January was a month of new beginnings and big challenges, starting with our wedding a few weeks prior. Our plan was to live for a month in Tijuana, where our van was waiting for us, in order convert it to WVO (waste-vegetable-oil). But Tijuana and the van had big surprises in store for us.

Our van waited 6 months for us with our friend Juan Carlos’ family at their mechanic shop in Tijuana. They helped us a lot and worked on our breaks. Thank you! After arriving and having various breakdowns, we realized our van had a few mechanical issues. It took us many days and lots of phone calls to find a diesel mechanic willing to work with us. When we finally did, we learned we just needed to replace the electric fuel pump and oil filters.

We worked on these mechanical issues while also researching everything related to WVO conversions. This was hard because all the information was in English and we had a hard time figuring out what parts our van model needed. When we finally figured it all out and then had severe shipping delays. It was very stressful! We used this waiting time to modify our van roof and now we have a pop-up roof so can stand up in the van. Thank you to Don Miguel and his family for working on it.

Aidan’s father, German, helped us with the veggie oil conversion for 3 full days of intensive mechanical work. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to test the conversion! We immediately packed up, crossed over into California and picked up our first donation of used vegetable oil!

Our plan was to drive to Guatemala from Los Angeles, through Texas and down Mexico’s Atlantic coast. Before leaving, we were able to do wood work on the interior of the van. (Thank you David Salam and Albizures family). And then, right before leaving, we had two unexpected breakdowns in California.

We learned that the van had a severe transmission problem that needed to be rebuilt. And soon after, we discovered our veggie oil conversion was malfunctioning! We finally admitted that the van was not ready to drive such a long distance.  We got the transmission rebuilt in CA but had no more time or much money left, as much of our finances went to the transmission work! We were also under a time crunch because we had to fly to Venezuela to work on Johanna’s papers there.  Our dear Barnett Family graciously provided a space for us to keep our van. We left California not knowing what the next step for us was going to be.

- Aidan A.

• A special person A special person
• Aidan, Don Juan and Juan Carlos Aidan, Don Juan and Juan Carlos
• The experts The experts
• The roof The roof
• Don Miguel Don Miguel
• Conversion parts Conversion parts
• The centrifuge The centrifuge
• Before working on it Before working on it
• After working on it After working on it
• Aidan, David Salam, German Aidan, David Salam, German
• Transmission problem Transmission problem
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