Category: Global and Community Engagement

Travelling with the Tanzamaniacs

Hujambo (Hello)! We are the 2018 Global Leadership team that is travelling to Tanzania to work on projects relating to education, water, health, and safety. We will embark on this exciting adventure on July 3rd and will spend three weeks in Boma Ng’ombe followed by two weeks in Moshi, both of which are cities near Mount Kilimanjaro. To give you an idea of how interesting (or uninteresting) we are, here is some general information about us:

 

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Ian Johnson

idjohnso@mtu.edu

Ian is a third year Materials Science & Engineering student at Michigan Tech. He hails from Bloomington, Indiana, a mid-sized college town in southern Indiana. He has two younger sisters with whom he’s spent countless adventures with and an odd ecclection of pets. Growing up, Ian always had a love for science and the outdoors, which eventually drove him to Michigan Tech to pursue a career in engineering. He is involved in the Materials United professional society as well as the Advanced Metalworks Enterprise in order to further his education. Outside of his studies, Ian enjoys hiking with the Outdoor Venture Crew and participating in recreational college sports such as broomball and soccer.

 

Jennifer (2)

Jennifer McDonald

jrmcdona@mtu.edu

Jennifer just finished her third year as a psychology student at Michigan Tech. She is from Cannon Falls, Minnesota, a small country town that sits in Southeastern Minnesota. She is the youngest of two children, one older brother, and a proud aunt to one nephew. On campus, she participates in two organizations: Huskies Pep Band and Ducks Unlimited, a organization that supports the conservation and restoration of Wetlands in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Off campus, she is involved in Lutheran Collegians Campus Ministry and attends Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church. Jennifer enjoys hiking, broomball, soccer, snowmobiling, skiing, and hunting with her father and brother. When not outside or in school, Jennifer enjoys reading, writing, and playing the piano and trumpet. She is looking forward to the new adventures that are ahead of her with her travels to Tanzania.

 

Andrew

Andrew Miscimarra

ajmiscim@mtu.edu

Andrew just finished his second year as a civil engineering student. He is from Hinsdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and he has two younger brothers. On campus, he is involved in Outdoor Venture Crew, Engineers Without Borders, and St. Al’s Catholic Church. For the past two summers, he has enjoyed working as a day-camp counselor to a group of thirty elementary school children. Additionally, he loves hiking, skiing, sledding, and has been a gymnast for 13 years. After graduating, he plans on serving in the U.S. Peace Corps and becoming a water and sanitation specialist. He is very excited to work with his astonishing teammates in Tanzania this summer!

 

Lauren (3)

Lauren Sandy

lasandy@mtu.edu

Lauren just finished her third year studying biomedical engineering. She is from a small town called Somerset, WI and has one younger brother. At Michigan Tech Lauren is involved in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Michigan Tech Women’s Soccer Club, along with the Pavlis Honors College. She enjoys volunteering, especially doing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) outreach and has been an assistant youth soccer coach for the past few summers. In her free time, Lauren enjoys snowboarding, exploring the outdoors, playing broomball, and traveling. After going to graduate school, Lauren hopes to go into the medical device industry working as an engineer.

 

 

Where We Are Traveling

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Tanzania is a country on the eastern side of Africa that is famous for Mount Kilimanjaro, which, according to the 1980’s rock band Toto, “rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.” We will actually be working in two towns that are right next to Kilimanjaro, so we will have a great view to share with you all! For the first three weeks, we will be working with three schools in the town, Boma Ng’ombe. Our last two weeks will be spent working with a children’s home and school in the town, Moshi.

 

What We Will Be Doing

In Boma, we will be working with the three schools on various projects relating to education, mental health, and hygiene. We will all be working on each project together, with one team member taking the lead. Lauren and Ian will lead the educational projects, which will include teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lessons and piloting a math competition program for the students. Jennifer will lead the mental health project, which will include presenting information on testing anxiety, career choices, and the importance of education. Andrew will lead the hygiene project, which will include filtering the water at one of the schools, as well as teaching the children proper hygiene techniques.

