Let me tell you a little bit about myself. Although I grew up here in Massachusetts, I was born in the Azores—which for those of you who are asking yourselves, “Where the heck are the Azores?” Well, they are small, beautiful group of islands in the middle nowhere. Seriously though, they’re actually part of Portugal and they lie about 2400 miles off the East Coast of the U.S. smack dab in the Atlantic Ocean (about 5 hours by plane).

The island of Terceira, Azores smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic.

Since we lived on an island, everybody had to be pretty self-sufficient. There weren’t any so called supermarkets to go to, so you knew exactly where the chicken on your dinner table came from.

Like everywhere, things weren’t perfect, but there was a nice sense of community. If Manuel’s family killed a pig this week, they’d make sure all their neighbors got some meat and then they’d smoke the rest to preserve it. Maybe the next week Tony’s family might kill a pig. And it went around like this. People were very multi-skilled and pretty self-sufficient. We didn’t have welfare or social security, so everybody had to chip in.

My family's windmill on the island of Terceira in the Azores.

When I was a kid, one of my uncle’s owned a windmill. At some point he sold it to my dad, who passed back to my uncle some of the profits from time to time. We didn’t have MBA’s, so this is the way business was done. Seeing my dad’s windmill grind corn & wheat into flour, which was used to make pretty awesome bread—that was an inspiration for me. I was fascinated. Yet, when I was 9 and came here to my new country, things weren’t like that windmill. Things were pretty nice but I noticed that everything we bought came in two or three little packages for one little thing—seemed kind of silly. I also noticed everything was gas-powered, and in those days the smoke stacks were still churning in Lowell, Massachusetts. I wondered why there was so much pollution.

So, you see, I got interested in these kinds of things both for practical reasons and because its more in tune with the way I grew up. Over ten years ago I started getting interested specifically in learning more about renewable energy, so I starting visiting different organizations and attending events, just to see what people were up to . . .

Organizations I’ve Visited

• California – Real Goods
• Massachusetts – NESEA Conferences, Building Energy Conferences, Sirius Community, Seeds of Solidarity, Solar Home Tours (numerous places), Solviva (Anna Edey)
• New Hampshire – DAcres, Solar Home Tours
• New Mexico – Earth Ships (Taos), Gaviotas Conference (Ghost Ranch)
• Rhode Island - Apeiron Institute
• Vermont – Yestermorrow, Cobb Hill CoHousing, SolarFest
• Wisconsin – Midwest Renewable Energy Fair
• Nicaragua – Grupo Fenix

The Many Hats I Wear

• Currently, I work on trains for the railroad down in Boston.
• I’m also a professional nail artist. In fact, some years ago I was named one of the Top 10 Nail Artists in the United States.
• I’m also handyman. I can change out your water heater if you need a new one.
• I’m also a licensed pilot. Fly Mendonça Airlines!
• And I once took on a group of granny’s in an apple pie contest and beat them all!

Changes to My Home

A guy I know once said, “Baby steps, not the Big Bang”. I’m making changes to my house and my life like that, step by step. Here’s some of what I’ve done:

• Switched all the lights to CFL’s; most electrical appliances are now on power strips so that I can turn them off to eliminate phantom loads
• Spot heating for heating rooms I’m in more often
• Switched from single pain wooden windows to double-pain
• Upgraded water heater to super-efficient, super-insulated model
• Replaced the toilets with low-flush models
• Vermicomposting in my basement (10+ years)
• 3 megacompsters outside (15+ years)
• Complete recycling setup
• Rainwater collection for garden
• Organic garden
• NEXT: change the appliances to Energy Star appliances
• NEXT: solar drip irrigation to be installed

Workshops & Presentations I’ve Done

• Composting workshops (Chelmsford, MA)
• Backyard solar workshops with Richard Komp (WI, ME, and MA)
• Solar Cooking workshop with Eric Fedus for The Sustainability Project (NH)
• Solar Cooking workshop with Eric Fedus for the 2008 Rhode Island Sustainable Living Festival & Clean Energy Expo.
  

Presentations

• Common Ground Fair 2004 (ME) – displayed veggie car
• Winchester High School with NESEA (MA) – displayed veggie car for an energy day
• North Adams, MA with NESEA – displayed veggie car & solar cookers
• Seeds of Solidarity’s Garlic Fest 2006 – talked about renewable energy & displayed 2 solar cookers, a rocket stove, and various books

Places I’ve Been in the World

• All across the United States, Azores, Nicaragua, Lebanon, England, Portugal, Canada, Spain, France, Holland, Jordan, Caribbean, Mexico

Languages I Speak

• English, Portuguese (Azorean version)

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