VICENT IS PRACTICAL

It is Valentine's day and Cathy and I have already expressed over Skype that we love one another. The morning is bright and the cold is lifting. I pick my way along the sidewalk and out into the road crowded with vendors in traditional garb, smell the scent of chicken frying, avoid the men lugging loads on wheeled carts.

As I near the Museo de Medicina Maya I hear my name called. I turn and see Vicente. Thin, bearded, 30ish, with a smile, he has returned from his trip to Mexico City. He has travelled the 12 hours to arrive at 7 a.m. and now is walking toward his home at the Museo. He is lugging a back-sack and has very long thin object strung over his shoulder. I ask what it is that he is carrying. He answers that it is his "didgeridoo" [I had to look on the internet to see that I spelled that correctly]. He tells me that he has brought it from Mexico City where he stored with a friend the baggage that he brought from France. 

Vicente is responsible for teaching our group at the Museo. This morning as we gather as a group he ponders what he will teach us. I tell the group that he has brought his "didgeridoo" with him. We all want to hear him play. We will have coffee while we listen so Vicente makes a fire in the "rocket stove" that we made before the weekend. Some of our group experiment with playing the very long instrument. A low moaning sound comes out of the end of the 5 foot tube. As the stove works to bring the water to a boil, Vicente demonstrates his ability to draw breathe through his nose while his stomach, lungs, mouth and tongue all work together to produce a hypnotic form of music. We clap as Vicente puts down the instrument. It is a moving performance.

Coffee is made, poured and we drink. From the back-sack that he brought from Mexico City, Vicente draws another aid to his creativity. I puzzle over the look of it. Point it up the right way and it looks like a urinal. Vicente explains that this plastic form is the mold for a urinal. He guides us in sifting sand, measuring out water and cement and mixing together the constituents that are then poured into the mold. The idea is that the dry toilet that Vicente and friends have built will benefit from the men having a separate urinal. No need to go to the plumbing store. We can make the urinal on site.

Later I ask Vicent about his long range plans. He explains that he wants to create a workshop space here at the Museo where volunteers and public can experiment and see experiments in making appropriate technology. He already has built a clay oven that is relatively efficient, a dry toilet that will allow feces to quickly degrade and be usable for fertilizer [the urinal will help]. With a dry toilet there is less chance of polluting water sources. Among other future projects, he hopes to make an inexpensive tank to gather rainwater.

Vicent is a practical man. He studies the situation. He asks what is needed. He gathers ideas and seeks out collaborators. He has an insight and makes an item and tweaks it until it works. We learn from him.