Bio Char

Black Gold, some call it…and it is black, very black! No I’m not talking about crude oil, this a black gold that can be produced from someone else’s refuse!

We first heard about bio char at last year’s ECHO Asia Conference. Initially we were skeptical, but after learning the theory behind it, bio char really makes sense. What is bio char…it is basically charcoal; it is in fact one-in-the-same, carbon. So what is the difference? Bio char is simply the term to use for carbon that is used as a soil amendment or conditioner and charcoal is used to cook steak.

The theory behind bio char is that it works much like a sponge. It will hold on to nutrients and release them to plants as they need it. It also provides homes for microorganisms because of its porous structure. In this tropical climate bio char helps the soil retain its nutrients as it prevents nitrogen and other elements from washing from soils during torrential monsoon storms. It also helps mitigate soil compaction.

Bio char is very simple to produce. Take junk wood, bamboo, twigs, leaves, coconut husks, rice hulls; (anything that is waste, has carbon and burns) burn it in the presence of very little oxygen and bio char results. In Laos, rice hulls are simply thrown away or burnt into ashes. This free resource can easily be used to improve the soil for free.

The following pictures show the process of creating bio char.

First Start a Fire

Cover the Fire With a Sweet Metal Tube

Once Drafting Well...Add Rice Hulls

Stand Back and Admire Work

Looking down the Stack

Make Sure the Wind is Blowing the Right Way

Once Black...Remove Stack

Water to Cool

(NOTICE: The stylish face mask isn't just to look awesome, it is to prevent breathing silica dust which is contained in rice hulls. This can cause silicosis, which can lead to a lung transplant if enough is breathed over time.)

These batches of bio char will go into making potting mix for the moringa seedlings we are growing for the office. We made the mistake of making bio char and applying it the next day. Remember that bio char is like a sponge? It will suck up nutrients in the surrounding soil depriving the plant of much needed nutrition. Once the bio char is full it will then release this to the plant. It is best to ‘charge’ the bio char before mixing with the soil. It can be mixed with compost and aged or soaked in a strong manure tea. Even as little as 72 hours of soaking can be enough to charge the bio char.

Does your soil need some char?

Harvest Video

The last post displayed some photos of a rice harvesting activity that the office conducted. The following is a video that we recently made documenting the same event. It was mostly filmed by MCC staff, Jeffrey just helped put the videos together. Enjoy!

Harvest Time

Way back in July we posted about rice planting. Now in November, rice harvesting is in full swing. No...harvesting is not done with combines or tractors here, although we have seen rice harvesters closer to Thailand. These look exactly like a mini combine on tracks. Rather cute pieces of machinery.

MCC Staff (Vone and Phounguen) Harvesting

Harvesting is all done by hand. The worst part is the heat. Planting time is usually wet and cloudy...but harvest time is brightened by the hot tropical sun beating down. On an up-side harvesting doesn't involve bending over to the degree of planting.

Jeffrey and Khamsay Harvesting

Rice stalks are cut with a sickle and left in the field in bunches to sun dry. After a day they are then either threshed by hand or by a machine that is usually rented. Resulting rice straw is fed to animals, burned or left in the field. This year MCC will teach farmers how to make compost using rice straw as dry matter.

Baby's Got Beat!

A musical expo of a few of Moriah's sounds. She sure had a lot to say after dinner!

Long Distance Votes

Voting with absentee ballots in the States is one thing...but trying to vote from a remote town in the mountains of Laos is quite another!

The process started back in August. A trip to the Chester town office seemed easy enough. Fill out a slip of paper...sign it and turn it in. "Great! That was easy, our ballots will be sent to the MCC office in Laos!"

Easier said than done. October dawned and our ballots had not yet arrived. The US Embassy in Laos had sent out a newsletter with all the options for voting. All of them involved sending our ballots back to the US. That is also easier said than done in a country with no formal domestic mail system!

Our best option was to print out our ballots from the Federal Voting Assistance Program website. Thankfully since we already requested our ballots during our visit home the process was as simple as filling out our information online and printing the resulting PDF and envelopes.

