Lucky Cricket

That’s the name of our first rice dehulling/winnowing machine which came into this world on the 22nd of February 2013. We had a basic design and one requirement; the machine must cost less than 100,000 AR ($50). Now that seems pretty difficult in states alone, but in here in Mada there simply aren’t the same materials available and that forces one to return again and again to the drawing board. Initially we thought that we’d be able to source most bearings and gears from bike shops in Manakara however although these materials were sometimes available, they quickly drove our build cost over our limit; if we can’t build it for less than that then there’s no way someone in the Ambany volo (countryside) can. So from here we realized that a majority of the parts would have to made from wood, there simply is no other material that blends strength, workability, and cost like wood. This meant that instead of buying the parts and putting them together we would be spending most of our time carving and sanding the machine bits of Lucky Cricket.

The Soon To Be Legendary Lucky Cricket

So on that first Monday mornin’ Leo and I hit the lumber yard, bought the frame material for our machine, and hired a pos-pos (rickshaw) to haul it back to our build site in Manakarabe. We then spend the rest of the day cutting the boards and posts by hand, but not until we had settled on our design could we assemble the frame. After biking ‘round the market it was time to rethink our initial idea of using PVC for rollers coupled with bike bearings, they were simply too expensive. We slept on the idea and the next day decided that it would be possible to make the same rollers from wood. We spent the better part of the morning tracking down dowels only to discover that store that sold them was closed for lunch and would reopen after 2:00; most stores close @ noon, and it’s difficult when you’re not really sure what you’ll need and when, to complete a project. Now we had our rollers which would gently pinch the husk from the rice leaving that germ that the Gasy know and loves so well. But what we didn’t have was a sound way gearing the rollers and against each other and ultimately attaching to a bicycle, you can’t buy single gears of the same size. So we realized we could make our own gears by fixing nails bent into a U along the rollers. We got inventive and the by the next morning we had our rollers geared and moving in opposite directions. Our design features two stages of rollers so that any husks that sneak through the first set are removed by the second but this means that the two stages must be attached by a belt or chain so that they work in unison. We didn’t have sprockets small enough for the job, so building upon the success of U nail gears we thought that we could make nailed teeth that would function with a bike chain. After carefully cutting the nails that would become the teeth, we marked the holes, drilled them, and secured the teeth with a small bit our epoxy. Now we needed to make our machine appealing to the mechanical bits of a bicycle. We selected one roller to be the drive and carved its end to mate with the crank and chain ring of a bicycle. Now Lucky Cricket can be powered by bike or by hand when a bike isn’t available because we fixed a handle to the crank. The machine required some tuning but it performed well, and earned us approval from the top to improve upon our design and eventually apply for funding to develop the machine in mass. Our final budget was 36,000 AR ($18) and that’s about as cheap as we can build it, but now we know exactly how to make little improvements upon the machine and make it easier to build and more reliable.

All this for less than $18

The new AG trainers and I got to duck the heat this past week as we designed the training for the new volunteers in Mantasoa. It was amazing at night a blanket became a must and during the day there was nice chill from the breeze off the lake. We discussed improvements to the training and then we selected our training areas and weeks. I’ll be training the first week of April on Seed Selection/ Preservation and Integrated Pest Management, along with work in the Tanibary. Since my training in 2012 the PC Training Center in Mantasoa has build a large terraced garden and rice field and it’ll provide a far more complete training experience for the new volunteers. So until then I’ll be heading back to site to care for the school gardens and to harvest my rice field with a little help from my friends.

Salama

Nick

Tratra ny Taona (Happy New Year)

Alright so it’s been sometime since we last spoke but that also means a lot has happened since. November was an incredible month for a number of reasons: lychees, mangoes, rain, Thanksgiving, and the start of Ambalona’s school lunch program. The program which now provides lunch to the EPP’s 180 students got off to hectic but successful start. One particularly entertaining part of the project was sourcing the materials to build the cook house. To do this we would require roughly 700 bricks, which would be reclaimed from nearby existing structure. On the first day we had 3 people bring in a total of 36 bricks, then the second day the word started to get out and we had over 200 bricks from a few more new faces, but by the third day most of the villages able bodied male population were hauling in bricks and we quickly had more than the required 700 and I was trying stop anyone I could find from bringing in anymore. It was amazing; using gooney sacks a few dozen men were able to transport over 700 bricks over a mile in a few days. Once stocked with materials, Fidy began building a two burner wood fired stove from which would cook all of food for the students. From there people hauled in a giant pile of fire wood and we were ready to go. As the giant pots of rice and ravtoto (pounded cassava leaves with peanuts) began to roar, the students showed their appreciation to Hope for Madagascar and Alpine Initiatives for their support with a few songs and dances they had worked on. Every student brought his/her own dish and utensils, washed their hands, and then eagerly waited to be served. Since that first day the program has continued to serve lunch every Monday and Thursday, and with rains our garden is in better shape than ever to provide for the program in 2013.

