Jungle Power!

We are in waaaaay over our heads. All this talk of inverters, battery banks, volts, and grounding is very new to us. I cannot imagine what we’d do in the jungle without the many years of study and experiments that went into making the Missionary Technology course in which we’re currently immersed–maybe a better word is swamped. But, gradually, day by day, I’ve come to understand a little bit more about each component that makes up our PV (photovoltaic a.k.a. solar panel) system. Everything in the picture below (besides the demo fridge) will be necessary to keep us up and running (Batteries, PV panels, charge controllers, grounding plate, DC and AC fuse boxes, inverter, and a few small other pieces).

Our teachers at the Tech Center have done hours of research, lab testing, and on-site (jungle) observations to help keep missionaries well-equipped and informed. They custom make and sell to us what they can’t find at a good cost or of a good quality. There goal is to keep us on the field and functioning at a rate where languages can be learned and technology can be leveraged to get the gospel to even the most remote areas. One of our optional evening labs involved going through a tool list. Seeing as how there are no Home Depots or ACE Hardwares, this undoubtedly saved us months of trouble, knowing exactly what tool, which sizes and how many, sometimes even down to the brand of what we would need to keep up a PV system and a generator.

Every lecture is usually followed by a lab. We do basic projects, which are actually things we can take overseas and use! Our table is usually full of tools, soldering pencils and multimeters. This is me learning to zap NiCad batteries with a capacitor, which was a little scary as it involved sparking, which usually means you did something wrong. In this case, it was a good sign.

All 47 of us candidates are taking it together, mostly without any prior experience. I love watching everyone learn together. Our homework assignments force us to look ahead to the future. We have to design a basic home layout for a family of 5 and choose fans, lights, and appliances to fit. Even though we only had to do it on paper, Payton’s been using Sweet Home 3D, a free program, to design the house, which makes everything seem a bit more realistic! What also gets more realistic is my “electrical” footprint, if you will. I hate counting up how much power I’m going to need. That’s next on our homework list for this week. We have to anticipate our future needs by drawing in every electrical appliances and calculating how much power it will take to run it! Praise God for frugal lighting that costs 0.0003cents per hour and lasts 50,000 hours. Here’s me trying out a few of the different warm lights after a lecture.

This next week, as we head into labs, we’ll be graded on our ability to solder and follow instructions. Not following instructions and headaches seem to go hand in hand. Down the road, when the Tech Center ships us our PV equipment, it will include a detailed manual. By necessity, we will need to be able to follow directions if we hope to get things set up! Pray with us that our brains will stay engaged and retain each new topic as it’s put in front of us.