tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52888697238284774312024-02-20T09:36:58.520-08:00Compatible Technology InternationalCreating practical food and water tools for the developing worldCompatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-38172695867206045312013-01-30T07:40:00.001-08:002013-01-30T07:40:31.900-08:00CTI's blog has moved!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
CTI's blog has moved to: <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/blog/">http://compatibletechnology.org/blog/</a><br />
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Please <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/blog/" target="_blank">visit us</a> at our new location for updates on our work!</div>
Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-63782140471096955092012-08-07T09:40:00.001-07:002012-08-07T09:44:04.269-07:00Baking with Breadfruit in Haiti<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhblqitMZvHYM_5CmvYG6tI5l50Gpi0l71JXKmtvg1hk7PVqoZBF2MBkDqG-lg40S_kHoRUyEBwY8QCu_FEf131Gyq-DVKOaDpy_i58SokUV3kgxfIGCQcBbx5_CWryM3opxqcsM2p4NH7z/s1600/Camille_Natalie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhblqitMZvHYM_5CmvYG6tI5l50Gpi0l71JXKmtvg1hk7PVqoZBF2MBkDqG-lg40S_kHoRUyEBwY8QCu_FEf131Gyq-DVKOaDpy_i58SokUV3kgxfIGCQcBbx5_CWryM3opxqcsM2p4NH7z/s320/Camille_Natalie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CTI volunteers Camille and Natalie George</td></tr>
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<i>CTI volunteer Natalie George is blogging from Haiti, where she’s joined her mother Dr. Camille George, CTI Board Member, Program Manager and Professor at the University of Saint Thomas. </i><br />
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<i>The George’s are in Haiti helping locals take advantage of an underutilized food source: Breadfruit. Breadfruit grows in abundance in Haiti, but spoils just days after ripening. CTI has developed a set of tools that villagers can use to preserve breadfruit as affordable flour.</i><br />
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<i>Natalie and Camille are in Port-au-Prince, helping Haitians open a breadfruit bakery and showing “field to fork” proof that breadfruit can be harvested, transformed into flour, and processed into delicious and nutritious food products.</i><br />
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<b>Baking sans Power </b><br />
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What I take advantage of in my everyday life is the sheer luxury of electricity. It seems so normal to have a fridge that works all the time, and a light switch that turns on no matter what, however in Haiti things do not work the same way as they do in wealthier countries.<br />
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In Haiti, the government rations the use of electricity, and though every day varies, on average it will turn off around 9 AM and back on again around 7 PM. Some people have personal generators that they use to keep it on, and bigger companies, like our hotel, have some sort of deal with the government that allows them to use a small amount during the power outages. But overall, the average Haitian does not get any electric power within those hours.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMvaDGUmzXL5SNA_d36Bm06nw8dcneLYttIpyfvrlsXskCZ1Jg8FoRgi35z4ShyphenhyphenU10GYrE97Rgz3xJULqgvZsCQ8DjcsiY1ZwBdPdBeNxoLsMC_N8PfYuRFgjZ5whf8-VMRSh-BhCEcGy/s1600/bakingbreadfruit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMvaDGUmzXL5SNA_d36Bm06nw8dcneLYttIpyfvrlsXskCZ1Jg8FoRgi35z4ShyphenhyphenU10GYrE97Rgz3xJULqgvZsCQ8DjcsiY1ZwBdPdBeNxoLsMC_N8PfYuRFgjZ5whf8-VMRSh-BhCEcGy/s320/bakingbreadfruit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So when we lost power the first day we began experimenting with recipe's in the bakery, we had to think on our feet. Not content to sit around twiddling my thumbs, I put on my leadership pants and rallied up the few of people left in the bakery (which quickly grew into a group spectacle) and we figured out how to get the propane working in the stove and oven, so we embarked our next quest.<br />
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<b>Haitian Rum Cake</b><br />
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After some time of fiddling around with the propane stove, it was time to bake, and we decide on baking the Haitian cake, which includes rum and raisins. The recipe and baking turned out to be a GREAT success! They mini cakes were SUPER delicious and we all felt like we were some official top chef bakers (or maybe just me…). I didn’t want to stop there, especially since we had a few hours to kill AND a working stove. So, I decide that we should make another pizzelle batter and then try making cookies out of it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZhoHzI7WlVyrXiYx1qHE4C1zO80ydBw0aZzxW96bB-zl12vLKarPXVtKiwdHcxqAT6MeoPfJOPrNRctqUAo3h7YEU8trSGMy012o6lLR7t3qDKadOBBCcuFWJkArd8MPpZcJvRVTGCBC/s1600/breadfruitcakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZhoHzI7WlVyrXiYx1qHE4C1zO80ydBw0aZzxW96bB-zl12vLKarPXVtKiwdHcxqAT6MeoPfJOPrNRctqUAo3h7YEU8trSGMy012o6lLR7t3qDKadOBBCcuFWJkArd8MPpZcJvRVTGCBC/s200/breadfruitcakes.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haitian Rum cake made <br />
with breadfruit flour</td></tr>
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With my new found baking confidence, I start mixing away and completely get ahead of myself and put in ¼ cup of salt instead of ¼ tsp of salt… needless to say the Haitian women helping me thought it was hilarious and they started scooping it out. Those magic makers were able to save the batter and we continued on our cookie quest. The cookies were too hot to taste right away, so we decided to let those cool while we made another batch of the Haitian rum cake. This time, we added molasses to see if it would taste sweeter since the first batch some people commented that it still contained the “breadfruit taste” which is a strange bitterness. Again, a great success!</div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com4Port-au-Prince, Haiti18.539269 -72.33640818.4188325 -72.4943365 18.6597055 -72.178479500000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-39811003415091109762012-08-02T12:50:00.000-07:002012-08-02T12:54:41.657-07:00Tending to Orphan Crops of the World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>By Laura Dorle, Intern</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peanut's harvested from UMN plot in 2011</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/129276733.html" target="_blank">Last summer</a>, CTI and the University of Minnesota (UMN) collaborated in growing six “Orphan Crops”: tef, finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, grain amaranth, and groundnuts (peanuts).<br />
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<a href="http://mcknight.ccrp.cornell.edu/projects/neglected.html" target="_blank">Orphan crops</a> are important food crops for subsistence farmers in many African as well as Asian and South American communities, as they have a strong cultural importance, and are often more nutritious and drought resistant than many of the large commodity crops.<br />
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Most agricultural research has focused on increasing the yields of commodity crops, such as wheat or corn. However, simply growing more food is not enough—not when between 15-50% of crops are lost after harvest, often due to post-harvest spoilage and inefficient processing methods. That is why CTI is committed to filling some of the gaps in the research by working on orphan crops, focusing on the post-harvest side of the value chain helping bring rural farmers out of subsistence living while improving their livelihoods.<br />
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Tiffanie Stone, a recent graduate of the University, was the student intern on the St. Paul Campus plot last year with the guidance of Agronomy Professor Paul Porter and other UMN and CTI colleagues.<br />
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This year, we are at it again, and I’ve joined the team, along with many of the great folks from CTI and UMN who originated the project. I’m Laura Dorle, student intern with the Orphan Crops project and a junior in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Program at the U. With a particular interest in food, agriculture, and international development, and a great desire to learn a lot more in those areas, this project was the perfect opportunity to do so.<br />
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The plot has been off to a good start thus far. The crops were planted in late May. In addition to the crops from last year, we also planted cowpeas, fonio, quinoa, mung beans, and Bambara groundnuts. Most have been doing very well, despite heavy rains early and intense heat. As usual, there is group of stealthy weeds that are thriving right along with them, and a lot of volunteers have been out there working hard to battle them, the leafhoppers, and Japanese beetles.<br />
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When the crops begin to mature at the end of the summer through the fall, we’ll be able to use them to do field tests of CTI’s post-harvest <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html" target="_blank">equipment</a> including prototypes of <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#groundnut" target="_blank">groundnut processing technologies</a> that are being developed for a program in Malawi and Tanzania funded by the <a href="http://mcknight.ccrp.cornell.edu/projects/saf_cop/SAF_09-262/09-262_project.html" target="_blank">McKnight Foundation</a>. We will also be testing CTI’s new pearl millet processing suite on additional grains.<br />
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I’m really excited to be working on this project. Be sure to stay tuned. More updates to come as the process continues! And we’ll be organizing some field visits starting in mid-August!<br />
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~Laura<br />
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<br /></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-37682243048031467882012-07-31T14:01:00.002-07:002012-07-31T14:29:36.722-07:00Volunteers help Haitians find a local solution to hunger: Breadfruit flour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Volunteers Arrive in Haiti</b><br />