Ready to Travel

Now the journey begins! Getting our votes in the mail was fairly urgent as it takes 15 days minimum to get back to the US from Laos. We gave our sealed voting envelopes to a fellow staff member traveling to Vientiane by bus (150miles). From his home it was picked up and brought to the MCC office (10miles). The MCC driver then ferried the ballots to the US Embassy (3miles). From the US Embassy the envelopes are traveling to some unknown location in the US via the Embassy's diplomatic pouch (~8000miles). And then they will be delivered to our county's town clerk's office (~3000miles). In total our votes will travel around 11,163 miles before they are counted! We hope they make it in time!

How far is it to your voting station?

Bah Bah Bah....Mah Mah Mah

Moriah has been with us for 7 months, but has not yet shared a post of her own. Here she shares a glimpse into her daily routine.

"My morning begins at around 6:30, give or take. Sometimes the sun wakes me up. Other times it is the loud roosters that crow outside my window. Recently our neighbor has been cutting wood. The noise wakes me up.

I like to play with my stuffed animals that hang above my bed. They are soft. Then I get bored so I start making noise. I know mommy and daddy can hear me, but sometimes it takes them too long to come and say good morning. I smile when I see them.

"Good Morning!"

Then daddy takes me outside to let out the chickens and say hello to the ducks, puppy, and garden. My favorite is the puppy.

"I like puppy!"

Next is breakfast. I still don’t eat much for breakfast, but it is fun to sit with mommy and daddy. Sometime I eat banana and oatmeal.

"Do I look Silly?"

After I get dressed, I go to work with daddy. We ride bike together. It is fun to see Tha Thom in the morning. Many people smile at me. My sitter, Gai, meets me at the office. We play together and she takes me around to visit neighbors. I see many, many people. I take a morning nap and then play more.

"I like boxes!"

At lunch time I go home with mommy and daddy. I am usually very hungry. I like to eat papaya or pumpkin with rice. I usually get very messy at lunch. Then mommy gives me a bath. Baths are fun. I like to splash.

"This is me, talking with daddy. We are having fun!"

Daddy leaves for work and mommy and I wave goodbye from the porch. Now that I have a full belly I feel tired. Mommy reads to me and sings me a song. I like to sleep in my new bed. I feel like a princess under my pink mosquito net.

"I'm a princess!"

When I wake up I am happy to see mommy. We have a snack together. I am learning how to eat rice crackers. Nu and Nee (Our landlord's daughters) come and play with me almost every day. They are fun to play with. Daddy comes home and I smile at him. We play on the porch and then visit the chickens to give them food.

"I like to play on the porch!"

"Nee and Nu are fun!"

Sometimes in the evening Mommy and I go to visit friends. It is fun to visit other babies. I like babies.

"I like babies!"

When it starts to get dark it is time to eat. I crawl to the table and wait for mommy and daddy to put me in my chair. I like to eat moringa and chicken with rice or quinoa. Mommy says it tastes like chicken casserole. I don’t know what that is. If I get into my dinner too much…then I get to take another bath. I like baths.

"Baths are fun!"

After my bath, comes the worst part of the day. I have to get into my pajamas. I don’t like getting into long sleeves. When I am all dressed I play a little.

"Got to get...toy!"

Sometimes daddy plays harmonica. It sounds pretty. Then mommy and daddy sing and read the bible. Mommy feeds me to sleep. What a busy day!"

Expressions in English

When traveling we find signs to be at times helpful and at others completely humorous. Below are some examples of the latter for your enjoyment.

A Literal Translation

Stepping into Another's Shoes

No Spell Check for Signs

Not sure how to take this one!

Smalling Flowers is My Specialty (This poem was found on a thermos)

Right...always read the fine print!

Trip to America 2012

Culture of Child Raising

Having our first child is an adventure in itself, but add bringing up that child in a rural Lao community as the only foreigners living there and it becomes the wildest venture we have been on yet! Some days can be overwhelming, but raising Moriah has taught us to relax, laugh more and sift through the mound of comments to find good advice to help raise her in our new Lao home.