Got Bricks?

ravtoto and rice

I can safely say that in 2012 I celebrated the most atypical Thanksgiving of my life this far. A number of volunteers got together and did our best to replicate an American Thanksgiving, while lacking some key ingredients and hardware; principle an oven. We brought a live turkey and prepared it, however we had to be creative when it came to its cooking. So we initially boiled the turkey then crafted a sweet tomato based sauce that it would later be stewed in; I ate turkey this past year but unlike I even had. On other side of the plate we had standard mash potatoes, dressing, gravy, maple candied carrots, green bean casserole, salad?, and instead of pie we had fresh lychees by the bushel. A little different in the end, but I think it hit the spot.

The rooftop garden decided to relocate itself

So with the New Year comes new opportunities and new projects, and the one that I am most excited about is a pedal-powered rice thresher and winnower that a fellow volunteer and me are collaborating on. Currently Malagasy in our region thresh the rice underfoot and then separate the grain from the straw by hand, and then transfer it to a mortar and pestle in order to separate the husks from the germ, and then they finally sift prior cooking or sale. It’s a lengthy process, and one that could be significantly improved with a little ingenuity. So we started looking for alternatives, and we found our inspiration in a machine developed by technologyforthepoor.com. The machine which enables one to attach a bicycle to any number of machines such as: a table saw, lathe, water pump, or thresher winnower in our case; is relatively inexpensive to produce and should be built and maintained by rural 3rd world populations. So we are streamlining the design and in the process of finishing the design for our own prototype which we hope to have working by the end of February. A daunting task, but the people in our villages are very interested and can’t wait to have a little more free time in the day because of it. One of my key partners at this point is my village blacksmith, who has risen to the challenge on numerous occasions and has demonstrated that he is not only capable of forging a fine blade but custom parts as well: such as those needed to repair a wheelbarrow, and more interestingly he uses similar technology in his own forge, where bike wheels are hooked up to pulleys that run blowers and grinding wheels. So with our combined skills and ingenuity I think that this project will soon become a day to day life changing reality.

Furthermore January also meant that I got notice of my PCV Trainer application, and I was one of 10 volunteers selected to train the new Agriculture sector that is arriving in March. I will attend training at the end of February and from there I will be selected to train the new volunteers on gardening techniques and small scale food production. It’s amazing that it’s almost been a year since I first arrived in country, and the PCV Trainers really helped to prepare for the challenge ahead, and it’s going to be really exciting to see how I can try to improve upon my experience for the next generation. I’ll be back with photos in the coming month.

Salama

Nick

Blaze Orange

First a quick bridge update: The ManakaraBe bridge has still not been repaired however a set of steps have been installed to aid pedestrian traffic, a second militaryesque bridge has been erected 1K north, oddly without any foreseeable construction of a permanent structure this temporary bridge looks to alter Manakara's traffic dynamic for some time.

Back in Ambalona, nearly 3 months of drought has come to an end. Late October and early November usually signal the beginning of the rainy season, and for me this means that gardening just got a whole lot easier, but it also means a that roof once again leaks. Planning ahead however I purchased a rainbarrel in Fianar. After strapping to my bike rack and biking it through a tourist littered 40K, I have since installed it on the shady south side of my house in. It collects water from my showers tin roof via 2" PVC gudders, and after a good night of rain I'm left with 175L of water to quench my gardens thirst.

"We're really going to fly down the hills with this stuff Russ"

Back home as the hills are set ablaze with autumn's pallet of from gold to crimson, sadly too are hills around my village in annual fires or Tavy. Typically the land is burned to clear new lands for rice cultivation or establish new pastures for the abundant cattle, but I can't see how it adds up. Much of the land surrounding my site has already been cleared, and the few trees left in the valleys look to be the seeds of reforestation, however the land is still burned. Many in my village have spent entire nights fighting the fires armed only with large ravinala leaves in order to try and snuff it out, but the next night the hills are again mysteriously set ablaze by an anonymous arsonist. Education looks to be the answer but I can only assume that those set fire to the land take similar regard for schooling. As the rains come the fires will again cease, but it only makes reforestation here in Madagascar even more challenging.

