Water for Bakang and Balatsit - update

Here are some pictures of the new wells, taken recently by Nura. The top picture is the second Bakang well after a bit of cleaning up by the community folks. Pix 2 and 3 show the storage tanks near the new well at the crossroads in Balatsit. They've installed a fence around the tanks and they also dug in some steps (more than visible here) to make it easier to get up and down the slope. There's also a fence around the well itself (not shown here).

You can see we've got some happy people there! Our next trip is planned for January, to start connecting everything with a storage system at the top of the school hill. Stay tuned!

Dr. Steve

Read Sarah's posts below!!

Well 2 drilled! Engineers with TWO WELLS!

How long does it take to drill a well?

About 5 days, without any major problems. Well 2 in Balatsit is now complete to 51 meters, cleaned and a little late.

How long does it take to install a pump and piping, and wire a solar controller?

Approximately 4.5 hours. FORAX finished cleaning the well the day I had to leave village, in fact the day of my flight out of Cameroon. I arrived at the second site at 6:30am. My flight wasn’t until 10:50pm. It started to rain. Well drilling belongs in the category of ‘Dirty Jobs’ for a reason, but I think it’s even messier in Africa because of the clay. The drilling had already saturated the land around the well. For spatial reasons, we had located the tanks and panels uphill from the well. Not only were we stepping through shoe deep mud around the well to lower the pump, but also climbing up and down this small, wet mound to get to the tanks and panels. So in order to get down this mound to get one of the million tools partially sheltered from the rain in one of the boutiques, I would plant my feet and slide down, snowboard-style...except not that graceful. To get up it, I had to have someone pull me with a length of PVC. It was mildly hilarious.

Rain. rain. rain on my parade.

We finished everything but wiring the float switch and covering the trenches by 11am, at which point I had to leave to catch a five-hour bus to Younde. Janvier will finish the wiring and cover the trenches and Nura will report on how the system is operating.

Two moto rides, one five-hour bus ride, three taxis and two planes later, I arrived at home. The last question on the airport custom’s form asks if you are bringing soil into the country. I lied. I had changed my clothes before boarding, but there was nothing I could do about my shoes. My shoes are caked in mud and when I arrived in Newark International Airport, I think it was fairly evident from my appearance that I installed a pump in Africa this morning in the rain, in spite of my efforts to clean the mud off my arms and legs with wet wipes.

It didn’t occur to me that the next time I had internet access to post this news would be after I had hugged my family, ate a cheeseburger and took a hot shower. My skin no longer has a red-orange tint, but I feel like maybe I lost something more than just the clay engrained in my skin. I already miss Bamendjou.

...Sarah

1 well drillled!!!!!! woooo finally Engineers WITH a WELL

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here is a summary, in order of increasing importance:

I ate cookies for breakfast this morning because the donut (aka benyay ...sp?) place across the street was closed.

The other day, I used a machete for the first time. I cut all of the tall grasses in Nura's garden to clear the way for new plants, while alternatively cursing and talking to them. Yes, the weeds are anglophone, and yes I am going crazy. The grass grew back before we had the chance to fully pull it up and plant.

I ate meat for the first time in two weeks the other day. We killed a chicken in the yard. And by we, I mean that I took no part in it whatsoever, but I did eat it. Rather guiltily. I hope I'm not becoming a vegetarian (sorry Dr. Steve).

On Sunday, the technician from Baffoussam gave his final word that the drill rig had been fixed and left. On Monday, FORAX finished drilling at the first site. They had hit water at 28 meters, drilled to 51 meters, and cased or screen down to 46 meters. On Tuesday, they finished developing the well with the air lift compressor. After 14 days and probably about 6 broken parts, they finished the work they had promised us in the beginning would only take 3 days. 

And so, yesterday they went to move the rig to the second drill site and (I would say this should have been fairly predictable by now) it wouldn't start. It was a problem completely unrelated to the air hammer pump fiasco - the truck battery had died. I'm generally not a superstitious person, but at this point, I was wondering if perhaps we were drilling on sacred land, maybe I had done something in a past life, used up all my good luck on other ewb trips. I took out my frustration by trying to dig the trenches to lay the piping with a pick ax. Its a lot harder than it looks, and Janvier decided I was doing it wrong anyway and took over. The mason came and laid the concrete foundation around the well to set the pump base, all the while the drill group was waiting for yet another technician to fix their truck. 

