Aaron Antrim’s blog

The 7:30 bus to Torreon passed me when I was a block away from the bus station this morning, which was a major bummer. I didn’t know that the next bus doesn’t leave until noon, so I’m loosing over four hours waiting for another bus. Come to think of it, it’s kind of like how my solar hot water project went, with delay after delay bringing about a last-ditch effort at the end. Hopefully this trip won’t involve the same stress of the last week of my project.

The last week of the program, I was unable to sleep one night until past three in the morning. In addition to all the excitement and urgent socializing and work of the last week, it was because I just couldn’t feel a sense of closure without our project having been realized. As of last Thursday we had a design document, nothing more, in addition to having done some test to determine the viability of solar hot water in Parras, and repairing a solar hot water system that was built last year and installed at a residence.

Even though I was working in a group of three, I felt ultimately more responsible for what I perceived to be the failure of our project. My group had looked to me to set goals, run meetings, and define assignments, which was a great opportunity for me to work on skills that I know are going to be important in my future. Thing is, though, I found this reponsibility to be especially stressful in a place and situation where just about every action item, no matter how simple, is blocked by all sorts of hurdles, from the difficulty of trying to figure out how to use Skype to call mobile phones here (otherwise it costs $0.33/minute! Telephony is ABSURDLY expensive in México. Thank god for the irrational exuberence of all the telecoms in the U.S. in the late 90’s. Because of them we have so much unused fiber optic line laid that long-distance has almost become to cheap to meter. For more, see Thomas L. Friedman, It’s a Flat World, After All. Wow, digression alert! Back to the topic: the language barrier was always difficult when dealing with hardware stores, Zaragoza #1, the house with the existing solar hot water system, Hotel Perote staff, or just about anything. Plus, we had so much work already and so tle free time that dedicating more of that free time to our project just didn\’t seem easy. Additionally, not having access to good computers whenever we needed them (actually I was the only one in my group who didn\’t have a laptop, which is going to seriously undermine my efficiency and efficacy in any project I\’m working with), or mobile phones ended up making it more difficult to meet, organize, and work efficiently. All these setbacks, though, were part of a learning experience about what it is to work on appropriate technology projects in a “developing” country. I put developing in quotes because México and Parras are hardly developing . There are more new cars on the streets here than in Arcata! But in some respects, as with any country, México is still developing, and it provides a kind-of halfway simulation of a developing country experience for a \nU.S. student.Hotel Perote owner Ignacio “Nacho” Chacon was on vacation for a week in Hawaii last week, and so when a staff member at Perote went to Torreon last Monday to pick up supplies for our project and found out there was a problem with Nacho’s check (banks and stores are REALLY picky about checks here), he wasn’t able to get any supplies for our project. After the night I couldn’t sleep, I called Nacho’s mobile phone in Hawaii and got permission to go with Fernando to Torreon, put all the supplies on my tarjeta de credito, and be reimbursed by Nacho after his return. Nacho had thought materials would total around $150-200 USD, but I told him it could be more like $500. “Whatever it is, I will pay it,” he said. When I told Edgar about this, he was really impressed. He said Nacho will sometimes just choose people who he trusts, and with those people money is not an issue. The project ended up costing more than $700 USD, which Igacio expediently paid to me yesterday morning over breakfast at Perote.

I went to Torreon with Fernando the morning of the last official day of our program to get supplies. I never thought I would appreciate Home Depot as much as I did. Everything in one place! So differenet from the countless fereterias in Parras which, though convieniently located, and helpful, often don’t have what you\’re looking for. Directly after getting materials for our project on Friday, I went to the goodbye party for us, which all the host-madres organized. People were crying at saying goodbye — some were getting ready to depart immediately after the party that afternoon, photos were being taken, and I was gearing up to complete our project (actually, first I just wanted to head up and go swimming). Everything happened on very little sleep the whole week. Thursday night I had slept less than 4 hours.

The next morning when I visited Hotel Perote, a hole was already being cut in the adobe wall to run the PVC pipes up to the rooftop solar collector from the pumps. I was excited but got let down when I discovered we had the wrong pipe: Home Depot didn’t carry the one-and-a-half inch schedule 40 PVC we needed, and so had given us something different. More delays, another call to Igacio, more gasoline and toll-road fees, and on Monday morning, 7am, I was back in the non-airconditioned Chevy truck with Fernando, headed for a run-around in an ugly city of a half-million people to get more and different supplies on Monday. That afternoon the solar collector had been constructed and was on the Hotel Perote roof.

At one point I was working with about five Hotel Perote staff on the collector, so it went together really quickly. I learned some about plumbing from working with those guys, and I’m sure I could learn a lot more. Lonny (our AT teacher) says that plummers in this town are as numerous as software developers in San Francisco, and he seems to be right, though I’m not sure why it’s such a common skill. It was quite a scene, being the sole gringo working with all these guys. No one spoke English. I was able to communicate the design of the system, and a little more, but not much more. I shared their break with them and some Coca-Cola, and got a better look at these beautiful brick dome roofs they’re putting on seven new rooms being built. I wish I had pictures.

I went to Torreon with Fernando the morning of the last official day of our program to get supplies. I never thought I would appreciate Home Depot as much as I did. Everything in one place! So differenet from the countless fereterias in Parras which, though convieniently located, and helpful, often don’t have what you’re looking for. Directly after getting materials for our project on Friday, I went to the goodbye party for us, which all the host-madres organized. People were crying at saying goodbye — some were getting ready to depart immediately after the party that afternoon, photos were being taken, and I was gearing up to complete our project (actually, first I just wanted to head up and go swimming). Everything happened on very little sleep the whole week. Thursday night I had slept less than 4 hours.

The next morning when I visited Hotel Perote, a hole was already being cut in the adobe wall to run the PVC pipes up to the rooftop solar collector from the pumps. I was excited but got let down when I discovered we had the wrong pipe: Home Depot didn’t carry the one-and-a-half inch schedule 40 PVC we needed, and so had given us something different. More delays, another call to Igacio, more gasoline and toll-road fees, and on Monday morning, 7am, I was back in the non-airconditioned Chevy truck with Fernando, headed for a run-around in an ugly city of a half-million people to get more and different supplies on Monday. That afternoon the solar collector had been constructed and was on the Hotel Perote roof.

It’s really difficult for me to understand and follow Spanish slang. I feel like if I am talking with educated people, I can understand almost everything they say, because they follow all the grammar I have been taught, and many of the words they use are latin-based and so they have similar-sounding English equivalents (cognates). But with these guys… about all I could make out was “chinga” and “wey” used about twice each in every sentence. Chinga means fuck, and whey is sort of like man or dude, as in “Hey, man, what’s up?” I’m not sure if whey is gender-neutral, though.

I think most of the guys who were putting this system together with me were pretty skeptical it will work. I hope it does, to demonstrate that solar hot water is a viable technology here. It should be, as they get more sun in the winter, and it rarely drops below freezing, making the risk of bursting pipes less. I’ll be able to get a report when Igacio visits his cousin (Prof. Francisco de la Cabada) in Arcata this winter. Gotta go catch the bus!

aaron :: Aug.03.2006 :: México ::