A Very Different Picture
Pedro was an intern from Guatemala. He’s back at home now, and just sent us this wonderful electronic post card about his journey.
During Pedro's era, we explored a diesel powered lawn mower, among other things.
As a teenager in high school I felt a very urgent calling: humankind is wrecking this beautiful planet and we ought to do something right now. So, with that in mind I entered college and started majoring in biology aiming to become an ecologist and do something to save the beautiful rain forests, cloud forests and marine eco systems this small country is blessed with. I used to give up my allowance to buy turtle eggs and save them from depredation.
But after 2 years of memorizing plant names, their life cycles and inner workings I got utterly frustrated. The task seemed endless and impossible and I gave up. I thought that before we could start to worry about our environment we had to improve the “standard of living” of the population and I thought that chemistry was a better way to create jobs than ecology.
That is how I ended up majoring in chemistry. As an under graduate chemistry student in Guatemala city I knew one thing for certain: I wanted to go abroad and learn how top notch scientific research is done elsewhere. I wanted to earn a PhD by writing a thesis on how to devise a mathematical formula that would enable one to calculate the steric hindrance in a chemical reaction or such arcane thing like that. By the time I graduated I asked myself, why bother? I’ll spend a couple of years thinking about little molecules and their shapes and then what? Come back and teach 2 + 2 to freshmen? I thought I’d be better off making soap and selling it.
It was at that point in my life that the opportunity to spend six months in Moncure, North Carolina doing an internship at Piedmont Biofuels presented itself. To tell the truth I wanted to go somewhere, but not to the US. I was afraid of the big bad giant of the north and its people. So it was with a little bit of hesitation that I decided to embark on this adventure. I thought I would spend my time in a big city, enclosed between university walls in a purely academic setting, just talking about biodiesel and reading theoretical papers about it. But the cosmic waiter worked his magic and got me something way better than I had hoped for. Instead I ended up in this beautiful little town, full of trees and fresh air, with tap water you can drink with no previous treatment and with a bunch of extremely nice people.
I had only had a short biodiesel primer by a coop member who was in Guatemala when I left. I must confess I did not quite believe yet it worked, I had yet to see it and especially smell it. I was thus amazed to see this crowd that made their own fuel in a back yard and with low tech equipment. It is amazing to see this little reaction that my organic chemistry text book just dedicated a paragraph to work such wonders. Suddenly a lot of questions exploded in my head and everybody was asking me things I did not know the answer to. Somebody please call a chemist!! Wait, I am supposed to be the chemist here! This might not be rocket science, but it is a whole lot more useful and therefore more interesting. We used to notice with Forrest that every conversation we had everywhere revolved around a single topic: biodiesel. We spent months on end talking, discussing, working, dreaming and some of us even drinking biodiesel. The depth of knowledge and passion in this group is something I did not expect.
Suddenly I was thinking again about all those things I felt were very important. I heard all around me discussions about sustainability and the protection of our environment and I felt at home again. This just makes sense, where did I lose the right track? It feels like “finding oneself again”.
I met a lot of interesting people, very talented, very knowledgeable and determined and also bold to stand up and do what is right, albeit all the difficulties one may encounter in doing so. My picture of this great country changed radically, I have now a deep admiration for the people I met and I made some very dear friends. I wish everyone could have this kind of epiphany; it would surely contribute to make this a more peaceful world.
I had the time of my life in North Carolina. I learned a lot, not only about biodiesel as you see. Now I have the task to spread the word and contribute to inspire people the way Piedmont Biofuels inspired me
February 12th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Bush is forever saying that democracies do not invade other countries and start wars. Well, he did just that. He invaded Iraq, started a war, and killed people. What do you think? What is he doing to us, and what is he doing to the world?
Our country is in debt until forever, we don’t have jobs, and we live in fear. We have invaded a country and been responsible for thousands of deaths.
We have lost friends and influenced no one. No wonder most of the world thinks we suck. Thanks to what george bush has done to our country during the past three years, we do!