Bye Muzungu!

So I know that I stole this title from Helen, but it was too good to go without repeating. Our internet data package expired almost immeadiately after the last blog was published, so we do not have much for the rest of our time here (which, luckily is not too long). The EWB-MIT team is back in Kampala with Daphne again. We were picked up this morning by the driver Daphne´s family sent. The private van is an experience as different from our matatu rides as pit latrines from toilets. It was nice to be able to watch the scenery by choice, and not because your face is pressed against the window.

It was definately bittersweet to leave Ddegeya. Bitter, of course, because we are leaving our newfound friends behind, the clinic staff and the minerva fellows and the local kids that chase us down the road shouting, "Hi Kate! Hi Scott! Hi Steven! Hi Leticia!" Sweet, because we know we accomplished the work we came to do. We built our prototypes, talked with the community, and laid the groundwork for implementation.

This afternoon, we met for a little with Dr. Musaazi at Makarere University. We discussed the work we did and talked about the technologies: ferrocement and clay tanks, first flush, and the pump. Dr. Musaazi was very excited about the pump. For the tanks he builds, he says the problem is always the pump. He cannot provide or create a reasonably priced pump. The pump costs $120 (300,000 UGX) and ours cost about 50,000 UGX and is easily made and repaired by the people who use them and with local materials.

A great end to our time in Ddegeya. We head back to the states on Friday, to return on Saturday, another bittersweet departure.

A Final Meeting

Today was full of showing off our work, the prototypes that we spent our time in Ddegeya constructing. We began the morning with two tasks. Steven, Leticia, Irene, and Lynette, went once again to St. Gertrude´s (the primary school up the road) to try to give another water education presentation. The students have been on vacation for the entirety of our time in Ddegeya so we hoped that they would be back in school. Today was the first day back, but the headmaster suggested returning tomorrow when more of the students would actually be in class. So tomorrow we will give the presentation to the students. Hopefully, they will bring the knowledge of cleaner, safer water back home to share with their families. This part of the EWB team also stopped by the tank built last summer to collect a water sample for testing (we had leftover testing equipment and were curious as the results) and talked to the household where the tank is. From the conversation with the family, water is shared fairly throughout the year, depending on rainy or dry season. The woman we were talking to said that about ten families drew water from the tank. Each household could take a jerrican every day during the rainy season and one jerrican every two days during the dry season. If the tank spills over, each household can take as much as they want. The family claims that the tank has never been empty, though they may say this to appease those who provided the tank. But overall, the feedback concerning that tank has been positive.

While that portion of the EWB team was out and about, Katelyn and Scott conducted tests on the ennhanced inertia pump to determine how long it takes to fill a jerrican. The pump requires moderately paced strokes, approximately one pump per second. If it is pumped faster than this, water flows over the top a little. At the rate of one pump per .9 to 1 seconds (54-60 strokes per minute) the pump produced 5.5L-6.5L per minute. This means a 20L jerrican can be filled in approximately 4 minutes, a very reasonable rate. We conducted three trials of the volume test and all yielded 5.5L to 6.5L per minute.

The entire team spent the rest of the morning preparing for the meeting this afternoon with the waterboard and the households where the tanks will be placed.

The meeting was set for 4PM and the majority of the group was at the clinic by 4:20, excellent by African time. We started by discussing each of our major points. We introduced the two types of tanks we worked on, the ferrocement and clay lined with waterproof cement render. We talked about the pump and the first flush system. We reviewed the cluster requirements (150,000 UGX on our return, maintanence by the household with the tank, and shared water access). We tried to tell them that the household with the tank receives no special privelages or access to the water. They actually rolled their eyes at us and Lynette told us during preparation that they would "laugh mockingly" at the suggestion. However, the sharing of last year´s tank and their common agreement about equal access to water indicates that sharing water should not be an issue. We also talked about water sanitation. We brought up recontamination of clean water in dirty containers, but everyone said they already separted jerricans for boiled water and jerricans for unsanitized water. We demonstrated the use of Waterguard (a chlorine tablet) with the Pathoscreen, changing the black sample (full of choloforms) to yellow by adding the Waterguard. After the discussions, we moved down to the tanks themselves. We demonstrated the pump, the first flush, and both the tanks, which have been successfully holding water since yesterday afternoon.