Well, I like technicians. The drill rig is now set up at the second site, ready to drill this well is 3 days, as I am assured by the still-optimistic drilling team...barring any technical problems, of course. In the highly unlikely scenario that they finish drilling by Friday (oh my gosh, that's tomorrow!), I will owe Guy a drink...but I have a feeling I am going to win this bet. 

With all the piping and foundations laid, and trenches dug at the first site, today we lowered the pump and finished wiring. The sun was shining and for the first time in 2 weeks, something went absolutely and perfectly right...the pump turned on powered by the solar panels and filled the tank. I love solar power. I understand that problems are inevitable, and learning from them is invaluable. Such is engineering, such is life. But it is wonderful when something just works and you don't have to fight for it. 

I am still looking forward to tomorrow, but not because I'll be one day closer to leaving.

much love,
Sarah

Public Enemy Number 1: The hill

I ran to Bakang yesterday. That's right, in case you missed the verb in that sentence, I ran. Ok, so I almost died, but it was the hill that almost killed me. The Bakang hill, me and the mile elevation do not get along at all. I swear, by the end of my stay here, I will be able to run up the Bakang hill. I might need a little more than 10 days though. Being here without a car has deepened my respect for the people from Bakang and Balatsit. They climb this hill when they want something from town, usually with 30 lbs of stuff on their head, and I have difficulty walking up it, carrying just myself. Who needs an institution like the gym when it takes so much energy just to survive?

While the drillers are still (STILL) searching for the right part in Baffoussam, I went with Nura to Baham to meet with her students about their service projects. We took a moto taxi there, which is by far my favorite mode of transportation here. I love most modes of transportation that involve the wind in face, but there is nothing like a moto ride through Cameroon. Except perhaps if I was driving it. But for all of its lax or non-existent road rules, I don't think Cameroon is ready for that...so do not worry. However, this moto ride, I was wondering what would happen if my left flip flop got caught in the drive chain but I couldn't move my leg because the moto driver was half sitting on my lap. After the meeting, we walked to the next town, two hours away, to get a moto back. I got some donuts for the road, which are fried dough balls sprinkled with sugar, much like American donuts except better since they don't have additives or preservatives. Donuts and motos. It was a good day.

Today I'm going to camp out at the drill site in Bakang and supervise the repair of the drill rig. I will update you all on the status soon!

Sarah

Ashia for well drilling and the very rainy season

The well drillers brought yet another piece from Douala to fix the rig. It didn't to work and they are sending someone back to Douala to find a new piece, but the earliest they will be able to begin again is Wednesday, which is code for Thursday. We are still at meter 35. So you have another blog devoid of engineering fun as there has been none, but believe me, I am just as disappointed as you. I learned a new word that sums up our entire Cameroonian well drilling experience and that is "Ashia." Nura says that, loosely translated, this word means "I'm sorry that your life sucks" or "I feel your pain." It can be said in conjunction with a number of things such as "ashia for stomach" if you hear someone has a stomach ache. So, "ashia for well drilling."

Nura returned and brought her wealth of knowledge of french and cooking foods that aren't rice. Did you know that you can make cheese cake without cheese? We made cheese cake the other night (and by we, I mean Nura...I'm pretty sure all I did was watch the small miracle) from a recipe found in the PVC survival cookbook "Chop Fayner" (pigeon for "Good Eating"). It was good eating. Amazing, actually.

We went to market in Baffoussam so that I could buy warm clothes. Riding four wide in the back of a bush taxi is less fun than it looks, but I am happily much warmer now and hopefully, a little less smelly. I learned that you can do pretty much all your food shopping by sitting outside at a restaurant and calling to the street vendors who walk past carrying their wares. Lemons, limes, carrots, onions all walked by and joined their place in Nura's shopping bag for dinner later.