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<i>CTI volunteer Natalie George is blogging from Haiti, where she’s joined her mother Dr. Camille George, CTI Board Member, Program Manager and Professor at the University of Saint Thomas. <br /><br />The George’s are in Haiti helping locals take advantage of an underutilized food source: Breadfruit. Breadfruit grows in abundance in Haiti, but spoils just days after ripening. CTI has developed a set of tools that villagers can use to preserve breadfruit as affordable flour.<br /><br />Natalie and Camille are in Port au Prince, helping Haitians open a breadfruit bakery and showing “field to fork” proof that breadfruit can be harvested, transformed into flour, and processed into delicious and nutritious food products.</i><br />
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<b>First Impressions</b><br />
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After departing the airport, we start driving to our hotel and I get my first glimpse of Haiti’s capital city. It reminded me a lot of Mali in West Africa, but with its own twist. The roads are half-paved, half-broken rubble and, the further you get into the city, the more broken and choppy the roads get. There are people EVERYWHERE and like in Africa, many of them transport their goods on their heads. However, their clothing surprisingly resembles that of Americans.<br />
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The poverty level is extremely noticeable, more than I have ever seen in my life. I didn't think that the earthquake’s destruction would still be evident, but it definitely still is. There are severely broken buildings with giant boulders of concrete all about, but there are also buildings right next door which are completely fine. <br />
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I notice that there isn't a road sign in sight. Instead, there’s spray paint on the concrete walls with a name and some numbers. The roads are so twisted I have absolutely no clue how people know where to go!<br />
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Each building is surrounded by a giant concrete wall and then a huge metal door. To get inside people just beep a few times and then someone comes and opens this massive metal gate door. The concrete walls all either have barbed wire or cleverly have broken glass bottles along the top of the wall to discourage people from scaling them.<br />
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<b>Day 1</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvD71wgWAUg8GqU9vTQwex5lxHvDFm3LNHIPoqpA-wNxo-TbxvIIhLugU0NrqZJ8Eo-Xd9aXy0sX69Gz2HeuHG1GSE_9HoSojcVWTqm7NyEXuMS4z5DfDFh0e4qrl8yeSiPzKFksTgJ-Ta/s1600/IMG_0015.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvD71wgWAUg8GqU9vTQwex5lxHvDFm3LNHIPoqpA-wNxo-TbxvIIhLugU0NrqZJ8Eo-Xd9aXy0sX69Gz2HeuHG1GSE_9HoSojcVWTqm7NyEXuMS4z5DfDFh0e4qrl8yeSiPzKFksTgJ-Ta/s320/IMG_0015.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breadfruit Bakery</td></tr>
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On our first day, we wake up at 6:30am and it’s already 90 outside. Our friend Brulan navigates us through the twisty rocky roads, and we approach a random concrete wall and he beeps ever so lightly and someone opens the door.<br />
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The bakery itself is a lot larger than I expected it to be. We walk in and meet the staff and start working away. We decide to try the chocolate pizzelle recipe and it does not work as planned. We didn’t have any oil spray so the batter kept sticking to the iron which resulted in some ugly chocolate bits. We try a variety of things such as putting butter on it, putting oil on a rag and then rubbing it on but nothing seemed to work. So we decide to try a new approach and then… the power runs out. <br />
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<b><i>How will we run a bakery without electricity? Stay tuned for an update!</i></b><br />
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</div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0Port-au-Prince, Haiti18.539269 -72.33640818.4188325 -72.4943365 18.6597055 -72.178479500000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-86379586611368124482012-03-26T10:39:00.000-07:002012-03-26T10:39:06.875-07:00"It is good." -- Ethiopian women react to Pepper Eater prototype<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Roger Wilson, CTI volunteer project lead</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoJZjvDar11QiiYEMu2cxwN-0QE2mMM6ig_tq5eRFdCr8PNXI4agLmjjgJeP1CRsB6y5lLyPgxnEioVlVeSPSwM0uKoz4pTsiaAASoE8xMXkQhnQ20EmPytzZSWEuNsfNsHoGzgJ4LQyF/s1600/P1050186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoJZjvDar11QiiYEMu2cxwN-0QE2mMM6ig_tq5eRFdCr8PNXI4agLmjjgJeP1CRsB6y5lLyPgxnEioVlVeSPSwM0uKoz4pTsiaAASoE8xMXkQhnQ20EmPytzZSWEuNsfNsHoGzgJ4LQyF/s320/P1050186.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Roger Wilson in Ethiopia testing a new prototype technology, the <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#PepperEater" target="_blank">Pepper Eater</a>. An estimated 400,000 women in Ethiopia process peppers by hand; a laborious procedure that turns peppers into higher-value products of dried flakes, seeds, and powder. The Pepper Eater (featured in <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/big-idea/16/little-packages">National Geographic</a>) is a device in development that mills dried peppers with a hand-crank much faster and safer than the traditional method of flaking peppers by hand. The Pepper Eater concept was developed by <a href="http://thepeppereater.org/">students at Stanford University</a>, and was recently redesigned in a collaboration between CTI engineers and the Stanford team. CTI volunteer Roger Wilson and the Stanford team are in Ethiopia meeting with women who are evaluating the new Pepper Eater prototype. </i></span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We set up today with the table across the street from the Encino Berbere market (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbere" target="_blank">Berbere</a> is a pepper, or spice mixture that is a staple ingredient in Ethiopian cuisine). The crowd was instant. It took some work to get the children and men back far enough to let the women look and try the <a href="http://thepeppereater.org/" target="_blank">Pepper Eater</a> (here called the Berbere Machine) and the <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#burrmills" target="_blank">grinder</a>. I am working on trying to get shades of grey in the translation of the responses of the women because what I am getting is, “It is good.” I think that means it is fine; yes I can use the product, whether it be from the Pepper Eater or the grinder. So the Pepper Eater was liked. We did grind some of the Berbere that we had flakes with smiles and yes it was good. <br />
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To demonstrate the grinder we not only ground Berbere, but used CTI's <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#huller" target="_blank">prototype poly burr</a> to break the husk and split peas, which were then winnowed by hand and we ground the split pea as normal with the metal burrs. The beans we cracked with metal burrs, winnowed, and then ground. The shiro (powder) produced by both the peas and beans caused eyes to light up and the comment, “That sure is easier than pounding!” One woman was excited and immediately wanted a grind with a motor; she had big plans quickly. <br />
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Aschalech Jemal, a University Grad in Agriculture who's working with me, said that word of mouth will transmit what the women say quickly so the demo will be pretty widely talked about. Another component she picked up on is that the success of introducing either of these technologies is dependent on Ethiopians making it happen. She has the vision that this does provide business opportunities in several different ways and venues. <br />
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So far, our health has been good. The tomato crop is yielding well and thankfully the <a href="http://www.projectmercy.org/" target="_blank">Project Mercy</a> cook's know how to make a safe and delicious salad that is often nearly half tomatoes. Just for fun they throw in the occasional Mitmita bit (Thai like hot pepper.) The locals seem to know pretty well when this are dry enough to work. Yesterday in the market was interesting because Asfew turned down many vendors because the Berbere was too flexible, i.e. washed and still too wet. We bought them at the Butajira market because the administrator here said the merchants were less flexible at the other markets and there was a choice here, which seemed to be true. <br />
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At the end of the trip today, I asked that we stop in Butajira at the hotel so I could buy a drink for the five people that went to Encino. It cost a whole 25 Birr for 5 machiato (like espresso with steamed/foamed milk); mine was delicious. There is nowhere in the Twin Cities that I could get a coffee like that for myself for the $1.50, much less five people. So there are some good things lighten the rest of the work. </span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-55088462542460550842012-03-22T11:07:00.000-07:002012-03-22T11:07:10.604-07:0079,698 Reasons to celebrate on World Water Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If you're reading this, chances are you're just a few feet away from a source of clean, safe water. But if you lived in rural Nicaragua, you and your family would likely have no choice but to drink polluted water collected from local rivers and lakes.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><img align="right" border="0" height="212" hspace="5" name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.188" src="http://compatibletechnology.org/publications/newsltrs_AnRep/Blasts/2012-03_files/188.jpg" style="text-align: right;" vspace="5" width="320" />In a small village in rural Nicaragua, contaminated drinking water was making everyone extremely ill. <strong>Children were dying, their small bodies unable to handle the intensive dehydration caused by severe intestinal diseases.