The big surprise of the meeting was the reaction of the community members to the clay tank. Previously, the members of the water board dismissed the clay tank as dirty and porous. However, when we brought it up today, especially with the addition of the waterproof cement top layer, everyone was incredibly interested. They were asking for direct instructions and ratios of concrete for the bottom. We told them the technical and construction information, but warned them that we only knew that it would work for a few days. We do not know exactly how the clay will hold up after the wet season, if the shrink/swell properties of clay will crack the tank, or how best to create the dimensions. The members of the waterboard gave us the impression that they will try the clay tank, regardless of whether we know if it works or not. We also tried to make it very clear that a top was necessary for the tank, not only to keep the debris out, but for the safety of people and children around the household.

At the end of the meeting, people on both sides, EWB and water board were happy. Technologies were explained and questions answered. A final full day in Ddegeya tomorrow to finish up the little things and cleaning up our little messes until we head back to Kampala with Daphne. We plan to meet with Dr. Musaazi upon our return. He wanted to tell us more about his interlocking brick system and his experience with helping rural villages in Uganda. A good morning, a good day, and a good night. Steven just lost to Eddie while playing chess and is now trying to teach Eddie tic tac toe, perhaps in an attempt to find a game that he can win. Catsgame. But another day awaits.

Safari

This weekend, we found ourselves with few tasks to complete, other than waiting for the tank linings to cure. So we decided to wait for them to cure while we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park. While there, we saw lions, elephants, hippos, baboons, monkeys, and birds, among other things. We returned to Ddegeya this afternoon and we planned our final week. The main task in front of us is the presentation of our prototype tanks to the waterboard and the community. While distributing MOU´s, all interested members of the community were invited to come see the tanks and ask questions. We are prepared to make our final push this week and complete our tasks.

Community

Yesterday, Leticia, Irene, Lynette, and Steven went to four of the clusters to distribute MOU´s, explain their purpose and talk to neighbors. The household that the tank is on is responsible for getting the signatures of all the cluster members. On Monday we asked the households and everyone interested in the cluster to visit our tank prototypes. We will load them with water and show them the models and see their opinions and concerns.

Katelyn and Scott worked on creating a Harold pump as another alternative and jerryrigged a charcoal press. The Harold pump worked, though the strokes required to pull water were prohibitively long; we still think the enhanced inertia pump is our best bet. We also conducted a burn of maize cobs, leaves, and stalks. Even though the fire consumed all of the materials, the cobs did not carbonize fully and do not seem to be the best option for us. Of all the materials we have carbonized, banana and matooke leaves are best. The dead leaves are plentiful on the ground and hanging off of trees, burn easily, and created a perfect carbonized "dust."

Around noon, the entire EWB team was walking the village and got caught in a true African rainy season torrential downpour. Most people ducked under a roof or tree to wait it out and one person made a mad dash back to the clinic. Regardless of which choice was made, everyone arrived back soaked.

During the afternoon, Steven and Leticia worked on documentation and the 522 while Katelyn pressed charcoal. Despite the feedback that we had received about matooke and banana peels being used to feed cattle, goats, and pigs, we used matooke peels (scraping the sticky side off) as a binder. Not all households have these animals, and even when the sticky side is scraped off, the peel can still be used as feed. However, the matooke peels are very green and the "sticky" side is actually not that sticky. It can barely hold the briquette toghether. We also tried cutting open not yet ripe jackfruit and using the very sticky syrup as a binder, but the syrup produced was not even enough for one briquette. It seems that jackfruit has only enough stickiness to make your hands stick toghether. The barriers of prohibitive cost of making the charcoal press and the issues with binders means that the implementation of the charcoal project in Ddegeya may be difficult.

In the evening, the EWB team went to Eddie´s cluster to talk about the tanks and receive signature on the MOU. Everyone signed the MOU, but one neighbor (Eddie´s grandmother, in fact) raised some issues. Her home is located halfway between Eddie´s and Muchala Muwanika´s homes and she is elderly and claims to be without children much of the year. Her roof is larger. One option is to build a larger tank at her home for the neighbors of Eddie and Muchala Muwanika. Some members of Ddgeya have raised the issue that Muchala Muwanika does not have many neighbors, in fact her next door neighbor already has an extensive tank system. However, politics plays a huge role in the placement of the tanks. Muchala Mwanika is an outspoken member of the waterboard and has been a great friend to EWB, housing travelers in the past. The tanks must be community driven, and if the residents of Ddegeya and the waterboard are less receptive to the tanks, the implemetation may be more difficult.

