This is Where Your Trash Goes

Part of our coastal vacation included a trip to visit a fellow Peace Corps volunteer in Esmeraldas. Isaac helped him with a tourist mapping project (that will hopefully be up soon for all to see and use!), and we also got roped into doing a beach cleanup (I say "roped in" only because we thought we were going to see the mangroves, didn't, and ended up stranded on a beach with our guide and a bunch of trash bags--but it was okay!)

I've heard a lot about the Pacific Garbage Patch and the baby albatrosses who fill their stomachs with plastic. I've taught how "all our litter eventually ends up in the ocean" (which is hyperbole, but not really). But I didn't actually GET it until I saw the beach in Muisne.

I don't want this blog to be a giant guilt-fest--there's enough of that elsewhere, and I don't know if it's particularly helpful or healthy. I do want to share some photos and some of the thoughts I had while working on the beach so that you can maybe think my thoughts with me.

Let's start with a pretty landscape of the beach.

Arborloos

Speaking of toilets, I just stumbled upon a blog post from our friend Chris Canaday of El Parque Etnobotanico Omaere. Chris was the one who initially trained my counterpart and me in dry toilets. His post shows some of the pictures of the construction of an Arborloo (disclaimer: I have not read the whole book at this link, but his basic idea is really cool). An Arborloo a different type of green toilet, in some ways much simpler than the ones we constructed in our community, and the one we constructed was made from mostly recycled materials (i.e. super duper cheap to make). So, if you're itching for more information about how to poop green, check out his blog! Here's the link:

Un modelo (parcialmente reciclado) de ArborLoo

(His post is in both Spanish and English--scroll down to the blue for English.)

Some Peace Corps volunteers and community counterparts put the roof on the Arborloo. Look at that door!

Finishing the Arborloo.

..kirstie..

This post is part of the Rethinking High Tech series.

Pooping Green

No, we do not have weird jungle parasites that causes our poop to turn green. (Though we probably DO have weird jungle parasites doing other things...) But yes, this is a post about poop. It's even a post about green poop, but we're using it here as an adverb, not as an adjective. Today we'll tell you how to poop in a green (environmentally friendly) way.

This is not a green toilet :(
(C) Bickfords

Rethinking High Tech - Advanced home climate control

In our town, the majority of houses are made out of concrete, and almost every building has a corrugated galvanized steel roof. If you've ever visited the tropics, that sentence should have made you start sweating. When the sun comes out, our house is like an oven - the roof soaking up the heat and radiating it down into the concrete box. When it rains, forget conversation. The drumming of the drops on the roof is deafening. And the concrete fosters mildew as it limits airflow. But there's another option!

A thatched outbuilding, recently remodeled. Note dead tire put to a useful function holding the cap of leaves in place.

The roof that used to be on the same building.

Blog Series: Rethinking High Tech

We are beginning a new blog series to share about practices that we observe as we learn from people of other cultures. We will focus on practices that we believe are highly technical. But not in the way you think. In Rethinking High Tech, we will examine practices that demonstrate sophisticated understanding of the world and thoughtful problem solving. Thousands of dollars of computer equipment are not a requirement. 

Our hope is that through this series we can share some of the understanding that Isaac mentions in the last paragraph of his recent post.

Rethinking High Tech

Posts in this series:
The Bible and Conservation
Advanced Home Climate Control
Pooping Green 
Arborloos 
Solar Food Preservation

..Isaac and Kirstie..

The Bible and Conservation

I am a follower of Christ. I am also a scientist and a natural resource manager. Most people who learn these things about me are a little confused. Non-Christians often don't understand how I can call myself a scientist and believe what I do about God. Christians tend to get a little uncomfortable based on what they know about environmentalists (although I would never call myself an environmentalist...) Read on for some things that I've been thinking about lately.