7K South of Ambalona

With the rains also comes stagnant water, and with stagnant water comes a significant spike in mosquito populations. So right now many volunteers including myself are briefing our community on malaria's symptoms and its prevention. Here in Madagascar, malaria accounts for 15 percent of all hospital visits, however due to its cyclical nature many cases go untreated thus increasing the number of human hosts that can thus transmit it to new mosquito carriers, further increasing the prevalence of malaria in the region. The first step we take is to inform communities about how to prevent exposure to malaria carrying mosquitoes (bed nets, neem cream, closed windows at night) and how to prevent breeding environments (covering water buckets,), then we inform them about its symptoms and treatment. We currently are doing this with community murals, and neem cream and bed net installation demonstration. This preparation is all leading to an upcoming bed net distribution which will help achieve the goals set forth in the President's Malaria Initiative which aims to cut Africa's malaria related deaths in half over 10 years.

They get a free paint job too

Salama 

Nick

Infrastructure: Needs Improvement

When I left you last I was Manakara bound on train that an amalgam of Chris Van Allsburg and Rudyard Kipling couldn't have possibly conceived.  We arrived on time at the station, 7:00 AM sharp, however in keeping with cultural norms the train had been rescheduled to depart at 11:00 AM.  See that there still was no train present in the station, we assumed that one could quite possible arrive and be ready to depart within 4 hours.  As the station slowly gathered a crowd of aimless pedestrians, produce, and passengers the novelty of the train ride had already been tarnished.  But then at 1:30 PM we were granted access to the platform, much in the same way cattle are herded into a rodeo.  I, like any carless PCV had brought my bike along, and thinking that this being a train I assumed that there would be ample room for it onboard.  However the one box car on train was already stuffed with rice, carrots, and an unfathomable amount of leeks.  Thus at this point I was informed that I would have to pay an additional 4000Ar to transport my bike; not too shocking but not really necessary either.  Then there was the icing when an additional 400Ar was demanded to purchase the rope to tie my bike to God knows where on the train; "Run It!"  We managed to secure our seats in the first class car, which translates to a chicken free environment complete with a bathroom that lacks any respect for the crossties bellow.  At approximately 3:30 PM the diesel electric beast lumbered out of the station, an understandable eight and a half hours late.

We found ourselves sharing our seats with a man one would swear to be Anthony Bourdain.  Apart from looks, Serge also travelled light, immersed himself in the culture; even if that means cramming into a taxi brousse with 24 other people and some chickens, and avoided the typical travel guide hotspots.  Needless to say we quickly became friends, discussing Madagascar's flora and fauna and its culture.  But as the sun began to set only two hours into the train ride there really wasn't much to look at, other than the passengers and poor condition of the train car.  It was at this time that we were informed that we had only covered 20K of an over 200K long journey, would we ever make it to Manakara and at what time.  The train cuts its way through the remaining rainforest between Fianar and the coast, and for many it is the only way to access their villages.  Thus frequent stops were made throughout the night, and it wasn't quite clear whether or not they were for passengers or repairs.  However the stillness of the forest did allow me to catch a few Zs here and there.  In a sleep deprived delirium we disembarked the train in Manakara at 4:30 AM only 13 hours later.  The same journey via taxi brousse takes a mere 6 hours and is half the price but nowhere nearly as memorable.

Returning to my site, I discovered that the drought we had staved off was still in effect.  We scrambled to preserve the harvest of tomatoes and cabbage but it became quite clear that there is not enough water at the current location to continue gardening beyond August.  Never one to accept defeat we developed and smaller satellite garden close to the river.  With an ample water supply we can continue grow vegetables for the school's lunch program, and the two garden system allows us to teach fallow and compost cropping techniques.  After this development we really started to consider the evolution of this program, and where the next volunteer and generation of students will take it from here.  Right now we're building the foundation and for now that means nurturing the soil, and planting trees for tomorrow's shade.

While the people of Ambalona and I have been hard at work improving our food security, I can't quite say that Madagascar's department of public works has been doing quite the same.  I recently travelled to down to Matanga to help a fellow volunteer build a fence for his school garden program.  Upon arriving in Matanga after biking a horrendous 30K. I was faced with unique challenge.  There is a river and while there is a bridge it's not exactly what one considers passable.  For the time being it's for pedestrian traffic only, although it used to accept motor vehicles, however when you have a bike, with saddlebags that are loaded tools, carrying it across several rusty I-beams laid out disintegrating pillars that suspend you 15ft above pongee stick laden water doesn’t seem like a good idea; fiainana.

