A lot has happened since the group’s last post, much more than I could ever write between various coffee husk stove tests, bashing clay with pipes, and juggling a soccer ball. Tuesday was a day full of preparation as our incomplete group of seven would reach the maximum number of residents the field station here in Kalinzi could bear. The one and only Kevin Dahms would be returning from his adventures in the lands north of here and finally rejoin the work and people who needed him. And of course, the long anticipated duo, Rita and Tuma, would be coming up from Kigoma to join the ranks among the DHEers. Rita would be our long needed second translator for our expanding needs and her cousin, Tuma, would be the long needed cook for our shrinking stomachs. Both have of course been wonderful additions to our family.
In anticipation of our three travelers, the group sacrificed a morning of ‘science’ and project related work for more crucial matters: cleaning up the field station. I think it would be safe to say that apart from the days the foundation was laid and the walls raised, the field station has never received such dedicated attention. Everything besides the table and beds found higher ground as a water and soap cleaned the ground. Shelving, constructed from an old bed frame and failed metal stoves, quickly filled up with electronics and a communal library. Mats were purchased replacing the dining room table and opening more space in the main room. To say the least, the field station became a home.
Dahms almost immediately jumped right into working on the coffee husk stove with me when he arrived. Rita and Tuma came and after a very warm welcome headed to the market for food and bedding. That night we had pasta and played cards. It was nice to have a full house.
Wednesday was filled with testing, briquetting, and preparing for the ‘rocket stove summit’ that would be held during Thursday lunch. A work day though and through. We had a few side projects that came together: a brick pot skirt and a hay-box we hoped to share with the women the next day.
Thursday morning the group split in three. Kim, Thabo and Stan woke early to meet Revocautus for a hike to the pseudo-wind-tower. Emil and Collen left to investigate available bio-mass in Kigoma Town for future large scale briquetting projects. Kevin M, Kevin D, Rita, Tuma and myself stayed here at the field station, preparing the stoves, the house and lunch. The guests were invited to arrive at noon. We eagerly waited their arrival.
We eagerly waited for anyone’s arrival for an hour and a half. By that time the wind hike had returned and we outnumbered our guest seven to one. We showed her our stoves, the hay box and talked about cooking in the region. We refused to start our lunch without eating with our guests (or guest) but she wanted to wait for her friends. And so we waited and another hour and half for two more. Food was served and a very fruitful discussion about the rocket stove developed. Kevin’s clever idea of offering brick molds to the women in exchange for them constructing four stoves for needy homes was successful. As the afternoon moved one, all the women arrived, and few extra friends as well. Our house really became a center of talking and laughter. It was decided that the women would come back on Monday to learn how to make the clay tray stove. Over all a very successful lunch, but exhausting.
This morning we all woke to the sound of thunder and rain on the metal roofs above. An unheard of storm during the dry season graced us with its presence, causing Kevin and Collen to run out in the early morning to bring the drying briquettes to safety. After a novel breakfast of French toast, Emil, Stan, Dahms and I took a ride to Matiazo to see the German orphanage, the coffee mill, and a very stove oriented secondary teacher named Prosper. We learned that people have been making coffee husk stoves out of clay which has spurred a frenzy of experimentation on the back deck with some extra mud bricks we have. The frenzy was not very successful but both educational and entertaining. Dinner is soon upon us and everyone is working to finish before the plates are out. A final crunch time before munch time.
-James
Friday, July 29, 2011
Dahms' Blog Post
28 July 2011
I have arrived safely back to Kalinzi and reunited with the group
could not be be happier; it was such a relief to see their familiar
faces and the incredible work and progress they have made with the
projects. For the past ten days I have been in transit to Nairobi
after an encounter with a bat in the field station on our first night
here. After waking up, I was folding up my mosquito net and realized
there was a bat hanging on the outside of it right next to where my
head had been resting all night. Initially, I did not see any bite
marks or anything so I thought nothing of it, but after looking on the
internet I found that most of the time one may not see a bat bite and
to seek medical attention if one thinks they have been exposed to a
bat. Since I had been sleeping on the floor and was brushing up
against the mosquito net for most of the night I was quite concerned
that the bat may have bitten me during the night (I have even
convinced myself that I did feel something nip my head that night).
I have arrived safely back to Kalinzi and reunited with the group
could not be be happier; it was such a relief to see their familiar
faces and the incredible work and progress they have made with the
projects. For the past ten days I have been in transit to Nairobi
after an encounter with a bat in the field station on our first night
here. After waking up, I was folding up my mosquito net and realized
there was a bat hanging on the outside of it right next to where my
head had been resting all night. Initially, I did not see any bite
marks or anything so I thought nothing of it, but after looking on the
internet I found that most of the time one may not see a bat bite and
to seek medical attention if one thinks they have been exposed to a
bat. Since I had been sleeping on the floor and was brushing up
against the mosquito net for most of the night I was quite concerned
that the bat may have bitten me during the night (I have even
convinced myself that I did feel something nip my head that night).
Due to this paranoia I went to Kigoma Regional Hospital with Stan and
Colleen to receive the vaccine; however, the doctor was not in and I
had to wait until morning. We ended up spending the night at Stan’s
sister’s house in Kigoma, which was absolutely beautiful and the
family was so incredibly hospitable. The next morning I went to the
hospital and received the vaccine and we headed back to Kalinzi.
I contacted Dick’s House that afternoon to alert them of the incident
and they recommended that I contact International SOS to confirm that
the vaccine I received was sufficient treatment for my potential
exposure. After contacting ISOS, I was told that I needed to receive
the Human Rabies Immunoglobulin (HRIG) injection within a week of
exposure in order to give my body the antibodies to fight the virus
before the vaccine I received started working. The HRIG injection is
apparently quite expensive and very scarce medicine everywhere in
Africa and so ISOS had to call to various hospitals as far as South
Africa to see if they had enough of it to administer to me. HRIG was
eventually found in Nairobi, and ISOS set about planning my travel
arrangements to get to Nairobi. I should take this time to point out
that ISOS, Dartmouth (namely Jessica Friedman, Lisa Adams, and Carrie
Fraser), and my friends and family were unbelievably patient and
helpful when my unnecessary paranoia was really getting the best of me
during this time of arranging travel plans, thank you guys so much.
ISOS was super efficient in arranging my transportation to Nairobi,
and I cannot thank them enough for it.
I left on Thursday the 14th and flew to Mwanza in a small 8 row single
prop plane, which was quite a thrilling experience. I arrived in
Mwanza, and our good friend and translator Revo was there to greet me
with a hug and a smile. I spent the night in Revo’s room and got up
the next morning with him to figure out the issues he was having with
his school results for the semester. Revo got everything corrected
that morning and we headed into town for a little where we picked up
some awesome sandals made of waste rubber products before I flew to
Nairobi. Revo set me up with a taxi to the airport and at 4:30 I was
on my way to Nairobi. I was driven directly to the hotel in Nairobi
where I ate dinner and went to sleep relatively quickly.
I had my appointment with Dr. Saio at Nairobi Hospital at 11:30 the
next morning, where he gave me a thorough examination and made an
assessment to begin a new vaccine schedule. He said that the malaria
medication I was taking may have hurt my immune system and made the
vaccine less effective, so he prescribed me Malarone and put me on the
reduced Intramuscular schedule of Verorab with an immunoglobulin
inject ion as well. I was sent to the emergency room after meeting
with Dr. Saio, where I was given the immunoglobulin and my first two
doses of Verorab. They decided to keep me in the hospital for 24 hours
in order to monitor me, so I spent Saturday in a hospital bed but was
given very sufficient meals and excellent care throughout. I was
brought back to the hotel after the hospital and began speaking with
ISOS about my transportation back to Tanzania.
Unfortunately there were no flights until the end of the week so I
would have to spend several extra days in Nairobi, which was not ideal
considering I wanted to get back to group and the fact that I had only
brought one set of clothes with me and had already been in Nairobi for
3 days. While waiting for my flight back, I began outlining a bit of
the report and did some exploring of Nairobi. I met up with Kiko Lam,
a Dartmouth ’14 working in Nairobi and Nakuru for the summer. We got
lunch and then met up with Kathy Vaughan, a Dartmouth Alum, who Kiko
was staying with in Nairobi. Kathy and her husband Tsila were
incredibly generous throughout my time in Nairobi, having me over for
dinner a couple times, and even taking me around Nairobi for a day.
Since my flight at the end of the week got cancelled I was able to
explore a bit more of Nairobi, especially the Upper Hill and Westlands
area, along with center city. Kathy was even gracious enough to
contact Technoserve, an NGO in Nairobi that has a coffee growing
initiative, telling them about DHE’s projects and putting me in touch
with them. The day before I left for Tanzania I got coffee with Kathy
at the Ole Sereni, a hotel that overlooks Nairobi National Park. We
then stopped by IHUB, an exciting tech based community center that
gives members opportunities to collaborate on computer programming
projects and other academic endeavors. I then had a meeting with
Alice, the Sustainability Advisor with Technoserve’s Coffee
Initiative. Though our meeting was brief it was very informative and
encouraging. She said that coffee husk briquetting has been going on
for nearly 3 years in Western Kenya on a variety of scales, from small
individual hand briquetting, to marketable 5 kg packs. She was also
interested in our coffee husk stove project, stating that currently
people in that region use sawdust stoves but do not have a means of
burning raw coffee husks. Hopefully we will be able to maintain
contact with her and gain more knowledge about the briquetting process
and setting up a market for the program, while sharing information
regarding a coffee husk burning stove.
It has been awesome being back in Kalinzi with the group, getting up
to speed with the projects and hanging out with this unbelievable
group again. Of course the paranoia I experienced for that first week
was almost definitely unwarranted, considering two of the doctors I
saw in Tanzania had never heard of people getting rabies from bats
(one said that he would prescribe me whiskey to relax), I truly
appreciate all of the precautions that Dartmouth and ISOS took to
ensure that I was treated properly. I once again want to thank
everyone here in Kalinzi and Kigoma, our advisors back at Dartmouth,
the people at ISOS, all of the doctors, and my family and friends here
and at home for all their support and help throughout this process. It
was really incredible how smoothly everything went.
