applying energy (at long last)

So, it's been awhile... sorry about that. I'll try to condense the last 3 months into an overall brief summary to catch you all up. Basically, the winter was miserable, but now it's over :)

It was a lot colder than last winter and mostly I spent a lot of time sitting around in one room with a wood fired stove fueling it and trying to stay warm (but most of the time not achieving this goal). Work had become pretty non-existent and I found myself feeling that there must be a better way to spend my energy than just on staying warm... I tried finding people around town to work with and the association but came to lots of dead ends. I became less and less positive and more and more angry at the inefficiency of my wood stove....
Well, now - there's something!
Everyone in this part of Morocco uses these poorly designed wood stoves that don't burn the wood hot enough to prevent smoke (often even in the house) and only really heat the immediate area around them very well (which is usually the corner of a cement room)... And, even worse, all the hammams (bath houses, sort of like steam rooms, but with water) burn a huge amount of wood all over Morocco to keep the water and the rooms hot with often nothing more than the near equivalent of a big fire pit with a pipe above it.

Long story shorter: We now have a small group of volunteers (myself included) working directly with the Ministry of Energy (specifically the Center for Renewable Energy) to first develop a diagnostic system to evaluate hammams and homes and then set up the hammam owners with welders who have been trained to make fantastically more efficient furnaces that will be sized to fit each individual hammam. Later we also hope to design an efficient home furnace to replace the common ones in use. While at the same time, meeting with builders to talk about inexpensive ways to insulate homes and buildings..... Yes, I know - this all sounds wonderful, but we've still got a long road ahead of us. There is huge resistance to change, even when its in the best economic interest of the business (in this case, with the wood use reduction, hammam owners will pay off their initial investment usually in less than a year and be making a large increase of revenue after that), so we are pooling all our resources to try to get at least one hammam to get on board this July. Additionally, the initial diagnostic data is hard to obtain. We aren't positive if it's distrust or cultural (but we suspect both), but no one has yet given us accurate numbers for their business operations... "How many people come in a day? How much wood do you burn?" etc... so we will have to both explain the project and our intents more thoroughly and also think of ways to ask questions that will allow us to increase our likelihood (and be able to double check) if we are receiving accurate information. ...Sociology Masters anyone?...

Here is a picture from our first meeting with hammams in Itzer... we actually organized it as a Energy Efficiency Workshop, talking about solar and wind power, etc too, but in the future, we are going to keep it specific and just target changing hammam furnaces to more efficient ones.

In addition to this big new work opportunity, the association I've mostly been working with in the past has taken some steps to get back in the swing of things... They led two Eco-tourism groups on hikes/cultural visits. We also have two exhibitions this month and are trying the find more women that are really motivated to make carpets. I've designed two new carpets that several women have begun making and they are turning out really well... I also made the Association new Cous cous labels (on stickers!) and a banner to hang at exhibitions (We're still corresting the french). They are really moving up in their professionalism markings. And it's not to say that I do this all for them... They really take a lot of what I tell them seriously and we work together to make the best outcomes. In leisurely days of yore... a friend of Logan's came to visit for 2 weeks and we really enjoyed spending time with him and traveling around. I finally got to see the dunes! My last big site of Morocco - the Sahara... well, sort of. They were beautiful, but since we just went to the smaller ones, they weren't quite what I expected. I thought they'd be more prodigious... but they were nice none the less and exceptionally good for pictures :)

I'm starting to think a lot about post peace corps plans... high on the list for the time being (key, because it changes pretty often): Culinary School , summer work in Alaska (any leads, please let me know!), grad school... some way to make money (again, any leads... please...) Hopefully I'll figure it out well before I finish up in November.

So those are the big highlights.

Peace to you all!!!