 

We are very excited (and a little nervous) about our trip, and we look forward to sharing our adventures with you all on this weekly blog!

Tutaonana Baadaye (See you later)!

The Adventure Concludes

Hello everybody!

We have departed Tanzania after 5 weeks of incredible cultural immersion and sustainable project development. The experience of traveling to a foreign country and working with the people is something that we will never forget.  We learned so much from all of the Tanzanians we met along the way and we hope that you got to learn something from us.

Asante Africa, Tesha, Joe, Mama Mcha, Mama Faraha, Mama Cecilia, thank you for welcoming us into your homes and schools in Boma. We enjoyed the time we spent working, playing and dancing with your students.

Eva and the Foot2Afrika foundation, thank you for hosting us for our time in Moshi, and for providing us the opportunity to work with the administration and youth of Tumona Secondary School and KITAYOSCE. (As a side note, the food at the hostel was amazing!)

We are so tired, and happy to be going back to our families, but at the same time sad to be leaving the places we’ve called home in Africa for the last 5 weeks.

Asante sana, thanks for going on this adventure with us through our blog posts, and we hope you all had great summers (or winters, if you’re in Tanzania!)

Team Tanzania, signing off

On the Rocks
On the rocks
Waterfall
Waterfall
Climbing Kili
Climbing Kili
Footbal!!!
Football!!!

Elephants!

A pride of 15 lions
A pride of 15 lions
Baby Hippo with Mama
Baby hippo with Mama
Mt. Kilimanjaro
Mt. Kilimanjaro
Class 6 after science, and talking about the US
Primary school Class 6 after science and talking about the US

 

Rachel and Raspberry Pi

During week 5, we spent our time with the extended family of our in country contact Emmanuel Opuni at their family compound in Babianeha.

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While staying with the family, the plan was to have two women’s health clinics, one in the local school, and the other at a government women’s health building along the Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire border, to have an engineering workshop at the local school, and to set up and teach community members how to use the Rachel Pi and Raspberry Pi’s in the community center that was built by a previous Pavlis team a few years ago.

The focus of this blog post is on the Raspberry Pi’s. The project involved using the Rachel Pi as an offline repository of teaching videos, books, articles, and life skills exercises for the school kids and the community to use. The Raspberry Pi’s were to be used as a means to access the Rachel Pi, and also supplement the netbooks that are already within the community center while allowing two more students to have a workstation they can use during ICT class.

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Due to the nature of the Raspberry PI project (project lead – Daniel), the ‘measure of success’ is mainly if the items work during setup, because it is up to the teachers how and when they integrate this tool into their teaching arsenal. It is our hope that the students can use the modules like Khan Academy Lite to reinforce things they learn in class like algebra and biology with informational videos and the little quizzes it provides.

Week Five: Wrapping Things Up

Hello all,

We have almost reached the end of our international experience here in Tanzania, and the pace certainly hasn’t slowed down. Read about our continuing adventures below:

We closed out our time at Tumona Secondary School this week. We continued working on some computer skills with the students, as well as physics lessons in topics such as Archimedes’ Principal of Buoyancy, work, energy, and power. Beyond our lessons, we also spent some time talking with the teachers. On Wednesday, we did a short Q&A session with the teachers on computers, including how to clean off viruses with Windows Defender, and afterwards we were invited to tour the town with some of them the next day. On our walk on Thursday, we spent the afternoon learning about them and their views of us and Americans in general, and had a bit of dialog back and forth about some of the finer points that were brought up. It was a very good way to close out our time spent at Tumona.