</strong></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Then CTI's water team stepped in and <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/projects.html#NicaraguaWater" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #086a81; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" track="on">helped</a> the village build a simple water chlorination system, and now the children are healthy, attending school regularly and enjoying life. </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><strong>CTI's <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#chlorinator" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #086a81; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" track="on">water chlorination system</a> is now in place in 126 communities, serving 79,698 people. </strong>The Water Chlorinators are built from PVC pipes and valves costing just $100. Villagers maintain the systems and pay to replace their chlorine tablets. The chlorine kills the bacteria, so the water is safe to drink.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><strong>Every child deserves clean drinking water.</strong> We are setting a goal of providing clean water to 250,000 Nicaraguans by June 2014.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">But we need your help to get there. A </span><a href="http://www.razoo.com/story/Cti" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #086a81; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" track="on">donation</a><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">, in </span><span face="Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-decoration: underline;">any</span> <span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">amount, will help communities gain a sustainable source of water, and will </span><strong style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">help us give tens of thousands of children a better hope for the future. <span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></strong></div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><strong style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.razoo.com/story/Cti" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQa3lx4SyIAr4U8AbY_0PCLGvFtYf7esAn9DwnOofavpyVtD4PcT_SC3iRBNwmCPUYNLDmjfHdXCh5aisJyJTBP2EGaLGcQT72V6JxywqH_Sz0EIrG0QZuSzU-7qxIURM0AoSNFUxEKUjE/s1600/donatebubble230x90whitebg.jpg" /></a></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-85306534964726345912012-03-12T08:30:00.002-07:002012-03-12T08:38:18.349-07:00CTI Volunteer Heads to Ethiopia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-A3CL8ZNOx3Cu-aaAY6iouS4jRvzW6ETQ-dr0sR3Yx3Pb4BGpsCfT6KpkgXihp00y91xCvcFAn5EiQbLFZl6Db-WhyphenhyphenRM44EPIPoU2a5VKjxxQdYoimwtK3jpOvm7gyi4diZbs4aQLIGcL/s1600/P1000809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-A3CL8ZNOx3Cu-aaAY6iouS4jRvzW6ETQ-dr0sR3Yx3Pb4BGpsCfT6KpkgXihp00y91xCvcFAn5EiQbLFZl6Db-WhyphenhyphenRM44EPIPoU2a5VKjxxQdYoimwtK3jpOvm7gyi4diZbs4aQLIGcL/s320/P1000809.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Qnd86Tyx3NQUXv2KimWXK2ssShjc1VG2q5bd6QHISdDcXIaF94NJCxPTs0a1OVzdlcZwEXlkwgs2i9WHFjFwcytT18bOIBuIYdA1Xbjopb4ymIf9glTgSakM0vQJG0gjWAaDYdcVsawD/s1600/P1040811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Qnd86Tyx3NQUXv2KimWXK2ssShjc1VG2q5bd6QHISdDcXIaF94NJCxPTs0a1OVzdlcZwEXlkwgs2i9WHFjFwcytT18bOIBuIYdA1Xbjopb4ymIf9glTgSakM0vQJG0gjWAaDYdcVsawD/s320/P1040811.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Roger Wilson, CTI Volunteer Project Lead</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i><br />
My name is Roger Wilson, and I've just arrived in Ethiopia, where I am volunteering on behalf of </span><a href="http://www.compatibletechnology.org/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Compatible Technology International</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (CTI). I am the volunteer project leader for an Ethiopian-focused project named the “</span><a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/projects.html#EthiopiaPepper" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Pepper Eater</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.”</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
The Pepper Eater is new device in development that flakes dried Berbere peppers into pieces—an essential step in making the Berbere powder blend that is the staple hot additive for most Ethiopian foods. This flaking is now often done by hand or in a mortar and pestle, which exposes women to harmful pepper dust, causing them to suffer mentally and physically in the days following the processing. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
While in Ethiopia, I will be joined by two engineers who developed the concept of the Pepper Eater </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">during their time at Stanford University</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. After designing the </span><a href="http://thepeppereater.org/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">initial Pepper Eater</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability class, the students brought the concept to CTI to develop a production version. We will conduct field trials of two prototypes versions of the Pepper Eater in order to inform our final design. We will be hosted by non-profit </span><a href="http://www.projectmercy.org/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Project Mercy</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> at their community development site in Yetebon, Ethiopia.</span></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Much of the daily food used in Ethiopia has to be ground: teff (grain staple), peppers & blends, dried legumes, etc. I am going work with the Yetebon staff to evaluate the CTI <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#burrmills" target="_blank">Ewing IV grinder</a> for the grinding of many of the foodstuffs and its cultural and functional fit in the community. It does take time and effort to grind, but the women now have to either pound to powder in mortar or carry their items to be ground 8-15 miles (one way) to leave at the miller for pickup a couple weeks later. So my hope is that we will be able to enable women to process peppers without the worst of the health problems and be able to reclaim time that can be better spent on other family tasks by using the grinder. And for some, these technologies might provide a core for a micro-enterprise earning them money</span>.</div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-17841321541706617912012-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:002012-02-22T12:01:03.018-08:00Tackling Hunger with Breadfruit Tools<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6IhlZzyhD8kzvWvNobgKU1HDk6jU_nF0DVaxdnK2s5UZuVm5QLG3VrcypXo11hhmL6bkVV8sZ1Fy8IGNyIPI9O7LLtGBDJfNyvk9gaERAVKhjvQEQxCEb_o4piFHMVK8FXdcQytOqZq66/s1600/pap205breadfruit+014-cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6IhlZzyhD8kzvWvNobgKU1HDk6jU_nF0DVaxdnK2s5UZuVm5QLG3VrcypXo11hhmL6bkVV8sZ1Fy8IGNyIPI9O7LLtGBDJfNyvk9gaERAVKhjvQEQxCEb_o4piFHMVK8FXdcQytOqZq66/s320/pap205breadfruit+014-cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breadfruit is a high-carbohydrate fruit that grows in abundance in tropical nations that struggle with hunger and poverty. Breadfruit has been long recognized for its potential to alleviate hunger in countries like Haiti, but there's just one problem: fresh breadfruit rots in 48 hours.</span></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
But if poor communities were able to make flour out of breadfruit, locally produced breadfruit flour could replace expensive imported cereals and increase food security.<br />
<br />
<b>Compatible Technology International (CTI), with help from a team of engineers, researchers and breadfruit experts, is developing a <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#Breadfruit" target="_blank">set of tools</a> that will allow villagers to process breadfruit into shelf-stable flour.</b></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMl1VuoV8IvRtZFGdfgG37CI55Oqdx7wYp5WJHCcgf-k47MmvjABTUYUbHyWScYjsUOO_zlbzNdB734ifC8N1HlINyOpwSI4hBzJFVhhI91JnRtdaCG7BOlb9LJVB5-7Egl0iV_YdoCGb/s1600/DSCF9744red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMl1VuoV8IvRtZFGdfgG37CI55Oqdx7wYp5WJHCcgf-k47MmvjABTUYUbHyWScYjsUOO_zlbzNdB734ifC8N1HlINyOpwSI4hBzJFVhhI91JnRtdaCG7BOlb9LJVB5-7Egl0iV_YdoCGb/s1600/DSCF9744red.jpg" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Shredder</b><br />
CTI has designed a manually-operated shredder that shreds breadfruit into small strips that are optimally shaped for quick drying. Engineers at CTI and the University of Saint Thomas (UST) reached the current shredder design after testing other concepts with communities in Haiti.<br />
</span><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Drier</b><br />
After they are shredded, the breadfruit strips must be dried quickly to prevent spoiling. To source the best technologies for this crucial step, UST recently organized and judged a <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/01/11/breadfruit-flour/" target="_blank">contest</a> challenging teams to develop a simple, effective and affordable breadfruit drying structure.<br />
<br />
The first place <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/newsevents/newsevents.html#breadfruit" target="_blank">winner</a> of the contest is a team of long-time CTI volunteers, and second place is a team from the University of California, Davis. In March, both teams will travel to Hawaii to present their designs at the <a href="http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/" target="_blank">Breadfruit Institute</a>, a division of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. <br />
<br />
<b>Grinder</b><br />
Once dried, breadfruit strips can easily be ground into flour by villagers using CTI's <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#burrmills" target="_blank">grinder</a>. The breadfruit processing system will go through rigorous tests at the Breadfruit Institute before being deployed in the Caribbean.<br />
<br />
Breadfruit flour could be an important microenterprise opportunity and an untapped source of nutrition for food insecure communities. With <a href="http://www.razoo.com/story/Cti" target="_blank">your help</a>, we can get these and other innovations into the hands of the communities who need them.</span></div></div></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-49601807606601373542012-01-12T14:15:00.000-08:002012-01-12T14:20:38.890-08:00Making a "profound difference" in Haiti<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the months following the tragic earthquake in January 2010, CTI began collaborating with organizations working in rural Haiti. Though the earthquake was devastating to Port-au-Prince, communities outside of the capital city were struggling to find food and employment for their current residents, let alone the influx of refugees displaced from the earthquake. Using donations from several organizations, the <a href="http://www.haitianhealthfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Haitian Health Foundation</a> (HHF) began purchasing grinders to help families near Jeremie, Haiti support themselves. The grinders, in the words of Bette Gebrian, HHF Director of Public Health: “are making such a profound difference…”</span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD_1mHrVF4RehZILEfFM9ZaFDqRtMm4gmGy5UUusM94wY28vliYdlH9VKXRA_ew9TFBiE-2lsqW0UPhYI3k5QN5C0ouJ8BiH3ylwH1NbSCP43qdXfJsW_Oc8c07vGF9U06cMLdh0Zfbkm2/s1600/mamba+mill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD_1mHrVF4RehZILEfFM9ZaFDqRtMm4gmGy5UUusM94wY28vliYdlH9VKXRA_ew9TFBiE-2lsqW0UPhYI3k5QN5C0ouJ8BiH3ylwH1NbSCP43qdXfJsW_Oc8c07vGF9U06cMLdh0Zfbkm2/s400/mamba+mill.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Funds for grinders were donated by many supporters, including the <br />
