March 12 – April 18: Ethiopia and India (Kerala and New Delhi)
Please see my full year trip log Sept. 2022 – Sept. 2023
Sunday, March 12, 2023, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
I love Addis! It’s COLD here. At 2500 m, I have to wear my jacket sometimes, and I snuggle under a comforter at night. I arrived around 9 AM and was picked up by Bethlehem (Betty) at the airport. We met with (collaborator) Goytom after I took a nap, to map out strategy.
Monday, March 13, 2023,
I met Goytom at the NGO where he works, MCMDO (Mothers and Children Multisectoral Development Organization, which they condense into one word that sounds like “Miss Mido”)
MCMDO has many, flexible 140 W solar panels from Germany. Uni-solar PVL-144 (144W) Solar Panel
Vmp = 33V
Imp = 4.36A
Voc = 46.2V
Isc =5.3A
If you don’t have a roof already, they require a structure to be built.
Ethiopia has an enormous cottage industry that has solved what seems to be our last technological challenge toward wide-scale ISECooker construction: joining a cool electrode to the red-hot NiCr wire. They construct stoves, especially mitads for making the traditional Ethiopian bread, injera. While you can buy injera stoves made in large factories, mitads are also made in small shops by winding an electric coil through a maze carved into a ceramic disk. We set off for the “Mercado” to explore Addis’s cottage industries.
While we were exploring the “Mercado”, someone broke into Habtom’s car and stole his spare tire and jack. A used replacement will cost at least 12,000 Birr ($240)… bummer. Everyone in the area knows who did it, so Habtom called his contacts in the area so he could negotiate a buy back from the thieves… but he discovered they’d immediately sold the loot.
The electrode connection is made by folding the coiled wire over on itself twice and tightly twisting the four wire sections with pliers. It makes a perfect connection because it’s the same wire, and the electrode’s resistivity is likely about a tenth that of the coil because it’s four sections and then also twisted to a high angle. Below, Hobtum demonstrates.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023,
Goytom and I visited stores and markets buying materials for our ISECooker prototype. We decided to buy three identical aluminium pots – one would become the heated nest, one the cookpot, and the third is to fill with aluminium at a foundry for thermal storage. We made a receptacle out of wire mesh and concrete (2 parts sand : 1 part cement). This is different because we didn’t put a bottom on the receptacle. The aluminium heated nest will be in direct contact with the fiberglass insulation. This omission made the construction considerably faster and easier and used less material, resulting in a lighter ISECooker.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023,
I gave a presentation at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAiT) for the School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, with particular attendance from the department of Thermal Systems and Energy Conversion.
Thursday, March 16, 2023,
Goytom and I gave two presentations: at Don Bosco Catholic School for the vocational school, and at GIZ (Deutsche Gellselschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit, or German Society for International Collaboration).
Friday, March 17, 2023,
Goytom, Habtom, and I worked on the ISECooker prototype in the morning and returned to GIZ in the afternoon to meet Haimanot, the woman in charge of clean cooking interventions.
In the morning, Goytom and I laid the concrete bottom for the ISECooker’s insulated lid before we left for GIZ to meet with Haimanot. When we returned, we destroyed the concrete surface attempting to move it off the ISECooker… after only four hours, not enough time for the concrete to strengthen… but it was likely too thin anyway. So, we built it again with more concrete and will allow more curing time
Saturday, March 18, 2023, Field Trip!
Goytom, Habtom, Betty and I drove about an hour north to look for a clay studio. We found a place where they make only the ceramic plates for the Mitad (see Monday), and then at the roadside, we met two near identical competing stands that produced and sold clay pots, stoves, fire places, coffee pots, tea sets, etc. We spent considerable time explaining ISECookers and the role of ceramic parts. They seemed interested and told us to come back with our concrete prototype for them to copy. I wanted to bring our near-finished prototype, but the concrete on the lid is less than a day old, so it isn’t very strong yet.
The animals are great. Goats are herded down 4-lane highways. But donkeys are the best: walking competently down the road alone or in groups; laden with products, or returning… without people. They are working, don’t bother them.
Despite my aversion to eat beef out of concern for environmental impact, I ordered a tibis, a traditional Ethiopian beef dish Monday. Wow, it was really heavy and spicy and I ate very little of it. Should I have given it to a beggar. Betty said they wouldn’t take it because it is Lent fasting season. I responded, “but they’re beggars…” Betty explained that this didn’t matter. They would find people starved to death next to their sacred animals. In any case, it came home and I thought Betty ate it during the week. I found it in the fridge last night and … mixed with guacamole? Oh wow.