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20705931_1430869857008185_1793509035_oContinuing our work at KITAYOSCE this last week, we worked more with the youth on their football skills, and especially stressed teamwork and communication, both on and off the football pitch. As the kids got more comfortable working with us, the games and scrimmages got a lot more laid back and enjoyable. KITAYOSCE, in addition to working with youth to develop their skills, also have a young adult team, and are a feeder for some of the Tanzanian professional teams. As such, they are always looking for ways to improve their online image, as well as their football skills. To this end, we were able to leave one of the KITAYOSCE executive board members with two action cameras, as well as instructions on how to use them. They will be able to use the cameras to capture game film for later review, as well as make promotional videos for their Facebook page. We know they will be well used!DSCN2270

To cap off our final weekend in Tanzania, the team, accompanied by ‘the Germans’ also staying at the Foot2Afrika hostel, traveled to visit the Marangu gate one more time at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We then went to visit the Kilasiya Falls, where we waded in the gentle, cold rapids as well as climbed through the rocks and took photos. Next on our itinerary for the day was to visit the Chagga Caves. The caves were created by the Chagga tribe of northern Tanzania about 200 years ago to protect themselves from the Maasai, an enemy tribe. Although very cramped, these caves/tunnels housed many people, and the team had the opportunity to learn a lot about the history of the two native Tanzanian tribes during the tour. Overall, it was a great way to cap off our adventures in Tanzania; we will definitely have plenty of stories and pictures to share with our family and friends upon our return to the States!

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Once again, thank you for reading, and please feel free to comment on and share the post!

Team Tanzania

Week Four: From Boma to Moshi; A Change of Pace & More Wildlife

Hello everybody!

We have just reached the beginning of our final week here in Tanzania, and are looking forward to continuing our projects for these last seven days. The previous week has been a change of scenery, as we moved from Boma to Moshi and began working with Foot2Afrika, Tumona Secondary School and KITAYOSCE. To keep you all up to date, we’ve summarized some of our projects and adventures here in Moshi thus far below:

overlooking the caldera

One of the education topics that the Tumona headmaster had requested we work on with the kids at the secondary school was basic physics concepts, since they currently do not have a physics teacher at the school. So far, we have worked with the Form One students and introduced mechanical forces and the units and equations related to that topic. With the Form Two students, we worked on pressure (specifically atmospheric pressure) and began to introduce work and energy. One of the best examples we came up with relating the topics we were covering to the kids’ lives was when we were talking about atmospheric pressure and how it changes with elevation: we solved for the pressure difference between the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and down here in Moshi. We were reminded of this concept a few weeks ago when we were climbing down the mountain and our empty water bottles started deflating!

Physics lesson

The other subject we have been teaching at Tumona is computer skills. After ridding the school’s computers of numerous viruses, likely caused by unsafe internet use, we started teaching the students about computer basics, such as the physical components of the PC and a few simple applications such as File Explorer. Some more classes that we are planning to teach include how to use SD cards, how to explore the internet safely and how to search for and get rid of any viruses that may have been downloaded accidentally. This will hopefully reduce the amount of viruses that take up residence on the laptops in the future.

After school, we have also been working with KITAYOSCE in the evenings. KITAYOSCE stands for KIlimanjaro TAlented YOuth Sports CEnter (find them on Facebook here), and is a local organization dedicated to helping underprivileged youth discover their potential as football athletes. In recent years, some of the youth in the program have gone on to play professionally for national Tanzanian teams, and KITAYOSCE’s older athletes recently brought home the East African Cup. The team has been working primarily with the 17-and-under age group, helping coach them through their drills and practices, as well as guiding them towards better teamwork and communication. Last Friday, we held a nutrition seminar, and (with the help of a translator) talked to the youth about proper nutrition and fluid intake guidelines, centered around preparing for a large workout or big football game. On Wednesday, all the kids had an after-school program, so the team went with Ellie (the director of KITAYOSCE) to a local football matchup between the two powerhouse clubs in Moshi. It was very interesting to see the different culture of sports-viewing in Tanzania; they are very passionate about their favorite football clubs! The team looks forward to continuing to work with KITAYOSCE throughout this upcoming week.Warming Up