A simple five minute walk can now turn into a half hour visit as each passerby stops to see Moriah, exclaim how big she is getting and share other advice or comments.

Did you get a C-section? 

Are you using milk formula? 

Do you have stretch marks? 

Will you get house-help?

What foods can’t you eat now that you are breastfeeding? 

Are you taking medicine so that you won’t get pregnant again?

Did you ‘sit on fire’ and drink hot water after giving birth?

Lao tradition advises a new mother to sleep and sit near fire. In some homes hot coals are placed directly under the chair or bed. A new mother should also only drink hot water and a special steamed sticky rice to promote milk production.

  
You should buy bottled water to wash your baby, then she will not have pimples. 

You are feeding the baby too long on one side…you should change more often otherwise you’ll be imbalanced. 

You should put a shirt on your baby or You should put a hat on your baby. 

Lao people are always wondering how us foreigners can be so warm. Our favorite story depicting this difference was one morning while my mother, Dori, was out walking with Moriah. Mom couldn’t understand what the Lao women were trying to communicate, but they were motioning to cover Moriah’s head and beckoning her into their bamboo home. Once inside the older Lao women took Moriah while the younger one brought out clothes. They dressed Moriah in a long-sleeved sweater and socks, returned her to Grama and sent them on their way... in the hot 90 degree sun!

And finally the most counter cultural comment I will receive on numerous occasions, that still catches me by surprise...

Oh my your baby is so white! And you are fat and so beautiful! 

Rice Planting

Sloshing, bear-foot through ankle deep mud, bundle of rice seedlings in one hand, planting seedlings with my other, I try to keep pace with the much more seasoned Lao rice planters. "No, this is my first time planting rice," I say to the surprised villager who asks. I thought the slowness of my planting technique gave me away...but perhaps others are being polite.

Line of Planters

The line of 40 people move quickly through the paddy field planting rice seedlings left and right. This year the agriculture team decided to begin the planting season's activities by inviting advisers and partners from the district as well as the entire MCC Tha Thom office to plant rice together in Phonchaleurn Village.

Collecting the Rice Seedlings

Planting the 20-day old seedlings isn't difficult, but is hard on the back as a person must bend over constantly while planting. There are many techniques in growing rice, but the way MCC teaches is using a single seedling (or 1-3 seedling) method. Planting fewer seedlings together and using a more stringent control of water levels can result in a better yield.

More Planting

As we finish planting and head back to the village meeting house for lunch, I comment to a district colleague, "In my village there are no paddy fields. Most people don't eat rice." I then say with a smile, "they plant potatoes, corn and bread!"

Cover Cropping

When the rains start…they sure are here to stay! The machine, that is the South East Asia monsoon, has begun to dump its wet payload for the 2012 season. This moisture transforms the landscape into a burst of verdant, dripping green. Even though it isn’t technically a rainforest, days of non-stop showers certainly make it feel like we live in one!

Tilling the Fields

Farmers take advantage of this time of year by planting rice in their sopping rice paddies. Other crops are hard to grow because they are not adapted to this much water!

As one might expect gardening becomes challenging as water logged soil is inevitable. Despite our raised beds, plants that don’t like having ‘wet feet’ soon drown, leaving the monsoon-resilient plants to flourish in the humid environment. Eggplant, ginger, basil, hot pepper, moringa, and lemon grass have all taken off, while tomatoes, green onions and dill have all retreated to the dryer safety of pots on our porch.

Planting Amongst the Stubble

We were blessed by Mom and Dad Visness who brought with them good ol’ American sweet corn. We praise the Lord that the corn flourished so well that in only 65 days we feasted off corn-on-the-cob for two weeks, before the rains really geared up. Now that the corn is stubble the soil needs some replenishing. Since corn is a heavy feeder and the rainy season quickly leaches nitrogen from the soil it is a necessity to plant some sort of cover crop that will improve the soil and protect it from the pounding downpours.

Baby Jack Beans

We were introduced to jack bean a climbing, nitrogen-fixing legume that seems to grow prolifically in any location. It doesn’t seem to mind the wetness either! It will produce foot long bean pods that are edible (but we have yet to indulge). Lima bean sized seeds are also produced, but we have read that they require some work before they are made tasty.