It's actually Two Lanes

Then in other news, the steel truss bridge to ManakaraBe that I frequently traverse, one who's conditions resembles the bridges of VT's NEK, recently collapsed into the canal.  A truck loaded down with salt on its way to the ocean of all places, caused the French era steel to fail claiming the lives of two cows below.  Fortunately no one else was harmed, and in Gasy fashion the bridge is actually still passable, just not by cars anymore but if you like you can take a boat across for 200Ar ($.09).  I'll let you know how the repairs are coming along in about a month.

Periodic Maintenance is Overrated

Salama

Nick

Bright Lights, Big City, Bad Cabs

The last two weeks have been quite a journey and all that remains before I get back to work is a day’s train ride to Manakara and 100K brousse ride back to Ambalona. It was only last Thursday that I embarked on a two day journey to the nation's capital Anatananarivo (Tana). The first leg brought me to Fianar in about 6 hours while the second spanned over 12 hours. Fortunately when traveling far by brousse you have the option of going national, where there are restrictions on the number of passengers and the seats have more padding, headrests, but still no seatbelts. We managed to reserve a brousse with some other volunteers, so I can't say it was bad ride. In the stupor that crystallizes after living on a brousse all day, we pulled into the station in Tana. Pure chaos, from the pos-pos (rickshaw) drivers to the mpivaratras (merchants), everyone was looking for some good ol' western cash. We managed to convince the driver to drop us and all of gear off at the MEVA (PC's transit house) for less than the price of several tin can cabs.  

Squash Update

Now a little word about the cabs. Madagascar has the fine privilege of hosting a collection of some of France's finest automobiles and Tana's is by far the most extensive. There's the new age Peugeot 205, 405, and 505; there are Renault 4s with the most innovative or obtuse gear lever ever produced; and there's the legendary Citroën 2CV which is quite possibly the worst car ever produced, and the setting for one of the most entertaining cab rides yet. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the thick petrol laden air was just getting up to operating temperature in the big city. We descended into the bajary without any specific needs, but merely to try and grasp the controlled chaos that is everyday life. We haggled with the mpivaratras over dominoes, batteries, fruit, and anything else that caught our eye; we took rain checks on street meat, street tattoos, and street names. After nearly two hours we found ourselves in need of ride back to the hotel. After browsing the line of cabs, we based our decision, not on the quality of the car but on the car we most wanted to ride in. Until this moment I had still been denied the pleasure of riding in a Citroën 2CV. This legendary automobile has even rallied across Europe's worst roads; only unlike our cab it featured a second 25HP engine to solely drive the second axel. Our first discovery was that the driver's side rear door was inoperable, and we thus proceeded to the other side. The driver pressed the starter button, then pressed the starter button, and finally pressed the starter button and the Craftsmen lawnmower came to life. The two speed transmission harnessed nearly half of the engines HP and we limped onto the main drag; our destination, the Hotel Zenith. As the 2CV wiggled along the cobble stone streets, our driver informed us that he didn't know where the Zenith hotel was. We quickly determined that this could very well become a bad situation; almost like driving a 2CV through Nazi occupied France. We proceeded to stop and ask every legitimate citizen for directions, however due to the variety of pronunciations for Zenith, it was to no avail. At this point while we tried to communicate our basic understanding of the cities geography our driver informed us that this was "Tena taybe!" that no one knew where the hotel was. Luckily with the aid of a few landmarks our trusty steed crawled up to the curb of the Hotel Zenith.  

This is Eloi, he's about 2 backpacks tall

After a week of training up in Montasoa, where we learned how to farm chickens, access PC funding, and remedy any language woes; we returned to the Zenith in order to regroup for the next day’s journey home. We hailed a Renault 4 and headed to the brousse station with a bit too much luggage. We lugged our baggage over to our brousse and threw it up on the roof where it combined with everything from sacks of rice to chickens. Out of the corner of my eye I witnessed a portly Gasy man who had a strange resemblance to Jon Lovitz. We crammed in the brousse and so did this man, only in the driver's seat. We worked our way out of the city and were once again southbound on the RN7. At this point Jon Lovitz engaged his clubbing sunglasses, his top 40 aftermarket stereo, and his high center of gravity hyperdrive. I can say that we made Fianar in record time but I can also say that I'm quite familiar with the smell burning brakes and rubber.

Above the Fianar's Crowded Streets

Yesterday we found a little free time in Fianar to enjoy a favorite Gasy pastime, music. Just down the road from the Fianar MEVA, Oladad played to a growing crowd over the course of the afternoon. They warmed up with some Marley standards then bust out into their own Gasy infused reggae derivative. The music and dance more than warranted my attendance but I can't say that I would have run into my new friend Vincent if I hadn't gone.

