Saturday, June 14, 2008

Friday by Dr. Steve

Hey, all you folks supporting us should know how *great* it feels when we read your comments. It reminds us that we represent more than just a few students and their advisor while we are here. I think we’ve done a good job so far, because our projects are really reaching fruition. The solar panels do a great job with the pump, even bringing water to the tanks when it’s cloudy. The folks in Bakang put concrete in two more filter molds today, and helped us sieve the sand to put in them. We had a good crowd involved, and I got to ride in a truly massive masonry truck carrying one of our completed filter boxes from the mission to the chief’s quarters (the “chefferie”) in Bakang. We had visitors watch all of this, too – Dr. Nkeng and a student, Valentine, came from the College of Public Works in Yaoundé (about a five-hour drive) because Valentine is going to do research on the filtration process, and now they see the context for his work. We talked his specific problems with the sand properties and getting the right balance between ease of sand preparation, cost of the sand, Peter Njodzeka from the Life and Water Development Group, also in Yaoundé.
Saturday – we’ve finished just about everything, and shipped most of our baggage to Yaoundé so that we can all fit in our vehicle, still tightly packed because we want to bring back some handicrafts to give to our supporting patrons! We feel great!
We’ll post again –
Dr. Steve

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to all, great to hear that the water is flowing and the filters are being produced. Your good planning and execution have paid off. Looking forward to hearing more when you get back. JD

boyfriend sagett said...

Good job guys! Have a safe trip home.

Unknown said...

SSF team says to the Solar team, "Ne touchez pas à mon sable"
Solar team says to SSF team, "Ne se décomposent pas mes panneaux solaires"

Dr. Steve and the EWB team shout out, "Mission accomplie--L'eau potable pour les habitants de Bakang!"

Quiz for Dr. Dentel (aka. Dr Steve) with answers provided!

1. Why does Dr Steve wear that wide brimmed hat?
a. He wants to look like Indiana Jones as he travels to World's end
b. His heart is so big that it sticks out the top of his head as he tries to help the people of Bakang
c. Its a language " Sorting" hat that he must wear to sort out English, French and Bakangian and also to exchange dollars for CFA

ans: b

2. Dr Steve goes on these trips to Cameroon to:
a. Avoid posting his students' grades
b. Enjoy plantains and fish heads on Father's Day
c. Ensure that Dean Chajes can't bug him for a copy of that Research Grant proposal
d. He truly believes in promoting global citizenship, and mentoring these young UDee engineers

ans: d

3. Dr Steve teaches his engineering students that:
a. Their engineering designs should be easily implementable, use readily available materials, is sustainable in the field and designed to near minimum cost.
b. Engineering is about meeting the needs of the customer(e.g. the people of Bakang) through human interaction and customer feedback.
c. That engineering design is more than a technical paper, Powerpoint or spreadsheet design, but must also accommodate other political, social and economic design variables as well
d. none of the above
e. only a through c above

ans: e

Dr Steve, Our hats are off to you!

For Bakang Project, the proposed technical support hotline, please call 1-800-WATER-4-U

Anonymous said...

Hey all, been enjoying reading about your adventure. You folks have really accomplished alot in the short time you've been there. In addition to the superb engineering and construction efforts, the team's ability to collaborate with the community, gov't and NGO members has been truly outstanding. Hats off to Dr. Steve, students, and all newly minted engineers. -Brian

Anonymous said...

Hey all! My entire trip i was so anxious to come home and read this blog, no lie. I'm so proud of all of you for your hard work. I can't wait to get the chance to see all the pictures and hear all the stories.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Sounds like you all had a very successful trip. Thank you for carrying potable water to people who need it so desparately.
Angela D.

Anonymous said...

Well, the hat is actually an attempt to look like Indiana Jones who, you will recall, was widely admired by students when he was a college teacher. But the hat was left behind this trip...it's actually pretty hot for the Cameroonian climate.

Anonymous said...

Hey, just a note to say that Dr. Steve is very happy doing EWB even at the expense of a research proposal here and there. Across the board, UD has been very supportive of his EWB activities.
The EWB students deserve a real shout-out. They have given up many hours of course study time and those going to Cameroon have sacrificed weeks of summer income too. Especially for the first trip, they ventured into an unknown environment when some of their parents and faculty advisors were telling them not to. They're so fantastic!