Yesterday I went to the launch of a "biogas digestor" in a village not far from my own. The project is run by a Dutch grad student Jotte van Ierland who, like us Peace Corps volunteers, has integrated into village life here as part of community development. Unlike us though he is doing everything under his own initiative without a clear mandate or umbrella organization so I think it is pretty incredible what he has accomplised. What he has started to do is to build "bio gas digestors" which produce cooking fuel for stoves from cow and human waste mixed with water.  The waste and water goes thru pipes into a dome underground where the cool temperatures and oxygen free environment allow bacteria to produce gases which are clean and can be used for cooking fuel. It is good for the environment in that people in this area often go into the bush to cut down trees for fuel, and it produces a clean burn without CO2, unlike coal for instance. It is good for the people employed by the project to provide and prepare the dung and the digestors. It is good for the women who don't have to spend all their time cutting wood and all their money on electricity. And it is incredible what he has actually accomplished at the grass roots level, explaining it to and enlisting the help of the local community who had never heard of anything like this. I post this story as something that is inspiring to myself as to the potential of getting these grass roots efforts off the ground and in the belief that local problems call for local solutions as one of my friends says. Pictures coming soon.