Colleen to receive the vaccine; however, the doctor was not in and I
had to wait until morning. We ended up spending the night at Stan’s
sister’s house in Kigoma, which was absolutely beautiful and the
family was so incredibly hospitable. The next morning I went to the
hospital and received the vaccine and we headed back to Kalinzi.
I contacted Dick’s House that afternoon to alert them of the incident
and they recommended that I contact International SOS to confirm that
the vaccine I received was sufficient treatment for my potential
exposure. After contacting ISOS, I was told that I needed to receive
the Human Rabies Immunoglobulin (HRIG) injection within a week of
exposure in order to give my body the antibodies to fight the virus
before the vaccine I received started working. The HRIG injection is
apparently quite expensive and very scarce medicine everywhere in
Africa and so ISOS had to call to various hospitals as far as South
Africa to see if they had enough of it to administer to me. HRIG was
eventually found in Nairobi, and ISOS set about planning my travel
arrangements to get to Nairobi. I should take this time to point out
that ISOS, Dartmouth (namely Jessica Friedman, Lisa Adams, and Carrie
Fraser), and my friends and family were unbelievably patient and
helpful when my unnecessary paranoia was really getting the best of me
during this time of arranging travel plans, thank you guys so much.
ISOS was super efficient in arranging my transportation to Nairobi,
and I cannot thank them enough for it.
I left on Thursday the 14th and flew to Mwanza in a small 8 row single
prop plane, which was quite a thrilling experience. I arrived in
Mwanza, and our good friend and translator Revo was there to greet me
with a hug and a smile. I spent the night in Revo’s room and got up
the next morning with him to figure out the issues he was having with
his school results for the semester. Revo got everything corrected
that morning and we headed into town for a little where we picked up
some awesome sandals made of waste rubber products before I flew to
Nairobi. Revo set me up with a taxi to the airport and at 4:30 I was
on my way to Nairobi. I was driven directly to the hotel in Nairobi
where I ate dinner and went to sleep relatively quickly.
I had my appointment with Dr. Saio at Nairobi Hospital at 11:30 the
next morning, where he gave me a thorough examination and made an
assessment to begin a new vaccine schedule. He said that the malaria
medication I was taking may have hurt my immune system and made the
vaccine less effective, so he prescribed me Malarone and put me on the
reduced Intramuscular schedule of Verorab with an immunoglobulin
inject ion as well. I was sent to the emergency room after meeting
with Dr. Saio, where I was given the immunoglobulin and my first two
doses of Verorab. They decided to keep me in the hospital for 24 hours
in order to monitor me, so I spent Saturday in a hospital bed but was
given very sufficient meals and excellent care throughout. I was
brought back to the hotel after the hospital and began speaking with
ISOS about my transportation back to Tanzania.
Unfortunately there were no flights until the end of the week so I
would have to spend several extra days in Nairobi, which was not ideal
considering I wanted to get back to group and the fact that I had only
brought one set of clothes with me and had already been in Nairobi for
3 days. While waiting for my flight back, I began outlining a bit of
the report and did some exploring of Nairobi. I met up with Kiko Lam,
a Dartmouth ’14 working in Nairobi and Nakuru for the summer. We got
lunch and then met up with Kathy Vaughan, a Dartmouth Alum, who Kiko
was staying with in Nairobi. Kathy and her husband Tsila were
incredibly generous throughout my time in Nairobi, having me over for
dinner a couple times, and even taking me around Nairobi for a day.
Since my flight at the end of the week got cancelled I was able to
explore a bit more of Nairobi, especially the Upper Hill and Westlands
area, along with center city. Kathy was even gracious enough to
contact Technoserve, an NGO in Nairobi that has a coffee growing
initiative, telling them about DHE’s projects and putting me in touch
with them. The day before I left for Tanzania I got coffee with Kathy
at the Ole Sereni, a hotel that overlooks Nairobi National Park. We
then stopped by IHUB, an exciting tech based community center that
gives members opportunities to collaborate on computer programming
projects and other academic endeavors. I then had a meeting with
Alice, the Sustainability Advisor with Technoserve’s Coffee
Initiative. Though our meeting was brief it was very informative and
encouraging. She said that coffee husk briquetting has been going on
for nearly 3 years in Western Kenya on a variety of scales, from small
individual hand briquetting, to marketable 5 kg packs. She was also
interested in our coffee husk stove project, stating that currently
people in that region use sawdust stoves but do not have a means of
burning raw coffee husks. Hopefully we will be able to maintain
contact with her and gain more knowledge about the briquetting process
and setting up a market for the program, while sharing information
regarding a coffee husk burning stove.
It has been awesome being back in Kalinzi with the group, getting up
to speed with the projects and hanging out with this unbelievable
group again. Of course the paranoia I experienced for that first week
was almost definitely unwarranted, considering two of the doctors I
saw in Tanzania had never heard of people getting rabies from bats
(one said that he would prescribe me whiskey to relax), I truly
appreciate all of the precautions that Dartmouth and ISOS took to
ensure that I was treated properly. I once again want to thank
everyone here in Kalinzi and Kigoma, our advisors back at Dartmouth,
the people at ISOS, all of the doctors, and my family and friends here
and at home for all their support and help throughout this process. It
was really incredible how smoothly everything went.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Blog Post 9
7/24/11
So, a busy week (as always) since our last post! And a memorable one, indeed. Kevin and James have been going hard at getting efficiency tests done on rocket stoves, and Kim and Thabo are well into their testing of different SODIS methods. Emil and I (Colleen) spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for our briquetting meeting with the directors of JGI and the stove project, and left Thursday afternoon for Kigoma. The rest of the group stayed in Kalinzi an extra day to continue work. We got settled into the room at Zanzibar Hill, got unnecessarily paranoid about people coming into our balcony, and went to sleep early for our 10am meeting. Our 10am meeting started at 10:40, which was about when we were thinking it would, and it went rather well. Mr. Mtiti invited us to a cookout/picnic brouhaha which was to be a few hours later. I was pretty stoked- we hadn’t had lunch yet, and wali maharage (rice and beans) can get…familiar…after a few weeks.
Emil and I decided to try to get some of our group shopping done before the cookout, so we loaded up with peanut butter and nutella (food of the gods), plus other odds and ends, and headed back to the hotel. Zanzibar Hill, by the way, is gorgeous – covered in winding tiled staircases framed by beds of African flowers and foliage, each block of rooms its own little unique, partitioned house. Our balcony’s view was mostly screened by the canopies of the trees surrounding the house; not wonderful for city viewing, but great for bird watching! But boy, is the name “Zanzibar Hill” appropriate – stairs and stairs and more stairs as you climb and weave your way up the hill. We do a fair bit of walking here, but every time we went to our room (located at the very top) I felt completely out of shape. But oh, the horror, the horror! My hopes were dashed, for we were never to reach the hoped-for cookout. Upon reaching the hotel and taking a moment to relax, I discovered that in all my walking around, through, up, and down Kigoma, I had been walking for two: I had a little parasite friend in my foot. Well. Let’s put an end to that.
Emil and I spent what felt like the rest of the afternoon (in truth, only two hours) trying to find a place to remove my little friend. The first medical institution we visited first tried to convince me it was an inflammation (it was not), and then a bacterial infection (it was not). I decided that if the doctor couldn’t tell what it was, I may not want medical advice from him in the first place. The second stop, a dispensary/clinic, was far better- the doc knew the scientific name with a moment’s glance. Far more legit. In under five minutes I was out and passenger-free, to my very great relief. The rest of the group arrived from Kalinzi an hour or so later, and we met them at the hotel to recount the tale. The evening was by far more relaxing than the day- we chilled at Zanzibar Hill for a bit, reveled in the wonders of running water and showers (not heated, not that it mattered), and laundry detergent – that stuff is magic, I swear.
After a leisurely walk and dinner, we returned, and treated ourselves to a movie off Thabo’s computer. The six of us stuffed onto one bed to watch “Howl’s Moving Castle”, which was great. Kim was out cold before it was half done, and the stove guys (who have been staring at fires for the past few months and are probably crazy) insisted that Calcifer the talking fire was in fact very accurate. I, for my part, admit to having watched that movie more times than I remember, so I am in no position to judge. Saturday was filled with absolute madness as we checked out, got all our commissioned works picked up from the metalworkers and carpenters (yay, a compound press! I’m so excited!) and tried to get reasonably priced transportation up the road to Kalinzi. We were back in good time, with enough of the day left to even do some work. Emil and I got together a rough outline of what’s left to do in our 3 weeks left here (yikes!). I can’t believe that’s all that’s left- it seems such a short time; I just got here! In just two days Dahms will be back here from Kenya, and Ritta and Tuma will be joining our field station as well. It is going to get quite cozy here, no mistake, but having two translators will make a lot of tasks seem more manageable.
Today marked our first testing of the compound press and char making machine, with varied results, as Kevin and Kim went off to talk to various stove users about how the rocket stoves are doing in people’s kitchens. They had been gone for a while when suddenly Kim sprints up to the field station, dashes into her room, rifles through multiple duffels grabbing things and stuffing them into her bag, breathlessly says something about a guy on a bike, and leaves just as fast as she came. Or at least, that’s how it seemed on my end, so I’ll turn it over to her to explain what actually happened more accurately than I can.