Help for Haiti Consortium of Canadian Rotary District 505 in British Colombia. <br />
This grinder is being used by a youth group to make peanut butter.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9DO6y-7wMtqvVTAhnDL6BPmIJyw56I1Q0R8JjeBddBE74yK55VmLkl7RPq5MjrgamZ2S0akq53l3xDd_zUZIT-W0RF5nDMeii1vkH7dQ8uojek2O-le0_NsII1rSNE2YxpOLQXZxFv3l/s1600/vanilla+into+the+corn%252C+milk+and+sugar+mix.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9DO6y-7wMtqvVTAhnDL6BPmIJyw56I1Q0R8JjeBddBE74yK55VmLkl7RPq5MjrgamZ2S0akq53l3xDd_zUZIT-W0RF5nDMeii1vkH7dQ8uojek2O-le0_NsII1rSNE2YxpOLQXZxFv3l/s400/vanilla+into+the+corn%252C+milk+and+sugar+mix.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">With help from members of the Jeremie Rotary, <br />
Mme Josie Charles has built a business using a CTI grinder <br />
to make and sell peanut butter and a warm corn-based drink called Akasan.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCCitGtPfWSywuiwi958dhHfVYz_lZX7055uQgcb2GpF2PkYXstSMvCPxSGb-yR4FO0nTAvh-hKTTtjHu3Tx_8W6UAuiP_pf6TUw3IbV0f1FCb2herw1DOTE6JO-ys49_K8gEIt0n6eIWU/s1600/Josie+Charles+helping+improve+nutrition+in+school+children.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCCitGtPfWSywuiwi958dhHfVYz_lZX7055uQgcb2GpF2PkYXstSMvCPxSGb-yR4FO0nTAvh-hKTTtjHu3Tx_8W6UAuiP_pf6TUw3IbV0f1FCb2herw1DOTE6JO-ys49_K8gEIt0n6eIWU/s400/Josie+Charles+helping+improve+nutrition+in+school+children.JPG" width="300" /></b></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Mme Charles cooks the Akasan by 6am and sells it all by 8am, <br />
so children can drink it on their way to school. <br />
The small enterprise has been very successful</span><wbr style="background-color: white;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white;">!</span></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Haitian Health Foundation has distributed more than 20 grinders which are being used to create microenterprises. 17 more grinders will be shipped to HHF in late January, 2012.</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-40968908784391292182011-11-28T10:45:00.000-08:002011-11-28T10:45:20.779-08:00In search of rice in Vietnam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Steve Laible, CTI Volunteer, Vietnam</i></span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As part of our project work with CTI, we have been involved with the development of a device that uses rice hulls as a "feedstock" and converts the rice hulls into a <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/projects.html#bangladesh" target="_blank">cooking fuel</a>. The rice hull makes up about 20% by weight of the rice kernel. The goal of our current work in Vietnam is to gain an understanding of where rice milling is taking place so we know where rice hulls are available in great abundance. If conditions and supply are appropriate, there may be an opportunity to introduce a rice hull production device into the area.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvbr9-cY0zSWjOKoOzuVRBnMNGBiAW1woIpW_FojTCBFmmNV80ohwnC0AqumyIUnDBSRYqeFTasdurOPEV35mMdu7IquVu5Hq2WxIp7o2BuCUXL_t3pzhUOWe8xlWRpVFcwkQW_EiwbzjE/s1600/VietnamJeep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvbr9-cY0zSWjOKoOzuVRBnMNGBiAW1woIpW_FojTCBFmmNV80ohwnC0AqumyIUnDBSRYqeFTasdurOPEV35mMdu7IquVu5Hq2WxIp7o2BuCUXL_t3pzhUOWe8xlWRpVFcwkQW_EiwbzjE/s320/VietnamJeep.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">CTI Volunteers Steve and Nancy Laible in rice growing area of Vietnam</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After visiting a rice farm, we travel a few miles to a local rice mill. Because we are between harvest seasons, the mill is not active. There is a "watchman" (actually a watch woman) on duty in the small office. Our guide, Dai Tran, strikes up a conversation with her and we are able to ask a few questions. As the mill lady warms to our presence, she offers to give us a tour of the rice mill. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is clear that the equipment in the mill is very old, but functional. This particular mill serves a local market. Thus, much of the rice is sold in the area after processing.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A portion of the rice hull by-product is used as fuel in large cook stoves where the function is to maintain a hot fire for long periods of time. The stoves used to burn bulk rice hulls are very similar to the "cook stoves" used in the USA some 80 to100 years ago when it was common to burn corn cobs in farming areas. The cook stoves are able to use the energy value of some of the rice hulls, but the large stoves and the bulk fuel is not practical for home use. We have gained useful information from this visit. We say farewell to our hostess and continue or quest for a more modern mill and more information about using rice hulls as fuel.</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-58652097192512310232011-11-23T14:39:00.000-08:002011-11-28T10:46:32.719-08:00Let it be<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Andrea Brovold, CTI Program Manager, </span></i><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Senegal</i><br />
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</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXK7Vv2hyzN2A6bys4Zv13dnM1PlF-PAm_R7NEuw9xqQlT_8vniZG2EsfaW20kbVcdAmbbycsyzByFo3T8a5QvskOCNpKMzY27XzdOxVbHsCuo329V5jJ1yWQ0dV61j26sw8ed6-V_Cs65/s1600/DSC01069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXK7Vv2hyzN2A6bys4Zv13dnM1PlF-PAm_R7NEuw9xqQlT_8vniZG2EsfaW20kbVcdAmbbycsyzByFo3T8a5QvskOCNpKMzY27XzdOxVbHsCuo329V5jJ1yWQ0dV61j26sw8ed6-V_Cs65/s320/DSC01069.JPG" width="240" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I summitted Kilimanjaro on October 12th, I cried. And last night, as we drove through the fields of West Africa, I cried. I did not cry because of what I saw, but rather, what I had not felt until last night. It's funny how something can trigger your every emotion, and last night the Beatles resonated. "There is still a light that shines...There will be an answer, let it be"<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer came in the form of a call from our host in Senegal. Because of the visibility that we have gained demonstrating CTI's prototype <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#thresher" target="_blank">grain processing tools</a>, we have been asked to double the amount of villages we visit each day that we are here.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last night, as I gazed out the car window of the passing fields, and saw the women and girls still pounding traditionally in their mortars and pestles to process that evening's meals, I thought, <i>I cannot simply wait, watch and "Let it be."</i><u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/" target="_blank">Compatible Technology International</a> (CTI) creates simple and practical hand-operated post-harvest processing <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html" target="_blank">tools</a> for developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It is unconscionable to me that women like Coumba and her 14 year old daughter must wake at 4:30am to work in the fields, and still be there at 6:00pm, when we are pulling away at night. After working into the evening, Coumbia and her daughter then have to walk kilometers home to begin cooking the night's meal. This is her life, all day, everyday for the rest of her life.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"There will be an answer..." That answer is CTI, when the large processing machines don't show up in the villages for months, when 80% of those in West Africa will only have enough food for 5 months and then have to resort to purchasing pearl millet at a high cost. With CTI's new grain processing equipment, women like Coumbia and her daughter can significantly reduce their post-harvest waste, and can process their crops in a fraction of the time--putting more food on the table, and giving mothers the opportunity to send their kids and start businesses.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I can ask you to do one thing this holiday season, it is to <a href="http://www.razoo.com/story/Cti" target="_blank">help us</a> diffuse these technologies and spread the word of the important work CTI is doing. This Thanksgiving, while you are around the dinner table surrounded by family and friends, with excess and abundance, think about Coumba, about Fatou, about Ramadou; this dawn-til dusk ritual does not have to be, WE don't have to "Let it be." </span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-79769503323746707102011-10-24T08:32:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:40:41.098-08:00Peanut Harvesting: Powered by Oxen!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Tiffanie Stone, CTI Intern<br />
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Rural farmers in Africa probably don’t have access to a tractor of any kind. However, they might have access to oxen. Sometimes farmers own them individually and other times a pair is shared by the whole village.</span><br />
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We were able to test accessible peanut harvesting technologies using oxen thanks to Oliver Kelley farm, a historical landmark. They provided the pair of oxen and three different plows to test. We did this so that the engineers from CTI could get an idea about the most useful design for peanut harvesting. These simple plows were used to cut the tap root and tip the peanut plant so the peanuts were sticking up. None of the plows worked perfectly but there was one that was clearly better than the other two. This is a good starting point for the engineers to work from. By tweaking the design here, the plow will be more suited for peanut digging in Africa. While there, other factors will need to be addressed such as the different soil types and the moisture of both the plants and the peanuts themselves. </span><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBODge0361Z9xLNKyypG0knk1T4bCPYr-bwPK85xGhCSEkU-Xlt1iLpMWf4kA0AmQIOoGneqFwhuh7ALQTb3V_QQpCh8_2-b4OSKa_Yq-jTrADWlxNI_Q-hIn9avKaDLW8S8MMgN_0NGZ/s1600/IMG_1743.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBODge0361Z9xLNKyypG0knk1T4bCPYr-bwPK85xGhCSEkU-Xlt1iLpMWf4kA0AmQIOoGneqFwhuh7ALQTb3V_QQpCh8_2-b4OSKa_Yq-jTrADWlxNI_Q-hIn9avKaDLW8S8MMgN_0NGZ/s400/IMG_1743.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
It was very exciting to be able to plow using a team of oxen. I do not recall ever seeing oxen before so seeing them respond to signals and being able to lead animals that large was very fun. The next day pictures appeared in the Pioneer Press. <br />
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Aside from oxen pulled technology CTI engineers are also working on a hand held prototype for farmers that do not have access to oxen. Currently, two prototypes have been tested and adjusted. The most important part about peanut harvesting is getting the tap root cut. After that the peanuts which all lie directly under that plant will come up pretty easily. <br />
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The weather is getting colder as this growing season is coming to a close. So far five bags of finger millet have been harvested. This is done by hand because most of the finger millet remained sterile. We will continue to harvest this until the killing frost. There is a bumper crop of amaranth. So far about 200 heads are being stored in the University of Minnesota seed house. I hope to increase this to 300 by next weekend.</span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-71263980967539270022011-09-28T13:42:00.000-07:002011-09-28T13:42:41.108-07:00Michigan Tech & CTI Collaborate on Ag-Waste Fuel Program<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_IcSXQkV_0n_3a3DQushosL7SuYbDEw0g8iKr-zL5eddC2UwOfiE_f6dO-ZYQaN64mMAPoiY6Xrjj0Sm-eLydgn-Icha1Od_aYvQA9ZUmNGQcSXQZGuT8Fgk6qtnBbG3IM6YKkuawPJr/s1600/2011-09-28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_IcSXQkV_0n_3a3DQushosL7SuYbDEw0g8iKr-zL5eddC2UwOfiE_f6dO-ZYQaN64mMAPoiY6Xrjj0Sm-eLydgn-Icha1Od_aYvQA9ZUmNGQcSXQZGuT8Fgk6qtnBbG3IM6YKkuawPJr/s400/2011-09-28.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CTI volunteers Nancy and Steve Laible recently met with the student design team and faculty advisors at Michigan Technological University. The design team is working on improvements to the <a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/projects.html#bangladesh">rice hull cooking fuel</a> production device. The team is making great progress and expects to have a working model completed by the first week of December, 2011. The plan is to seek support for implementation for field testing of the improved device in Bangladesh and possible installation at prospective sites in Vietnam and Tanzania.</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-65289215331785014602011-09-12T10:57:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:39:54.556-08:00Crops of Africa Attracts More Than Just Media Attention<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Tiffanie Stone, CTI Intern</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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This has been a very exciting week for everyone at CTI. We were on the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/129276733.html?page=all&prepage=2&c=y#continue">front page</a> of the Star Tribune which included a picture of Tom and me harvesting tef by hand. We were not sure if the tef was ready to harvest until we got the go ahead from a friend of Paul Porter who has had experience with tef. The one clue we had that it might be ready was the fact that the birds had found it and began pecking away. As soon as we got the go ahead we began to harvest. At first by hand but also with a small machine (a grain binder that cuts plants and ties them into small bundles) that Dr. Vern Cardwell was kind enough to bring and operate for us. However, hand harvesting ended up being the quickest, cleanest and most effective way to harvest. The tef was too lodged and biomass was too wet to make mechanical harvest effective. <br />
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Dr. Cardwell brought his honors freshman seminar titled “By the Harvest You Shall Live” in to help harvest tef. Small groups of students harvested 100 square feet putting the plant into bundles. The students then threshed and winnowed about a fourth of the grain in order gain perspective on the amount of seed they truly harvested. <br />
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The experience was a great one for everyone involved. It will be a couple weeks before we start harvesting the rest of the crops. I will be sure to let everyone know when we pick the dates because when you’re harvesting by hand, the more the merrier. <br />
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Birds and an early frost are the biggest concerns at the moment. All the crops except the Malawian variety of finger millet are filling seeds but we will need a moderate fall in order to insure the plants make it to maturity before the frost. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPT2jWUEN58e4rneDgLta9cT2ufeP7KEw7dy0frHuvEh7pwr2Zws-5OkB36xgI7aOrB1qwB9HE9uoWuVJKVjpmszEmioL7JifO7hy8mxvzZjlrSyF6OttxmjuXGh9bMMgMwK-S4AjzBSy5/s1600/DSC00076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPT2jWUEN58e4rneDgLta9cT2ufeP7KEw7dy0frHuvEh7pwr2Zws-5OkB36xgI7aOrB1qwB9HE9uoWuVJKVjpmszEmioL7JifO7hy8mxvzZjlrSyF6OttxmjuXGh9bMMgMwK-S4AjzBSy5/s320/DSC00076.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pearl Millet growing at CTI's Lost Crops of Africa Plot</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A more immediate pressing issue is that of birds. There are hundreds, and I really mean hundreds of sparrows enjoying our African grains every single day. They especially love the pearl millet and the sorghum but we have seen them in every crop except for the peanuts and the finger millet. We have covered many areas of the plants with netting. Even with the netting the birds can still manage to get under it in order to eat the filling grain. We are trying to let the netting hang quite low in order to keep the birds out. Even so, they can peck through the top of the nets which means a small amount of damage will be done instead of the usual decimation which would occur if the nets were not there. Several weeks ago we set up a noise maker that sounds like a predator and a bird in distress. This kept the birds away for a total of zero days. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
They are fearless and we have begun to call the noise maker their entertainment. I find birds perching on sorghum right above it almost every time I visit the field.</span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-41241140345064663162011-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:39:27.254-08:00Visit to Cargill School in Vietnam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Steve Laible, Volunteer Project Leader, Vietnam<br />
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My first night at the Thuan Thien Hotel is a bit restless. The 12 hour time change and the long plane ride has managed to mess up my "sleep clock". I wake up about an hour before my scheduled wake up call. I enjoy soup with noodles as part of the breakfast. Since my body clock is on dinner time, the fact that I'm eating a full meal with soup, fried rice, steamed vegetables and sweet bananas seems perfectly appropriate.</span><br />
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The car and my guide for the day meet me on time at 8:00 AM. The two hour car ride to Ben Tre province is different than I expected. The roads are modern and the traffic has a degree of sanity to it. The motor bikes are numerous and act like small flocks of birds darting everywhere. There are not many traffic control signs, but there is an interesting form of self regulation. The motor bikes bunch up at intersections when they lack an opening. When a break in the traffic flow occurs, the motor bikes scoot across the intersection forming a moving fence that halts the other direction of traffic. When a space occurs in the moving direction, the new bunch of waiting motor bikes takes over. The resulting traffic flow creates waves of bikes with gaps in between moving in perpendicular directions. The main road to Ben Tre takes us over a very beautiful bridge across a main channel of the Mekong River and into the delta region.<br />
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Our destination is a school project that has been sponsored by Minnesota-based Cargill Corporation. The "Cargill Cares" project has been operating for a number of years in Vietnam and about 45 school facilities have been built. We meet the cheerful school Director and tour a lovely facility with three large classrooms and an administration building. There are only a few children on hand as the school is on "rainy season" break. The school offers a half day program at this time of the year for the children who are able to participate or who need a "head start".<br />
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<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5IJcsZkgRoj0RoPd6oOaNxyM1ncf9Bte-eTFYYl0sKFUugaQqVDrGVTWgIY6nvUVL_X4srTZhfM2XAE-pXk0HgiK4fNdoEbv79L23pR5DH6lqQufmV26d4wZKUNWkpteZMHpczjjhaA0/s1600/2011-08-25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5IJcsZkgRoj0RoPd6oOaNxyM1ncf9Bte-eTFYYl0sKFUugaQqVDrGVTWgIY6nvUVL_X4srTZhfM2XAE-pXk0HgiK4fNdoEbv79L23pR5DH6lqQufmV26d4wZKUNWkpteZMHpczjjhaA0/s320/2011-08-25.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The government commitment to elementary education is impressive. Organized school starts at age three. Thus, parents are able to have public day care, play group and learning experiences for their children at an early age. There are 20 to 30 children registered in each of three classrooms with two teachers in each room. The school operating expenses are government funded making school a very affordable experience for all families.</span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-28513784076046430132011-08-24T11:51:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:37:54.109-08:00Adventures at Customs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlJUYQx4mBpj-XIk7AeVlRbAsDmXf5sL730261pROcUk8s3f1PQQPk-tRb-CozOmd6KPSUslKImaiY5OOSejhzC7lyh2IxWtizuX5QZsZCSESLXYlpiKf_FZZUsojIbePjGVMzWud5Zu4/s1600/2011+-+08-24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlJUYQx4mBpj-XIk7AeVlRbAsDmXf5sL730261pROcUk8s3f1PQQPk-tRb-CozOmd6KPSUslKImaiY5OOSejhzC7lyh2IxWtizuX5QZsZCSESLXYlpiKf_FZZUsojIbePjGVMzWud5Zu4/s320/2011+-+08-24.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Steve Laible, CTI Volunteer Project Leader, Vietnam<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The international airport at Ho Chi Minh City is very modern and efficient. Most of the planes at the gateways are from Asian countries as Vietnam has become a significant trade partner in this part of the world. It is obvious that Vietnam is making a real effort at tourism as well as commercial trade. I ask the flight attendant for the immigration form and customs declaration form that is standard procedure in most countries. The flight attendant responds with a surprised look and says, "oh, we don't use the forms any longer - just your passport". I think to myself, "how efficient and streamlined". I would change my mind, however, within the next 30 minutes.<br />
