Kevin (left) and TJ (right) work on improvements on BWB’s Biodiesel System

It is great to work with Kevin and Will. Kevin is from Ireland and Will is from England. I am learning more English and representing California while here. Yesterday we worked all day to perform a titration test on the oil to determine the catalyst needed for our reaction.  I thought finding a flammable liquid pump was a challenge, then Kevin and I were out trying to find a digital scale accurate to a gram and less in a market that sells kitchen supplies and food. We ended up estimating on amounts accurate to a gram with the scale that we have and made four liter size mini-reactions with different amounts of catalysts. Once we had a successful mini-batch we pushed our first batch of biodiesel through in the new methoxide reactor. It got stuck, but Kevin with his gentle giant strength was able to turn the pump through. We let the reactor process for two hours before turning it off and letting it sit for the night. Today I drained the reactants to discover glycerol and a liquid that appears to be Biodiesel. A quick ph test and the golden brown fluid tests right for BIODIESEL!!!

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Fire And Swine 2010

This past March at FreedomHill, the Sudbury model school where I work in the DC area, some of the kids were asking me about Burning Man. What is it? Where is it? Can kids go? What do you do there? I attempted to answer these questions as best I could with a little help from one of the 9 year old boys who went for his first time in 2009. We told them about the interactive art aspect, how everything there happens because people want it to happen (not because someone is telling them to do it), community building, self-reliance, and burning things to the ground. This idea was really not very foreign to them as it is pretty much how they spend their days at FreedomHill (well, minus burning things to the ground) so they were immediately intrigued. At that point the conversation naturally led to the question, “Wouldn’t that be cool if there was a Burning Man just for kids?”. Wouldn’t it? Why not?

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Jefe and Kelly paint a mural for Pisco’s new Nature Interpretive Center.

After experiencing the 8.8 Chilean Earthquake from the other side of the Andes, we felt called to be of service; however, we learned that the road across the border was closed, and as the days passed that volunteers were being turned away.  Realizing that we may just be in the way for Phase I disaster relief, we decided to head to Pisco, Peru to join forces with Pisco Sin Fronteras—a reconstruction project in Peru passed on by Burners Without Borders in response to the 8.0 Earthquake that destroyed 80% of homes in Pisco and claimed over 600 lives in August 2007.

Rewind to September 2009 in Black Rock City, where our organization and partnership formed.  We were both new to BRC traveling with our circus community from Austin, Texas, eager to spread our creativity and joy at festivals out west.  Jefe was a primetime TV producer/cameraman tired of squandering his talents for the weapons of mass distraction.  Kelly had just completed degrees in Political Science, Environmental Studies, and International Relations but was being drawn to the performance life as a professional fire-hooper and partner acrobat.  We fell in love at the Mecca of generosity and creativity, and quickly realized that the promptings of our hearts were revealing the same path.  Jefe quit the television industry and Kelly abandoned her performance persona.  We formed Gaian Path to fuse our extensive backgrounds in video production and humanitarian work.  Now traveling across South America volunteering for NPOs and producing videos for them, we are excited to announce our next collaboration with Burners Without Borders/Pisco Sin Fronteras.

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BWB Volunteer Prentiss Darden (back row/middle) stands proudly with her team in Malawi as they bring permaculture solutions to  save a lake and preserve their livelihood now and for future generations. Incredibly, Burners Without Borders funded this project for less than $700.

I traveled from Botswana to Malawi to attend the 9^th International Permaculture Convergence & Conference during November 2009.  Malawi is a tiny country encompassing the southernmost portion of the Great Rift Valley in Africa.  A large portion of its territory is a fresh water lake, which many people depend on for fish and their livelihoods.  After the convergence, I went to visit the lake and spent 2 months creating a project in a lakeside village near Monkey Bay.  With the financial support of Burners Without Borders and inspiring community collaboration of Nsumbi Village and Mufasa Backpackers Monkey Bay, we built a block of 6 washbasins with a banana and papaya circle to recycle the greywater for fruit trees.

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Ismail and Isaya have moved off the streets!

They seem really happy about it. I’m happy not because of the place – but because they have really chosen to be off the street. Which ideally means they will be changing their lifestyle.

Just having to commit to paying rent is a big deal.  But now they are moving off the streets and moving up in their performances as well: new costumes, bigger shows.  It’s all happening.  Read the rest of this entry »

Dragonfly points out the finer points of the Mutaytor, BWB’s biodiesel conversion contraption.

The BWB BioDiesel project in Pisco, Peru is rockin’ it hard as summer arrives to our desert home here by the sea. But suntans and ceviche aren’t the only good things currently on our radar!