Colleen’s description is pretty accurate, although I had more on my mind than thinking about how crazy I looked to the group at the field station. Kevin, Stan and I were just finishing up our meeting at Nasura’s house, which is conveniently located on the main road. There was a scuttle of activity from the children who were watching cords being placed in the ditch that crisscrosses the town (Kalinzi is getting internet!), and then we heard a crash. An elderly man, riding one bike and somehow carting another bike alongside his own, had fallen on the pavement. Kevin, who is Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certified, and I, the only pre-medical student in the group, ran into action. My job was to run back up the hill to grab first aid supplies, while Kevin helped assess and stabilize the man. That’s when my path crossed with those at the field station, and I was indeed quite breathless and incoherent (both from adrenaline and from my lack of strenuous exercise this summer). By the time I returned to the scene the man had been boarded onto the back of a large truck. With the permission of the locals, Kevin, Stan and I hopped on for the 10 minute ride to the hospital in Matyazo. I finally saw the extent of the wounds: scrapes on his toes, knee, hands, and, most severely, open gashes on his upper lip, cheekbone and brow bone. The ride was *extremely* bumpy, so our original plan to flush out the wound with fresh water and a sterile 60 mL syringe was impossible without risking squirting water all over the man or poking him in the face. Ten minutes of attempting to stabilize the man’s head (he was mostly unresponsive) while also stabilizing ourselves and wiping around the wound ensued before carrying him off the truck and into a bed in the hospital. Having explained as much information about the incident as possible, through Stan, to the nurses, we headed back towards Kalinzi.
With everyone back at the field station and evening setting in, our various tasks of the day are winding down. Dinner ought to be done before too long, and I plan on spending the evening reading and wishing I had more to read- these will be spent before too long, and I just know that I will be wanting other books very, very soon…
So, a busy week (as always) since our last post! And a memorable one, indeed. Kevin and James have been going hard at getting efficiency tests done on rocket stoves, and Kim and Thabo are well into their testing of different SODIS methods. Emil and I (Colleen) spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for our briquetting meeting with the directors of JGI and the stove project, and left Thursday afternoon for Kigoma. The rest of the group stayed in Kalinzi an extra day to continue work. We got settled into the room at Zanzibar Hill, got unnecessarily paranoid about people coming into our balcony, and went to sleep early for our 10am meeting. Our 10am meeting started at 10:40, which was about when we were thinking it would, and it went rather well. Mr. Mtiti invited us to a cookout/picnic brouhaha which was to be a few hours later. I was pretty stoked- we hadn’t had lunch yet, and wali maharage (rice and beans) can get…familiar…after a few weeks.
Emil and I decided to try to get some of our group shopping done before the cookout, so we loaded up with peanut butter and nutella (food of the gods), plus other odds and ends, and headed back to the hotel. Zanzibar Hill, by the way, is gorgeous – covered in winding tiled staircases framed by beds of African flowers and foliage, each block of rooms its own little unique, partitioned house. Our balcony’s view was mostly screened by the canopies of the trees surrounding the house; not wonderful for city viewing, but great for bird watching! But boy, is the name “Zanzibar Hill” appropriate – stairs and stairs and more stairs as you climb and weave your way up the hill. We do a fair bit of walking here, but every time we went to our room (located at the very top) I felt completely out of shape. But oh, the horror, the horror! My hopes were dashed, for we were never to reach the hoped-for cookout. Upon reaching the hotel and taking a moment to relax, I discovered that in all my walking around, through, up, and down Kigoma, I had been walking for two: I had a little parasite friend in my foot. Well. Let’s put an end to that.
Emil and I spent what felt like the rest of the afternoon (in truth, only two hours) trying to find a place to remove my little friend. The first medical institution we visited first tried to convince me it was an inflammation (it was not), and then a bacterial infection (it was not). I decided that if the doctor couldn’t tell what it was, I may not want medical advice from him in the first place. The second stop, a dispensary/clinic, was far better- the doc knew the scientific name with a moment’s glance. Far more legit. In under five minutes I was out and passenger-free, to my very great relief. The rest of the group arrived from Kalinzi an hour or so later, and we met them at the hotel to recount the tale. The evening was by far more relaxing than the day- we chilled at Zanzibar Hill for a bit, reveled in the wonders of running water and showers (not heated, not that it mattered), and laundry detergent – that stuff is magic, I swear.
After a leisurely walk and dinner, we returned, and treated ourselves to a movie off Thabo’s computer. The six of us stuffed onto one bed to watch “Howl’s Moving Castle”, which was great. Kim was out cold before it was half done, and the stove guys (who have been staring at fires for the past few months and are probably crazy) insisted that Calcifer the talking fire was in fact very accurate. I, for my part, admit to having watched that movie more times than I remember, so I am in no position to judge. Saturday was filled with absolute madness as we checked out, got all our commissioned works picked up from the metalworkers and carpenters (yay, a compound press! I’m so excited!) and tried to get reasonably priced transportation up the road to Kalinzi. We were back in good time, with enough of the day left to even do some work. Emil and I got together a rough outline of what’s left to do in our 3 weeks left here (yikes!). I can’t believe that’s all that’s left- it seems such a short time; I just got here! In just two days Dahms will be back here from Kenya, and Ritta and Tuma will be joining our field station as well. It is going to get quite cozy here, no mistake, but having two translators will make a lot of tasks seem more manageable.
Today marked our first testing of the compound press and char making machine, with varied results, as Kevin and Kim went off to talk to various stove users about how the rocket stoves are doing in people’s kitchens. They had been gone for a while when suddenly Kim sprints up to the field station, dashes into her room, rifles through multiple duffels grabbing things and stuffing them into her bag, breathlessly says something about a guy on a bike, and leaves just as fast as she came. Or at least, that’s how it seemed on my end, so I’ll turn it over to her to explain what actually happened more accurately than I can.
Colleen’s description is pretty accurate, although I had more on my mind than thinking about how crazy I looked to the group at the field station. Kevin, Stan and I were just finishing up our meeting at Nasura’s house, which is conveniently located on the main road. There was a scuttle of activity from the children who were watching cords being placed in the ditch that crisscrosses the town (Kalinzi is getting internet!), and then we heard a crash. An elderly man, riding one bike and somehow carting another bike alongside his own, had fallen on the pavement. Kevin, who is Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certified, and I, the only pre-medical student in the group, ran into action. My job was to run back up the hill to grab first aid supplies, while Kevin helped assess and stabilize the man. That’s when my path crossed with those at the field station, and I was indeed quite breathless and incoherent (both from adrenaline and from my lack of strenuous exercise this summer). By the time I returned to the scene the man had been boarded onto the back of a large truck. With the permission of the locals, Kevin, Stan and I hopped on for the 10 minute ride to the hospital in Matyazo. I finally saw the extent of the wounds: scrapes on his toes, knee, hands, and, most severely, open gashes on his upper lip, cheekbone and brow bone. The ride was *extremely* bumpy, so our original plan to flush out the wound with fresh water and a sterile 60 mL syringe was impossible without risking squirting water all over the man or poking him in the face. Ten minutes of attempting to stabilize the man’s head (he was mostly unresponsive) while also stabilizing ourselves and wiping around the wound ensued before carrying him off the truck and into a bed in the hospital. Having explained as much information about the incident as possible, through Stan, to the nurses, we headed back towards Kalinzi.
With everyone back at the field station and evening setting in, our various tasks of the day are winding down. Dinner ought to be done before too long, and I plan on spending the evening reading and wishing I had more to read- these will be spent before too long, and I just know that I will be wanting other books very, very soon…
Monday, July 18, 2011
Back in the City
Blog Post 8, 7.18.11
After a busy and productive week in the village, we decided we needed a change of pace. A trip to Kigoma was in order so we could get better internet for research and communication, commission a few more instruments for the briquetting and stove projects, and take a little bit of a break.
Our daily schedule throughout the past week was pretty consistent yet not mundane. Breakfasts have been consisting of bread (we're lucky when it's not moldy), bananas, chapatti (think of REALLY greasy fried crepes) and copious amounts of Nutella and peanut butter. Then we set to work on our respective projects. Lunch (always ndizi, sometimes with beans) is in the early afternoon, then more work until we wrap up in time to see the incredible sunsets. Our cameras cannot possibly capture the beauty of these sunsets, but we try every time. Dinner is often rice and beans, although the night we had spaghetti was a real treat. Then we play cards, discuss our work, share "Highs and Lows," or simply crash on our beds.
Thabo and I have traveled to a few protected springs to collect water for SODIS testing. Then we wait for 6 hours while the bottles soak in the sun, testing UV exposure and temperature every 2 hours. Though we do have a bit of free time, we spend it doing group emails, write-ups, market visits, helping the others with their projects, and a bit of personal reading and Swahili studying. After the 6 hours, we set to work filtering the samples and preparing the incubator of "Magic Balls" for the night. These Magic Balls are a curious substance. When cool, the clear plastic balls are white on the inside because they are filled with a glycerin which is essentially a type of animal fat. At this point they look a bit like pearl onions. When boiled, though, the insides melt. The phase change from liquid to solid takes quite a long time and occurs at about 37*C, which is precisely the optimal temperature to grow coliforms and E. coli. So, we put our filter papers in petri dishes, give them a sugary broth, then let them grow in the incubator for 24 hours. We've had a few small setbacks but the results look good so far! We are looking forward to testing more sources and different variables for the SODIS method.
Colleen and Emil have taken up the task of concocting briquette recipes. These include all sorts of materials, from newspaper pulp and coffee husks to clay and cooked cassava (those of you who've had ugali would understand that this may serve as a great binder material for briquettes!). They are consistently found elbow-deep in buckets of muck or sitting on our briquette press, squeezing water out of the mushy mixtures. While they are getting better with ratios, pressing and drying the briquettes, it remains to be seen how well these briquettes burn. Our whole shower room floor is filled with them though (after being fed up with chickens trampling them on the concrete slab in the back yard) so we have lots of testing to do now that we're back in the village.
James has made himself at home in the storage closet with his coffee husk stove design. I suppose that's a silver lining about the storage closet being ransacked - we have a good place for testing the stove. A great deal of fine-tuning can still be done, but we've been having some fantastic flames and burn times. Everything looks quite promising.