Monday, March 20, 2023
We wired up the heater with the steel spring materials ubiquitous in the Mitad construction cottage industries.
As water in the ISECooker heated (to a boil), we sealed insulation in the lid (below). From the last picture last Friday, I picked up the green/white plastic basin. We put a lot of sand on top of the plastic bag to press the concrete together with the mesh. Then we filled the basin with insulation and sealed the concrete surface onto the basin with RTV silicone glue.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
I was supposed to fly to Cameroon today. The embassy person stopped responding to me. I visited the Cameroon embassy three times. The last time on Friday, the desk person expressed that I can’t apply for a visa to Cameroon from a country I’m not living in. I’m staying another week in Addis, and will fly to India a few days early. Honestly, I need a break from the travel anyway. I have to catch up on things like filing my income tax and revising PSC-391, the Appropriate Technology Class for Cal Poly’s conversion to semesters. Additionally, I have considerable health problems right now making travel unappealing. I like staying with Betty, and I hope I feel better by the end of the week.
I set out on this trip in September naively thinking I was going to energize the collaborators to becoming prolific ISECooker manufacturers. As I experienced challenges… failures? I shifted to exploring the mix of collaborators necessary to create manufacturing capacity. However, Addis has changed me. There already presently exist all the manufacturing capacity necessary for ISECooker dissemination. We just have to identify the necessary collaborators. For instance:
Menshen fur Mension – Expressed the ability to mass produce as well as distribute ISECookers
GIZ – Has ability to leverage government services as well as disseminate ISECooking Technology
Selam Vocational School – Has interest to teach students and develop technology.
AAiT – has a PhD program conducting research that can provide the conceptual foundation to solve novel challenges.
Ensira (I’ve seen it spelled three different ways) women’s pottery collective north of Addis Ababa.
Building a collaboration is not easy in an atmosphere of profound distrust… fear in collaborating: that if you share knowledge with a would-be collaborator, they will take the technology and produce it by themselves, leaving you abandoned. I asked Habtom who his competition is… who he is afraid of. He indicated basically everyone other organization we’ve visited. When we visited the pottery vendors by the roadside, we discovered they were two competing businesses selling identical products. We had to present the technology (both times we visited) to each of them independently AND they refused to let us speak with the people that make the pots because we could cut the vendors out of the deal if they introduce us to the producers.
I responded to Habtom that, no, the competition is China, and they are beating us and will continue to beat us unless we use every advantage and collaboration at our disposal. Habtom agrees but seems still uncomfortable sharing knowledge and tasks. This is a universal fear I’ve encountered. Is it unfounded? Likely not. For instance, while the universities claim to only want to research, most people claim they know stories of universities taking intellectual property and leaving the collaborators out of the deal. So, we have a week to figure out how to build a collaboration where everyone feels secure.
Tuesday, March 22
We I gave a talk for Menschen für Menschen, an NGO founded by late Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm. Betty introduced me to her friend who works there and Habtom came as well.
After my presentation, the director (and other MFM representatives) voiced concern and skepticism, providing plenty of examples of optimistically introduced technologies that had failed in his 30 years with MFM. For instance, they’d imported several shipping containers of solar lighting systems from China that failed after two years when the batteries died. I acknowledged his concern, but offered that this very story would support rather than discourage our technology that (1) necessitated no battery, and (2) was built here in Addis by local industries that could support maintenance needs. For all the skepticism, they ultimately suggested their own grounds and infrastructure for manufacturing. They also have a vocational school in Harar (east, near Somalia), and they were glad to hear that I put no ownership on the technology, explicitly inviting them to teach their students about ISECooking.
Wednesday, March 23
Habtom, Goytom, and I returned to the roadside pottery vendors north of Addis.
I claim above that the vendors would not introduce us to the potters. However, one of the vendors makes some of their wares onsite. They showed us where they make small stoves from clay. I was surprised to see that they don’t have a kiln, but instead just mix the pots with slabs of dried cow dung that is burned. We had lunch at Goytom’s family’s apartment. His wife and children were not there. We watched CNN while a woman served us lunch.
Thursday, March 24
Betty, Habtom, Goytom, and I visited Ensira Pottery Center, north of Addis. It is an amazing collective… all women working. Children running around everywhere. The managers are volunteers from the collective. They prize being equitable.
It also had the worst working conditions I’ve ever seen… in the firing room. Again, they didn’t have a kiln, but instead burned piles of dried cow dung mixed with pottery… in a room that has a central electric ventilator that wasn’t running. I was in the room for two minutes. My eyes and throat burned through the next morning. The women smiled at me and pointed to their eyes. One instructed me to drink milk.