Wrapping up the first week in Moshi, the team traveled to the village of Mto wa Mbu to partake in a walking safari of the local culture. Mto wa Mbu is about a five hour drive from Moshi. The name literally translates to “River of Mosquitos”, and even in the non-rainy season, there were plenty of them. During the walking safari of the village, we saw many different local homes made of sticks, mud, and banana leaves. The main crop growing in this region is 27 different varieties of bananas, all serving different purposes. We had the opportunity to try red bananas, which taste very similar to the ones we are used to back in the States. We also witnessed the wood carving of the Makonde tribe and the beautiful paintings of the Chaga tribe. The following day, the team traveled another hour to explore the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and had the pleasure of participating in a game drive. A game drive is a term used to describe what Westerners would call a safari. The beautiful landscape as well as the abundance of animals within the caldera (collapsed volcano) was stunning. We were able to see lions, hippos, hyenas, jackals, wildebeest, zebras, cape buffalo, and many more species of large mammals and birds in abundance. Overall, this was an amazing experience that no picture can fully describe. It is definitely something to put on a bucket list!

Pride of 15 Lions

Hippo

Thank you all for reading, and please feel free to share and comment; we will answer any questions you have!

Team Tanzania 2017

Home Bound

By the final week, we had become accustomed to what we referred to as “India time”. We had promised Gajapathi, our main contact at the Kunnankulathur Government High School, that we would be to the school by 9:00am on Tuesday morning for the school prayer. We had arranged a vehicle to pick us up for 8:45am, but it didn’t arrive until 9:00am. Worrying we might have missed the prayer, or at a minimum be fashionably late, we pulled up to the school noting the ceremony hadn’t begun yet. We had gotten the chance to watch the school prayer during week three while working on our projects but none of us knew what to expect from being a part of it. Students led us into a classroom as they went through their usual routine. Towards the end, we were called to the front of the stage. Gajapathi took the time to introduce us to all of the students and presented us each with a handmade flower necklace and gift. Seeing how much of an impact our presence at the school left on the students is hard to put into words. More importantly, what we were able to each takeaway from working with the students is truly priceless and indescribable.

From left to right: Aishwarya, Gajapathi, Marcello, Julian, Brianna, Sarah, Nichole, Vishal at the Government High School.
From left to right: Aishwarya, Gajapathi, Marcello, Julian, Brianna, Sarah, Nichole, Vishal at the Government High School.

 

On Wednesday, we had the pleasure of being guests at Gajapathi’s home. We were welcomed with bowls of homemade mango ice cream that were to die for. Gajapathi has spent the last two years planning and building his home. In India, celebrating the building of a new home is very important. We were able to look through the album that was created based of the housewarming celebration that was held. All of his wife’s family, his family and co-workers from Kunnankulathur Government High School were part of the event. A tradition in India is to have a cow draped with a saree walk through the home which we found to be super cool. Gajapathti gave us a tour of his new home which is beautiful. There is a guest house on the second level and a rooftop that has a breathtaking view of the hills, a constant breeze and is perfect for star gazing. Every detail from the doors, cabinet handles and light fixtures was planned and hand picked by Gajapathi. Following the tour, Gajapathi served us a homemade Indian dinner. We were able to eat on banana leaves which is one of my favorite parts of India. All the food was delicious from the idly and dosa to the prawn rice. Before departing his home, Gajapathi left us by saying we always have a home in India.

The India team from left to right: Julian, Nichole, Brianna, Sarah, Marcello at Gajapathi's home.
The India team from left to right: Julian, Nichole, Brianna, Sarah, Marcello at Gajapathi’s home.

Then came Thursday, our final day in India. It hadn’t sunk in that we were going through the “lasts” of our daily life. Going to the school and seeing the students for the final time brought tears to my eyes. From all the selfies, autographs and kisses on cheeks, pulling into the school and seeing their smiling faces and waving hands is a memory none of us will forget. We had brought stickers to hand out to the students before leaving- and I use the phrase “hand out” loosely. Once one student had a sticker, all the students wanted a sticker and before we knew it, the bag of stickers were out of our hands and enveloped in a crowd of cheering elementary aged students.

