We arrived in Guatemala Sat. Feb 21st. The University of Michigan BLUELab team was held up in Miami overnight so we arranged to pick them up directly from the Guatemala City Airport on Sunday and head directly to Quetzaltenango (Xela, pronounced Shay-la, to the locals).
The BLUELab has designed a very efficient and low cost treadle pump for use by rural farmers. Our project here is to check out the constructability of the design in the field using locally available materials. Already this process has produced very valuable information on how to design for construction in the developing world.
We got to Xela Sunday night. The BLUELab team got a chance to see the Parque Central area of Xela and we stopped in at El Balcon in Pasaje Enrique to look out over Parque Central and much of Xela. The night sky was mostly clear and we could see the volcanic peaks that surround the city in the distance.
Monday we found out that we couldn’t start work at the AIDG workshop till the PM so we organized teams who will work on sub-assemblies and review the build process. When Jose Ordonez arrived from AIDG several of us took off in the AIDG pickup truck to purchase materials.
Jose doesn’t drive so Ben Connor Barrie took the honors which ended up with Ben driving in rush hour traffic with 6 meter lengths of steel on the roof and students riding in the back. Ben managed to merge into a packed and fast moving round-about and get out at the right exit while taking directions in Spanish.
The build is now under way with the teams working through a few local condition induced design changes.
Photos to follow.
jsb
Great to hear about what you are doing! Where can I find a photo of the treadle pump? Keep up the good work!
I’m sorry not to be able to offer an English-language based version, but my first language is German – so I publish the ‘Book of Synergy’ also in German.
Anyhow it is maby useful (with more then 1.000 photos) – especially part C in which I have collect over more then 35 years all forms and technologies in the field of renewables…
In the ‘ARCHIV’(e) you’ll find some few articles translated into English – but I’m still working hard to find sponsoring for translations the whole site (around 2.500 pages) into English, French, Spanish an Arabic (at least).
Best regards,
Achmed Khammas
(Berlin/Germany)
Hello Achmed,
While your renewable technologies may be designed for developing countries’ needs, possibly there are potential buyers–with very limited material resources–in North America or Western Europe who could greatly benefit from an innovation such as the treadle pump. Do you think that sales–at a reasonable price–to such westerners might be able to help fund providing similiar items elsewhere? Thank you very much.
Manette