Christmas Week 2008

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I would like to wish everybody happy holidays. Since I have moved to Africa, many people have wished me a happy Kwanza, I have attached two video’s that will help clarify the history of Kwanza, as you will see this is not an African holiday and in fact most Africans in Botswana have never heard of Kwanza.

This week I started working on a 5 year plan for our village. The goal is to become energy independent, financial independent, and produce zero CO2. Though one might think this is a lofty goal, it actually should be rather easy. Currently our village has a VERY low standard of living. Normally to get to energy independence sacrifices need to be made. For our village I do not think this will ring true, in fact I believe we should be able to increase our standard of living, while we achieve these goals.

My first task was to do an energy audit, find out what energy we use and where it comes from. Here is what I found out:

Transportation

1) No one in our village owns an automobile.

2) There are 15 motor scooters, these run on petrol, and appear to be high in pollution. I did not do any scientific evaluation on the emission I simply saw the amount of black smoke that came out of the exhaust.

3) All other transportation is either by foot, bicycle, or pubic transportation

a. Public transportation is most often a matatus (see picture), which is a mini bus. They can hold up to 8 people legally, but I have seen over 20 people in one.

b. We will have to come up with some formula to figure out how to calculate the energy we use when we take a matatus and the CO2 we add to the atmosphere.

Home energy needs

1) Since we live in a very warm climate we have no need to heat, and all the villagers are use to not having air-conditioning so no need for that.

2) For most cooking, heat is obtained from wood that is harvested from the area surrounding our village while this wood is plentiful it is not unlimited plus the burning of the wood release a lot of CO2. Also the trees breathe in CO2 so every time we cut a tree down and burn them we add more CO2 and eliminate a tree that absorbs CO2.

3) Most homes have a few kerosene lanterns which are used for lighting in the evening.

4) We do have two refrigerators in town, one is at the medicine mans (herbalist house), and the other is at the Bar Keeps house. Both are powered by current brought in by power lines, this current is not very dependable, there are daily outages.

a. The medicine man does have some herbs that he must refrigerate

b. The Bar Keep must keep the beer cold.

5) The school is looking to add some computers, so they will need power for them.

6) There are a few outside lights that light up some of the village at night and they are also powered by the same current.

7) There is my PC and internet connecting that is powered by the same current, I also have a diesel generator for back up. This generator not only uses diesel to get its power, its exhaust is very dirty.

That is what I could find as far as what we used for energy. It seems I need to produce electricity, to replace the current we use, and I need to find a substitute for the kerosene we use in our lanterns, the petrol we use in our scooters, and the diesel I use in my generator. If I can find a more reliable source of electricity, I might not need the diesel generator.

Next I looked at our waste, we produce very little waste and most of what is produced is organic. The biggest issue and the one I will discuss here is human waste. Some of the huts have holes in the ground that the villagers use as toilets. These holes then flow out through open trenches to a large pond where the waste slowly gets absorbed into the ground. For the villagers that do not have these holes in their huts, they use public holes that are set up around the village these holes flow into the same pond. (see picture of the trench and the kids)

The villagers as a whole eat very healthy, with very little disease, the one issue is when some of the children get into these trenches or worst into the ponds, they tend to get sick. Long term I am concerned that this pond may have a negative effect on our drinking water or on the land we farm.

My first project will be to figure out a better way to control our sewage issue. I have some ideas how I can solve this issue and also maybe take care of some of our energy needs. I will fill you in on that idea later.

Now for my Poker play for the week, this week I did very well, in fact I am debating moving up to the next level of table. I currently play most of my poker at $1.00/$2.00 tables and sometime at $.50/$1.00 tables. After the first I am going to working building my bankroll and moving up to the $2.00/$4.00 tables.

This week I played 4.65 hours of poker with total winnings of $312.15 which gave me an hourly of over $67.00 an hour. I only played 325 hands or a little over 69 hands an hour. I played very high quality hands. My biggest losing hand and winning hand for the week are listed below the detail is below the graphics.

