Poop Soup

I recently went to help my volunteer friend Grant install a biodigestor in his site.  I traveled down to Ulcumayo, we walked the half out outside of town to an agricultural outpost of the high school, and started the installation with the middling help of a group of high school kids.  For those of you not in the know, a biodigestor is essentially a big balloon that you fill up with animal poop to produce natural gas for cooking.  The excrement ferments and creates gas that flows through a tube to the stove. 

First, we had to clean and fix the sophisticated plastic and Styrofoam lining. 

The guy posing like a nude on a daybed is the teacher.  He was exactly as helpful as he looks.

We rolled out the biodigestor and filled it with air.  That was a fun process that involved filling another plastic tube with air and then squeezing it into the biodigestor. 

Next, we put the inflated biodigestor in its bed.  During the move, the kids dropped it and it was the closest I’ve ever seen Grant come to having an aneurysm.  It’s understandable since he made it very clear that they had to be careful and it’s essentially a many hundred dollar balloon.

Then, we attached PVC pipe for the input and outflow.

The last thing to do was mix up a nice poo cocktail and feed it into the biodigestor.  This also involved lots of carting of water and bags of crap that wasn’t pictured.

Herbi and Antony were helper superstars and really the only kids worth their salt.

There were also some cute little guys who were entertaining and way too interested in our poop soup.  

I don’t have any more pictures because it started to pour.  It was a wet, exhausting, dirty day,  of accomplishments.