Solar Stills and Dollar Bills

I have many things to say and chose to put them in an email.
Bare with me:


1. My friend Nick and I finished building a solar still with our students at school. The first day in operation it distilled 1,75L! This film tells the whole story.



Now, we are integrating the project into our lesson plans and working with the students to try and increase the output.

Science is awesome.


2. Over the past few months, I befriended the women who work at a local microfinance organization, OMCV (the Women’s Organization of Cape Verde) in Assomada. They have 100 (now, see film) qualified applicants waiting for funding but they don’t have sufficient resources. I made another film about their story and applied to be a Kiva Fellow, someone who acts as a liaison between the lending website and the microfinance institutions. These ladies need some press and their entrepreneurs need some cash. I guess I’m trying to be their point man.



3. I’ve gotten mixed reviews on the deep thoughts. You could argue I contradicted myself in last post: criticizing theory in school then making you slog through theory of my own.

Here’s what I’m gonna do. The globetrottr google groups forum allows you to store documents on there. I want to document this theory for my own sake in case something happens to my computer. And I guess I’ll go ahead and make them public, in case anyone is curious. I’ll pass the links on when I post something new, and you can check it out if you like. Otherwise, you can stick with the practical-ness of this blog. I’ve posted two already.

Like most blogs, more of this is to make me feel important thinking people actually care what I have to say. If you do, thank you. And as always, I welcome rebuttals. Reflecting on recent email debates with friends, I’ve found it actually kind of turns me on.


4. Screen writers guild are not the bad guys. It sounds like the corporate man is trying to keep the writers out of the new media paycheck. Here’s the scoop: www.unitedhollywood.com. I guess I’m taking up the slack of the fake news since The Daily Show is off the air. Of course The Daily Show was actually real news with jokes and I just wrote something that sounded good from my point of view.


5. Alex, my roommate, has lots of things to look at on her blog: alexalper.blogspot.com. She’s made two videos and written a number of articles about Cape Verde. One in particular is about our friend Mike (Fish for Christmas in Rincao), who is, well… he’s the man.


6. Finally, my brother Barry got engaged to his girlfriend Tara over the holidays. He’s moving to Islamabad, Pakistan in February as the Regional Bureau Chief for the Voice of America. He’ll return for their wedding next summer. Tara just finished her nursing degree and will move to Pakistan with him after the wedding.

Barry spent a good part of last fall in Islamabad being groomed for the job. If you logged onto Google News anytime during the month of October when the standoff with Musharaff was going on, there was a good chance his article was on the front page. Yeah, he’s kind of a big deal.

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It costs 4500 ECV (US$56) a month for a 256MB speed Internet line in Cape Verde. I may be wrong but a 256mb speed connection is just slower than DSL. I think the rate at which people get connected to the Internet, for a country or certain demographic for instance, should be a major statistic of development. I can’t find it anywhere though. Any help?

Gas prices are so high because God is telling us we need to find another source of energy. He’s saying, ‘Nope guys, oil ain’t it. Look at what else you have: sun, water, wind. You don’t have to break the surface of the earth to figure it out. You just have to be creative. Nuclear? Eh, maybe, but you don’t need it. Who needs cities when you have the Internet?’

I went to Fogo, an island with a big volcano in the middle of it. Here are some pictures from my trip: