Why Africa?

So you may be asking yourself, 'Where is Ouagadougou and why is Christian there?' Valid question. As you probably know, I'm doing my masters in renewable energy and I have to do a 2 month internship. I got on with the SNV, a Dutch rural development agency working around the world. I'm working on a pilot project involving the gasification of cashew shells on a cashew plantation in the middle of nowhere. The idea is to take these cashew shells which are normally just thrown away, and get some useful energy out of them. In this case, we make syngas out of the shells which is then burned to power a boiler. The steam from the boiler is then used to soften the cashews so their shells can be cracked. These shells are then gasified and thus the cycle continues. Since this is a sustainable plantation run by Wisions, the whole process is more or less carbon neutral.

So what do they need me for? Well, right now there are some problems (social, financial, technical) and the gasifier isn't being used. My job is to help address these issues and establish a system which actually works. It's a lot to do in only 2 months, so we'll see how things go. That said, I'm really excited to be working on this project and could definitely see myself doing more of the same in the future.

Some notes on Burkina Faso:
1) Tout le monde parle français. And I thought 12 years of French Immersion would be totally useless...
2) Burkina Faso is in the finals for the African Cup of Nations (that's a soccer title for you North Americans)
3) Chickens are the most annoying animal in recorded history and insist on waking you up at 6:00 in the morning.

Arrived in Ouagadougou at 1:00 AM on Tuesday, Feb 5th. After nearly 24 hours of travel I was pretty exhausted, but getting a visa was relatively painless and my airport pickup got me to my guesthouse without any problems. Got to my room, threw down my belongings, went to the bathroom, locked the door and the key snaps off in my hand. Fantastic. My first instinct is to try to McGuyver my way out of this situation, but after about 10 minutes without any progress I decide I’m better off just to yell for help. But it’s 2:30 in the morning and it takes a while to get someone’s attention. Eventually I wake someone up and am rescued, and then immediately go to sleep, hardly worse for wear.

Spent a few days reading up on gasifiers and generally preparing for my grand adventure in off-grid bush. Today I bought a solar system, so that's pretty cool, and Monday morning I leave civilization behind to start my real work.

I'll try to update this thing if I can, but no guarantees I'll have internet access, so don't expect too much. And I promise to get some better pictures up soon, but to be honest nothing here looks all that cool, it's more of an experience.