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The immigration center is large, clean and well lit. There are six staffed immigration booths waiting to check through the 20 passengers. The wait time is about 3 minutes. The friendly official takes my passport, quickly finds the entry visa and scans the document. A quick stamp, stamp and I'm through. Now, will the baggage claim be as efficient? By the time I find the correct carousel and get a luggage cart I see the first of my two bags. This is going to be easy, I think. WRONG! I gather my second bag and get in line to have my bags scanned. As I see my bag with the two Ewing IV grinders emerge through the other side of the scanner, the belt stops. The scanner attendant gets out of his chair and I'm starting to lose my confidence. Then the attendant says the dreaded words - "Please open". He looks at the open boxes of grinders and parts in amazement. He then looks at me with equal amazement. "Do you have any documents?” he asks.</span><br />
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I give him my copy of the “Bert Rivers standard letter” asking the nice custom officials to please allow import of the equipment for charitable purposes at no import duty. He asks me to "wait" as he walks to another station. He returns and informs me that I must speak with another person.<br />
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Then the real questions start. What is this? I think for a moment about getting George Ewing out of bed at 1:00 AM Minneapolis time so George can explain the history and function of the grinder he designed. I think better of this plan. I try my best to explain a Ewing grinder to a man whose English is only slightly better than my non-existent Vietnamese. I struggle through more questions.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Where is this going? Are you leaving it here? Are you starting a business? Are you a teacher? Are you working here? I see pitfalls to any and all of the questions. Finally, he declares that he must keep the equipment and it will be sent to another office. He will provide the address and I can return the next day and pay any import duty. So much for the efficient streamlined process.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I tell the man that the situation presents many hardships for me. I do not have transportation, I don't know my way around the city and I am on a schedule to leave the city. I also tell him about our plans to help the children of farmers and improve life for the poor in Vietnam. At some point in my pleading the tide turns and there is a ray of hope. He says, "Maybe I can help you. Maybe you can pay the duty here and then you can leave with the equipment." It's late at night and I am sleep deprived, but I think I know the answer when he concludes his new plan with the final question, "Do you understand?" Then it's my turn for a question: "Do I get to decide the amount of the import duty?" I ask. He shrugs his shoulders and turns to one of the other officers to give me a moment to think. I quickly decide that a 5% import duty seems fair and a $20 bill finds its way into an envelope that I leave on the desk. I quickly return to my bags and walk to the exit door before a full audit is completed. I don't look back, but feel very certain that the self-imposed import duty will find its way into the official records of the customs office. Ya, right!<br />
<br />
My frustration quickly turns to joy as I emerge into the general waiting area and spot a young man holding a sign with "Mr. Laible" spelled correctly. The ride into town is pleasant and the check-in at the hotel is simple. I hand the clerk my passport, which he keeps, and he hands me a key. Once again, no paperwork. I take a quick shower in cold water and hop into a clean bed at a modest 3:00 AM local time.</span></div></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-13798814593703235872011-08-23T08:07:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:38:24.030-08:00Volunteer Departs for Vietnam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXj_r3hiAneoNB39-959S_tHo8bgk6gdayp73ibTOApnH0kQHsWMx3Y2Yn2BL9oNlPLtNiqlBsjLU_3URy0V6UkGgQAFkjHEGjJam34NZkKYerYi_i0N3HUZq5Mel1lUbWtdV_DqlpF-qY/s1600/2011+-+08-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXj_r3hiAneoNB39-959S_tHo8bgk6gdayp73ibTOApnH0kQHsWMx3Y2Yn2BL9oNlPLtNiqlBsjLU_3URy0V6UkGgQAFkjHEGjJam34NZkKYerYi_i0N3HUZq5Mel1lUbWtdV_DqlpF-qY/s320/2011+-+08-23.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Steve Laible, CTI Volunteer Project Leader, Vietnam<br />
</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i>An eleven hour plane ride provides ample time for reflection and I have been reflecting on my experiences as a volunteer with Compatible Technology International (CTI). I became a volunteer for CTI in 2005 when I helped Don Moran establish a CTI presence in Bangladesh. CTI has been providing innovative post-harvest processing solutions for 30 years. The processing tools and initiatives related to clean water have enabled hundreds of volunteers to help thousands of people living in poverty in all parts of the world. Most of the benefits relate to food security, nutrition and healthier lives. CTI is a relatively small non profit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that has made a large impact in several developing countries.</span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, I am flying to Vietnam as part of an initiative to help Vietnamese cocoa farmers who work and live in the southern regions of Vietnam. My plane ride from Minneapolis to Tokyo was uneventful (and that's a good thing). I was able to navigate the bus ride from terminal 1 to terminal 2 for my next flight on Vietnam Airlines. As I step aboard a very new and very pristine Airbus, I'm struck by the irony of transporting a basic hand operated grinder on such a sleek high technology flying machine. The Airbus has a capacity of over 200 passengers, but today there are only about 20 of us on the plane. The light passenger load is probably a bad thing for the emerging tourism industry in Vietnam, but for me it means lots of space and a row to myself. During the six hour flight from Tokyo I am able to get a couple of hours of decent sleep. I arrive safely in Ho Chi Minh City.</span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-85234429206113576462011-08-22T10:57:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:36:14.394-08:00Triggering Finger Millet to Flower<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjHsPriUi6t_3oaHdmv9UcngIJPg2dFSN3XCpV8NeEBwmK3H_Ll4O2VdFYZxJkxlfK4XP4sBZOGr5G02KhcCTksRhcRxNdR6zEtOqy8av1hvd1Jvsg7XBPG1W5HuaX1uPN4TVxosChtUKp/s1600/DSC06932.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjHsPriUi6t_3oaHdmv9UcngIJPg2dFSN3XCpV8NeEBwmK3H_Ll4O2VdFYZxJkxlfK4XP4sBZOGr5G02KhcCTksRhcRxNdR6zEtOqy8av1hvd1Jvsg7XBPG1W5HuaX1uPN4TVxosChtUKp/s320/DSC06932.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Tiffanie Stone, CTI Intern</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
<br />
</i>Now that summer is coming to a close weeding has become less of a priority. Most of the crops are already setting seed. However, there is still one plant that has not even begun to flower. Finger millet has been at about the same height and state for quite a few weeks now. For a while Tom Frantz and I thought that the plants had begun to flower. What we were seeing turned out to be none other than our good friend barnyard grass. Barnyard grass and assorted other weeds grew within the rows and within the bunches of plants themselves. In our plot we are growing two varieties of finger millet. One variety was brought back from Malawi with Steve Clarke. The other variety was from Dr. P.V.V. Prasad who grew it at Kansas State. After we realized that none of the finger millet had begun to flower we were briefly puzzled until we remembered something that came up many months before. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
Whilst planning for this project we read that a few of the plants may have photoperiod sensitivity. This means that if the plant is exposed to too much light it will not begin to flower. Steve Clarke went back to the Lost Crops of Africa book which confirmed that finger millet is a short-day plant with 12-hours being the optimum amount of sun exposure for most varieties. We decided to start our trial immediately. We figured that we may be able to trigger the finger millet flowering in 7 to 10 days. Paul Porter had access to a large tarp and Dick Wenkel found 6 large tubs that were not being used right on campus. Tom Frantz and I with assistance from Bert Rivers, Steve Clarke and Paul Porter have been setting up the coverings for the plants at 8 pm. We have been uncovering them by 8:30 am. This insures the plants get the full 12 hours of darkness. We started the trial on the night of Thursday the 11th. We have seen a few plants of the Kansas variety begin to flower thus far. We continued to cover the same section for the full 10 day trial. On Monday the 22nd we moved the tarp and will try to trigger flowering on another section of plants. <br />
<br />