The biggest news is the recent visit from Peru’s Minister of the Environment, Mr. Antonio Brack. Mr. Brack is a Cabinet-level minister in the national government of Peru, led by President Alan Garcia. He heard of our BioDiesel operation from someone on his staff that I had met a few weeks prior at a regional environmental conference, and took time out of his schedule to visit us. His entourage of Vice-Minister, university professors, local and regional leaders and the press spent quite a while visiting, asking questions and offering support. Here in South America the arrival of tinted black SUV’s with police escort to your front door is not generally regarded as a good thing. But in this case, it was a really special treat to share our biofuels vision with someone from the very highest levels of government.

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Burners Without Borders is proud to provide the funding that enabled  the Motomoto Circus to attend the Lamu Cultural Festival.

Early Friday morning we all met to take the bus to Lamu. All of us except Matano the young boy that was going to meet his mother. We spent the next 20 minutes before getting on the bus searching for him. We heard he was seen with a group of other kids and their street mama heading out of town early in the morning.

Street Mamas. If you watch any small child begging on the streets for long enough you will eventually see them handing over all or a portion of their money to their mama. In some cases they are the biological children of the mama, but in most cases they are children the mama found and cared for as they migrate into the city and/or are abandoned by their parents. I see these mamas are the root of street life. Without them you would not see children on the streets (at least not for long).

I believe, most of the time, that these mamas are doing what they do to simply survive and they do take care of the children in a way. But … all mamas know you get more money from your children the worse they look. The more skinny they are, the more dirty they are and the younger they are. If they are injured – even better. Many of these mamas were raised on the street the exact same way they are raising others.

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A little kid touched a friend’s boob last night. She and I were walking in old town. He was bigger and braver than the rest of his friends, all in school uniforms. He said ‘how are you’ with a nasal tone making fun of my nasal sounding Mzungu accent.

She stopped all of a sudden. I didn’t know why and but she had that stare. The way one stares down a bad dog. The boy ran. She was pissed. She said she almost hit him. I wish she had. I wanted to myself. But the moment was over, the boy was long gone.

Most of the women in the part of town I live in are covered in hijab. Which they take off at home for their husband. Her tits – were right there, behind a tight t-shirt.

Where am I in this? The mzungu is a walking symbol of wealth. A symbol of a social class that most people here dream of…. Tom Cruz strides across a red carpet …. it makes me want to spit.

So what? Spin around chains dipped in kerosene at night in the park with people living on the street… Maybe I’m a someday wanna-be buddha, son of a king, seeing suffering for the first time and wanting to take myself out of the equation. Not wanting to be a walking reminder of people’s crap nor a walking excuse for people’s crap.

There is a small boy that has been learning to dance with fire his name is Matano. He sleeps in the park. He wants to return to his mother in Lamu. He says she sent him away to find his father in Mombasa. He found him. He was hurt by him and abandoned. No money to return home. Living on the streets for over a year now. He is skinny, too skinny, they all are.

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Richard Vinson shows his enthusiasm for BWB’s Biodiesel Reactor project. For the past several months, he has been focused on making this project a success. As he continues on with his travels, he will be passing the torch to new volunteers charged with making this a sustainable project that will turn waste veggie oil into homes and schools for years to come.

Where have the last 11 weeks gone?  I arrived at Pisco Sin Fronteras in Pisco Peru on the 16th August and now it’s November and I am now on my way to New Zealand! I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived but was immediately made welcome and could sense the great feeling of good around the place. I happened to pick the weekend of PSF’s 1st anniversary to arrive, so much partying had been done that a rest day was required on Monday!  However the Tuesday 8am morning meeting soon arrived and everyone was off to start the day’s work.

The main project I have been involved in during my time in Pisco has been the setting up of a biodiesel manufacturing plant. As it was something I knew very little about  I had to learn fast  and it has been fascinating.
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The Motomoto Circus Performers-Keep Reading to see the video.

I have moved and am now living about a 5 minute walk from the kids I work with. I now live in a entirely Muslim section of town and am feeling like I am back to square one in some ways in terms of getting to know the local culture. Because of my skin color everyone calls me Mzungu (semi-derogatory word for foreigner) and thinks I am a tourist with loads of cash.

The coast around Mombasa is lined with hotels and clubs for the tourist industry. Our aim is to get some auditions and eventually get some regular shows to provide a steady income for the youths. The advanced performance troupe is made up of  three Kenyan fire dancers and two percussionists in their early twenties – but we are trend setting and hope this opens the doors for many more.

We spent the last two weeks walking – at least 6 miles a day in blistering heat – trying to get to see the management of hotels. It turns out I am lightly pigmented and not built for equatorial UVB radiation. (but sunscreen helps!)

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