pedro to stay for the night. Traveling through the city to my hotel was a shocking experience. I had studied in Chile for five months and traveled throughout Chile and Argentina, a little through Mexico. I saw a lower standard of living in these places. Honduras is a completely different ballpark. The streets were broken down. Trash was everywhere. Malnourished, dirty children were in the streets. San Pedro is hot, dusty, and smelly. Diesel fumes spew out of cars and into my eyes and throat. I wanted to leave as soon as I got there.

I did some work on the Honduras conference at an internet café after getting a dark, humid room for the night. I have dedicated most of my time to the Honduras conference since joining the WDA team in Walla Walla after my semester was over in mid-May. The purpose of the conference is to bring together a diverse group of actors that all have an interest in the success of biodiesel. We hope to create a lasting, vibrant and mutually supportive Central American biodiesel community. The conference will provide people with the opportunity to understand the biodiesel production process and create important links for such a biodiesel network.

I have been communicating with some amazing, dedicated individuals through my work for the conference. I love the way information flows organically from one source to another, and through the process I can get a sense of the links and networks that already exist in Central America. One example is Mark Lester from Nicaragua. I’m not sure who Mark Lester is or what he does. He emailed me out of the blue when I began conference work in Walla Walla. Maybe he saw one of my posts on a Honduras or biodiesel related forum. Anyway, he immediately started offering his assistance in contacting community and environmental leaders in Nicaragua about our project. Through Mark’s work, Eduardo Zamora contacted me and I have been communicating with him frequently since then. Eduardo has offered to host a biodiesel conference in Managua, Nicaragua after the one we lead in Honduras. Eduardo responds quickly and thoroughly to all of my emails and he has basically told me he will get everything we need for a Managua conference.

I am so inspired by those who live their lives with such dedication and boundless trust. Mark did not ask for our credentials when he contacted people on our behalf. Eduardo did not ask what we would give him if he were to host a biodiesel conference in Managua, mostly on his bill. These people saw what our intentions and experience were and took a chance. This project has been filled with people who let our group down and with those who promote us and provide for us without asking much. There have been a lot of disappointments, but a lot of successes as well. I see more good than bad in all of our experiences with people related to the project. I feel inspired that people work quietly and diligently around the world for something beyond their own narrow self-interest.

Yet another example of an individual who gives me hope is José Deras. I met with José in Tegucigalpa after my one night in San Pedro. José works in the agricultural resources department of BCIE (Banco Centroamericano de Integración Economica), the main Central American development bank comprised of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. José is interested in biodiesel because there are many plants that yield the necessary oil for biodiesel production. So, the bank would be able to provide financial assistance to farmers for the express purpose of using land for oil production that would then be used for biodiesel production.

José met with a Mr. Starkman directly before we met. Starkman is the liaison to the Honduran president on a government biodiesel proposal. Honduras plans on converting all of its buses to B10 (10% biodiesel fuel) within the next two years. However, José told me that the government plan would exclusively use palm oil from large plantations. This certainly is easier for the government, since much of the palm oil infrastructure is already there. While palm oil may be part of the solution, the Honduran government is the position to utilize a more holistic approach to biodiesel production. There are already many people interested in using much more sustainable crops for biodiesel in Honduras, but do not have the funding.

I told José the environmental consequences of palm oil and he very receptive to my thoughts. He told me that the bank seeks all the information possible before investing in any proposal, so he was interested in Jatropha, Moringa, and other crops that could be used instead or along with Palm. I was pleased to meet with this bank official, in probably the nicest building in Tegucigalpa, and realize how pragmatic and conscience he was. I really felt that he was working at BCIE for the reason their mission statement says, which is to reduce poverty in Central America and integrate Central American countries economically.

I left the morning after meeting with José to go to Xela, Guatemala where the first main leg of our work would take place. Xela has a beautiful downtown area and is surrounded by wooded mountains. The weather changes every twenty minutes, meaning you can get caught in a deluge after a sunny day. The constant rain keeps the air fresh and clear though. I first stayed at a place close to the Parque Central and after only two days Curt and Joseph came to town. I was surprised and pleased to see them. Traveling alone can be exciting and liberating, but it’s nice to be with people you care about and respect.

After reuniting, we immediately got to work with Erick Gonzalez, the head of GuateBiodiesel. GuateBiodiesel is an upstart group in Xela trying to produce biodiesel. They also have links to other groups that we are working with here: Anacafé, a palm oil plantation whose owner is interested in biodiesel production; XelaTeco, an organization dedicated to appropriate, low-impact technology; and Nueva Alianza, a cooperative of 40 families that produces macadamia nuts and coffee. These groups are all doing incredible work and are comprised of smart individuals. I imagine Curt or Joseph will write more about our work with them.

I am still plugging away on conference work in Xela while trying to coordinate with local groups for our next two weeks here. The conference is really developing and already we have a great mix of people attending. There will be people interested in biodiesel because of the unique needs of their communities, like the people of the Moskitia in Honduras where they rely on diesel generators for all of their electricity needs. There will also be people who already have extensive experience with biodiesel, making our conference presentations much easier. Finally, we hope to have José from BCIE and other small micro-lenders, creating the essential linkages between vision and resources.

A brief update of our work from Friday, June 23rd: Curt, Joseph, and Annelle met with the folks at XelaTeco to work on the logistics of building our processor and jump-starting our solar work. Solar is an essential part of our goal of making the production process use as little electricity as possible.

I worked on more conference logistics while also meeting with the Erick Gonzalezes: Erick Jr. to talk about buying parts for a solar box and our biodiesel processor and Erick Sr. to buy chemicals, acquire more used oil for solar testing, and to see if he will attend our conference in Honduras. Like many biodiesel advocates, Erick Sr. really wants to come to our conference, along with another engineer and three students. However, resources are scarce. This makes our work of fundraising essential, so we can provide travel scholarships and ensure everybody who wants to come to our conference can, regardless of need.

We have four more group members! Tanner goes to the University of British Columbia and knows a lot about solar (great timing). Andie, Meg, and Amit all came two days ago to help out. They bought two ducklings yesterday: TinAmit and Hernandez, our new project mascots.

Editor’s note: This was recovered from the wild web and the actual publication date is uncertain

After a long and arduous experience with bubble washing, we are deciding to make the move towards a combination of static washing, mist washing, and want to explore Johno’s (from biodiesel.infopop.cc) counterflow wash system. We are working on making an extra wash tank or two so that we can be washing multiple batches at a time to test different methods. Anyone have any good ideas for a stand for a washtank? We were thinking cinder block and really strong wood with two 55 gallon tanks would be enough, but are always looking for more advice and ideas. Hopefully we are going to get some pictures on this site pretty soon. =)