January 14, 2010 - Masaka/Ddegeya

John and Joe left early in the morning to pick up some JMS medicine from Kampala. Tom and Bob left later to take a break in southwest Uganda, returning in 2 days or so. This left only Monica and us the three engineers. So Monica decided to go to Masaka with us, partly to show us where the different things/shops are located.

We went to Masaka with the goal of (1) obtaining materials necessary for building the prototypes, and (2) obtaining price quotes for some materials that we may need in the future. First we give the second information:
Plain textile (for cloth filtration) - 15000 UGX / m or 30000 UGX / 4 m
Shiny hard surface (metallic - potentially solar cooker) - 2000 UGX / ft
1 mm diameter sieve - 10000 UGX / m^2

Water tanks - unnamed brand (for community-based sand filtration or rainwater storage system)
220 L - 45000 UGX; 500 L - 177000 UGX

Water tanks - Crestank
200 L - 106500 UGX; 1000 L - 324500 UGX; 1500 L - 442500 UGX
Water tanks - Poly Fibre Ltd (may not be available for all sizes) - Tel. 4271279; 4271372; info@polyfibre.co.ug; polyfibre2003@yahoo.com
100 L - 50 cm diameter - 60 cm height - 53820 UGX
140 L - 67 cm diameter - 50 cm height - 67860 UGX
250 L - 84 cm diameter - 55 cm height - 100620 UGX
300 L - 75 cm diameter - 82 cm height - 128700 UGX500 L - 96 cm diameter - 88 cm height - 173160 UGX
750 L - 98 cm diameter - 110 cm height - 243360 UGX
1000 L - 108 cm diameter - 135 cm height - 317070 UGX
1500 L - 119 cm diameter - 150 cm height - 436410 UGX
2000 L - 135 cm diameter - 164 cm height - 546390 UGX2300 L - 138 cm diameter - 175 cm height - 604890 UGX
3000 L - 167 cm diameter - 165 cm height - 797940 UGX4000 L - 179 cm diameter - 185 cm height - 1045980 UGX5000 L - 192 cm diameter - 206 cm height - 1277640 UGX
6000 L - 209 cm diameter - 205 cm height - 1628640 UGX
etc.
Glass sheet (for insulation layer on top of solar cooker) - 7000 UGX for 0.5 m by 0.5 m
Roof gutter - 9500 UGX for 7 ft

We also noticed an interesting poster promoting a charcoal-burning stove known as Ugastove. According to the poster, Ugastove uses about half as much charcoal as normal stoves. The company information is as follows:
Plot 574 Kayemba Road
Nkere Zone, Kibuye 1
PO Bix 1265
Makindye, Kampala
+256 (0)752 640 073 / 772 674 267

We purchased the following materials:
Four 3/4'' elbows, at 3000 UGX each
5'2'' of plastic long threaded pipes/screws (3/4'' pipe threaded at both ends), at 4000 UGX per 1'6''
Metallic nuts - 1000 each (a plastic one would also cost 1000 each)
2 plastic buckets (for Biosand filter), bargained down to 14000 UGX each
2 small wash basins (for diffuser plate), 1000 UGX each
2 small paint brushes, 800 UGX each (the awful black paint ruined our last paint brush)
A 2 ft-by-2 ft sieve, with pores slightly larger (about 1 mm) than our sieve with the smallest pores (4000 UGX)

We actually did find a wash basin which would fit perfectly into the plastic bucket, but unfortunately it was too deep. We bought a wash basin whose diameter is smaller than that of the plastic bucket. We plan to cut the basin so it is shallower. We then can punch 4 holes and suspend it above the plastic bucket. With holes drilled to the floor of the basin, this could function as a diffuser plate for the Biosand filter---though it would be important to tell the households to only pour water into the basin and not the uncovered periphery.

At the request of the clinic, we also bought the following grocery iterms from Masaka:
3 jugs of water (5 L each) - 21000 UGX
10 avocadoes - 1000 UGX
Carrots (1 kg) and garlic (0.5 kg) - 4500 UGX

We had some delicious rolex (omelette on top of a chapati bread). Monica and Mike went to get more grocery stuff from the supermarket (e.g. bread, peanut butter), as well as 300 m of aluminium foil (which cost 22000 UGX), while Dave and Kevin wandered off to finish the purchase of Biosand filter materials, then took a regular 5-person taxi (which at one time held 6 people in the backseat), arriving in Ddegeya at about 1 p.m.

In the afternoon, Dave and Monica walked to Kinoni to get some goat meat (this is for Joe's farewell dinner), leaving Mike and Kevin to babysit Goose the dog. In the meanwhile, Mike made another frame for our newly purchased sieve, while Kevin drilled some holes into one of the basins, which function satisfactorily as a diffuser plate. After Dave came back, we spent the whole afternoon sieving sand. While our original smallest sieve was still in use for the finest sand, our new sieve proved great in separating a pile of intermediate-sized sand/gravel mixture into the respective sand (about 1 mm in diameter) and gravel (anything larger). So we have set up a process whereby we end up with sand of 2 sizes and gravel of 3 sizes. The rate-limiting step, however, is still the original sieve with the smallest pore size. It takes about 1 minute or less for mixtures to pass through the other sieves, but for the sieve with the smallest pore size, a batch of the same size can take up to 20 minutes.

By the end of the afternoon, we believe that we have enough gravel/sand to assemble one sand filter (we are going to build one ourselves and test it before we start on the other households---we can give this preliminary filter to the clinic or Joseph). So we brought gravel/stones of the largest two sizes to BH4 to wash. After about maybe 15 washes (and slighltly bleeding hands), these were still quite dirty, but we had to give up for the day because the water-collecting traffic kept coming, and it had precedence. We can't imagine what it will be like to wash the finer sand.
John and Joe came back in the evening, with many cardboard boxes from JMS. This will give us enough materials, hopefully, to start building the solar cookers.

Right now as things stand, sieving/washing the sand is taking up a lot, lot more time than we expected. We seriously doubt that the households will have the time to do their lot of sieving/washing (most of them are available 1-2 hours per day, for about 5 days), but we should probably at least ask them to come to the clinic and participate in the process. Perhaps next time, it will be useful to locate sand of better quality and consistency (John's pile of gravel, which cost us $80, ends up unused).

As night falls, the preparation for a feast honouring Joe's departure began. Monica/Mike made a stew consisting of the goat bought at Kinoni today. Kevin was going to make some fried rice, but Monica delivered a bad cheque: there was no rice. Dave also honed his skills in chapati-making. He is now probably the chapati guru in residence, and we look forward to welcoming him back to MIT.