Kevin has been getting involved with all of our projects as well as orchestrating meetings around the village and communicating with others involved in our projects. This week's big tasks include a round-table discussion about the rocket stove project in Kalinzi and preparing a presentation on briquetting for the Jane Goodall Institute. There is a chance that Kevin may also be traveling to another region next week to visit the village of Mpanda, where JGI has had great success with the rocket stove program.
Emil and I spent most of Friday afternoon checking in on the wind project with our friends Revocautus and Frederick. Molly Wilson and the winter group organized the construction of a tower upon which we placed two anemometers and a data-logger to collect information on wind speed and direction in Kalinzi. If the data is promising, we'd love to harness that wind power for either an electricity or water-pumping project. The hike to the tower took about an hour, but the view from the top of the hill was incredible. Unfortunately we had difficulty accessing the data from the data-logger, but we will be back this week to figure things out. On the bright side, at least the tower is still standing! Apparently there was a fire on the hill one night and Revocautus and Frederick had to organize an impromptu fire-fighting squad to direct the fire around the hill rather than over it, thus sparing our equipment. We are very thankful that it's still there.
Because our last "day off" was the previous Sunday, which we spent traveling and settling into the field station, we felt as though we needed another break. We packed up after lunch on Saturday and grabbed a taxi down to Kigoma. When Kevin was here last summer the road was still dirt, but now the paved road makes it extremely quick and easy to get back to the city. Saturday was still a work day, as Colleen and Emil stopped to buy supplies at the market and the rest of us ran errands. Eventually we all met at JGI to utilize the internet. We were all curious to see the driveway at JGI packed with cars, and at one point a large group of people came out of one of the conference rooms. As it turns out, the event was a screening of Jane's new documentary. Though we didn't actually see the film, we can still say we were there for it, right? The rest of Saturday was relaxing, and we decided to sleep rather than go to Kibo Boys, the local dance hall (well, turns out they were closed).
I will take the time to say that this group is amazing in many respects. Many times we've commented on how lucky we are to be here together with such interesting, motivated and intelligent people. That being said, I can find just one fault - we don't know how to take days off! Our Sunday say off turned into a "well, let's utilize JGI's internet while we can for just an hour or two," which stretched into 5+ hours at JGI, working us right through lunch. Needless to say our plans to spend the afternoon at Jacobsen's Beach didn't pan out, but we are happy with our work and we'll visit Jacobsen's another day. We treated ourselves by having a pre-dinner snack of chips mayai (literally, it's a French fry omelette with mostly fries) then walked right over to another eating establishment claiming to have real Indian food, pizza, and air conditioning. We were forewarned that food would take a while to make which was fine with us; we sat there digesting our snack and reading. To the chagrin of some, we didn't get our food for about 2 hours, but it was definitely an experience worth having. The night ended with the Women's FIFA World Cup game. Some of us stayed up until the bitter end, then promptly fell asleep as it was after 1 in the morning.
Today we woke up early to get started on our last few tasks in the city. Part of the group visited the carpenter with a design for a compound lever press while the rest of us returned to JGI. We saw Jane Goodall! ... from about 40 feet away while she was hopping into a truck to take her to the airport. Oh well. The group met back up for lunch then grocery shopping before meeting our taxi back to the village. Perhaps the best purchase of the day was a soccer ball, and we were eager to play with back in our yard. Colleen counted upwards of 30 spectators, some of which joined in and followed the group to the local soccer field for a full-on match. Too bad we don't have enough water for a round of showers!
-Kim
After a busy and productive week in the village, we decided we needed a change of pace. A trip to Kigoma was in order so we could get better internet for research and communication, commission a few more instruments for the briquetting and stove projects, and take a little bit of a break.
Our daily schedule throughout the past week was pretty consistent yet not mundane. Breakfasts have been consisting of bread (we're lucky when it's not moldy), bananas, chapatti (think of REALLY greasy fried crepes) and copious amounts of Nutella and peanut butter. Then we set to work on our respective projects. Lunch (always ndizi, sometimes with beans) is in the early afternoon, then more work until we wrap up in time to see the incredible sunsets. Our cameras cannot possibly capture the beauty of these sunsets, but we try every time. Dinner is often rice and beans, although the night we had spaghetti was a real treat. Then we play cards, discuss our work, share "Highs and Lows," or simply crash on our beds.
Thabo and I have traveled to a few protected springs to collect water for SODIS testing. Then we wait for 6 hours while the bottles soak in the sun, testing UV exposure and temperature every 2 hours. Though we do have a bit of free time, we spend it doing group emails, write-ups, market visits, helping the others with their projects, and a bit of personal reading and Swahili studying. After the 6 hours, we set to work filtering the samples and preparing the incubator of "Magic Balls" for the night. These Magic Balls are a curious substance. When cool, the clear plastic balls are white on the inside because they are filled with a glycerin which is essentially a type of animal fat. At this point they look a bit like pearl onions. When boiled, though, the insides melt. The phase change from liquid to solid takes quite a long time and occurs at about 37*C, which is precisely the optimal temperature to grow coliforms and E. coli. So, we put our filter papers in petri dishes, give them a sugary broth, then let them grow in the incubator for 24 hours. We've had a few small setbacks but the results look good so far! We are looking forward to testing more sources and different variables for the SODIS method.
Colleen and Emil have taken up the task of concocting briquette recipes. These include all sorts of materials, from newspaper pulp and coffee husks to clay and cooked cassava (those of you who've had ugali would understand that this may serve as a great binder material for briquettes!). They are consistently found elbow-deep in buckets of muck or sitting on our briquette press, squeezing water out of the mushy mixtures. While they are getting better with ratios, pressing and drying the briquettes, it remains to be seen how well these briquettes burn. Our whole shower room floor is filled with them though (after being fed up with chickens trampling them on the concrete slab in the back yard) so we have lots of testing to do now that we're back in the village.
James has made himself at home in the storage closet with his coffee husk stove design. I suppose that's a silver lining about the storage closet being ransacked - we have a good place for testing the stove. A great deal of fine-tuning can still be done, but we've been having some fantastic flames and burn times. Everything looks quite promising.
Kevin has been getting involved with all of our projects as well as orchestrating meetings around the village and communicating with others involved in our projects. This week's big tasks include a round-table discussion about the rocket stove project in Kalinzi and preparing a presentation on briquetting for the Jane Goodall Institute. There is a chance that Kevin may also be traveling to another region next week to visit the village of Mpanda, where JGI has had great success with the rocket stove program.
Emil and I spent most of Friday afternoon checking in on the wind project with our friends Revocautus and Frederick. Molly Wilson and the winter group organized the construction of a tower upon which we placed two anemometers and a data-logger to collect information on wind speed and direction in Kalinzi. If the data is promising, we'd love to harness that wind power for either an electricity or water-pumping project. The hike to the tower took about an hour, but the view from the top of the hill was incredible. Unfortunately we had difficulty accessing the data from the data-logger, but we will be back this week to figure things out. On the bright side, at least the tower is still standing! Apparently there was a fire on the hill one night and Revocautus and Frederick had to organize an impromptu fire-fighting squad to direct the fire around the hill rather than over it, thus sparing our equipment. We are very thankful that it's still there.
Because our last "day off" was the previous Sunday, which we spent traveling and settling into the field station, we felt as though we needed another break. We packed up after lunch on Saturday and grabbed a taxi down to Kigoma. When Kevin was here last summer the road was still dirt, but now the paved road makes it extremely quick and easy to get back to the city. Saturday was still a work day, as Colleen and Emil stopped to buy supplies at the market and the rest of us ran errands. Eventually we all met at JGI to utilize the internet. We were all curious to see the driveway at JGI packed with cars, and at one point a large group of people came out of one of the conference rooms. As it turns out, the event was a screening of Jane's new documentary. Though we didn't actually see the film, we can still say we were there for it, right? The rest of Saturday was relaxing, and we decided to sleep rather than go to Kibo Boys, the local dance hall (well, turns out they were closed).
I will take the time to say that this group is amazing in many respects. Many times we've commented on how lucky we are to be here together with such interesting, motivated and intelligent people. That being said, I can find just one fault - we don't know how to take days off! Our Sunday say off turned into a "well, let's utilize JGI's internet while we can for just an hour or two," which stretched into 5+ hours at JGI, working us right through lunch. Needless to say our plans to spend the afternoon at Jacobsen's Beach didn't pan out, but we are happy with our work and we'll visit Jacobsen's another day. We treated ourselves by having a pre-dinner snack of chips mayai (literally, it's a French fry omelette with mostly fries) then walked right over to another eating establishment claiming to have real Indian food, pizza, and air conditioning. We were forewarned that food would take a while to make which was fine with us; we sat there digesting our snack and reading. To the chagrin of some, we didn't get our food for about 2 hours, but it was definitely an experience worth having. The night ended with the Women's FIFA World Cup game. Some of us stayed up until the bitter end, then promptly fell asleep as it was after 1 in the morning.
Today we woke up early to get started on our last few tasks in the city. Part of the group visited the carpenter with a design for a compound lever press while the rest of us returned to JGI. We saw Jane Goodall! ... from about 40 feet away while she was hopping into a truck to take her to the airport. Oh well. The group met back up for lunch then grocery shopping before meeting our taxi back to the village. Perhaps the best purchase of the day was a soccer ball, and we were eager to play with back in our yard. Colleen counted upwards of 30 spectators, some of which joined in and followed the group to the local soccer field for a full-on match. Too bad we don't have enough water for a round of showers!
-Kim
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
First days in the village
Blog Post 7, 7.11.2011
At long last, we are finally settled in Kalinzi. Our arrival on Sunday attracted a great deal of attention – especially because the bridge to our side road is gone so we had to unload 2 packed taxis right on the main road. While we were waiting for the housekeeper to let us in, James entertained the gaggle of village children with his juggling and harmonica-playing skills. On the other side of the house, Kevin and Dahms* discovered that our store room had been broken into and ransacked. (*Note- this is now how we’ll distinguish the two Kevins in blog form, because that’s how we distinguish them in real life!) This was a disappointment, as the winter group had left us a good deal of supplies, but most of the items can be replaced.