I was caught in a downpour yesterday in Bakang with Nura and another visiting Peace Corps Volunteer. It occurs to me now that EWB has never been to Cameroon during the actual rainy season. For those of you who have been to Bakang, you know that there are two very steep slopes on the way to village. You know that they are roads simply because they lack vegetation, but their general incline, and rocky/rutted nature resists even a four-wheel drive vehicle's attempts to climb them. You know that once the rain starts the clay turns slick as ice and nearly as deadly. Well, now imagine these two slopes in a downpour, when they turn into venerable waterfalls. Imagine walking up and down them in flipflops. I can tell you, it just might be possible to get hypothermia in Cameroon.

The rain knocked down the power line to Nura's house. Perhaps it is less of a powerline and more of an extension cord running through the garden and propped up on a stick, out of the reach of the massive brussel sprout plants that are taking over. When this happens, of course you would ask your neighbor, Bernard the Metallurgist to fix it, because, as a welder, surely he would also know how to fix powerlines. Of course, he did. But as he twisted the connections together, sparks flying everywhere, and wrapped it with my spare roll of electrical tape (which apparently I carry everywhere for emergencies such as these), it struck me as perhaps not the best thing to do in the rain. Bernard is a hero.

The sun is out so I'm going to work in the garden, while avoiding the the powerline and the lurking brussel sprout plants which might eat me.

courage,

Sarah

J'aime les arachides

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! It is father's day, right? I thought perhaps I missed it back in January when my sister Katie told me it was Father's Day and I believed her.

This is Sarah here. Alas, all the ewb kids have left for the States but me. And my team, of course, which consists of Nura the Peace Corps Volunteer and Guy, although neither of them are around at the moment. I stayed behind to oversee the well drilling here, and install the pumps in the off-chance that FORAX finishes drilling in the next two weeks. As I have surprisingly little to do and no anlgophones to bother, I suspect there will be many blog posts from me in Bamendjou. I am staying at Nura's house which has running water, electricity most of the time, and internet when I can figure out how to get it to work (apparently Africa is too techy for me).

For subsaharan Africa, it is surprisingly cold and rainy. Since we are still at an impasse with well drilling, the first thing on my agenda is to buy warm clothes. That is, once I can figure how to say "where can I find a winter parka?" in French. No one left me with a French-English dictionary, and after many failed conversations in which I may have convinced the people of Bamendjou that I am the village idiot, I have developed a prodigious phobia of Francophones. At any rate, I haven't made any progress on developing the community relationship. Hopefully, Nura will come back soon and explain to Bamendjou that I'm not stupid or mute and that if I look lost, one should just give me peanuts and try not to say anything to me involving any French verbs or nouns. Apparently, the only words I know, which incidentally are "peanuts" (les arachides) and "well" (forage), will not get me terribly far in life, especially when all I want is long pants, a winter coat and maybe some gloves. Although a cheeseburger might be nice too.

Once the rain stops, I am going to walk to the Bakang drill site to see if driller's have fixed the rig and I will let you know if they have (the status, as of my walk yesterday, was unchanged). In the meantime, I am going to make some instant coffee, watch the rain and try not to hold my breath.

much love from the 'roon,

Sarah

A few pix . . .

Just a few pictures as we pack up from our hotel in Yaoundé....

This is in Balatsit. We're putting together the rack for solar panels. You can see our water tanks in the background, and the local folks mixing concrete for the tanks' support base. In the way background is the road co,ing down the hill fro, the Bakang school, where the big storage tank is to be. Kids are coming down because school just let out - it was the last say so they all had their report cars ("bulletins") saying if they passed!







Here's the rack with panels on! This was a hot day with only an occasional breeze.













And here is the well drilling operation, progressing very slowly, on the other side of the hill in Bakang. When they finally finish this, they'll drill near the setup shown in the above pictures in Balatsit.








The uploading is pretty slow, so this is all for now. I'm sure Sarah will be blogging while she waits for the well drilling to get done. Don't worry, she has a great support team with her. But I told people that she is the "Directrice!"

-Dr. Steve, Yaoundé June 16th