BEST HAND OF THE WEEK

WORST HAND OF THE WEEK

BEST HAND OF THE WEEK

POKERSTARS GAME #23120107240: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($1/$2) - 2008/12/21 10:59:40 ET
Table 'Somville II' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: dnabreTeneR ($177.95 in chips)
Seat 2: shmaf ($213.60 in chips)
Seat 3: vicnev ($62.45 in chips)
Seat 4: Trigger0o4 ($76 in chips)
Seat 5: DUG ($193 in chips)
Seat 6: ponchoko ($329.25 in chips)
Seat 7: 13_Xerxes_13 ($205 in chips)
Seat 9: LolDnkaments ($43 in chips)
shmaf: posts small blind $1
vicnev: posts big blind $2
utellme12: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [6s 6d]
Trigger0o4: folds
DUG: calls $2 Playing to hit a set
ponchoko: raises $6 to $8
13_Xerxes_13: folds
LolDnkaments: folds
dnabreTeneR: calls $8
shmaf: folds
vicnev: folds
DUG: calls $6 worth a call
*** FLOP *** [6c Th Qs] Bingo hit a set this is a gut shot straight draw if someone called with AK.
DUG: checks Figure one of those guys will bet.
ponchoko: bets $20
dnabreTeneR: calls $20 Great.
DUG: raises $55 to $75 This might have been a mistake. But I do not want anybody to draw out on me for free.
ponchoko: folds
dnabreTeneR: calls $55 This is good.
*** TURN *** [6c Th Qs] [8 h] Now there is a flush draw.
DUG: bets $110 and is all-in
dnabreTeneR: folds This is ok with me I liked the size of the pot.
Uncalled bet ($110) returned to DUG
DUG collected $194 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $197 | Rake $3
Board [6c Th Qs 8h]
Seat 1: dnabreTeneR (button) folded on the Turn
Seat 2: shmaf (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: vicnev (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Trigger0o4 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: DUG collected ($194)
Seat 6: ponchoko folded on the Flop
Seat 7: 13_Xerxes_13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: LolDnkaments folded before Flop (didn't bet)

WORST HAND OF THE WEEK
POKERSTARS GAME #23157663863: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/12/22 14:44:15 ET
Table 'Knysna' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: MarGee1 ($100 in chips)
Seat 2: DUG ($98.90 in chips)
Seat 3: anakin17 ($50 in chips)
Seat 4: gsmnet ($48.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Justelis ($209.25 in chips)
Seat 6: jrockhaf ($176.40 in chips)
Seat 7: luckyleft ($99 in chips)
Seat 9: cAAnber ($112.60 in chips)
luckyleft: posts small blind $0.50
cAAnber: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [8d Td]
MarGee1: folds
DUG: raises $3 to $4 Just going for a steal I have not played a hand in a while
anakin17: folds
gsmnet: folds
Justelis: folds
jrockhaf: folds
luckyleft: calls $3.50
cAAnber: folds
*** FLOP *** [Tc Jh 8h] Hit 2 pair.
luckyleft: checks
DUG: bets $6 figure I will end it here.
luckyleft: raises $6 to $12 Might have an AJ
DUG: calls $6 worth a call, most likely I have the best hand. Could have TT or 88 or JJ, but not likely.
*** TURN *** [Tc Jh 8h] [9s]
luckyleft: bets $12
DUG: calls $12 I still think I have the best hand, but not worth a raise.
*** RIVER *** [Tc Jh 8h 9s] [Ac]
luckyleft: checks I think he is trapping me now.
DUG: checks No reason to bet.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
luckyleft: shows [As Ad] (three of a kind, Aces) He won on the river.
DUG: mucks hand
luckyleft collected $54.25 from pot Not a real big pot.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $57 | Rake $2.75
Board [Tc Jh 8h 9s Ac]
Seat 1: MarGee1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: DUG mucked [8d Td]
Seat 3: anakin17 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: gsmnet folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Justelis folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: jrockhaf (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: luckyleft (small blind) showed [As Ad] and won ($54.25) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 9: cAAnber (big blind) folded before Flop

Cheers,

DUG