Thomas Wolfe wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again.” The title could have served as the template for 15 years of the life of engineer Edison Venegas.
To return to his native Ecuador would have upset his efforts to achieve U.S. citizenship. He had family in Brewster, where he still lives, but he had family also in Tanguarin, Ecuador, where he was born and lived until he was 11, time enough for a boy to get to know a place. “For me, growing up, it was always home,” he said from the offices of Werner E. Tietjen P.E. Consulting Engineer in Rye. “But I could not return there.”
When citizenship arrived five years ago at age 26, Venegas, by this point a licensed mechanical engineer, proved Thomas Wolfe wrong. He has gone home again and again. And he will do so again in December ”“ to help educate Ecuadorian, and this time Guatemalan, children via functioning computer centers.
A Guatemalan associate slots nicely into the equation by also starting computer centers. “Guatemala is just like Ecuador, very beautiful, but there is a lot of poverty; I feel right at home there,” said Venegas. Importantly, Guatemala is also the trade conduit through which Ecuador-bound computers must pass.
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Venegas’ associate handles shipping. In December, a pair of computers from James G. Rogers Architects in South Norwalk, Conn. ”“ a Tietjen client ”“ will remain behind in Guatemala for an educational center there as other machines proceed to Ecuador.
If you guessed it, Venegas is a pretty good networker. This is the venture”™s fourth year. In that time, one full-blown computer center was vandalized and the computers stolen. Undeterred, though admittedly broken-hearted, Venegas brought down another seven computers, which now function from a secure location.
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Education is totally free in Ecuador only until middle school. After that, books and equipment must be purchased by the students, expenses that can be prohibitive; the poor drop out. Few have access to computers.
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Venegas calls the effort Project Ecuador. It also has embraced Christmas. Thirteen schools will receive 1,200 gift bags this year, a number that has quadrupled in the four years Venegas and his family and friends ”“ “I get them all to donate or help out” ”“ have been raising money and stuffing the bags. The web site is projectecuador.org.
Venegas is of Spanish decent and is fluently bilingual, but he travels into regions where the Incan language Quechua is spoken. Like many people thrown into a new language as an adult, “I only know the dirty words.” The language barrier notwithstanding, Project Ecuador is getting results with new computers in the remote villages of Cuicocha and Imbiola. Tietjen contributed five computers and money to renovate spaces for that particular project.
Venegas”™ specializes in heating, ventilation and air conditioning work at Tietjen. New tricks of the trade include solar and geothermal energy use and high-tech condensing boilers. The company is 30-plus years old; Venegas has been there three years.
Tietjen is currently designing a geothermal heating-cooling system for the new Hackley School Library in Tarrytown. Other projects have included Greenwich Academy and Rolling Hills Country Club in Fairfield County, Conn., and Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough. Said Venegas, “We work with architects. We make energy calculations. We size equipment. It”™s all custom to the building. Right now, we”™re doing a lot of geothermal. Greenwich Academy is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. But Werner has always stressed high-efficiency equipment, so it”™s nothing new for us.”
When Venegas arrives in Ecuador Dec. 4, he will find his uncles well-engaged in Project Ecuador. Already, they have put a floor in a school that had only dirt underfoot and built a kitchen in another school. He does not foresee a letup: “I don”™t think there is going to be an end as far as the need. I hope so, but there”™s a lot to do. The more people Project Ecuador reaches, the easier it will be for us to expand on gains and reach more people and more communities.”