It was a team effort to get the house in order, but the field station soon felt quite homey. The housekeeper made us ndizi (bananas) for lunch – boiled with tomatoes and onions, they taste like chunky mashed potatoes. The stove boys (Emil, Dahms and James) had time to run a few tests on their stoves. Encouraged by the great results they were getting, the whole group was in high spirits when it came time for dinner. Our housekeeper cooked us up heaping piles of rice and beans (wali maharage) and then Stan taught us how to play “Kadimoja.” It’s pretty much like Uno with playing cards, but the few twists in the game made for exciting times. James was victorious for the first round of Kadimoja but we’ll try to avenge that soon!
After a fitful night due to the loud music of a wedding nearby, our morning was eventful when Dahms found a bat in one of the bedrooms. As every other DHE trip staying in Kalinzi has had an encounter with bats, we were simply being “initiated” into the tradition of field station stays. Unlike the large breakfasts we’d been used to in Dar and Kigoma, breakfast consisted of moldy bread, peanut butter and nutella. We didn’t have time to dwell on this dietary shift long because we had lots to do. Thabo and I gathered our first water samples from a local tap to start testing the SODIS method. Kevin ran around to the market, village government, and pretty much everywhere else within walking distance to make sure we were properly introduced and settled in the village. The local children, however, did not need such a formal introduction – it seems as though their new favorite pastime is watching us toil over the stoves in the back yard. We were fortunate enough to have Joram, an expert on building rocket stoves with the new clay-tray design, visit us to teach us how to build our own stove. It was a long and exhausting day, so dinner was quiet and we all went to bed early.
Colleen pointed out this morning that we are about a quarter of the way through our trip. With that thought in mind, we jumped right to work with stove testing and our new pet project, the briquette press. Most of the day one could find Colleen elbow deep in buckets hand-mixing cassava paste, water, and some form of biomass. It turns out the briquette press we commissioned in Kigoma works well – we’re now just waiting to see how the briquettes hold up to the drying process. Thabo and I were unpleasantly surprised to find that our incubator, an important part of the water testing process, was not holding heat as well as it should. It has been a slow but necessary day of monitoring the heat of the “magic balls” so that we can ensure accurate testing for the rest of the trip.
Tuesday is a market day, so some of the group got to experience the bustling market culture and tested their haggling skills. I had my own adventure. We asked our neighbor if she could collect us some water. Excited at the prospect of seeing another one of the protected springs in the area , I asked to tag along. I also thought I’d offer to help collect the water, though our neighbor tried to discourage me. I can now understand why she was so skeptical… We walked about 10 minutes on small, uneven, downhill paths to a water tap. On the way I realized that wearing glasses was a poor choice because I had no peripheral vision. I should have known by the laughs (and trailing children) as I walked past that I was in over my head. We filled up the two jugs and then it was time to place mine on my head. Mind you, this jug holds about 5 gallons, or approximately 40 pounds of water. Using a piece of cloth we had brought along to make a flat spot on my head, she then hauled the jug on top. I stood up with some difficulty then looked up the path ahead. Our neighbor immediately told me “no” and carried the jug up the hill herself. Water jug - 1, Kim - 0. By this point there were about 5 children following me, all with smaller buckets on their own heads, and they waited with me at the top of the hill for our neighbor to come back with her own. Again she situated the jug on my head and we walked for about 5 minutes uphill before I needed to stop and rest. At this point, realizing how weak my head, neck and arms are, she gave me a smaller bucket (from the head of a girl around the age of 6) and left mine in a bush. Determined to regain a little dignity, I charged along the path with this lighter load until we got to the market and the main road. She stopped me again going down the steep path to the pavement, but I convinced her to let me carry the large jug by hand the rest of the way. Amid many stares, calls and laughs, I made it to the field station and promptly collapsed in a chair for lunch.
-Kim
At long last, we are finally settled in Kalinzi. Our arrival on Sunday attracted a great deal of attention – especially because the bridge to our side road is gone so we had to unload 2 packed taxis right on the main road. While we were waiting for the housekeeper to let us in, James entertained the gaggle of village children with his juggling and harmonica-playing skills. On the other side of the house, Kevin and Dahms* discovered that our store room had been broken into and ransacked. (*Note- this is now how we’ll distinguish the two Kevins in blog form, because that’s how we distinguish them in real life!) This was a disappointment, as the winter group had left us a good deal of supplies, but most of the items can be replaced.
It was a team effort to get the house in order, but the field station soon felt quite homey. The housekeeper made us ndizi (bananas) for lunch – boiled with tomatoes and onions, they taste like chunky mashed potatoes. The stove boys (Emil, Dahms and James) had time to run a few tests on their stoves. Encouraged by the great results they were getting, the whole group was in high spirits when it came time for dinner. Our housekeeper cooked us up heaping piles of rice and beans (wali maharage) and then Stan taught us how to play “Kadimoja.” It’s pretty much like Uno with playing cards, but the few twists in the game made for exciting times. James was victorious for the first round of Kadimoja but we’ll try to avenge that soon!
After a fitful night due to the loud music of a wedding nearby, our morning was eventful when Dahms found a bat in one of the bedrooms. As every other DHE trip staying in Kalinzi has had an encounter with bats, we were simply being “initiated” into the tradition of field station stays. Unlike the large breakfasts we’d been used to in Dar and Kigoma, breakfast consisted of moldy bread, peanut butter and nutella. We didn’t have time to dwell on this dietary shift long because we had lots to do. Thabo and I gathered our first water samples from a local tap to start testing the SODIS method. Kevin ran around to the market, village government, and pretty much everywhere else within walking distance to make sure we were properly introduced and settled in the village. The local children, however, did not need such a formal introduction – it seems as though their new favorite pastime is watching us toil over the stoves in the back yard. We were fortunate enough to have Joram, an expert on building rocket stoves with the new clay-tray design, visit us to teach us how to build our own stove. It was a long and exhausting day, so dinner was quiet and we all went to bed early.
Colleen pointed out this morning that we are about a quarter of the way through our trip. With that thought in mind, we jumped right to work with stove testing and our new pet project, the briquette press. Most of the day one could find Colleen elbow deep in buckets hand-mixing cassava paste, water, and some form of biomass. It turns out the briquette press we commissioned in Kigoma works well – we’re now just waiting to see how the briquettes hold up to the drying process. Thabo and I were unpleasantly surprised to find that our incubator, an important part of the water testing process, was not holding heat as well as it should. It has been a slow but necessary day of monitoring the heat of the “magic balls” so that we can ensure accurate testing for the rest of the trip.
Tuesday is a market day, so some of the group got to experience the bustling market culture and tested their haggling skills. I had my own adventure. We asked our neighbor if she could collect us some water. Excited at the prospect of seeing another one of the protected springs in the area , I asked to tag along. I also thought I’d offer to help collect the water, though our neighbor tried to discourage me. I can now understand why she was so skeptical… We walked about 10 minutes on small, uneven, downhill paths to a water tap. On the way I realized that wearing glasses was a poor choice because I had no peripheral vision. I should have known by the laughs (and trailing children) as I walked past that I was in over my head. We filled up the two jugs and then it was time to place mine on my head. Mind you, this jug holds about 5 gallons, or approximately 40 pounds of water. Using a piece of cloth we had brought along to make a flat spot on my head, she then hauled the jug on top. I stood up with some difficulty then looked up the path ahead. Our neighbor immediately told me “no” and carried the jug up the hill herself. Water jug - 1, Kim - 0. By this point there were about 5 children following me, all with smaller buckets on their own heads, and they waited with me at the top of the hill for our neighbor to come back with her own. Again she situated the jug on my head and we walked for about 5 minutes uphill before I needed to stop and rest. At this point, realizing how weak my head, neck and arms are, she gave me a smaller bucket (from the head of a girl around the age of 6) and left mine in a bush. Determined to regain a little dignity, I charged along the path with this lighter load until we got to the market and the main road. She stopped me again going down the steep path to the pavement, but I convinced her to let me carry the large jug by hand the rest of the way. Amid many stares, calls and laughs, I made it to the field station and promptly collapsed in a chair for lunch.
-Kim
Monday, July 11, 2011
Kigoma Adventures
7/9/2011
I am writing to you all from the beautiful Jane Goodall Institute, located overlooking beautiful Lake Tanganyika. It's quiet today (Saturday) but everyone here at JGI has been busy all week preparing for a visit from Jane herself. Colleen is bummed out that we won't cross paths with Ms. Goodall, but our stay here has been exciting and productive nonetheless.
From our hilltop hotel called Coast View we hike down 15 minutes to the main street in Kigoma in the mornings. Here we can buy everything from PVC and metal pipes, hack saws, and electronics to peanut butter, rice and beans, and (our personal favorite) Nutella. Navigating the markets, both the narrow pathways and bargaining for appropriate prices, are somewhat of an art form. We've been stocking up on personal supplies for village life as well as materials for the stove projects which won't be readily available in Kalinzi.
A daladala trip down the road gets us to Mwanga market where the wood and metal workers are located. Stan has led part of the group there every day this week to touch base with these handymen who are building us a stove and a briquette press. Mwanga also contains many clothing shops (where the guys have been practicing their haggling skills) and lots of "watoto" (children)! Counting pieces of charcoal with the children was my favorite part of our first group visit to Mwanga. It was quite intimidating when one of the mothers started pointing and talking animatedly in Swahili to me, but the 18 kids surrounding me seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Because we have lots to prepare (and a large group of "wazungu" (white people) attracts a lot of attention), we've split up the last few days into groups of 2 or 3. Emil and our translator Stan have been buying project supplies and checking in with the workers at Mwanga. Our stove and press should be ready any minute! Kevin M. and I have been hanging out at JGI a bit to settle administrative stuff and use the internet. Kevin D. and James have been reading up on briquetting literature and buying personal items (they are in charge of buying food, ever since I was duped into paying 31,000 tsh for Nutella and peanut butter).