This is Vincent, he retired from the VTSP a few years ago

Tomorrow I head south via rail, the train runs every other day and should take anywhere from 8 to 20 hours to arrive in Manakara. I anticipating something similar to the The Darjeeling Limited but we'll have to wait and see.

Salama

Nick

Vingt Seis. It's like Christmas, Easter, and The Fourth of July all rolled up into one!

As we Americans celebrate that special day when we eat too much potato salad, have a few too many chardonnays, and set off a few next month's rent in Chinese fireworks; the Malagasy in my neck of the woods are still celebrating their independence which officially began on the 26th of June. I can't say that I saw much potato salad going around, but there were definitely some fireworks and I think their technicians may have over imbibed. Today, however a few local volunteers and myself are fashioning the best fourth yet most atypical that Madagascar can offer.

Ambalona's School Gardens

When the festivities come to a close I will return to Ambalona and break ground on some new beds for the school garden. I have outlined the gardening space and taken an inventory of the current vegetables being grown, and it's with this information that I am working together with the people of Ambalona and my counterpart in order to determine: the prime growing season for each vegetable, which vegetables should be grown in succession, and how we can manage their production with minimal inputs. I'm very fortunate that a majority of the infrastructure and interest is already present in my community thanks in part to Fidy, but there's plenty of tuning required and that's where I lend my green thumb. I've managed to fence out the curious chickens from my yard in which I have constructed to date three 2x8 raised beds out of bamboo. Everyday as people pass by they often stop and to see what I've actually got growing and we end up chatting about vegetables how it's actually possible to grow them with ease. It's in these beds that I'm doing some preliminary testing of bio-intensive technique that I hope to apply on larger scale within the community. The children are among the most interested, whether I'm transplanting seedlings or they're sneaking into my compost pile. One of my little buddies Eloi has really taken to it and we planted some zucchini in a garden he built, I'll update you in a month.

So this is my yard, I'm puting in the lawn next week

Apart from gardening I've had the opportunity to connect with some highly valuable resources in my region. Recently I tracked down a pepinaire (tree nursery) in Mananjary with whom I can see my village developing a strong customer relationship. Together with a CRS (Catholic Relief Services) lead reforestation effort, there's plenty work to be done and a surprisingly large amount of people that want to help do it.

Gaspar my Chef du Fokontany and I discuss how to make Parker House Rolls from rice 

On the home front I've managed to build myself a table which enables me to prepare, cook, and eat my food at an elevation 32" above the floor; the previous location of my stove. I still have plans for a second table, but I'm still living in high life from the first upgrade. I've installed bamboo gutters on the back of my house, which await the installation of a rain barrel that I have yet to procure. My gardens has become rather thirsty over the past month, and an alternative water source is definitely necessary to keep up. I'll keep you'll posted as the squash takes over my garden.

Salama

Nick

A Green Thumb

After experiencing some unexpected technical difficulties last month, I am proud to finally bring all of you an update on the happenings of my life. Over the course of the last two months I have been fortunate enough to work with some amazing individuals, and they're are still many that I'm eager to work with in the future. Currently I am overseeing the development and care of a newly constructed vegetable garden for my community's EPP (primary school). We are currently building and sowing new garden beds in preparation for the kick off of the EPP's new school lunch program. Not only will the garden provide vegetables that are typically absent from the students diets but it also provides a learning environment for the students. Just this past week I led a session on composting, and with the help of 12 students was able to construct a pile in record time. So far the garden's become a big hit and it's also an alternative for those students that are a little too distracted in the average classroom setting.

Many Hands Make Light Work

On the home front, I've just started to enjoy the fruits of my labor; green beans are coming in, and I've got some squash around the corner. My personal garden's the test bed for some of new planting techniques we're working on, this way we can keep our eggs in in few different baskets. Construction wise I managed to finish building a wooden wheel for one of our communities wheelbarrows and it can dance with True Temper's best. It's constructed from eucalyptus and finished with the remains of used moto tire; don't have to worry about any punctures on this baby. Two weeks ago I traveled to my counterparts forge and while there I first ran the bellows then tried my hand at nails and finally learned how to make a hax-saw from some old rebar. Then this last week I managed to take part on a concrete pour, the old fashioned way with bags of portland cements, aggregate, sand, and plenty of hand mixing. I couldn't tell you what the slump was, but I did manage to leave a quality finish with the only float available, a trowel.

 

Fidy's Forge

I've got to run to catch my brousse back Ambalona but I be back with pictures and news next week when I head back up to Montasoa for training with the other new volunteers.

Salama

Nick