Thursday, August 11, 2016

Final Blog Post, Summer 2016

Blog post brought to you by Curtis

Since we last updated, the implementation has been officially completed.

We had incredible luck, momentous in-country support, a simple design, and a wonderful implementation team. All of these factors meant very few hiccups along the entire 5-week journey. I want to acknowledge everyone who had a hand in this successful endeavor in order of appearance.


Ellis and I have been friends for almost 6 years now, and her friendship is one of the ones I value most. She was also the first to arrive at the airport. Her mind is sharper than anyone I’ve ever met and is able to quickly and accurately size up situations to develop realistic solutions. Her sense of adventure and overwhelming compassion served as an inspiration to me, particularly during tough times over these past weeks.



Michael was the person I knew the least going in to the trip, and still feel I know the least about, and the second to arrive at the airport. He has an incredibly complex personality; one I feel I will never truly understand every side of. His calm demeanor in every situation and tireless attention to detail combined with incredible instincts have proven themselves valuable time and time again. It takes incredible strength of character to actively seek out and acknowledge the kind of personal growth he has endured during our trip, and I am proud to call him my friend.


I knew Xilal mainly as a friend of friends, and through brief interactions at general team meetings. He is the most genuinely happy individual I’ve ever met, and an incredible listener. His contagious charisma was a valuable asset for continuing to develop a strong relationship with our community. His unfiltered love for life has the ability to brighten even the most boring day. He was the last to arrive at the airport, with his family entourage escorting him all the way to security. He is the most enjoyable person to be friends with, and a complete heart throb over here in Rwanda. I know at least four girls who will be disappointed at his departure. 



Travis is our travel mentor, and was the one who made sure we would be succesful even before we got here. He made sure our design was no more complicated than it needed to be and extremely culturally appropriate, to the point that when we got here and told the community what we wanted to do, they could have done it themselves. It is rare to find a mentor who is both experienced with engineering in the very countries you are attempting to but also adept at providing emotional guidance and support, which can be even more valuable 9000 miles from home.



Wally was our main in-country contact through village makeover, and from the very first day became our friend and guide in a sometimes confusing foreign landscape. From negotiating deals with suppliers to orchestrating deliveries, not a single one of which was late, to helping navigate cultural differences among workers, Wally had an immediate and direct impact on the success of our project. More importantly, he has become an incredible friend and one we hope to maintain for life. I firmly believe he is incapable of arriving anywhere at the time he says he will, despite an otherwise incredibly organized personality.


Jacques is our main in-country contact who lives in community. He speaks little English, but is the catalyst for most of the things we need the community's support on. He is the crucial part of our project that will ensure its sustainability well into the future, and it is his direct involvement with the day to day operations of the system that ensures they will be viable for long into the future. He is also possibly the most awkward man I have ever met, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt safe from harassment when he is less than 5 feet away from me.



Hasssan was our primary translator and with us every minute of every day, and even continued working well beyond when we had left the site. He is an incredibly passionate, driven, and talented young man who has a bright future ahead of him. He worked with us for 6 hours everyday, took care of his 92 year old grandmother, went to full time University for electrical engineering, and played semi-professional soccer on the local district team. His music taste varies from classical gospel music to “Zero, the amount of Fucks that I give.”


Japhet is the elected chief of Ntarama village, and is the second tallest mammal in Africa behind the giraffe. His nickname, “Moguru”, means legs and its fitting because they are about 75% of his person. His unquestioned leadership among his villagers was the reason we had a veritable army of workers assisting in construction. He was also possibly the most skilled worker on the site, serving as foreman, most efficient concrete mixer, fastest sawer, and most skilled nail driver.


Musaferi is the mason we hired to build our columns, and the guy who ended up solving all of our engineering problems. Realistically, we should put his name down for design credit of the system. His mastery of local techniques that involve taking whatever is lying around and making it solve whatever problem one is currently facing were the final solution to gutter attachment, leaf catcher attachment, truss cross bracing, truss to column connection, and tank to tank piping.


I am proud to have been a part of this successful trip, and deeply indebted to all of these people who helped realize our mission. It is sad that I may never return to this country as this is my second trip, but I take solace in knowing that I leave it a little better off than I found it. Below is a detailed walkthrough of our system, with pictures.

General view of the system


The foundations for the columns are 0.5x0.5 meter squares that are a foot thick, with a grid of 5 no. 5 pieces of rebar reinforcing.

The foundations for the tanks consist of a 2 foot tall ring built slightly larger than the tanks, the ring is composed of concrete and several indigenous volcanic rocks. Beneath this ring lies a 10 inch thick slab of concrete reinforced with a waffle pattern grid of no. 4 rebar.


The columns are constructed using clay fired bricks in a square pattern such that each column is 1 square foot in cross sectional area. The middle is filled with concrete and four no. 4 pieces of rebar run vertically through.


The trusses are connected to the columns by wrapping the rebar looping out the top around and securing it with nails. Later, bricks were placed around the truss connection to further cement them in place.


The trusses span 13 feet across the system, and in total we have 3. They are made from 4x10 planks of Eucalyptus, which has the benefit of being incredibly strong and insect resistant.


On top of the trusses sit Eucalyptus rafters that span 5.5 feet and are a little less than 3x3 inches.


The Roof is made from sheet metal and bolts directly on to the rafters. The gutter is made from steel, and we applied an anti-oxide primer to prevent rusting.
The gutter is connected to the trusses and roof via angled nails and some wire. The Gutter maintains a constant slope of a little over 3%.

The leaf catcher is attached to the gutter via a similar system of angled nails and wire, while 110 mm diameter piping connects the gutter to the first flush, the first flush to the tanks, and the tanks to each other.

The tanks are made from high density polyethylene, and have a 30 year life expectancy. Each tank is 10 feet tall, and 7.5 feet in diameter. When completely full, each tank will weigh upwards of 25,000 pounds.

Here are some other pictures of the team:


Left to right: Francois, Michael, Xilal, Jacques, Curtis, Ellis, Hassan


Left to right: Japhet, Xilal, Jacques, Michael, Curtis, Ellis, Musaferi


The entire Community Vision Board, travel team, translator, and the two women who cooked us a fantastic final meal (Jacques' wife and mother)










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