This coming year MCC may even encourage farmers to grow nitrogen fixing cover crops in their fallow rice paddies during the dry season. We are excited to see how well the jack bean continues to do in our garden and maybe see if it can be used to improve the soil in the fields of some local farmers working with MCC. Will jack beans prove to be magic?

Flukes

When I bought the breaker I immediately noticed the word "Fluke" written in red and black bold letters on it's side. I turned to Dad saying, "How can we trust a breaker with a name like that?"

A Fluke?

Laughing to ourselves we bought the breaker from the local Chinese hardware store in downtown Tha Thom. Dad and I were in the process of wiring our bathroom to accommodate our secondhand washer and spinner and preparing for a small on-demand water heater. During Mom and Dad Visness' recent visit Dad tackled many projects around our home and garden. We were all excited for the new convenience of a semi automatic washer to help curb the endless production of dirty diapers. The water heater would also be a welcomed step-up from the frigid mountain river water piped around the village in the newly finished gravity fed water system.

We quickly set up the washer and were cleaning diapers like a well greased machine. The hot water would have to wait until we found a good quality heater in Vientiane. When we travel into Vientiane to bid farewell to Mom and Dad, a water heater was purchased. I set it up and had visions of nice steamy showers..but no sooner did I turn on the unit than the 30amp breaker tripped! The heater could not run at more than half power without tripping the breaker. I did the math and even sent it to Dad to have him check. There was no way our water heater could be drawing more than 20amps.

Dad recommended pulling the breaker and trying a different one. I grabbed another breaker from the guest room and connected it to the circuit. Low and behold the breaker held even at full power. The strange thing that I still can't wrap my mind around is that the new breaker should trip at 15amps! I laughed again when I saw the name on the old breaker...breakers in Tha Thom truly are flukes!

Favorite Sights

As Moriah begins to take in the world around her there are several sights that never cease to hold her attention...at least for a while.

The first sight that interested Moriah was the vertical slats in our kitchen.

Spellbinding Slats

The second sight that vies for attention for various lengths of time and draws out smiles is this face.

Fascinating Face

The third attraction is a toy that Mom and Dad Visness brought along.

Tranquilizing Toy

The fourth sight catches Moriah's eyes on rainy and sunny days alike. While walking along the drip line of our out-door kitchen, the raged roof's edge is striking!

Enthralling Edge

Bewitched Baby

Many Arrivals

The arrival of our little daughter also brought the arrival of two other special visitors! Kaarina’s parents met us in Bangkok several weeks after Moriah was born. They arrived full of joy, greetings and hugs from friends and family, gifts from the far away land of America, energy and experience! Just what two tired new parents were in need of!

Grandma Meeting Moriah

Grampi Meeting Moriah

Night Train (Don't worry that seat turns into two bunk beds!)

After a long, but slick night train ride, we arrived back to the lovely country of Laos. During our short stay in the Capital, Stan and Dorinda were able to experience many things… eating Lao fusion food at Mak Ped Restaurant, shopping at Lao markets, and contributing to a special dedication ceremony we had for Moriah.

Lao Market Shoppers

Lao Fusion Food with Friends

Dressed for Dedication

We returned to our home in Tha Thom and were able to give mom and dad a true taste of living in the village. Life was busy as all four pairs of hands were needed in running the house, washing diapers, making food and caring for and holding the little one.

Just a Hanging Out

Visiting an MCC Irrigation Project

Visits From Neighbors

Taking a Bunny for a Stroll

Little Bunnies Draw Attention!

Bath Time!

Going to Town on the Laundry

Lao Meal in our Home

Despite the business we did have time to travel to Phonsavanh for a short vacation. We visited the beautiful Plain of Jars and another expatriate family. Our time there also fell over the beginning of Lao New Year. Following Lao tradition, we joined in some water throwing!

Visiting the Plain of Jars

Lao New Year Water Fight

The visit was over too soon, but we were so thankful for their help and advice during the tough first weeks of life with a baby.

Thank You Mom and Dad!