Dirty Work

I think tonight we´ll all be enjoying a bucket shower to recover from our work this afternoon. We laid down the thin render of waterproofed cement on the ferrocement tank. We also put a layer of the waterproof cement over the clay tank. Cracks have appeared on the sides and in two spots, the top layer of cement has peeled off a little. We suspect that we did not take enough care during the first few days after we lay the clay to keep it a little wet and covered. The sun was probably too harsh. While the majority of the team worked to mix cement and lay the renders, Katelyn continued burning leaves to make charcoal with.

The first burn happened this morning. We tried banana leaves in our small scale metal bin. The fire took immeadiately and once the smoke ceased, the bin was covered. Upon inspection this afternoon (the rain meant only one burn in the morning), we found that only the bottom half of the banana leaves in the bin had carbonized-- the top half was untouched. However, the leaves that did burn carbonized perfectly. We conducted a second burn with banana leaves, this time with the leaves less densely packed. This time everything burned, but too much oxygen got into the bin and about half of the leaves turned to ash. For the third burn, we found the perfect aim between too little fire and too much air. Instead of banana leaves, we tried mango leaves. Although perfectly dry, the mango leaves resisted fire. We tried with mango leaves sticking out the bottom to light but they wouldn´t catch. And then we tried with banana leaves at the bottom as the fuse to light the mango leaves inside. The banana leaves burned but the mango leaves refused to do so. We finally ended up dropping a match down the chimney to the bottom and covering it with a few leaves. The mango leaves finally caught fire, produced the thick smoke, and once the smoke ceased, the bin was covered and let to sit. The carbonized "dust" from this burn was perfect. However, not all of the mango leaves burned; some leaves were half carbonized, half seemingly untouched by the fire. All in all, good results for the first round of burns.

This morning, while Katelyn and Lynette were cleaning the bin and starting the first burn, Steven, Scott, Leticia, and Irene went with Eddie to see and measure the remaining two clusters. The measurements were made on the last two homes that have been selected to house the rain water catchment system. The group also went to the tank built last summer. We were impressed with the masonry (it had been done by professionals). Our prototypes behind Engeye are functional, but they lack the smooth and professional appearance. We also spoke to a neighbor in the area about how the tank is functioning. Is the water from it shared? Some previous feedback that we had recieved was that the majority of the water was used by the household where the tank was located. This neighbor assured us that everyone shared the water from the tank. There was some frustration during the dry season when the water each household could take from the tank was only 1 jerrican. Perhaps that is where the complaints come from.

Overall a good day. I sign off to scrub the charcoal dust off of my arms and to rest up for another day of work tomorrow.

Progress

The past couple of days have been full of work. On Monday, the team went to the three clusters we´ve already seen and took measurements of where the tanks will be placed. Roof height, ground slope, etc. We also worked on formatting the first flush system with a pipe. Using the pipe to collect roof runoff makes access to clear the runoff easier. A bottle to collect runoff would have to be on a stand that would be built. The bottle would have to be detached from the first flush system and emptied and reattached. A pipe would not require a stand, just some extra support for the weight. And to clear the runoff from the system, the PVC cap at the bottom of the cap would just need to be removed and then reattached.

Yesterday, the travel team accomplished a lot. Yesterday had its ups and downs, but finished very well. In the morning we worked on logistics and laid the chicken mesh in the ferrocement tank and began the second render. Because the chicken mesh available in Masaka is thin and not particularly strong (and because the documents we´ve been working off of do not specify the type of "chicken mesh"), we initially doubled up the chicken mesh. However, this caused the render to bow out a bit, so we cut out the second layer of chicken mesh. We also built an aboveground section of the tank to demonstrate that the tank will be partially aboveground. About two thirds of the tank circumfrence has the above ground portion, 4 bricks tall. In the afternoon, Lynette and Katelyn went into Masaka for (hopefully) the last time and the rest stayed to continue to hard work or laying the second render. In Masaka, we purchased a small metal tin to do charcoal burns in and had a welder burn holes in the bottom. We printed out the MOU´s for the clusters, got more water for the clinic, and on our way back, we stopped in Kinone to buy some more food for the clinic. While in town, we spoke to the welder about making the charcoal press. He understood the design, but demanded 40,000 UGX to make the press, which is way above the estimated cost of $2-5. Luckily, the travel team had already come up with a press without welding.