I would like to say a special thank you to Tom Frantz who has been a huge help with this project from the moment he heard about it. He a new volunteer at CTI and has put in countless hours weeding. He has been instrumental in this trial. This whole project has been a learning experience. Thus far, the project has been going well but we will continue to improve our methods for even more success next year.</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-1835316790575450542011-07-18T10:58:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:35:17.640-08:00Lost Crops of Africa: African Crops (and Weeds) Thriving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7BPRORAulHer_BKSxFcoJJTUEfTRjA8pviH5F4j3VxdORWPeXCZp_4RD36RzgtEWduuLxZLFIkrv_SpZiSVRIvKxSAxxhXl6mz1AsYdLabHvDfe9nrGdtqaPA6c7ECC_ZRMTOcILsQmX/s1600/DSC01282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7BPRORAulHer_BKSxFcoJJTUEfTRjA8pviH5F4j3VxdORWPeXCZp_4RD36RzgtEWduuLxZLFIkrv_SpZiSVRIvKxSAxxhXl6mz1AsYdLabHvDfe9nrGdtqaPA6c7ECC_ZRMTOcILsQmX/s320/DSC01282.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Groundnuts (peanuts) growing at the CTI/UMN plot</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Tiffanie Stone, CTI Intern<br />
<br />
E</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">verything is growing and thriving, including the weed population. From day one, we knew that weeds would be the biggest obstacle to overcome with this project. Most of the crops were planted in 30 inch rows which can be cultivated. The only weeds we need to worry about with these are within the rows, thanks to Dick Winkel and his cultivator. Watching Dick handle this one- row cultivator is like watching a master at work.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The teff varieties and the amaranth were planted in 6 inch rows which makes it impossible to cultivate and difficult to hand weed. To help control the weeds we used herbicides. We sprayed Select on the amaranth two weeks ago which killed all the grass weeds. It took several days for Select to kick in, but it kicked all the grasses effectively. Now the biggest problems are the many off types and red root pigweeds that need to be pulled by hand. This week we sprayed the teff with a broad leaf herbicide called Arctic 3.2. It worked like a charm; the effects could be seen the very next day. Hopefully, they will kill the broad leaf weeds completely. Grasses, especially barn yard grass still needs to be pulled out from the teff, but the herbicide was a huge help. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Due to the warm weather we had quite a leaf hopper population in the groundnuts (peanuts). Leaf hoppers are partial to legumes, so only the groundnuts were infested. They were just starting to show signs of distress. Thankfully, we were able to diagnose and spray with an insecticide to take care of the problem. The peanuts may need to be sprayed every two weeks. We will spray on at an as needed basis. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Having the support of the many great people at the U of M and at CTI has been invaluable. I don’t believe in magic elves, so I know some of you are weeding when I am not here. I see the evidences all the time. You are all making this project possible. I want to end with a big thank you to all who have contributed to the project in any way, shape or form. I so appreciate it!</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-72708768653851878322011-07-08T07:47:00.000-07:002011-07-08T07:47:18.052-07:00CTI Technology at Work - Dodoma, Tanzania<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTp05JZ0u2P3e7s_T-FW-BHeF_lOrXpKsVDKFQbF7JDKngsBxYweAXWgcDPWAHOwu0VIL8IghEB4smFfNRtMoWFc6bIh90QKCAHl7QJTyfey4PNkLXgLxsBKe6iADEDCUlAtpcunFIY7ZO/s1600/IMG_1155.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Mrs. Grace Daudi, head of the Mpito Women's Group <br />
in Dodoma, Tanzania. Grace recently acquired a CTI grinder, <br />
which her group uses to produce peanut butter for their business.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Mrs. Grace Daudi is doing well with her Ewing 4 grinder and she has managed to increase her peanut butter production. Mrs. Daudi said that in less than an hour she can process 10 kilograms of groundnuts into peanut butter.” - Elias, CTI's technician in Tanzania</span>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-81661352237459873012011-06-27T12:17:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:33:02.581-08:00Rescuing the Lost Crops of Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSVLeKa4wb7LDnyb9_ej-U-95X76pEeGje10sNfnw5XxO5lnjQXJ0bErCZSjd-f3Cbf8GTSs5suyp4UAGiAiAcGu_gQ4bDcGxY3CwxP9ooVNAYSP5o3I4Z3ttWtgHgo15GOpysAFAynOWL/s1600/McKnight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSVLeKa4wb7LDnyb9_ej-U-95X76pEeGje10sNfnw5XxO5lnjQXJ0bErCZSjd-f3Cbf8GTSs5suyp4UAGiAiAcGu_gQ4bDcGxY3CwxP9ooVNAYSP5o3I4Z3ttWtgHgo15GOpysAFAynOWL/s1600/McKnight.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the second time in just three years, we are facing a <a href="http://www.wfp.org/stories/rising-food-prices-infographic">global food crisis</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> as a result of rapidly rising food prices. In developing countries, where individuals often spend half of their income on food, record high food prices have pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty and hunger since June of 2010. As the world’s population grows, spikes in food prices are expected to continue, and important safety nets such as emergency food aid will not be able to keep up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
CTI is committed to creating inventive, sustainable solutions to address these challenges. Simply growing more food is not enough—not when between 15-50% of crops are lost after harvest, often due to post-harvest spoilage and inefficient processing methods.</span><br />
<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our Saint Paul workshop, CTI’s engineers have developed a prototype<a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/whatwedo/devices.html#thresher"> grain processing system</a> that significantly reduces post-harvest losses, essentially doubling the amount of pearl millet grain farmers can produce. Though we are thrilled with the results, gaining access to pearl millet grain for testing prototypes has been a challenge. Pearl millet may feed 500 million people in Africa and Asia, but you won’t find freshly harvested pearl millet to test in Minnesota. While some grain stocks have been made available from generous donors such as USDA in Georgia, without ready access to pearl millet and other African crops, CTI’s engineers often have to send even initial prototypes oversees for testing during harvest seasons — a costly, slow process and a barrier to innovation.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKs086DFndByV0wkbr9g74kL3E7AXfhQRYcpI9h6qWIyqrHcazhResVhoBF0TK0d0My54KIgx3Gii38Pm5zE7qOJtO_rfElkznkAjat2xewlX2jW3JobULaF_GXlN6cjI6GSSTwECyZTgB/s1600/lostcrops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKs086DFndByV0wkbr9g74kL3E7AXfhQRYcpI9h6qWIyqrHcazhResVhoBF0TK0d0My54KIgx3Gii38Pm5zE7qOJtO_rfElkznkAjat2xewlX2jW3JobULaF_GXlN6cjI6GSSTwECyZTgB/s1600/lostcrops.jpg" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://compatibletechnology.org/lostcrops.html">The Lost Crops of Africa project</a> is a collaboration between CTI and the University of Minnesota (UMN) to grow seven African crops on one acre of land at UMN’s Saint Paul campus. With assistance from Professor Paul Porter and student assistant Tiffanie Stone, CTI will grow tef, finger millet, sorghum, fonio, pearl millet, grain amaranth, and groundnuts for processing. Although these crops are often unheard of by those living in more developed countries, they are commonly grown in different parts of Africa, where millions of people depend on them for their daily sustenance.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CTI will use the harvested African crops to develop and test post-harvest farming devices and tools for subsistence farmers. Growing the crops so close to home will allow our engineers to more easily refine new equipment to suit a particular crop. This way, when CTI brings new prototypes to Africa, we can minimize last minute “surprises” and reduce the time needed to reach user-acceptable solutions. Ultimately, this means CTI will be able to deliver more appropriate technologies faster and at a lower cost to our donors and our end-users.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>In addition to the one acre plot of land, UMN has generously provided a student assistant to help oversee the Lost Crops of Africa program. Tiffanie Stone is studying Applied Plant Science and International Agriculture at UMN. Tiffanie will be contributing to CTI’s blog, where she’ll write updates on the challenges and triumphs that are thrown our way.</i></span></div></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-63147638479759588442011-06-16T11:54:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:32:19.487-08:00International Day of the African Child<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Andrea Brovold, CTI P</i><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rogram Manager<br />
</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Today is International Day of the African Child, a day commemorated every year on June 16, when in 1991 thousands of South African children marched and hundreds died in Soweto demanding the right to be taught in their own language. This year, on the 20th anniversary of that tragedy, the African Union is calling attention to the 30 million “street children” who live across the continent.<br />
<br />
Westerners who have traveled to developing countries have probably encountered child beggars on the streets. "Street Kids" are plentiful in Senegal and Mali, around every corner you turn. These children end up on the streets because they were never given a chance for a childhood or an education. Some street kids are recruited by terrorist organizations; they are required to bring back 50 CFA daily, and if they don't bring back their daily allotment, they are beaten.<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMRXGzDs3eLACJZYbx0TfsCF0VXY3_6sMXrHm5LEDhKiVEA2ZlztiQd3As9glWretUj6nnccn111RIA6CfQ2zIEm1L10mgQcugoP__yNrCTiSsRlrtN4WUoJD78Ljlj0IDQkZgguKf5uBC/s1600/IntlDAC1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMRXGzDs3eLACJZYbx0TfsCF0VXY3_6sMXrHm5LEDhKiVEA2ZlztiQd3As9glWretUj6nnccn111RIA6CfQ2zIEm1L10mgQcugoP__yNrCTiSsRlrtN4WUoJD78Ljlj0IDQkZgguKf5uBC/s320/IntlDAC1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since returning from West Africa this past winter, these are the beautiful faces both haunt me and push me to do the work we do at Compatible Technology International. Though many of Africa’s children are born into poverty, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have every opportunity to flourish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWqj1t1oQd9xTe-tDG52H5RrEh2GhpiV3cvVThwuDuQM65IvyT_Vjoq6n0fNW9TdDJwrj4YljZJfvIy0qmUX05GTsC5C8ilA6nufNqsjXZWXF_15SZpNSl7fx828kiRDyFxahmQbD6uAJ/s1600/IntlDAC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWqj1t1oQd9xTe-tDG52H5RrEh2GhpiV3cvVThwuDuQM65IvyT_Vjoq6n0fNW9TdDJwrj4YljZJfvIy0qmUX05GTsC5C8ilA6nufNqsjXZWXF_15SZpNSl7fx828kiRDyFxahmQbD6uAJ/s200/IntlDAC.JPG" width="200" /></a><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While providing grinder training in Senegal last November, I met Roykia, a bright eyed energetic 11 year old girl. Though many of the other villagers were hesitant to use what must have looked like an odd, foreign machine, Roykia jumped right in and instructed the others, “We want finer flour, tighten the wing nut!” The grinder in that village is now used daily, allowing women to easily produce fine flour and peanut paste. The women are able to grind in 5 minutes what would have taken them traditionally in a mortar and pestle 45 minutes. Roykia’s community now have the opportunity to spend their free time and extra income pursuing educations or starting businesses—all because of the initiative of an 11 year old girl. I look forward to returning to her community on behalf of NCBA/USAID again this winter to continue our efforts in West Africa. <br />