Friday, March 25
Betty and I gave a presentation for the vocational school at Selam Children’s Village, an enormous community dedicated to improving the lives of children, especially orphans. We left them a pot to fill with aluminium, but I said I’d come back to watch the process if I wasn’t in Cameroon.
In the afternoon, I visited the Cameroon embassy to hear they wouldn’t approve my visa application. It was frustrating because twice the agent could have responded to me by phone but chose not to. I returned to Habtom’s shop via a taxi that (I think) intentionally took the wrong way, allowing him to charge me more. At one point I was yelling at him to turn around but he said he was going the right way and told me I was a bad person. Habtom, Goytom, and I went to Mercato to visit a pot maker… requiring us to navigate the catacombs of small, industries writhing with activity and commerce, knowing it was the same place where Habtom’s car was robbed the last time we were there, constantly watching for thieves. It was altogether a disorienting, unsettling day.
Saturday and Sunday… I’m sleeping a lot.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Wow, when did I blink? More than a week has gone by and I’m in India about 100 km north of Kochi.
Last Monday, March 27, Goytom and I went back to Selam Children’s Village to cast aluminium. It was interesting, but we failed to make a good pot with thermal storage because we made the wall too thin.
I think I slept a lot at home on Tuesday, while Haptom and Goytom installed the 150 W solar panel on the shop roof and brought a power cable into the cafe next door that is run by Habtom’s wife. She is trying to roast coffee in the ISECooker.
Last Wednesday, March 29, I met Betty’s Friend Allison, who runs Healing Hands of Joy, an NGO in Ethiopia that assists women with Fistulas. She has good knowledge of the NGO landscape and mentioned Power Aid, support from USAid for climate change and energy. Afterwards, I walked home and chatted with Betty’s mama and auntie.
Last Thursday, March 30, Betty and I met Goytom and Habtom at Habtom’s shop. We had a strategic meeting. I think that Betty and I will try to make inroads with an NGO or Ethiopian government effort wanting to introduce solar electricity into rural areas and refugee camps. Goytom and Habtom will develop their ISEC model and will help others develop ISECooking with adequate compensation for their time. After the meeting, Betty left and I spoke with Habtom and Goytom about how to install a thermal switch to prevent excessive temperatures.
Last Friday, March 31, Betty and I tried and failed to fix some things in her house that weren’t working quite right… with varying success… a learning experience. We had fun… in the evening, she took me to the airport.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
I arrived in Kochi, India, around 1 PM, after trying to sleep on the airplanes and the floor of the Muscat (Oman) airport. Hawazin picked me up at the airport. I’m staying with Hawazin and her dad.
Monday, April 3, 2023
I went to Gov’t Women’s Polytechnic College Kottakkal, where Hawazin teaches. I met the principal, who told me I was giving a presentation in 30 minutes… I always tell my research student, “be ready to give a presentation every second of your life“. There you go. The response was enthusiastic and one instructor indicated that the school was looking for projects for students to build for sale. There is an MOU in the making.
After the talk, we took a picture of attendees. After Hawazin finished teaching her classes, she and I saw the sunset at the mouth of the Nila River also called “the Ganges of Kerala”. On the way home, we bought 2.75 kg of (really good) fresh vegetables for about $1.50.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
I spent yesterday and today sleeping a lot. When Hawazin came home from teaching, we took her son and the neighbor boy to the beach. They live a 10-minute walk to the beach, but have only gone a few times… ever. I’m stared at by almost everyone. It’s different than Africa, where everyone smiled if I waved. Many seem suspicious… watching me just like Victoria’s daughter (Salima vocational student). I waggle my head to the left or right and smile, and they flash a smile and waggle back… sometimes. Sometimes not.
Then as we walk down the beach, some people, families, march out of their homes, some battered to pieces from storm swells, and demand information…. but really friendly… to Hawazin: “who are you? where do you live?” No one knows her, she’s never been to the beach here. Then, “who is he? Why is he here? Where does he stay? How do you know him?” Hawazin tells them that I’m her professor… which I guess is correct. She’s taken part in the Appropriate Technology classes since we went virtual, March 2o2o. It’s interesting how blunt everyone is, but when they come forward and talk, it feels nice.
Friday, April 11, 2023
Friday and Saturday, we wired a solar panel on the roof of Hawazin’s house. She still has the ISECooker she made… more than a year ago? It has two identical stainless steel pots that clamp together. The bottom “nest” is heated with NiCr wire immersed in concrete. The cooking pot is immersed in fiberglass insulation with a top surface of aluminium foil.
