Solar Cooking

Here at Etnos, most of the class schedule is semester based.  However, a couple times per semester, there are 1-week module classes that focus on a particular aspect of missionary life, normally something technical.  Recent examples: electrical basics, inductive Bible study, rustic living, literacy teaching.

This past week I was given the opportunity to start off the new semester teaching the Solar Cooking module.  Now, I had absolutely zero experience at cooking with sunlight, but I was eager to put the Tinker side of my brain to work.

Toolbags + a big mug of tea = happy Profe

We started off the week with a short, one hour lecture on the basics of sunlight, the greenhouse effect, and solar ovens in general.  Then I divided the students into three teams and turned them loose to look on the internet for a plan and turn in a materials list by noon.

The next morning, we broke out the tools and got to work.

One team was made up of our three single ladies.  They had the brilliant idea of taking the casing of a discarded AC unit and patching the holes by riveting on sheet metal.

Measuring and cutting patches

Drilling for rivets

 Another team was made up of our Argentinian couple, Matias and Naty.  They built a single-wall wooden box with complex angles to better catch the sunlight. 

Leo and Polette, the Chilean couple found a very complex design that was meant to make the make the most of the sunlight, but made with lots of angles.  Dennis joined their team and they got to work on the structure, first.

 After lining the interior with thin plywood, they insulated it with styrofoam

Dennis cuts styrofoam while Leo and Polette measure and fit it

Meanwhile, the girls had finished their metal interior and asked for help building a wood exterior.  They built it with about 1.5" void on five sides that they filled with wood shavings from the planer, to insulate.  Other than a few difficult/dangerous cuts, I merely advised them as they set to work cutting and screwing things together.

Eliana taking a turn with the circular saw

Mati and Naty were the first to finish and did a trial run.

Howard came over to check it out

Friday was the big day.  Would the ovens actually work?

We started setting up at 8:00am and by 8:45 everyone had food in their cooker, ready to go.

Mati and Naty tried chicken burgers and roasted veggies

 

Leo, Polette, and Dennis did whole eggs, potatoes, and veggies

Eliana, Kristen, and Eli put in chopped veggies (in water) and eggs in a pot

Addi and I even tried our hand at it with just two mylar windshield covers.  It worked!

Chicken and rice soup packet

Got it up to 143.3F, just a couple degrees lower than the others!

While we waited for our food to cook, we cleaned up the workshop, then spent some time talking about the week.

All of the ovens got up to about the same temperature, about 150F.  I believe that they could have gotten much hotter if we had used real glass mirror reflectors instead of the mylar.  Maybe we'll do some fiddling and try again another time.

But at least they all worked!

The girls' "scrambled" eggs and veggies

Chicken burger, anyone?

Dennis enjoys a baked egg

My little sweeties had chicken and rice soup for their afternoon snack :)

All in all, it was a good week.  We did some "outside the box" thinking, the students had a chance to build something using unfamiliar tools and materials, and we had fun together. 

Lomas de Arena

One of the places we have recently heard about here in Santa Cruz is a place called Parque Regional Lomas de Arena (Sand Dunes Regional Park).  Donya, who came for the CLA English program and stayed an extra 3 weeks, was getting ready to leave that night, so we decided to have one last adventure before she left.

It was an adventure just finding the place.  Although it is on the map and I had my Garmin GPS, it is on the southern edge of the city and you have to go through some very under-developed barrios to get there.  We finally got to the park and paid $6.50 for all of us to get in.

Then the fun started.

The sign at the gate said "4x4 and 4-wheelers Only" and it was no joke.  We spent half an hour going 4.3 miles on a sandy track with lots of mud holes and we still didn't know where we were going.  Here's a short summary video (720p) of the drive in, complete with music (from Christian parody band Apologetix) and charming conversation:


As I said, it was the most fun I've had in a long time.  Even better than going to the store.