We are nearly done with our tasks in Kigoma, so we may end today a bit earlier than normal and relax this afternoon. Tomorrow we'll be up early to check out and head up the road to the village at last.
-Kim
I am writing to you all from the beautiful Jane Goodall Institute, located overlooking beautiful Lake Tanganyika. It's quiet today (Saturday) but everyone here at JGI has been busy all week preparing for a visit from Jane herself. Colleen is bummed out that we won't cross paths with Ms. Goodall, but our stay here has been exciting and productive nonetheless.
From our hilltop hotel called Coast View we hike down 15 minutes to the main street in Kigoma in the mornings. Here we can buy everything from PVC and metal pipes, hack saws, and electronics to peanut butter, rice and beans, and (our personal favorite) Nutella. Navigating the markets, both the narrow pathways and bargaining for appropriate prices, are somewhat of an art form. We've been stocking up on personal supplies for village life as well as materials for the stove projects which won't be readily available in Kalinzi.
A daladala trip down the road gets us to Mwanga market where the wood and metal workers are located. Stan has led part of the group there every day this week to touch base with these handymen who are building us a stove and a briquette press. Mwanga also contains many clothing shops (where the guys have been practicing their haggling skills) and lots of "watoto" (children)! Counting pieces of charcoal with the children was my favorite part of our first group visit to Mwanga. It was quite intimidating when one of the mothers started pointing and talking animatedly in Swahili to me, but the 18 kids surrounding me seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Because we have lots to prepare (and a large group of "wazungu" (white people) attracts a lot of attention), we've split up the last few days into groups of 2 or 3. Emil and our translator Stan have been buying project supplies and checking in with the workers at Mwanga. Our stove and press should be ready any minute! Kevin M. and I have been hanging out at JGI a bit to settle administrative stuff and use the internet. Kevin D. and James have been reading up on briquetting literature and buying personal items (they are in charge of buying food, ever since I was duped into paying 31,000 tsh for Nutella and peanut butter).
We are nearly done with our tasks in Kigoma, so we may end today a bit earlier than normal and relax this afternoon. Tomorrow we'll be up early to check out and head up the road to the village at last.
-Kim
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Covered in dust, safe and sound in Kigoma at last
July 5, 2011
After meeting our friend and translator Stan at the airport in Mwanza yesterday (Monday) afternoon, we traversed the town to reach our hotel, conveniently located within walking distance of the bus station. Revo, another long-time friend and translator, met us at the hotel. It was great to see him, but as his comprehensive oral exam was scheduled for today, we didn’t get to spend much time catching up. We look forward to catching up with him in Kigoma and continuing to work with him this summer.
As our departure was slated for 5:30am, we took an early dinner at the Millenium Hotel, where Colleen marveled at the incredible anatomy of the whole fish that was laid in front of her, while those of us that had ordered chicken tried to figure out whether it is really worthwhile to try to separate the meat from the neck (we decided it was not).
We got to bed fairly easily, and woke up not much later to make the hike down to the bus station. The tickets are deceiving because the departure time was listed as 11:30. Not too bad, right? Wrong. Tanzanian time works differently than in America, where the new “day” starts at sun-up and our 7:00 AM is their “1:00 za asubuhi” (1 in the morning). We got to the station around 5 AM (our time) to find it bustling with activity. Luckily Stan knew his way around the people and buses and got us safely to our vehicle. A common form of commerce in Tanzania involves men, women and children standing with baskets of goodies outside the buses, trying to sell you sustenance for the long ride. They were also selling large plastic bags, to which we didn’t pay much attention in our groggy state. Our packs safely tucked in the back trunk, we boarded and attempted to doze on the dark bus.
It wasn’t long before we were ushered off the bus to board a ferry across part of Lake Victoria. In the time it took to board dozens of buses, cars, and the people within them, we were able to see a beautiful sunrise, a lightning storm over the mountains, and some cool types of birds. Colleen is our resident ornithologist and we are all benefiting from her expertise on birds and other animals every time we see a new species. On the other side of the lake, we boarded the bus again to the rousing tune of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and took off.
The first part of the trip was on paved roads and pleasantly cool. Though we were all exhausted, the bus ride was soon too bumpy as we traversed miles of eroding dirt roads to get much sleep. Much of the time was spent watching the scenery flash past; the different landscapes we saw were astounding. Mwanza is a hilly place with huge, rounded piles of rocks at the tops of hills in every direction. The way they are balanced so precariously, like the statue in front of McNutt or those built by artists along beaches, you’d think that someone placed these massive stones just perfectly. Stan claims, however, that they were all created by geological processes. Kevin spouted something about plutons and rift valleys, but we think he’s just crazy. We crossed flat plains with mountains in the distance, small villages, fields, and dense wooded areas. Most of the drive was over uneven dirt roads and red dusts plumes behind buses and trucks and creates a Mars-like atmosphere as it coats trees and people alike.
Unfortunately James was feeling a bit under the weather, which wasn’t helped by the fact that we had limited food and water for the trip. We were able to pick up some food from the villagers that swarmed the bus, but a flat tire and a geyser spewing from the radiator cap (housed inside of the bus, the logic of which escapes me) elongated our wait to properly hydrate, feed, and put James to bed. After a good night’s rest, a shower, and food, James was back in top shape this morning, and working harder than the rest of us despite our best efforts, as usual.
Today (July 6th) we got up ready for a meeting with Mr. Mtiti at the JGI at 10, which was later postponed to 2pm due to scheduling complications. This gave us enough time to head to the Mwanga market to meet with a stove-builder we have been working with since last summer to commission a new Coffee husk stove testing platform and to explore the market. Kevin D. came away with several great lightweight shirts perfect for the local climate.
We had a great meeting with Mr. Mtiti, Mr.Kashula, and Grace from JGI to discuss the great progress that has been made with their program implementing the Rocket stove as well as our plans for the summer. Two of us will be accompanying Grace tomorrow for a visit to Kidagwe, a village near Kigoma that is in the progress of Rocket stove implantation while the rest of the group visits the woodworkers in the market to commission a wooden briquette press. It is very exciting to finally be here in Kigoma and to be gearing up for a bunch of great work. We plan to leave for Kalinzi on Sunday.
After meeting our friend and translator Stan at the airport in Mwanza yesterday (Monday) afternoon, we traversed the town to reach our hotel, conveniently located within walking distance of the bus station. Revo, another long-time friend and translator, met us at the hotel. It was great to see him, but as his comprehensive oral exam was scheduled for today, we didn’t get to spend much time catching up. We look forward to catching up with him in Kigoma and continuing to work with him this summer.
As our departure was slated for 5:30am, we took an early dinner at the Millenium Hotel, where Colleen marveled at the incredible anatomy of the whole fish that was laid in front of her, while those of us that had ordered chicken tried to figure out whether it is really worthwhile to try to separate the meat from the neck (we decided it was not).
We got to bed fairly easily, and woke up not much later to make the hike down to the bus station. The tickets are deceiving because the departure time was listed as 11:30. Not too bad, right? Wrong. Tanzanian time works differently than in America, where the new “day” starts at sun-up and our 7:00 AM is their “1:00 za asubuhi” (1 in the morning). We got to the station around 5 AM (our time) to find it bustling with activity. Luckily Stan knew his way around the people and buses and got us safely to our vehicle. A common form of commerce in Tanzania involves men, women and children standing with baskets of goodies outside the buses, trying to sell you sustenance for the long ride. They were also selling large plastic bags, to which we didn’t pay much attention in our groggy state. Our packs safely tucked in the back trunk, we boarded and attempted to doze on the dark bus.
It wasn’t long before we were ushered off the bus to board a ferry across part of Lake Victoria. In the time it took to board dozens of buses, cars, and the people within them, we were able to see a beautiful sunrise, a lightning storm over the mountains, and some cool types of birds. Colleen is our resident ornithologist and we are all benefiting from her expertise on birds and other animals every time we see a new species. On the other side of the lake, we boarded the bus again to the rousing tune of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and took off.
The first part of the trip was on paved roads and pleasantly cool. Though we were all exhausted, the bus ride was soon too bumpy as we traversed miles of eroding dirt roads to get much sleep. Much of the time was spent watching the scenery flash past; the different landscapes we saw were astounding. Mwanza is a hilly place with huge, rounded piles of rocks at the tops of hills in every direction. The way they are balanced so precariously, like the statue in front of McNutt or those built by artists along beaches, you’d think that someone placed these massive stones just perfectly. Stan claims, however, that they were all created by geological processes. Kevin spouted something about plutons and rift valleys, but we think he’s just crazy. We crossed flat plains with mountains in the distance, small villages, fields, and dense wooded areas. Most of the drive was over uneven dirt roads and red dusts plumes behind buses and trucks and creates a Mars-like atmosphere as it coats trees and people alike.
Unfortunately James was feeling a bit under the weather, which wasn’t helped by the fact that we had limited food and water for the trip. We were able to pick up some food from the villagers that swarmed the bus, but a flat tire and a geyser spewing from the radiator cap (housed inside of the bus, the logic of which escapes me) elongated our wait to properly hydrate, feed, and put James to bed. After a good night’s rest, a shower, and food, James was back in top shape this morning, and working harder than the rest of us despite our best efforts, as usual.
Today (July 6th) we got up ready for a meeting with Mr. Mtiti at the JGI at 10, which was later postponed to 2pm due to scheduling complications. This gave us enough time to head to the Mwanga market to meet with a stove-builder we have been working with since last summer to commission a new Coffee husk stove testing platform and to explore the market. Kevin D. came away with several great lightweight shirts perfect for the local climate.