Friday afternoon, we went to a public beach with Emin. There were lots of people jumping in the waves. I dove through the wave to swim a little. Everyone stared. I could swim. I later wondered if it was irresponsible of me to demonstrate swimming in a place where no one can swim. But we had fun like all the other people daring the waves to drag us out
Sunday, April 9, 2023
After sleeping more than 14 hours a day for the last week, I think I’m regaining my health. Hawazin met with her girlfriend group this evening for a couple hours and I walked down the beach, to the lighthouse, and beyond…. to the point of the river mouth. People call from their homes… I like one that is bound high in some palm trees… out of the reach of the storm swell. People are in it, so I don’t take the picture. I’m called into a shelter of men… likely waiting out the evening until the fast is broken with a feast. Pete… California, USA, staying with family in Ponnani… two weeks. All the poop. At the point, I find a place where I could give swimming lessons, AND it looks like there’s a surfable wave at the point…. wow. There are lots of people jumping in the waves in shallow water. Out on the point, two guys with motorcycle helmets ask if they can take my picture… so I feel it’s OK to get a selfie with them. On the way home, one village was flying kites… the picture didn’t come out too good (far right).
Monday, April 10, 2023
In the evening, Kaleel (Hawazin’s dad), Emin, and I went to Hawazin’s aunt’s house for a “breaking the fast” feast for many (~50?) people. Her aunt is an ObGyn, married to a pediatrician, so there were many real doctors there. When I was introduced, I offered that my sister is an ObGyn, who’s brought over 10,000 babies into the world. She responded she’s delivered over 70,000, and playfully added that it’s not a fair playing field with India having no birth control.
The house was palatial, in fact as we entered there was a group of people unrelated to the family taking wedding pictures there because the house is so beautiful.
I hated myself for not fasting the day because the food was so good. I was surprised that everyone ate so little before getting up. Then someone explained that they just had the appetizer and went off to pray before returning for the main course. I spoke with an anesthesiologist, who explained that I wouldn’t go pray with them because I’m not Muslim. I asked why he didn’t go. He’s Hindu, and explained that all religions get along. Later, someone explained, “In Kerala, we are almost all Muslim,” … and I saw mosque after mosque on the way there… “and the people here are very religious…. But we are… secular.” I have to reflect on exactly what that means. They don’t just leave their religion at the mosque… it is with them all day. However, everyone seems harmoniously together.
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Visiting GWPTCK again with Hawazin and speak with Vineeth, who will likely be picking up ISECooker construction with a student group. He asks many good questions about what challenges may be in front of him. At one point he asks about “thermal cookers”… do you mean, “retained heat cookers”…. below, $25 – $28. He claims there’s one in every kitchen (except Hawazin’s). India has already solved half the ISECooker challenge… on two levels:
- There already exists inexpensive, moderately insulating chambers to keep food hot.
- There already exists a strong social acceptance of the importance of insulation and a practice using it.
Awareness of this “naturally-occurring” resource, brought an onslaught of ideas for implementations and improvements. One drawback is that the insulation in between the pot shells is PUF (Polyurethane Foam), with a melting point below 100 C. There is an insulation called QuadCore that is very insulating (R = 0.018 W/mK) but the company doesn’t seem to want to disclose what it’s made from, and the working temperature is reported as less than 60C.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Hawazin took me to the train station in the morning on her way to work. The ticket for the 3-hour ride was about 65 cents, and then the bus ride to get to walking distance from the airport was about 20 cents… and then the armed guard at the door pointed out that I’d bought the wrong ticket. I had booked the flight for next week… so I paid about $40 to change from next Wednesday to today… The train ride was great. I slept, watched the scenery, and played the guitar. I’m still not very good, but I enjoy it.
Arriving in New Delhi, I was picked up by a predatory taxi, who convinced me my hotel, “Hotel the Cube Stay” where I’d already paid $20 for a night stay, was too far away and I shouldn’t use the internet to make reservations. He even had an App on his phone indicate it was over a half hour away… I swore it was less than a km from the airport… but my internet wasn’t working. He took me rather far to a place he said was right next to Finovista, the office I need to visit the next day. They charged me $100 for a room indicating they were the only hotel in the area. When I got internet again, I saw that Hotel the Cube Stay was walking distance from the airport, and the hotel they took me to was actually pretty far from Finovista. In fact, I got a nice room across the street from his office for $12 a night. I was angry for a while… and if you see him, let everyone know he’s a thief. But it’s my fault. How did I let this happen? I was really tired, it was late, I needed to sleep, and my telephone data had just run out so I couldn’t check my map to see where I was. I was looking at my phone and he came to get me… But I could’ve done… I could have asked someone else. I could have asked any other taxi for confirmation, but I didn’t. But I got off easy for being taken advantage of. I wasn’t beaten up and left in a ditch. A little smarter, henceforth, I will no longer accept rides from solicitations. See April 19, when I arrive in Kathmandu.