And at the end of yesterday, after a hard day of work on everyone´s part, we walked up to the shops up the street and got some banana pancakes and finally saw the stars, which were magnificent.

Weekend Work

The EWB team spent the weekend doing a mixture of work and play. Yesterday morning, we split into two groups; some lay down the first render on the ferrocement tank and plastered the bottom of the clay tank and the others collected agricultural waste (banana leaves, mango leaves, maize stalks and leaves and cobs) to burn to make charcoal. The day was very hot and the morning was filled with hardwork so we retired to naptime for part of the afternoon and then journeyed to the village up the hill across the valley to watch a football game between the villages. Rain and storm interrupted our travels to the pitch so some of us returned to the clinic and some braved out the rain to watch the game.

Pump Power!

After a night and morning of rain, our tanks under the tarp were still in good shape. We mixed concrete for the base of the clay tank and poured it. We will finish it tomorrow by covering the rough concrete with a cement sand mix to smooth it and seal the junction between clay walls and concrete base. We dug the hole for the ferrocement tank from the center of the ring beam as well. Unfortuneately, we hit a solid rock layer closer to the surface than we expected so the ferrocement prototype tank will only be .5 meters deep, but it should still be sufficient for our testing purposes. Once the rain set in again (the rainy season is beginning here) we shifted our focus to building the pump. We constructed an enhanced inertia pump from a couple of lengths of PVC, a PVC tee, and two wooden foot valves. The power drill at the clinic was missing the cord, so we ended up drilling all the holes on the inner PVC with a leatherman. Other than this inconvenience, the construction was incredibly easy. At the end of the afternoon, we put the completed pump in a plastic rain water catchment tank at the clinic and began pumping. Our first trial was a little overenthusiastic and I (Katelyn) ended up receiving a pump shower. But it works! The pump action is smooth and each stroke produces a surprising amount of water, considering the simple design. We were very excited with the results of the afternoon´s work and we may look into trying the Harold pump design because of the similarities to the enhanced inertia pump that proved effective. This evening, we created a list of the rest of our tasks and reviewed our rough schedule for the rest of our stay here. We´re right on track and will continue to work hard to stay that way!

New Ideas and Possibilities

Every morning, we wake up, have some tea or coffee, discuss our plans and then get down to work. Sometimes the work is purchasing materials, building prototypes, or digging holes for tanks. Today, much of our work resembled playing in the mud. And by mud, I mean clay, harvested from the valley. While here, we are prototyping rain water catchment tank options. One option is ferrocement-- a layer of cement, then chicken wire, then cement. Another option is a compacted clay tank. Originally, we were all skeptical of the compacted clay; it was essentially a large, tank shaped hole. We decided to take the tank a bit further. The compacted "clay" mentioned before is really the soil in which we dug the hole which has clay components. However, the valley is full of pretty fine clay. We walked into the valley to find the clay and found plenty of exposed deposits, but it was baked hard in the sun and we could not think how to harvest it. But on our beautiful walk back to the clinic through the valley we came upon a clay brick maker. In front of him was a pit and harvested clay. We spoke to him and asked if we could purchase some clay. Initially he was reluctant, saying that the clay was for bricks and that just clay had never been sold before. We convinced him that we would love to buy some clay and he agreed. Some members of our travel team returned today to collect and transport the clay. The amount of clay that we gussed we would need for our prototype tank (1 m in diameter and .75 m deep) for 5000 UGX (less than two US dollars) plus the small amount we paid a village boy to load the clay onto his bike and help us get it to the prototype site.

While part of our team was pushing the bike and clay up the hill, three of us were in Masaka once again puchasing PVC and various components for the pump and printing out water education brochures (plus a mandatory chocolate purchase). The ride back to Ddegeya was an experience. 10 people were stuffed into a small sedan with our 7 ft lengths of PVC sticking out of the trunk, dubiously tied down.