We had a great meeting with Mr. Mtiti, Mr.Kashula, and Grace from JGI to discuss the great progress that has been made with their program implementing the Rocket stove as well as our plans for the summer. Two of us will be accompanying Grace tomorrow for a visit to Kidagwe, a village near Kigoma that is in the progress of Rocket stove implantation while the rest of the group visits the woodworkers in the market to commission a wooden briquette press. It is very exciting to finally be here in Kigoma and to be gearing up for a bunch of great work. We plan to leave for Kalinzi on Sunday.
Dar Airport
Dar Airport: Monday July 4th 2011
Our hour and a half of sitting in traffic in stifling heat on the way to the airport was interrupted by a nice surprise this morning. Seemingly appropriate for this ex-pat 4th of July, we passed (slowly) a man wearing a shirt reading “America- Land of the Free” with a bald eagle fiercely soaring across his chest. It is continually reassuring to find that many of the Tanzanians we meet here have positive things to say about the US, with compliments to both Bush and Obama’s policies being made on a regular basis for the boldness of their actions and their conviction in their beliefs. What we as Americans are quick to ascribe as overconfidence or foolishness is seen instead as the key to good leadership. Waking at 4:30 Sunday morning to a rowdy bunch of high school students from New York arriving at the Research Flats on a “leadership program” screaming at the top of their lungs about the lizards in their room elucidated how differently leadership is identified here and at home. We began to question the leadership capacities of the two program directors, who sat on the patio and did nothing to quiet their cacophonous pupils, especially if they are espousing to be qualified to teach leadership to others. In fairness, we may have been less contentious about our early awakening had it not been for the previous night’s adventures.
After monopolizing our new friend Tsega’s time discussing the work she has been doing making fuel briquettes from sawdust and various binding materials, we were quick to take her up on her offer to show us the best Ethiopian restaurant in town: Addis in Dar. As Tsega is from Ethiopia, we took her word for the quality of the food and service that her friends there could provide. We met Tsega at the popular restaurant near campus known as Samaki-Samaki (“Fish Fish”…we have no idea, except that it is owned by a Dutch ex-pat) and began our adventure into the city. We caught a Dala-Dala (of the safe variety the size of a city bus) to Mwenge market, where we transferred into two bajaj’s, and soon arrived safely outside the beautiful two story building decorated with the Ethiopian alphabet where we would spend the next 2 hours. Enjoying our dinner in the traditional style, we were seated around platters of njera (think 1 meter diameter sourdough crepe) piled high with wonderfully seasoned dishes of beef, chicken, goat, lamb, lentils, chickpeas, and vegetables. Tsega taught us all how to tear pieces of njera and create rolls by sponging up bits from each pile. As we were inexperienced, we were rather slow, but after nearly an hour of indulgence, we had finished the platters and could begin the half hour of digestion necessary before we could begin considering movement. Somehow we managed to pile our group into a capacious taxi, and arrived back at the flats completely exhausted and ready for a good night’s sleep and a day off. We had no idea our day off would begin so early with the arrival of the student group.
We decided to take our day off on Sunday very seriously, and after contemplation, we chose to stay on the UDAR campus rather than adventuring out to numerous beaches Dar has to offer. With more travel ahead of us, we figured it was best to reduce our time spent in moving vehicles. Laying low at the flats, watching movies, and taking a run around campus provided just the rest we needed to tackle our journey ahead.
Our hour and a half of sitting in traffic in stifling heat on the way to the airport was interrupted by a nice surprise this morning. Seemingly appropriate for this ex-pat 4th of July, we passed (slowly) a man wearing a shirt reading “America- Land of the Free” with a bald eagle fiercely soaring across his chest. It is continually reassuring to find that many of the Tanzanians we meet here have positive things to say about the US, with compliments to both Bush and Obama’s policies being made on a regular basis for the boldness of their actions and their conviction in their beliefs. What we as Americans are quick to ascribe as overconfidence or foolishness is seen instead as the key to good leadership. Waking at 4:30 Sunday morning to a rowdy bunch of high school students from New York arriving at the Research Flats on a “leadership program” screaming at the top of their lungs about the lizards in their room elucidated how differently leadership is identified here and at home. We began to question the leadership capacities of the two program directors, who sat on the patio and did nothing to quiet their cacophonous pupils, especially if they are espousing to be qualified to teach leadership to others. In fairness, we may have been less contentious about our early awakening had it not been for the previous night’s adventures.
After monopolizing our new friend Tsega’s time discussing the work she has been doing making fuel briquettes from sawdust and various binding materials, we were quick to take her up on her offer to show us the best Ethiopian restaurant in town: Addis in Dar. As Tsega is from Ethiopia, we took her word for the quality of the food and service that her friends there could provide. We met Tsega at the popular restaurant near campus known as Samaki-Samaki (“Fish Fish”…we have no idea, except that it is owned by a Dutch ex-pat) and began our adventure into the city. We caught a Dala-Dala (of the safe variety the size of a city bus) to Mwenge market, where we transferred into two bajaj’s, and soon arrived safely outside the beautiful two story building decorated with the Ethiopian alphabet where we would spend the next 2 hours. Enjoying our dinner in the traditional style, we were seated around platters of njera (think 1 meter diameter sourdough crepe) piled high with wonderfully seasoned dishes of beef, chicken, goat, lamb, lentils, chickpeas, and vegetables. Tsega taught us all how to tear pieces of njera and create rolls by sponging up bits from each pile. As we were inexperienced, we were rather slow, but after nearly an hour of indulgence, we had finished the platters and could begin the half hour of digestion necessary before we could begin considering movement. Somehow we managed to pile our group into a capacious taxi, and arrived back at the flats completely exhausted and ready for a good night’s sleep and a day off. We had no idea our day off would begin so early with the arrival of the student group.
We decided to take our day off on Sunday very seriously, and after contemplation, we chose to stay on the UDAR campus rather than adventuring out to numerous beaches Dar has to offer. With more travel ahead of us, we figured it was best to reduce our time spent in moving vehicles. Laying low at the flats, watching movies, and taking a run around campus provided just the rest we needed to tackle our journey ahead.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Days 3 & 4 at CoET
Friday July 1 -
We have already fallen into a morning routine: wake up, breakfast at 8, then head over to the garage at CoET (the College of Engineering and Technology) to work on stove testing. Kevin M. and I headed into the city to pay for our flights from Dar Es Salaam to Mwanza. We will be leaving midday on Monday the 4th, then taking a bus to Kigoma on the 5th. A special thanks goes to Stan, one of our translators, for making travel arrangements in Mwanza for us! Unfortunately we'll be missing Independence Day festivities at the U.S. Embassy in Dar, but we are eager to set out on the next stage of our journey. The ticket-buying process took several hours which included sight-seeing through the city center, the first rain we've seen so far, and stand-still traffic (you thought NYC was a busy place?!). Our driver and the rest of our van mates were really friendly. My favorite part was learning new Swahili terms and about their cultures, to which Kevin reciprocated by teaching them English idioms, which they loved. After some small ticket mishaps, we settled all of the flight plans. We will probably be off internet access for those two days, but we should be able to post when we reach Kigoma.
Another highlight of the day was getting a phone call from Stephanie Crocker, this past year's Tanzania Project leader and our blog poster (Thanks Steph!). Kevin M., Kevin D. and I updated Steph on our trip and received helpful feedback. It's always nice to have the advice of a past traveler and someone outside our travel group who has been here before. We are hoping to set up conference calls periodically to talk to people on campus. Get on the DHE blitzlist if you are around and want notifications about summer DHE meetings and conference call times! (Email dhe@dartmouth.edu). I'll also take this opportunity to mention that our group email address is d.humanitarianengineering@gmail.com, so please feel free to email the account if you have questions, since the group account may be checked more often that individual accounts.
Back at the testing garage, things were really heating up. Emil has been working on modifications to the stove built last year by Ryan Birjoo '11 and Kevin M. Though there are still some problems with smoke and fuel usage, Emil has no trouble getting a huge fire going - we often look over to see bright orange flames shooting out the top, boiling a pot of water. Kevin D. and James have gotten creative in coming up with "flow materials" for the stove they are working on (one of Dr. Lautsen's designs). They coined the term "flow material" because it is placed amongst the fuel (coffee husks) and allows air to come through the dense husks. They've used items lying around the garage such as chicken wire, rocks, brick, and bottle caps. The fun thing about these stoves is that we can get really creative, and small changes make a big difference. It just takes some trial and error (and a lot of matches) to figure out the best combinations. This week has been extremely beneficial in giving us the opportunity to perform so many tests and learn about stove design.
The group reunited in the late afternoon, finished up some testing, and cleaned up. Luckily we were told that one of the faculty members here, Steven, would be around on Saturday to open up the garage for us. The extra day of testing would prove to be very beneficial. We said our goodbyes to Dr. Rajabu, because he was leaving at 5 o'clock Saturday morning to travel to Kenya. Nairobi is the first stop on his trip, which is somewhat of a traveling conference to discuss how to standardize transportation regulations between several East African countries. He's modest about it, but this is a big deal and a huge task! After we left we ate dinner on campus, had our nightly recap, and fell asleep quickly.
Saturday July 2 -
Today is our last day working at CoET. The stove guys are getting really creative with each test, and our results are getting better and better. We met with Tsega again today, and she gave us some fantastic documents about her work, briquetting in general, and a 700 page document on combustion. Not exactly what I'd call a relaxing summer read, but they will be very interesting and informative for our projects! We're eating lunch with her (in shifts - some of us have to stay with the burning stoves) and she's been giving us a lot of practical advice about briquette making and cool places to check out in Dar, like a spot called South Beach and her favorite Ethiopian restaurant.
We hope to get home earlier today than the last few days so we can catch up on documenting all of our testing and learning. Tomorrow we are treating ourselves to a real day off. We may try to find a beach, play some Frisbee on the sports fields here at the university, or hang around the research flats and quiz each other on Swahili. Before we sleep we'll pack up and make any last preparations for Monday's flight. Fortunately our flight isn't too early, so we don't have to rush in the morning. We will update again once we get internet in Mwanza or Kigoma.
