AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 DATE: 10/07/2009 06:52:00 AM ----- BODY:
We are in Nicaragua, and yesterday morning was our first visit to Proleña, the organization sponsored by Trees/Water/People to make fuel-efficient stoves. They are currently producing the Eco-Fogon model for small businesses and want to expand to the domestic market by producing the Ecocina. Their workers have already been to the factory in Nahulingo, El Salvador to observe and be trained in the production process, and now we have brought them a few molds to begin adapting the process to Nicaragua. We hope to sign an official contract with them in the near future and already are giving them quite a bit of support. We have appointed Beatriz and Fred as our legal representatives here in Nicaragua so we are making good progress on factory expansion throughout Central America.

In La Prensa, today there was a long article about how Nicaragua has lost 50% of the national native forest in the last 50 years, this translates into losing 70,000 acres of forest EACH YEAR. How timely that we are here, although wouldn't it have been better if we'd started 50 years ago? (www.laprensa.com.ni)

Although it was steaming hot this morning, it was lovely to sit outside at Proleña and eat homemade Nicaraguan pupusas. Gustavo and Juan arrived from El Salvador JUST IN TIME to join us and mentioned that they had had no problems crossing Honduras despite the current political problems. They had stopped in Choluteca to see how the factory there was going and it's completely prepared and they are just waiting for the Rotary funds to begin production.

As we have spent most of our time working, in the afternoon we decided to take a little break to visit a few pottery factories. Fred is an expert potter and this will come in handy as he oversees the stove production here. Of course, as Gustavo was with us and as he had his computer, he engaged many of the local potters by showing them a video of the Ecocina. All of the women were extremely excited and took Proleña's phone number and wanted Ecocina stoves as soon as possible.

We returned to a small roadside restaurant owned by some of Jack Billings friends, and after a little carne asada and a few beers, we returned to our home away from home at Beatriz' mother's house.

This morning? We're off to Betriz and Fred's cabin at the beach. Isn't there something about a day of rest?

Nancy

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