Thursday, January 21, 2010

We're rollin' now

Hey, readers! Here are some pix to show you our stuff !

Here's our bus in front of the hardware store loading up 350 meters of polyethylene pipe and a bunch of other stuff (try getting Greyhound to do that for you - there are some interesting qualities to this place!). This was BEFORE going to the bus depot and filling up with all the other people and putting their stuff on the roof, which took another three hours (the bus only leaves when it's full).

Picture by Dr. Steve.


We had the back two seats and were not as crowded as the folks in the front. Up on the right the guy was trying to sell us candy - we got a detailed explanation of various bonbons. Fortunately he got off at an early stop.

Heads of Nicole and Guy are visible.

Picture by Linda



Here are three of us in the back seat (two with licorice sticks). The very scholarly Dr. Steve is reqding a book (Fellowship of the Ring, actually). Not shown, Steve M. was to the right. Actually there should be five people in each row, but we had an empty place because Olivia couldn't come with us.

Picture by Linda (she takes thousands!!)



Here's the hand of a woman filling her water jug from the newest tank, in Latsit, finished by Sarah on the last day of the June project. Those familiar with these "citernes" will note that the outer spigot has been broken or removed. This is a real problem with these things. All three were like this, and both on the other new site.

Pic by Linda




Dan, Sean, Steve in front of the Latsit tanks (fence built by the local folks since our last trip).

Today we assembled the rack mount here for the solar panels, met a bunch of kids, had the pump and access pit dug, ordered blocks to be made, and aranged for sand, gravel, and cement to be trucked out to our site.

Forget the photo credits...unless otherwise noted, photo by Linda!

Here Nicole discusses valve options for the citerne with the hardware folks. You can only see Dr. Steve's hat to the left but he was trying to translate while this was going on.

We bought this tank and it's already back in Bamendjou for installation up at the school. Today we had the foundation area dug up where it will be. We've also walked over and eceided on the route for the pipeline connecting the tank to its pump down at the bottom of the hill. Digging on this starts tomorrow!



Here's Linda showing her strength after we bought a section of pvc pipe. I told them she was carrying it out of the storage yard partly as a joke, but then they swept all the dust off of it for her, so we followed through (she got quite dusty anyway).
This pipe will be used in short vertical sections where we have lectrical junctions, for surface access.
Obviously Linda didn't also take the picture, but Dr. Steve used her camera.



Finally, Monday was Market Day. Here's a view. We had too much to do to spend much time shopping - we'll do some souvenir shopping when we get our project done.

But we did need some towels, and there was a big selection. I even found two that match!

That's it for now. We're going to catch up to our schedule tomorrow after luggage delays and a lot of re-engineering of various details of this stuff (for example, the at-home design team members are thinking HEY - why only one storage tank???). It's different some times once you're on site.

And to keep up the suspense ---- no news yet on our tool bag. But we did realize we have tons of useful stuff stashed here from the last trip. We're pretty good to go. Wish we could find the electric drill, though.

Water is life!

Dr. Steve

8 comments:

Ramsey Hazbun said...

Well, glad you guys are taking your problems/setbacks in stride. hard to imagine you guys have already been gone for almost a week!

Let me know if you need help engineering some new solutions to your wiring/electrical issues. We might be able to come up with a suitable solution using other materials available in country.

Anonymous said...

I am SO JEALOUS that you got to ride a bus!!!
You guys are awesome, keep up the sock-rocking work!

Alyssa

Unknown said...

Great Pictures! Glad to hear things are progressing. Haha, we spent a little bit too much time thinking about the wet well that we overlooked the connection of the storage tanks...

Did the place where you bought the Large Diameter PVC pipe have the parts for more wet-wells?

Keep up the great work!

Taylor said...

You guys are doing great! I'm so excited for you guys! I was a little worried about the tanks when I saw the taps were missing, but it seems like you guys have it under control. Keep us updated on that!

Great pictures!

Melissa said...

You guys are awesome. Keep on being rockstars.

(ps I am totally using the design matrix and a few other things from your old reports to get the CMU chapter report up and kicking. holy crap, thank you for being ORGANIZED - their project has been around for two years now and nothing has been implemented yet because, between the professional and two school chapters, no one knows what's going on!)

Nura said...

hey friends!

just give a hollar if you need a technical consult questions. haha, just kidding!

i'm SO sad to not be there this time around, but i'm looking forward to crashing the next EWB gala.

misssing you guys!

Catherine said...

Way to rock the 'roon guys :)
-Catherine

Doug DeVoto said...

It's great to see the pictures, although three wide in a bus is too much room! You probably know but Cameroon lost to Egypt yesterday.