On top of saying goodbye to the students at Kunnankulathur, we were left with saying goodbye to the friends we had made at KVCET. My great grandma and her friends used to say “too-da-loo” to each other, which translates to “see you later”. I had told this to Lago, one of our friends, so that we didn’t have to say goodbye. After piling the luggage and ourselves into the vehicle, we waved our final waves and headed to the airport. All of us knew this wasn’t the last time we would cross paths. We know the KVCET students will be coming to Michigan Tech in February of 2018 and we are eagerly awaiting their arrival and counting down the days until they land at CMX. More importantly, we all plan on returning to India to be reunited with the friends we made during our five weeks. Everyone was so open, willing to help us and kindhearted. They showed us what it means to make life long friends.

The India team with R. Elango and his intern at Kunnankulathur prior to leaving.
The India team with R. Elango and his intern at Kunnankulathur prior to leaving.

Hospitals, Workshops, and more Hospitals (everyone is okay!)

First off, the team apologizes for our lack of update over the last two weeks after a couple of hospital visits (a nasty fall ending in stitches and a not great reaction to anti malaria medication) projects had to be moved back which caused a hectic last two weeks. We joke with our in country advisor that we’re the most hospital visiting team he’s ever had. We’ll break this blog down with the Women’s Health project and the next with the Computer Literacy Project, the main two projects completed in the final two weeks of our journey.

During Week 4 plans were finalized for everything in regards to the first Women’s Health Project. The original goal of having 5 different workshops didn’t look like it would be happening because of some communication issues with my in country contact but I was able to schedule one through my in country contact and another two with newly made contacts. Overall, the plan was to do one in Kumasi, Babianeha and right on the border of the Ivory Coast.

All three workshops went extremely well and ranged in time from 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the size of the group. There were girls from ages 11-25 excited to learn about sustainable women’s health products and germs. I made sure to have an interpreter present to ensure the girls understand everything I said even though all their formal education is in English here.

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Each pack had 1 pre-made reusable pad donated from a church in the United States and enough materials to make two simpler reusable pads. As they were making their first pad and the interpreter and I walked around the room to assist them in the process and answer any questions they might have. I also had the opportunity to talk to them about what means they had used or knew of other girls using and some of the options were heart breaking and included things like an old towel or pieces of old mattresses.

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At the end of every session I asked the girls if what we made during the workshop was a better means of dealing with their monthly cycles and every time all the hands in the room went up to agree that it was. After the workshops some of the girls would come up to ask further questions about materials and other differences they could substitute into the process to make it easier, a lot of them couldn’t wait to go home and show all their female family members! It truly made it seem like this project had made such a significant difference in many girls lives.

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At the end of my time 200 packs were handed out to girls from Ghana and in the Ivory Coast and one group even had a special message to some of our supporters thanking them for their support! Unfortunately the file refuses to upload to look out for that in our overall video we’ll put together of our time in Ghana once we arrive back in the States.

 

Until next time!
-Amanda

Week Three: Wrapping up in Boma & More Adventures

Hello everybody!

We are continuing to have a great time in Tanzania, and have just finished week three of our adventure. Below is a quick overview of what we’ve been up to, both during the week and during our more leisurely weekends:

During our final week in Boma, our team began wrapping up different projects at the three schools with which we were working. Many of the projects included classroom instruction in some form as well as useful teaching tools for the teachers to utilize in the classroom. At Orkolili Secondary school, we guided the students in finishing their science fair projects. We also worked with teachers in getting the students more involved in the classroom. This included instructing various activities that encouraged leadership within small groups and well as encouragement to speak up when something is not understood.  During our time at Orkolili, we had been working with the workshop instructors on finding helpful teaching methods regarding anything mechanical, focusing on engines. Two instructional videos were provided and contact information was exchanged so that we could assist the instructors with any questions they might have and to organize for the next cohort. At Nkwamakuu and Kilingi Primary Schools, we had wrapped up our teaching of math and science with the students. Through our instruction, we encouraged volunteering to answer questions as well as a lot of ‘repetition for effect’ practice. We finished up at each school by having some of the students dance in a video that will be produced by our entire Pavlis cohort (details to come). All in all, the schools were very gracious and many mutual learning experiences were had during our time in Boma.

On Wednesday, the team assisted the students and teachers at Orkolili with their final preparations for the science fair on Thursday. The automatic bell, mentioned in the last blog post, needed the most physical work still, and the team was able to help guide the students to find solutions to the various mechanical issues that were occurring. The students were very good at the coding for the microcomputer used to control the bell, and everything fell into place quite quickly. The cellulose project was essentially finished, and the main task for Wednesday was to nail down the presentation of the project. The team listened to the students present, asked questions, and then gave constructive feedback on where they could improve and what they were doing well so far. The team also became aware of a third project, a small greenhouse made from recycled plastic and glass bottles. This project was almost entirely completed by a couple of student aspiring to be engineers, and the team was very impressed with their level of preparation. It was an added benefit that they were able to use recycled materials to build the greenhouse; this was something we were told the judges were going to be looking for. We did not accompany the students and teachers to the fair the next day, but we heard it went well overall. Apparently, the automatic bell was a huge hit, and even ended up on a local TV channel! The students and the whole school should be proud of what they accomplished.

Several times throughout this week we got to experience the joy of the kids we were working with. On Monday, we traveled up to Kilingi Primary school, and when we jumped out of the van we found ourselves in a sea of little kids very interested in becoming our friends. Several students were holding our hands or trying to get close enough to do so. It was a very reassuring way to start the week since at that time we were unsure what effect we were having on the kids. On Thursday and Friday, we brought soccer balls to the two primary schools and the kids had a blast with them during their breaks. On Friday, we arrived at Nkwamakuu with Tesha right as the kids were on break, so we pumped up the balls and set up for a great game. All the kids were so excited to get to play with the new equipment, there wasn’t a kid at the school not smiling at some point during the break. Even the kids on the sidelines were having some fun taking pictures with Phillip and Peter when they weren’t playing. We also did some short video clips with the schools for the PHC Dancing Across The World video project, and even got some students at Nkwamakuu to do the clapping for the Michigan Tech Fight Song with us. Although we have encountered many challenges and setbacks thus far, the kids are making it worth all the effort in the end.

On Sunday, we traveled an hour by bajaji to the Chemka Hot Springs. The Chemka springs are natural pools of warm water produced by a local spring. Being that the water comes from a spring, the water was clear and we were able to see the bottom of the pool in most locations, even though it was quite deep throughout. This is a typical tourist location where many people come to enjoy a refreshing swim in the hot, gently flowing current. Our team spent our time lounging in the water, swimming and swinging off the rope swing. We also got to enjoy a local delicacy called chips maiyai. Chips maiyai are made from cooking french fries, or chips, into eggs making an omelet-like meal. Some of us ate this with nyamachoma on top, which is a type of grilled meat (usually goat).

That’s all we have for now! As always, we have included a few of our favorite pictures from the week below. Thanks for reading, and feel free to share this blog with your friends and anyone that is interested!

Thank you,

Team Tanzania

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The Final Countdown

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to put our impromptu speaking skills to the test. We had been informed of an informal question and answer session that we would be participating in earlier in the week. We were told to not worry about it and just show up for the event. What we envisioned was having a conversation with small group of students discussing what we like about India and talking about Michigan Tech. From our expectation, we were in for a little surprise.

The best part of the surprise was that the room the event was in was air conditioned. We have gotten so used to being without air conditioning that when we enter an air conditioned area, it makes everything better. The group of students that we were interacting with was also much larger than we anticipated; it almost seemed like we were acting as a panel for a class. When the professor for the class introduced us, he mentioned the students in the class were interested in hearing about the graduate programs at Michigan Tech. With all of us being undergraduate students and having not prepared anything for the session, we were far from experts on this topic.