We had the place entirely to ourselves.  Unfortunately, it was super windy (welcome to Santa Cruz) and it was too late in the day to stay long, but we had fun anyway.  Here are a sampling of photos (see the rest by clicking here).

  I took some more video on the way out, with the GoPro on the hood, where it got a good soaking (1080p this time!):


We will definitely be going back!

Winter Break 2014

The first semester of the year came to an official close on June 27.  Since then, we have had winter break until classes start up again on July 28.

Our first week was pretty much eaten up with unfinished responsibilities with the CLA program, but since then we've had two and a half weeks pretty much to ourselves.  We have taken time to prepare for next semester, do some personal projects and spend time with the girls.

Although we're in the tropics, when the south wind (surazo) brings a storm up from Antarctica, in can get pretty chilly, especially because the house is uninsulated and very drafty.  We have thoroughly enjoyed having a fireplace!

We watched a few World Cup matches with friends.

Watching USA lose to Belgium with their friend Nathaly

Kaylee took a break from homeschool as well, but has done a few Spanish and money classes with the girls.

We still lack some furniture, so I built custom closets for Kaylee and I.

Kaylee's

The kitties took refuge in my warm toolbags during lunch

Nathan's

We attended a wedding at our church.  That was a good culture event. :)

Then, on Monday, we hit the jackpot!


. . .but I'll save that for another post. ;)  In the meantime, there are more photos of our breaktime fun here.

CLA English

Wow, two months have gone by.  I think that is the longest we have ever gone without posting on our blog since we started it, almost three years ago.  It's high time we updated you on what has been going on around here.

The main reason we haven't been writing lately is that we have been swamped.  The regular semester ended on June 6, but it was followed by a 3-week course that was a follow up to my Culture and Language Acquisition class.

From June 9 to 27, the seven students worked full time at learning . . . English!

Most  of our English-speaking coworkers were going to be gone, so we made an invitation for some people to come join us as "natives."  Three ladies responded to the call and Donna, Mary, and Donya showed up to give us a hand.  They were a tremendous help with the program as they spent time with our learners doing everyday tasks while speaking English.  The students were continually in their "home," a house next to ours looking for someone with whom to listen and practice.  

They also had a chance to experience some of Bolivia with the students.

Bolivian breakfast: Api and buñuelos with Eliana and Eli

 

Donna and Mary getting some produce at our market

Donya, Donna, and Mary try out some pacumutos at the market

Kaylee was a major help as a language helper and hostess.  Even Anne, Addison, and Lydia played an important role as little native speakers.  Some of the students spent a lot of time with them.

Our first dinner party

 

Addi and Lydia went to ask Matias if he could come over to play

We did a lot of shared activities such as:

Go to the zoo

Game nights

Matias is watching rodeo in the background while we play cards

Visit the library of an American-style Christian school

"Don't put the books back on the shelf unless you know the Dewey Decimal system!"

Home church (we were on guard duty)

Camping

It was a lot of work, especially because I was overseeing all of it, continually giving advice and answering questions.  We had fun, but we're glad it is done!  We are now in our fourth week of winter break and are gearing up for classes to start up again next week!

(as usual, there are more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111523008579163861983/CLAEnglishPracticum?authuser=0&feat=directlink)

So . . . what do you do?

"Profe"

That's what I get called more than anything when outside of the house these days.  "Profe" is short for "profesor" in Spanish, and I'm sure you can guess what that means in English.  Try pronouncing PDO-fay, light on the "d" (just a flip, really) and heavy on the "o" and you'll be pretty close.

I haven't taken the time to really write about what we are doing here now that we've changed gears.  Here's a look at what we're up to:

As a "profe," I spend five hours per week teaching two different classes: Culture and Language Acquisition and Spanish Grammar.  Most of the rest of my work week is spent preparing for those classes and spending time with staff/students.

I am not a language teacher in the sense that I am teaching about language rather than teaching language itself.  Call it Applied Linguistics, I guess.  The fundamental principle of my current role is to prepare the Etnos students for their future language learning.