-Kim Betts
We have already fallen into a morning routine: wake up, breakfast at 8, then head over to the garage at CoET (the College of Engineering and Technology) to work on stove testing. Kevin M. and I headed into the city to pay for our flights from Dar Es Salaam to Mwanza. We will be leaving midday on Monday the 4th, then taking a bus to Kigoma on the 5th. A special thanks goes to Stan, one of our translators, for making travel arrangements in Mwanza for us! Unfortunately we'll be missing Independence Day festivities at the U.S. Embassy in Dar, but we are eager to set out on the next stage of our journey. The ticket-buying process took several hours which included sight-seeing through the city center, the first rain we've seen so far, and stand-still traffic (you thought NYC was a busy place?!). Our driver and the rest of our van mates were really friendly. My favorite part was learning new Swahili terms and about their cultures, to which Kevin reciprocated by teaching them English idioms, which they loved. After some small ticket mishaps, we settled all of the flight plans. We will probably be off internet access for those two days, but we should be able to post when we reach Kigoma.
Another highlight of the day was getting a phone call from Stephanie Crocker, this past year's Tanzania Project leader and our blog poster (Thanks Steph!). Kevin M., Kevin D. and I updated Steph on our trip and received helpful feedback. It's always nice to have the advice of a past traveler and someone outside our travel group who has been here before. We are hoping to set up conference calls periodically to talk to people on campus. Get on the DHE blitzlist if you are around and want notifications about summer DHE meetings and conference call times! (Email dhe@dartmouth.edu). I'll also take this opportunity to mention that our group email address is d.humanitarianengineering@gmail.com, so please feel free to email the account if you have questions, since the group account may be checked more often that individual accounts.
Back at the testing garage, things were really heating up. Emil has been working on modifications to the stove built last year by Ryan Birjoo '11 and Kevin M. Though there are still some problems with smoke and fuel usage, Emil has no trouble getting a huge fire going - we often look over to see bright orange flames shooting out the top, boiling a pot of water. Kevin D. and James have gotten creative in coming up with "flow materials" for the stove they are working on (one of Dr. Lautsen's designs). They coined the term "flow material" because it is placed amongst the fuel (coffee husks) and allows air to come through the dense husks. They've used items lying around the garage such as chicken wire, rocks, brick, and bottle caps. The fun thing about these stoves is that we can get really creative, and small changes make a big difference. It just takes some trial and error (and a lot of matches) to figure out the best combinations. This week has been extremely beneficial in giving us the opportunity to perform so many tests and learn about stove design.
The group reunited in the late afternoon, finished up some testing, and cleaned up. Luckily we were told that one of the faculty members here, Steven, would be around on Saturday to open up the garage for us. The extra day of testing would prove to be very beneficial. We said our goodbyes to Dr. Rajabu, because he was leaving at 5 o'clock Saturday morning to travel to Kenya. Nairobi is the first stop on his trip, which is somewhat of a traveling conference to discuss how to standardize transportation regulations between several East African countries. He's modest about it, but this is a big deal and a huge task! After we left we ate dinner on campus, had our nightly recap, and fell asleep quickly.
Saturday July 2 -
Today is our last day working at CoET. The stove guys are getting really creative with each test, and our results are getting better and better. We met with Tsega again today, and she gave us some fantastic documents about her work, briquetting in general, and a 700 page document on combustion. Not exactly what I'd call a relaxing summer read, but they will be very interesting and informative for our projects! We're eating lunch with her (in shifts - some of us have to stay with the burning stoves) and she's been giving us a lot of practical advice about briquette making and cool places to check out in Dar, like a spot called South Beach and her favorite Ethiopian restaurant.
We hope to get home earlier today than the last few days so we can catch up on documenting all of our testing and learning. Tomorrow we are treating ourselves to a real day off. We may try to find a beach, play some Frisbee on the sports fields here at the university, or hang around the research flats and quiz each other on Swahili. Before we sleep we'll pack up and make any last preparations for Monday's flight. Fortunately our flight isn't too early, so we don't have to rush in the morning. We will update again once we get internet in Mwanza or Kigoma.
-Kim Betts
Dar Es Salaam, days 1 and 2
After 2 days of travel, dinner with Dr. Rajabu, and finding our rooms (located at the University's Research Flats), we all crashed quickly on Tuesday night and slept soundly through the night.
Wednesday morning we woke up surprisingly refreshed and ready to meet with Dr. Rajabu and his dissertation students. However, we ended up taking quite a round-about way to the engineering school; after a good walk and a few directions, we found Dr. Rajabu and our workplace for the next few days. Though it took us a while to find it, at least we got some fresh air and a small tour of the campus! Dr. Rajabu showed us the engineering workspace, complete with all kinds of practice car parts, a nearby machine shop, and the various projects and prototypes from the engineering students. Most of the stove testing work is done out back in a wire garage, where they store pipes, presses, refrigerators, huge bags of husks and pellets, and about a dozen different stove iterations. Many of the stoves were designed and built by Mr. Lautsen, a stove-building expert located in Arusha. We weren't able to meet with the dissertation student working on the pico-hydro project, NAME, but Patrick and Masoud, who work on briquetting and coffee husk stove design, were around to talk to. We spent the day looking at the various stoves, and ended it with a wonderful dinner. It was a great way to get to know more about Dr. Rajabu, Patrick, and Masoud, and to taste some of the diversity of Tanzanian cuisine before heading out west.
Thursday morning was fairly relaxed and we had a chance to break out the water filterers, only to discover that one was, well, less than fully functional. How many engineers does it take to fix a water filter? Clearly less than the number in our group, because it was up before we left. We spent a very productive day in our outdoor stove area, meeting again with Dr. Rajabu and the dissertation students, as well as a new Masters student named Tsega, who is testing the ability to store and ship different kinds of briquettes. She showed us the hand-press used to make briquettes, and we learned more about different materials and binders that could be used. This could be very important information later this summer, when we may try to make our own coffee husk briquettes. An even more exciting development was James' discovery of how to make a prototype pellet stove burn raw coffee husks! We were getting some of the most beautiful, smoke-less fires we've seen, which was just great. Our work was slightly interrupted halfway through the day by a couple of vervet monkeys deciding to drop by the courtyard and hang out for a while! I (Colleen) may have been the most distracted, but they were unbelievably cute.
To top off an already successful day, Kevin and Kim got a solid plan together of how to get the seven of us (and our gear) to Kigoma, despite massive complications. Hurray! We've all been practicing our Kiswahili, and a major victory of the day was each of us succeeding in buying credit for our phones. Admittedly, Thabo and Kevin have a slight advantage on the rest of us (Kevin spent the last summer here, and Thabo already knows a Bantu language), but the rest of the group is catching up... Kind of. We took a small walk to some fields near the university, where there were games of football (soccer, to some) and cricket, and watched for a bit. Back at the flats, the group stayed up a bit reviewing the events of the past few days and going over the plan for tomorrow. I crashed pretty hard once we were back and gladly slept like a log, waking only once to hear the morning call to prayer.
Wednesday morning we woke up surprisingly refreshed and ready to meet with Dr. Rajabu and his dissertation students. However, we ended up taking quite a round-about way to the engineering school; after a good walk and a few directions, we found Dr. Rajabu and our workplace for the next few days. Though it took us a while to find it, at least we got some fresh air and a small tour of the campus! Dr. Rajabu showed us the engineering workspace, complete with all kinds of practice car parts, a nearby machine shop, and the various projects and prototypes from the engineering students. Most of the stove testing work is done out back in a wire garage, where they store pipes, presses, refrigerators, huge bags of husks and pellets, and about a dozen different stove iterations. Many of the stoves were designed and built by Mr. Lautsen, a stove-building expert located in Arusha. We weren't able to meet with the dissertation student working on the pico-hydro project, NAME, but Patrick and Masoud, who work on briquetting and coffee husk stove design, were around to talk to. We spent the day looking at the various stoves, and ended it with a wonderful dinner. It was a great way to get to know more about Dr. Rajabu, Patrick, and Masoud, and to taste some of the diversity of Tanzanian cuisine before heading out west.
Thursday morning was fairly relaxed and we had a chance to break out the water filterers, only to discover that one was, well, less than fully functional. How many engineers does it take to fix a water filter? Clearly less than the number in our group, because it was up before we left. We spent a very productive day in our outdoor stove area, meeting again with Dr. Rajabu and the dissertation students, as well as a new Masters student named Tsega, who is testing the ability to store and ship different kinds of briquettes. She showed us the hand-press used to make briquettes, and we learned more about different materials and binders that could be used. This could be very important information later this summer, when we may try to make our own coffee husk briquettes. An even more exciting development was James' discovery of how to make a prototype pellet stove burn raw coffee husks! We were getting some of the most beautiful, smoke-less fires we've seen, which was just great. Our work was slightly interrupted halfway through the day by a couple of vervet monkeys deciding to drop by the courtyard and hang out for a while! I (Colleen) may have been the most distracted, but they were unbelievably cute.
To top off an already successful day, Kevin and Kim got a solid plan together of how to get the seven of us (and our gear) to Kigoma, despite massive complications. Hurray! We've all been practicing our Kiswahili, and a major victory of the day was each of us succeeding in buying credit for our phones. Admittedly, Thabo and Kevin have a slight advantage on the rest of us (Kevin spent the last summer here, and Thabo already knows a Bantu language), but the rest of the group is catching up... Kind of. We took a small walk to some fields near the university, where there were games of football (soccer, to some) and cricket, and watched for a bit. Back at the flats, the group stayed up a bit reviewing the events of the past few days and going over the plan for tomorrow. I crashed pretty hard once we were back and gladly slept like a log, waking only once to hear the morning call to prayer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)