We went around and each introduced ourselves. We talked about the projects we’re doing here in India. Sarah went through a slideshow Marcello had put together of pictures of life at Tech and in the Keweenaw. Then the floor was opened for questions. The students asked about clubs and sports at Michigan Tech, what our favorite things about India are, if there is a masters program in biomedical engineering and if we knew any Tamil. While the session didn’t go exactly as we anticipated, it was a lot of fun and the students did ask engaging questions.

We were also able to cover lots of ground with the solar and water filtration projects during week four. With the water filtration system, all the supplies needed to complete the project were purchased. The inflow and outflow storage tanks were cleaned, the pipes were cut and attached, and the sand and gravel barrels have been filled. When attaching the pipes, we ran into an issue with the connectors we decided to use. Initially we planned on having straight pipe connections and attaching them to the barrels using epoxy. The connectors we used created a slight slanted connection that we troubleshooted by using hose for the slanted pipe connections. For week five, we need to wash and dry the charcoal and replace a joint from the outflow storage tank to the overflow pipe. We also need to put up the chicken wire and tarps to monkey proof the water filter and it should be good to go!

For the solar project, the wiring was completed from the panels to the classroom. The low voltage direct current fans were put together and installed into the classroom. The LED lights were put together and installed into the classroom as well. The students are able to utilize the solar power for the lights and fans in the classroom at all times and power the computers for part of the time. We actually got to see the solar power system being used on Friday during a regular power outage.

None of us can believe we’re already into our final week. Time has flown in India and we’re not quite ready to leave. We have enjoyed every second thus far and are eagerly anticipating what week five will bring.

Third Times’ A Charm

On Monday afternoon while waiting for the car to bring us back to KVCET for lunch from the school, we had the chance to meet the students! Third times’ a charm as they say and three weeks of us coming to the school on a regular basis must have been enough time for the students to get comfortable enough to show us their school. We were sitting on the steps outside the main office when a group of students approached us and began asking us questions: our names, where we are from, what our friends’ names are, etc. One student asked us to visit their classrooms. Once they grabbed on to our hands, everything happened very quickly.

Initially we tried the “buddy system” when going into the classrooms but the students had full control. We all ended up in different classrooms but the excitement when one of us entered a room was the same. All the students were waving, smiling and wanting to shake our hands. They all shouted questions at the same time which made it hard to converse but didn’t take away from the fun. Some students asked us to dance, others wanted to see American money and all of them wanted to be in a selfie. Being surrouned by their excitement and energy gave all of us a new perspective on why we’re doing the projects we’re doing. Getting to meet the students also made going to the school each day to work on the projects even more enjoyable.

During week three we were able to make lots of headway with the solar and water filtration projects. For the water filtration system, our initial plan was to clean the barrels and replace the biochar. After emptying the gravel barrel and attempting to clean it, we made the executive decision to replace the system. There was also lots of sun damage and cracks in the pipes and since we are putting a roof over the system, we felt its longevity would be lengthened by replacing the components. We spent the remaining week purchasing supplies,  measuring the barrels and cutting the holes for the pipes to complete a dry fit of the system.

For the solar project, the school is currently having two buildings added so the construction workers offered to cement the stand for the panels to the roof for us. We were also able to get the stand painted and prepped for the cementing to be completed. Miscellaneous shopping trips were completed as needs of parts and tools arose.

We also were able to discuss plans of the garden project with the headmaster. We designed a vertical garden to be put on the side of the building below the water filtration system so that the runoff can be used to water the garden. The headmaster was very pleased with the plans and is excited to see the final product in place. He showed the plans to one of the engineers working on the construction of the new buildings at the school who was also very excited about the fact that a garden could be put in at the school. The engineer volunteered to take the garden up as a personal project, using our plans, and has offered to carry out the construction of the garden.

With the progress we made during week three, we were able to come up with a timeline for our remaining time in India. We are confident with where our projects currently stand and we are excited to see what our final two weeks bring!