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When you think of African children, it would be easy to conjure images of desperate, malnourished children with swollen bellies—the images we’ve all seen on television. But on this day, I will remember the beautiful, strong, determined children who should be proud to be Africa’s future.</span><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-14467596762260078292011-06-10T14:34:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:30:29.181-08:00CTI team in Haiti finds extensive E. coli contamination in water samples<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Sam Usem, CTI Volunteer, Haiti</i></span><br />
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Over the last three days here in Cap-Haitien we have been testing the “Water Aqualyser”, a prototype water treatment device that CTI volunteers from the University of St. Thomas have spent the last year creating. After finding positive results of E. coli in 10 of 15 samples of well water, we decided to test the worst cases using our device. The town of Cap-Haitien, located in North Haiti, is facing high E.coli contamination, making it an ideal location for conducting proof-of-concept tests. </span><br />
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We gathered contaminated water into a 5 gallon bucket and added 5 grams of salt. The Water Aqualyser uses electrolyzed metal plates to convert the salt into chlorine, which kills bacteria and harmful pathogens commonly present in untreated drinking water water. Today, we tested 4 different plate set-ups and tomorrow we will test the salt concentration. The goal is identify a design which will be low cost and require minimal operation time. The samples that have been run through the Water Aqualyser prototype will go into an incubator and be analyzed by the team. Field testing has allowed the team to ask locals about the device and how they believe it may be received. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLdfZE5qIzijp5Y3lEFCEU9oyjR9ODpktsHVxZD57lnq_bT0O98_Ujx6lBtIRqoRJRP6mChyphenhyphenqNEzZp1bXiTRLwiA1B6gxyVi2QSzEvswA3O72-kcXG2Xt7j1_X4RpsdT4icuiNHzkHzsm6/s1600/P6080180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLdfZE5qIzijp5Y3lEFCEU9oyjR9ODpktsHVxZD57lnq_bT0O98_Ujx6lBtIRqoRJRP6mChyphenhyphenqNEzZp1bXiTRLwiA1B6gxyVi2QSzEvswA3O72-kcXG2Xt7j1_X4RpsdT4icuiNHzkHzsm6/s320/P6080180.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The CTI team uses pedal power to run the Water Aqualyser Prototype</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most important pieces of the project is to gain user feedback from Haitian communities. In the North of Haiti most people drink ground water accessed by hand pumps. The hand pumps are plentiful, and at first look the water appears clean, so the communities have no qualms drinking the water. Here it is evident that the Aqualyser unit will have to be retrofit to the pump itself. In other places in the world we will have to design the unit around local lifestyles on order to ensure that the technology is truly compatible.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl133zg-WBftu7BBkyGfq3qDUnirYyArbTneods1U2i22OtcM01DpTVGp-JGA1-qVsz1lw8l1GNXn6HpYiLIwe48-5u-Rr7VjgUmxyLH4Y49TTZIyiAYSmOX_pPze-nljF4YZ0rebUvSvX/s1600/P6080030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl133zg-WBftu7BBkyGfq3qDUnirYyArbTneods1U2i22OtcM01DpTVGp-JGA1-qVsz1lw8l1GNXn6HpYiLIwe48-5u-Rr7VjgUmxyLH4Y49TTZIyiAYSmOX_pPze-nljF4YZ0rebUvSvX/s320/P6080030.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, the team is testing a hand pump that is used within a school community in Limonade. Of all of the samples we took, this pump produced the most badly contaminated water. It contained the over 100 colonies of E. coli as well as over 100 colonies of other bacteria. The ground water around the pump was also highly contaminated. Small children were drinking this water not knowing what harmful bacteria they were putting into their bodies.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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Throughout our time here, the team will continue to test sites that were highly contaminated and gain user feedback. Look back to the blog next and soon for a final report.</span></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-38792939589311653192011-06-06T11:37:00.000-07:002011-11-28T12:28:43.703-08:00CTI tests Water Aqualyser prototype in Haiti<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Sam Usem, CTI Volunteer, Haiti</i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over 1 billion people on the planet lack access to clean water. Furthermore, they lack access to the means to create clean water systems. CTI and senior engineering students at the University of St. Thomas have created a new prototype device that can hopefully purify 5 gallons of water in less than 20 minutes. The device, or "Water Aqualyser" as it is known, sends an electrical current through salted water, converting the salt into chlorine that kills bacteria. The device has worked in Minnesota flawlessly but now it is time for testing in the field.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYA-kUyTXMlk7yoteIKnxEhSucNHk-x_CxEtjSfsxoDS1LxGnTYkDTPGbvcNjo4EbAvDl2m8_07sMbAgaPwh6srFO-lN5AKD4sJu_3oUIt3owue-yaexErCE8b-wr-gQ5F0NfvVnALnZj/s1600/P6040026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYA-kUyTXMlk7yoteIKnxEhSucNHk-x_CxEtjSfsxoDS1LxGnTYkDTPGbvcNjo4EbAvDl2m8_07sMbAgaPwh6srFO-lN5AKD4sJu_3oUIt3owue-yaexErCE8b-wr-gQ5F0NfvVnALnZj/s400/P6040026.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CTI volunteers test well water for bacteria in Haiti</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two volunteers from CTI, Dr. Murali and Sam Usem, have accompanied 3 students from the University of St. Thomas to Cap-Haitian in the North of Haiti to test the Water Aqualyser in local communities. They are being helped by the Haitian nonprofit Sonje Ayiti and the Texas-based nonprofit Living Waters International to identify contaminated wells that are being used on a daily basis. The group arrived to Haiti on June 5th and is already hard at work testing and identifying contaminated wells that they can test the new equipment on.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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The team has tested 24 well sites, and already found signs of that bacteria and E coli are present. In the next few days the team will start to test the Water Aqualyser equipment under different parameters to try to cut down the time needed to purify the water. The end goal is a system that costs less than $50 dollars and takes less than 20 minutes to purify 5 gallons of water. More importantly, we are trying to development technologies that are appropriate and thus will be used by the local populations, so the team has been taking extensive notes with the local population on what has and has not worked in the past. As the unit is tested they will have local Haitians try the unit out themselves and give user feedback.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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Now that the wells have been found, testing of the equipment itself begins tomorrow, so check back soon for more updates from the field.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288869723828477431.post-34666923428055361672011-03-03T08:13:00.000-08:002011-11-28T12:27:17.204-08:00Maya Nuts in Managua<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Nancy Wagner, CTI Director of Development Programs</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
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</i>I learned something new and wonderful today at a gathering of Nicaraguan mission groups: there is a truly healthy “chocolate” in the world. It’s cleverly disguised as a Maya Nut or Ojoche and is extremely high in Fiber, Calcium, Potassium, Folate, Iron, Zinc, Protein and Vitamins A, E, C and B. A wonderful Nicaraguan woman roasted up some of these glorious nuts and then we ground them in the brand new Ewing IV grinder (coming in April!) and you would swear you were looking at and smelling the finest of cocoa powders. The Ewing IV did such a fabulous job on the nuts that the woman grinding grinned and said, “I want one of these!” Making maya nut powder to sell is a great microenterprise opportunity and CTI’s grinders will process the nuts quickly and efficiently. </span><br />
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After the demonstration we were all served drinks made from the maya nut powder, milk and a little sugar and it was delightfully, healthfully delicious. I’m told the powder makes amazing chocolate flavored cookies as well as soups, cakes, breads and other tasty treats. <br />
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Homemade corn tortillas cooked on a highly efficient wood burning stove with a wide assortment of fillings was today’s lunch/feast. Nicaraguans are some of the warmest, kindest people I have ever met and their food is terrific. Great food, great company, great sustainable development work. Tomorrow we will visit two of Fabretto’s sites, looking forward to seeing the kids.</span></div>Compatible Technology Internationalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359777684719892717noreply@blogger.com0