January 18, 2010 - Ddegeya

Starting at about 7:30 a.m. this morning, we started setting up the solar cookers. This process lasted until 10 a.m. or so, by which time we had 3 prototypes set up---two with an inner-outer box design, and one with a single-box design. Due to the shallowness of the inner box, we had no choice but to put in black-painted plastic Rwenzori water bottles (1.5 L of water) into those designs with an inner-outer box configuration. In fact, we had some jerry cans which were flat enough, but most of them did not have caps. Dave got one can with a cap, but it turned out that this one leaked. For the single-box design, we still inserted a black-painted jerry can, standing upright and sealed at the top with a plastic wrap.

In the morning, the clinic was busy moving in preparation for the medical team, which is scheduled to arrive this afternoon. We also spent a lot of time moving our belongings to an adjacent building, and washing up in the calm before the storm. At about 2:30 p.m., the medical team came with John and lots of luggage. We had a chance to meet these medical students and doctors, and had a late lunch at 3:30 p.m.

To backtrack, by about 12:30 p.m., something was happening to the two solar cooker prototypes with the inner-outer box design. One was leaking water, and the other had its plastic bottle deformed. We took these out to figure out what was going on. In both plastic bottles, the WAPIs had already melted and sunk to the bottom. The water was too hot to touch, and assuredly pasteurised. We were quite amazed at the increase in cooking power with the inner-outer box design. However, this prototype turned out to be too powerful for use on ordinary plastic bottles (or, we suspect, even the thicker plastic jerry cans that people usually use). To do this properly, we need another container (e.g. glass) with a much higher melting point. Also, we felt that our prototypes were not yet ready to demonstrate to the households---the cardboard boxes seemed quite indurable, and in fact the glued aluminium foil already became quite crimpled after one use. Therefore, we decided not to proceed with the workshops this afternoon. While Joseph will become unavailable after today, we will try to arrange things with another translator, such as Francis.

Afternoon, Mike, Dave, Monica, and Francis went to visit BH1 to see if it could be taken apart. They were not able to remove the rod from the chain yoke (the chain was intact), so they pulled the entire assmebly out of the borehole with the head assembly still attached. Fortunately, the pump was fairly shallow - the centerpipe measured only 348cm long - and no one was hurt. The reason that the pump was not delivering water was quickly apparent: they had installed electrical conduit for the centerpipe! The conduit had split along the welded seam, where the water leaked out befor it could reach the top. We intend to buy a new senction of seamless pipe (sched 40?) to replace the conduit, and are confident that the borehole will produce water when it is reassembled! We also sent out an email to Michael Thornton, who may have had more information regarding where to get the borehole parts.

In the meanwhile, Kevin stayed on the clinic and tried to wash some tubes in preparation for assembling the first Biosand filter prototype. Forgot to mention---yesterday Dave and Mike were unable to get putty glue for the leaky bucket, so we decided to take the entire piping system out, and to replace that with the threaded pipes/elbows obtained in Masaka. But before we can do this, we need to wash the pipes. We then tried to put together the pipes, with a washer in the bucket interior, and a plastic elbow on the outside, but after two attempts, we found the bucket to be leaking at the bottom, which is fatal for a Biosand filter. This necessitates another trip to Masaka tomorrow to find supplies such as putty glue and/or rubber o-rings.

Before sundown, we went to BH5 to see if we could disassemble it. We encountered a stubbornly tight rod between the handle and the chain. We were unable to reach into the nut connecting the chain to loosen it because we did not bring an extra socket wrench. We will give it another try another day.

Chris Arsenault (who works on borehole/water systems in Kenya and Sudan) contacted Kevin today and said that he would be capable of meeting us in Ddegeya. Kevin checked with John and it would be fine for the clinic to accommodate him. Right now we are waiting to hear back from Chris as to whether or not he would like to come, or if he would like to remotely communicate regarding our borehole work.