Friday, April 14, 2023
Finovista promotes clean cooking and the clean energy transition in India with MECS support. I came to New Delhi Wednesday and met Thursday for two and a half hours with Finovista co-founders Vimal Kumar and Sheetal Rostogi. They expressed interest in two aspects of what I’m doing:
- Developing local manufacturing capacity in rural areas to engage local people (especially women) while providing them with employment and beneficial cooking technology.
- Promoting innovation in the adoption of ISECooking, (especially) through vocational school programs. That is, students enthusiastically simultaneously innovate the cooking technology and cooking practices.
A significant barrier in setting up a program in India is that government agencies are restricted from accepting foreign funding. Hawazin’s women’s vocational school in Kerala, the Government Women’s Polytechnic College, Kottakkal, (GWPTCK) intends to set up a student program to build, use, and sell ISECookers, but doesn’t know how to move forward funding the project. Finovista will take over funding of the project. I will provide the funding to Finovista for now, while Finovista seeks to establish a new connection with MECS for future funding of GWPTCK and other potential vocational programs we establish. They are also connecting me with other solar cooking opportunities in areas that will benefit from ISECooking more obviously than does Kerala:
CLEAN – CSIR NEERI Cookstove testing R&D facility for CLEAN practitioners. An NGO promoting clean energy, especially in rural, impoverished communities. I sent them an Email introduction.
Professor Vinendra K. Vijay specializes in biogas production and use. He links academe to villages in a way that extends beyond biogas.
Chetan Singh Solanki is an EE professor at IIT, and is referred to as “The Solar Gandhi of India.” spent 11 years in a solar bus traveling around India, and then instituted locally developed solar lighting… in a distributed way that seems to be what I’m trying to do with ISECooking. He also has a strong Gandhian philosophy about living within your means: “The need is not mass production, but the production by the masses.”… 60,000 people have so far taken his free, online course teaching them to make their own solar home system, irrespective of their background. His organization Energy Swaraj Foundation, or Energy “Self-rule” Foundation. Chetan is committed to live and travel in a solar-powered bus from 2020 until 2030, traveling across India many times promoting solar energy.
At Orjabox, they demonstrate clean cooking practices.
I’m staying at City Lights in an alley off the main highway near the airport. India in general and New Delhi in particular have economic vitality that (compared to Africa) makes me feel like I’m back in the USA… and yet culturally, I feel more out of place than I remember feeling in Africa. Cars parking in the highway… or driving in the opposite direction as traffic. The X-ray machines that you must go through to enter the mall. A herd of feral cows in the highway off ramp… that are well fed – much better fed than the women with infants begging for money.
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
I spoke with Simon via WhatsApp. He indicated that there may be two niches for ISECookers in Nepal: off grid solar electric cooking, and low power grid cooking. It turns out that Nepal is one country that has no lack of green electricity with an abundance of rivers. AND Nepal is pushing electric cooking to displace its dependence on LPG and other combustion fuels. However, the grid can’t handle the morning loads of 1000 W per household. Thus, there is demand for thermal storage that is charged during the night…. See my meeting with Bikram Friday, April 21.
I came to Finovista office to have a meeting with Vimal and Sheetal before leaving for Nepal. It happened to be the 5-year anniversary of the founding of their company, so there were balloons and cake, which we fed to each other.
Our meeting provided great insight for me. Sheetal explained the need for me to make a short document (1-3 pages) outlining my proposition: what I will do and what benefit it will bring. Solar development in India is many years ahead of Africa. In Africa, everyone knows that solar is the best way forward, but there’s little being done. So, when I show up offering to teach about Solar and provide minimal start up funding, the offer is always received well. The Indian government and different NGOs here are throwing a lot of money at solar electricity. There are many projects proposed, many business models, and lots in motion already. Modi has made a broad challenge to develop solar electric cooking, resulting in a product from the India Oil Company, which they are promoting. The Surya Nutan (or “New Sun”) costs almost 10 times what an ISECooker costs, but is more advanced and automated. I’ve found no technological information about it. In any case, when I show up in India with the same offer that goes over so well in Africa, the response is, “what distinguishes your offer from all the other things we’re already doing?”