Once everyone was reunited, we started coating the walls of the tank in the finer clay from the valley. Steven would like to mention the scrapes and cuts he incurred while trying to collect water from the borehole. Of course, once his scrapes were cleaned and bandaged, he insisted that we start digging another hole or mixing concrete immeadiately; of course, with his hands all bandaged, he would not be able to hold a shovel, but would provide moral support and supervision. The rest of us declined and continued our original work. Our methodology for coating the hole with clay was amusing; local children and adults alike seemed to be entertained by our antics. John came down and laughed and said he hadn´t played in the mud since he was little, but went on to provide new ideas for the tank. We sprinkled the clay walls with cement dust, drizzled a little more water on it. A mason working on a house next door showed us the method. Apparently, it´s how masons and contractors finish floors. We think we´ll make the base of the tank concrete, for added strength when people jump in to clean it.

This tank is potentially very exciting. If this tank holds water well enough, it has great potential to be an affordable and accessable for many people in the area. It´s a tank that anyone can build and is very cheap. Of course, we haven´t filled it with water yet to test it. Another potential obstacle is the cultural view of clay. People that we´ve talked to have been skeptical of the cleanliness and effectiveness of a clay tank, though we are trying to explain it as a pot holding water in the ground. Once we see how well it works we can invest more thought into this project.

This weekend will be dedicated to continued work on prototypes-- building the pump, continued work on the ferrocement tank, building the concrete base for the clay tank, trying the first flush system with a pipe instead of a jug, and collecting agricultural waste to burn for charcoal creation.

One of the perks of being an engineer is playing in the mud (or the circuitry or the chemistry) to create something tangible-- something that helps others.

First Flush and First Water Board Meeting

Our prototyping has been going well. During the morning, we split into two teams, one to build a first flush prototype and another to plan materials for making the alternative charcoal. The team assembled a first flush system, using a 5 gallon water jug, a PVC T junction, and some small sections of tin piping. The initial prototype used a small inflatable ball as a valve, but once the ball was removed, the first flush system worked just as well. The mixing was minimal. Soon, we will be testing a first flush system where the debris is collected from a hanging PVC pipe. The other group brainstormed new ideas for binder materials for the charcoal process. The feedback received from the community indicates that matooke and banana peels are used for cattle feed and few would be willing to sacrifice them for charcoal creation. Likewise, cassava is a food and very few are willing to boil it for charcoal. However, we came up with a few possible binders to try; jackfruit trees produce a lot of sap and gum that are easily collected. The leaves of jackfruit trees are also very sticky. We will try these and continue to search for different binder options.

We also had our first water board meeting. We opened with the presentation of EWB´s mission to create sustainable technologies-- to teach intsead of give. We discussed the cluster responsibilities and the collection of funds. Several clusters have already demonstrated the ability to collect the funds. We also decided to keep the contribution per cluster at 150,000 UGX, regardless of inflation. The water board was invited to view our prototype tanks in about a week, when they are more complete.

Hello everyone! Yesterday after we blogged, we split up into two groups. One group went to visit three clusters. Cluster discussions went better than expected! we talked to 3 clusters and they all were excited.
The three houses we visited had big roofs and we took pictures of them so we can then estimate their sizes. We localized all of them on a map.
The householders from each cluster brought up very interested thoughts too.
The first cluster suggested that she could probably pay all the money alone in case the other families do not want to pay for it. She said that when her neighbords want water then they would have to pay her. However we thought that they all should contribute in order that they all feel comfortable in going to the house to get water.

The second cluster suggested to create a common "bank" where every family of the cluster could deposit the money as soon as they have it. If they have the money at home there is always something to spend it on. We thought that this may be a good idea, but will have to discuss more how something like this could be implemented.

For the third cluster, the woman who owned the household where the tank was decided to be built was on the waterboard.

The other team, Daphne and Steven (me!), went into Masaka to buy materials. We managed to purchase tools for making the ferrocement tank (spades, etc) and got custom-made tools for helping to compact clay for the compacted clay prototype! Along with that, they we found where to buy waterguard and got the materials needed to make the SODIS prototype. It took a lot longer to get everything than we thought, but we were back by nightfall. Taxis in Uganda are crazy!

The next day we also got a lot accomplished! In the morning we looked around for clay in order to line the compacted clay tank. Daphne suggested lining the tank with clay, firing it (by putting a fire in the hole), and then seeing if it can hold water. We think that the community might accept it, if we sell it as working similar to a big pot in the ground. We found a clay brick-maker who said that he would be able to sell us clay for a pretty low price. So, if the clay tank works, and is accepted by the community, it will be a far cheaper option than even ferrocement!



