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| Grupo Fenix Courses and Workshops
Introduction
 Come to Nicaragua and engage your head, heart, and hands in the real work of developing countries. Our hands-on courses allow you to be immersed in the daily life of rural Nicaraguans by living with host families and working alongside local community members to create their vision of a model community through renewable energy and sustainable practices.
 Discuss the theory behind solar energy and the challenges of development with your instructors and other course participants over lunch. Spend your days learning how to construct solar cookers or install photovoltaic systems. Laugh along with your host family as you try to recall your high school Spanish, balance water on your head or make tortillas. Most activities and classes are held in the new adobe Solar Center. Housing will be simple, like that of a typical rural Nicaraguan family.
Explore a beautiful country and its culture while learning about renewable energy and sustainable development in the field. Our courses provide a unique travel experience that is educational, rewarding, and fun!
The Solar Culture Course
This 11 day course, offered twice a year, has been offered by Grupo Fenix since 1999. It is a great introduction to the science and use of appropriate renewable energy technologies such as solar cookers, dryers and photovoltaic systems. Dr. Richard Komp, an expert from the United States with over 40 years experience working with solar technologies, teaches the technical classes for the January version of the course and will be a guest instructor for the July 2008 course.
Participants will:
- Visit SuniSolar, a renewable energy business in Managua started by Grupo Fenix
- Build a solar oven with the local women’s group, the Solar Women of Totogalpa
- Listen to talks on Solar Dryers and Medicinal Plants
- Learn about solar cooking and eat the final product of your class!
- Install a PV system with local solar experts
- Make a solar powered battery charger
 Also, the course includes various tourist activities such as a visit to one of Nicaragua’s 25 volcanoes, Volcano Masaya, where you can hike around the craters and see what an active volcano looks like! If weather permits, we will spend a day exploring the Somoto Canyon and swimming in its natural pools. Also, at the end of the course we will spend a night at a rustic eco-lodge in the Tisey Nature Reserve, which has hiking trails, fields of organic vegetables, a farming community that produces its own specialty cheeses and one of the best panoramic views in the country.
Impressions of January 2008 Solar Culture Course Participants:
 ¨ Even though I came to learn about solar technology and I did, living with a host family and meeting interesting course participants from all over was the most valuable part of the course.¨
¨ I was able to reaffirm that passion, a good heart, and hard work can change the lives of individuals and a community for the good.¨
Course Fee: $995
Sustainable Communities Through Renewable Energy
This new seven day course includes a lot of the great hands-on activities of the Solar Culture Course, but focuses more on how rural communities like Sabana Grande can develop sustainably by promoting and producing renewable energy technologies and adopting other practices such as organic farming, revolving micro-loan models and community-based tourism. If you are interested in learning about the basics of renewable energy and are intrigued by the social processes that support Sustainable Community Development, this course is ideal.
Participants will:
- Build a solar oven with the local women’s group, the Solar Women of Totogalpa
- Tour an organic coffee farm and make your own solar roasted coffee in the community
- Listen to talks on Solar Dryers, Medicinal Plants, the Green Store project, and our micro-loan program
- Take a solar cooking class and learn about the importance of soy as you make delicious soy empanadas or chorizo
- Visit local families that have photovoltaic systems installed in their homes and learn how the sun’s light generates clean energy
- Make a solar powered battery charger
Course Fee: $700
Local Conditions
 Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries economically in the Western hemisphere. Conditions in Sabana Grande and the barrio in Managua may be more rustic than some individuals are used to. Bugs, excessive temperatures, and outhouses are a reality of the course experience. The rainy season starts in mid-May and ends in early November . If you are coming during this time please make sure to bring a rain jacket. While our participants consistently find the home stay experiences rewarding--some would say, almost magical--it might nevertheless be a big change for some individuals. It´s all a part of the learning experience.
The Instructors
Richard Komp, Ph.D., the instructor for the January Solar Culture Course, is the author of ¨Practical Photovoltaics¨ and has been working on solar cells since 1960. He has taught numerous courses and workshops on solar energy all over the world.
Susan Kinne, initiator of the solar culture course, who has been on staff at the UNI for the past 18 years, is currently director of PFAE, the university arm of Grupo Fenix, and has been the leading spirit behind Fenix's ascension.
Mauro Perez helped create and now runs the local solar business & workshop in Sabana Grande. He was originally trained as solar technicians through a 1999-2001 project with Falls Brook Centre of Canada for economic reintegration of land mine victims via solar energy.
The Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa (literally, the “Solar Women of Totogalpa”) have been working together since 1999 to promote renewable resource technologies and practices in their community and finished the construction of their own center in 2007.
Payment
A $150 deposit or full payment must be sent to Skyheat one month before the
course and will save you a place in the course, which will be limited to a total of 15 participants. Please fill out and email us the Course Enrollment Form. Checks should be made out to Skyheat Associates and mailed to: Richard Komp, Skyheat Associates, 17 Rockwell Rd. SE, Jonesport, ME 04649. Please put ¨Grupo Fenix Solar Culture Course¨ in the memo line of your check. If you only send the deposit to Skyheat, the remainder is due the first day of the course in the form of either check or U.S. dollars or Euros, which cannot be ripped or marked. Non-U.S. citizens unable to send a check deposit in U.S. dollars, please contact Richard Komp to discuss payment options. The fee does not include international airfare to Managua nor health insurance or medical expenses. Transportation to and from the airport or bus station in Managua is provided.
Language
For those participants who do not speak Spanish or are a little rusty, Grupo Fenix will provide translators for all hands-on activities and classes conducted in Spanish. You are on your own with your host families so be creative, hand gestures always work!
Air Travel
For U.S. citizens we can recommend a "Green" travel agency, Earth Routes, travel@earthroutes.net, 207-326-8635, 42 Pierces Pond Road, Penobscot, ME 04476. A portion of Earth Routes` ticket fees supports SeedTree, a nonprofit organization helping with tree planting and environmental education.
For More Information
We highly recommend you read our ¨Handbook for Course Participants¨, which has information about travelling to Nicaragua and also some useful packing tips.
For a participant's perspective, read the article "Solar
Electricity in the Nicaragua Hills" published in Home Power
magazine.
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