As an organization, we highly value native languages.  Our focus is planting churches among ethnic groups where the indigenous language is strong, yet the people have not been taught God's Word, or have been taught in a trade language, resulting in a lack of understanding and, thereby, lack of fruitful ministry.  The purpose of the Culture and Language Acquisition program is to prepare these trainees to be able to move into a village and learn the heart language of their target people group without the aid of dictionaries and classrooms, all while building relationships and gaining an understanding of the worldview and culture of their new friends.

CLA Class

In Spanish Grammar, I am indeed teaching the grammar of the language, but to people that already speak it.  Three of our current students are Bolivian, two are Argentinian, and the other two are Chilean.  Although some also speak other languages (Quechua, Aymara, and English), Spanish is their heart language.  While the class does reinforce their knowledge of their own language, the principal goal of the class is to teach the structure of their grammar and the reasons behind the forms.  Then, armed with this new understanding and terminology, next semester we will be teaching Grammar Analysis to apply the same principles to other languages.

Thankfully, all of the groundwork has been done for these classes and I was essentially handed the curricula at the beginning of the semester.  However, I have to assimilate the material in Spanish and make it my own in order to teach it properly.  I have added a lot of my own stories and experiences to the mix which makes it easier and more natural to teach.

When I have extra time, I am preparing for a one-week practical technology module that I will be teaching at the beginning of next semester with another faculty member.  The focus is on passive solar such as solar ovens and water heaters.  I am doing a lot of research on various types of projects that we could do and am starting to think about preparations we will have to make to be able to build some of them.

I have also been given the opportunity to preach on occasion at the church we attend.

The bulk of Kaylee's time is taken up with household duties and homeschooling the girls, but she is involved in the inner workings of campus as well.  She has taken on the cleaning of the offices and classroom and is working on getting to know the student gals better, to be able to have input in their lives.

Together, we host the weekly staff meeting in our home and have a student couple that comes over a few hours a week for mentoring/counseling.

One of our student lunches

Kaylee has also been an indispensable help to me in my CLA class as well.  Not only does she help me think things through as I talk about my class prep with her, but with some of the class elements themselves.  As part of the practical training of language learning, we have hosted the students in our home to demonstrate what it is like to experience another culture and language.  In June, we will be having a 3-week language practice time which Kaylee will also be heavily involved in.

 And mixed into all of this craziness, we try to spend some time together and with our funny children.

Salt and Green Beans

Heads bowed, a prayer said, and time to eat. . .salt.

Some coworkers shared a story with us several months ago, their story. No different than us they are living away from home, away from family and friends, in a difficult environment hoping to share the truth with their neighbors. They work hard each day learning the local language and getting to know the people around them. They are serving God as missionaries.

Different from us, they grew up in this country. They have darker skin and a different culture. The national language is their heart language.

These coworkers of ours have had to sit down to their table for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner with only salt on the table. The head of the house still prayerfully humbles himself before our great God, thanking Him for what He has provided.

And my heart hurts.

Today, another coworker shared their story from the past month. No money for food and God's provision. Green beans. They ate green beans all month.

And my heart hurts.

How do we help these people who we are so close to? How can God use us in their lives? How can we help without hurting our friendship, without "replacing" God, without cutting someone's pride?

These are all questions (plus many more) that we are wrestling through. How can we be an active part of the body of Christ to our friends here? It's easy to think about giving them money. But money is not always the answer.

Pray for us as we try to find ways to help. Pray we would have wisdom as we make decisions each day. Pray for our coworkers. Pray they would be able to fully rest in God's provision, that they would completely trust Him for their every need (us too!). Pray for wisdom. Pray for the local churches, that they would see the need to be senders, financially as well as spiritually.

If you are interested in learning more about how to financially help cross-culturally, I (Kaylee) would recommend the book, When Helping Hurts. It really helped me think through all of the issues tied into helping in a poverty stricken country.