Later in the day, we got to making prototypes. We built the SODIS prototype and the incubator. We had a long discussion about how to make the first flush prototype and a group left to Masaka to buy materials.

The Beginning of the Tanks

Yesterday, we spent the morning planning tank prototype construction and calculating the quantities of each material that we would need for prototyping. After a lot of discussion, the group decided to construct the ring beam on the ferrocement tank prototype because the juncture of belowground ferrocement and ringbeam seems to be one of the most likely places for fault to occur.

In the afternoon, Daphne and I (Katelyn) went into Masaka town to purchase all the materials for construction while Steven, Leticia, Irene, Lynette, and Scott stayed in Ddegeya to prep the construction sites (otherwise known as digging a big hole). They worked hard all afternoon. Masaka was busy. We visited the same store that Daphne, Helen, and Michael visited in June-- the guy working there even remembered Daphne. We purchased four bags of cement, 10 meters of chicken wire, half a truck bed of sand, and about 2 wheel barrows of stone aggregate and then hired some transportation to take all of it to Ddegeya. Daphne and I arrived with the materials at the site behind the clinic to find the hole for the compacted clay tank dug completely, the space for the ferrocement tank cleared and dug below the A-level of soil, and a few spots cleared for sand and aggregate. The materials were offloaded from the pick up truck.

This morning, we compacted the soil in the clay tank and mixed concrete for the ring beam for the ferrocement tank. It was a hard and dirty morning, but we got everything done. This afternoon, we´ll walk around the village and see the cluster locations.

We woke up early in the morning after a good night´s sleep in order to fend off the jet lag. After a wonderful breakfast consisting of eggs and Ugandan bananas (much better than US bananas) at Daphne´s home. In the late morning, we left Daphne´s home and met up with Lynette and Irene, the civil engineering students from Makerere University and met Dr. Musaazi. Dr. Musaazi showed us his ISSB. The technology is very interesting, simple, and innovative. Unfortunately, is is probably not right for our project, due to the high cost of the press to make the bricks.

The group of us then left for Ddegeya, stopping for petrol and lunch. Ugandan food is delicious! We arrived at Engeye Clinic. It was great to meet John, someone who we had all heard so much about. After we dropped our stuff into the clinic bunk rooms, we went to Masaka. at Masaka we picked up food for the clinic.

Then, after meeting many of the children of the village who were around the clinic, we got down to planning. We went over both the broad planning of each week of the month, then discussed what needs to get done tomorrow. Tomorrow, we plan on splitting into groups. One group will go buy materials in Masaka and the other will start digging the holes for the hybrid tank prototypes.

A Safe Arrival

Oli otya everyone! The travel team arrived safely in Uganda today after a solid 24 hours of travel. Despite airline problems earlier this week, we all made it on our series of flights and enjoyed relatively uneventful air travel. After disembarking from the plane in Entebbe and making it through customs and picking up our luggage (all of which arrived at Entebbe) Daphne picked us up from the airport and brought us to her beautiful home. We brought our bags inside and sank into the comfortable couches for a temporary respite and reveled in the fact that they were not airplane seats, and then Daphne took us out shopping. Although there are countless differences between African and American malls, it´s the unexpected similarities that caught my attention; there are still preteens wandering about and busy parking lots, though Kampala traffic is far more frightful than in the states. We purchased a modem and a data plan, so we expect to have fairly reliable internet access for the rest of our trip. We also purchased some phones for incountry communications. After our shopping adventure, we returned to Daphne´s home and confirmed our rendezvous with two civil engineering students from Makarere University who will be joining us in Ddegeya to act as translators and as valuable additions to our team. We will also meet Dr. Musaazi, a great contact at Makarere. We will travel to Ddegeya once the group is united and review our goals and schedule for the rest of the trip, all together.

The goals for this trip will be elaborated on in further blogs, but here is a quick overview: meet with the clusters in Ddegeya to determine methods for paying for the rain water catchment tanks, prototype a underground linings for the tanks, pumps, and bamboo gutters. We will also present information about the importance of clean water and assess SODIS, a method of sanitizing water via sunlight, and a method for making charcoal agricultural waste to use as an alternative cooking fuel to decrease the dependance on Eucalyptus groves or purchasing firewood. And with that final review of the tasks in front of us, we tired travelers sign off and head to bed.