Community development requires the practitioner and facilitator to restrain from doing for others what they can do for themselves. This is necessary in order to give people the opportunity to participate, to engage in solving their own problems, to take responsibility in changing and moving ahead. This can be quite challenging at times for a person that loves to work with their hands and serve others. It can be tempting for any foreigner to think, "I can do this work myself much quicker than I can train you to do it, so step back local and watch how it's done!" The foreigner that thinks this needs to be challenged to consider: who is this project for? How do they benefit more: by passively watching you do this, or by participating and discovering how to do it themselves?
My belief in the principles of sound development trumps my desire to practically make wells and toilets and gardens for people myself, but this still leaves me with the desire to work with my hands and make something! So, what do I do? In Lal, I found that having some projects to do around the house was like medicine for my mind (which would get overwhelmed with the challenges of development work there). More than ever before, I loved using tools, raw materials, and my bare hands to make something! What follows are some pictures and descriptions of some favorite projects I have done in our houses in the nearly 3 years we have been here. (click on the pictures to zoom in)
This was solar power project #1. In Lal there was no powergrid so the options were using a generator or solar, or kerosene lamps! We experienced enough darkness in our first 6 months in the capital city that we were eager to set up some lights in Lal, so we went with solar. Two 70 watt solar panels was enough to keep our batteries (3x90aH) charged and supply constant light and power. For lights we used 12VDC flourescents and high-tech LEDs that grandpa sent. For power outlets we got a cheap Chinese inverter (bottom of picture), and hooked it up so that rooms could be turned on or off with the circuit breakers. This was a great system, it did everything we needed it to do in Lal.
This was solar project #2. We got to M-ville and learned that city power is quite reliable, until it's not. The biggest woe of the city power was low voltage. Regular voltage here is supposed to be 220, but we were often receiving 150, 120, or even as low as 80 volts! That's enough to damage a fridge, so we bought an electric transformer (big silver box with 2 gauges) that would boost the power up to a full 220V. This is an impressive device, and locally made! We could go days, even a week or more without losing power, and then all of the sudden city power would go for a day or more. In those times it was nice to have solar. To switch the entire house over from city to solar we have a master switch (on left). But then the challenge was that our new 800w inverter (gray and black box right of transformer) was not big enough to power the fridge, washer, or water heater. So I ran separate powerlines to them, and put them on circuit breakers. Then I started thinking up other possibilities, and in the end I was able to run lights and plugs on solar, run appliances one by one as needed with city power as it comes, and if all else fails, power things one by one with a generator, or charge the batteries with the generator if there was no sun. All of the above possibilities were needed and used at times, and this system also worked great, with one exception. The exception was that in June when we were gone, someone at the electric company switched some wires wrong and sent over 300V through our neighborhood, burning up lights and appliances all around. Our transformer blew up, and a computer cord was ruined, and the fridge we were borrowing no longer works well.
This is solar project #3, which we are currently using. When we came back in July we moved into this bigger house, which was already set up with a panel of fuses, and two main switches, which allowed switching between city power, solar, and a generator main. To mitigate the chance that our transformer could be blown up again, I added a third switch that allows me to direct most of the house's power through the transformer, or shut the transformer off and still run city power without it. I also brought 12VDC lights back into use in this house, because it's easier to just run those in the evening than to have the 220V city lights flicker on and off. One of my most exciting/relieving accomplishments was getting little t's nightlight and fan on 12VDC, so that he is no longer woken up by powercuts.
Once electricity is set up, it's on to the next utility: water. Compared to Lal, we are spoiled here. In Lal we had to draw all of our water out of a well with a hand pump, and haul it into the house in buckets. Actually once we got the system down it was no sweat. Now we are in a town where many houses have at least some running water. We have an electric pump in our well (25 meters deep), and once a day we hook a hose from it to a pipe on our house that runs up the wall to fill a tank (maybe 200 gallons?). There's no need for a water pump in the house, with the tank on the roof. All our water pipes are outside the walls, because there has been too many problems with leaky steel pipes inside of mud walls. These PVC pipes are quite easy to work with once you get the hang of the welder used to put them together. Here's our low-tech and low-buck shower. It works great!
Once utilities are done, it's time to work on storage. Buying finished cabinets here is very expensive, I prefer to buy logs, and have them sawn to the sizes I want. This is shelf unit I built in our last house, and when we moved I took it apart and put it back together again in the new house.
When utilities and storage are done, and life is not too crazy, then I can start to work on projects that are more for fun. In Lal my favorite project was making this headboard and lamp. We used one of T's headscarves for the fabric on the headboard. It was really nice to have this headboard in Lal where the freezing winter temps make the mud walls chilly.
Before we had little t, we practiced being responsible for a dependent with Inky the dog. She was a great dog, but she desperately needed a house because she didn't have any other animals to cuddle with on the -40 degree nights (and she wasn't going to come in and cuddle with us!). I found a beaten up cabinet that was not repairable, and took it apart to fashion Inky's house. We even lined it with old blankets- spoiled dog!
And lastly, this is my favorite project to date here in M-ville. Because I was busy with many other things when we first moved, I ordered a simple table from my carpenter friends. They made just that, a simple wooden frame table with one low shelf. We brought it in the house, and little t climbed all over it! So, back outside it went, and I closed it up into a cabinet hutch. I especially enjoyed the challenge of making a sliding drawer without any special hardware- I'd never done that before. The hinges were also tricky, but they finally came together and I varnished it so the Crayon boy doesn't do too much damage to it, and now it's done!
What should I do next?
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