Hello again!
We've been making a lot of progress with the systems and the community bonding. Friday was our last day in community. We visited Nyrotosho and discussed a few problems the community had been facing. Last implementation trip, we added two more tanks to their system since Wilson, the chief of Nyrotosho, had been facing problems of erosion from too much water escaping the tanks; this puts Nyrotosho as the largest system with four tanks.
We connected the new tank to the original tanks with a long piece of PVC pipe, but when we visited this time, the pipe had been dislodged causing a large amount of water to leak out of the system. To solve this problem the community had blocked the pipe so the water would continue to fill the other three tanks instead of spilling over. The cause of the dislodging is not certain, but we believe the pipe was not placed far enough into the tank and when pressure was exerted on the pipe, it slid out. To fix this, we pulled more of the pipe into the new tank and placed new silicon around the pipe to hold it in place and keep water from coming out.
Nyrotosho is also worried about the longevity of the tanks. The tanks are not covered by the roof and therefore receive a lot of sunlight all day, every day. This has led to evaporation of the water inside the tank. We cannot move the tanks under the roof at this point, so we suggested to keep the lids tightly on the tanks to prevent evaporation, and plant avocado trees around the tanks to block the sunlight. The trees will take three years to grow, but the tanks will not degrade a large amount in that time.
The people of Nyrotosho also visited us at the site and talked about how much they appreciated the water. They said there have been no health problems since they have started using the water and it tastes great!
After visiting the system, we went to Jacques's house. Jacques is the Cyanika pastor who helps us in community. Jacques offered us bananas and Fantas and we talked about the upcoming election and his wife's business of making wax fabric shirts and skirts. It was nice to meet a lot of Jacques family.
On Saturday we decided to take our day off and visit Lake Kivu, which was one of my favorite places we visited last year. We woke up early in the morning (for a weekend) and went to the bus station, where we awaited the Virunga bus. The bus as usual was more packed than a can of sardines and the bus ride was a lot longer than I had remembered it to be. We arrived in Rubavu and decided to check out the border with the Congo, since we were all so interested. We stayed on the Rwanda side and were able to get a quick glimpse into Goma, which looked a lot more busy than Rwanda.
After looking into the DRC we took our preferred way of transportation down to lake Kivu: the moto! The motos tried to make us pay the Muzungu price, but we were able to bring down the price by double of what they had originally wanted. We then walked to Tam Tam, which is the place Wally took us last year. There we ate some chicken and beef skewers, which tasted a lot better than Shaky's--a restaurant this team still has to taste! Jacques' son, Byishimo, who studies in Rubavu made the trip down to Tam Tam to meet us. We talked for a while and then Byishimo played cards with Max. Byishimo taught Max a Rwandan card game, although I think at times they were both pretty confused with what was happening and what card game they were playing. After Max had lost (I make sure to mention this, since he is beating us pretty badly in hearts) Sam decided to show Byishimo an American card game. Byishimo was very good, in fact, he was a lot better than me.
Sometime after playing cards, we decided to go to the hot springs in town. We did not go into the hot springs, but mainly went to see the views. The moto ride was by far the most beautiful I have seen. Travis was right when he had said that this will be our best moto ride. On our way back, we all took videos of the ride, while on the motos.
On the bus, we were happy to see that the bus was pretty empty. This quickly changed as the bus filled completely after the first stop. A family of 10 people had entered. Two children had shared the seat beside me, and Max was squished in the back. In this family of 10 was the cutest baby, which I was allowed to hold for part of the drive. Even though this bus was by far the most packed, it was probably the most fun.
When we returned to Musanze, I gave the team the choice to choose whatever restaurant they wanted to eat at and if it was expensive, we must eat at the dreaded Shaky's the next day. Max was able to find a bakery, where we ordered many Sambusas from an Austrian lady. They were very good, but not as tasty as the ones we had gotten along the way from street vendors. We ended the night with our usual tradition of playing cards.
We will be staying in Musanze for Sunday and then get back to the community on Monday!
-Sam and Xilal (mostly Xilal)
We've been making a lot of progress with the systems and the community bonding. Friday was our last day in community. We visited Nyrotosho and discussed a few problems the community had been facing. Last implementation trip, we added two more tanks to their system since Wilson, the chief of Nyrotosho, had been facing problems of erosion from too much water escaping the tanks; this puts Nyrotosho as the largest system with four tanks.
We connected the new tank to the original tanks with a long piece of PVC pipe, but when we visited this time, the pipe had been dislodged causing a large amount of water to leak out of the system. To solve this problem the community had blocked the pipe so the water would continue to fill the other three tanks instead of spilling over. The cause of the dislodging is not certain, but we believe the pipe was not placed far enough into the tank and when pressure was exerted on the pipe, it slid out. To fix this, we pulled more of the pipe into the new tank and placed new silicon around the pipe to hold it in place and keep water from coming out.
The people of Nyrotosho also visited us at the site and talked about how much they appreciated the water. They said there have been no health problems since they have started using the water and it tastes great!
After visiting the system, we went to Jacques's house. Jacques is the Cyanika pastor who helps us in community. Jacques offered us bananas and Fantas and we talked about the upcoming election and his wife's business of making wax fabric shirts and skirts. It was nice to meet a lot of Jacques family.
On Saturday we decided to take our day off and visit Lake Kivu, which was one of my favorite places we visited last year. We woke up early in the morning (for a weekend) and went to the bus station, where we awaited the Virunga bus. The bus as usual was more packed than a can of sardines and the bus ride was a lot longer than I had remembered it to be. We arrived in Rubavu and decided to check out the border with the Congo, since we were all so interested. We stayed on the Rwanda side and were able to get a quick glimpse into Goma, which looked a lot more busy than Rwanda.
After looking into the DRC we took our preferred way of transportation down to lake Kivu: the moto! The motos tried to make us pay the Muzungu price, but we were able to bring down the price by double of what they had originally wanted. We then walked to Tam Tam, which is the place Wally took us last year. There we ate some chicken and beef skewers, which tasted a lot better than Shaky's--a restaurant this team still has to taste! Jacques' son, Byishimo, who studies in Rubavu made the trip down to Tam Tam to meet us. We talked for a while and then Byishimo played cards with Max. Byishimo taught Max a Rwandan card game, although I think at times they were both pretty confused with what was happening and what card game they were playing. After Max had lost (I make sure to mention this, since he is beating us pretty badly in hearts) Sam decided to show Byishimo an American card game. Byishimo was very good, in fact, he was a lot better than me.Sometime after playing cards, we decided to go to the hot springs in town. We did not go into the hot springs, but mainly went to see the views. The moto ride was by far the most beautiful I have seen. Travis was right when he had said that this will be our best moto ride. On our way back, we all took videos of the ride, while on the motos.
On the bus, we were happy to see that the bus was pretty empty. This quickly changed as the bus filled completely after the first stop. A family of 10 people had entered. Two children had shared the seat beside me, and Max was squished in the back. In this family of 10 was the cutest baby, which I was allowed to hold for part of the drive. Even though this bus was by far the most packed, it was probably the most fun.
When we returned to Musanze, I gave the team the choice to choose whatever restaurant they wanted to eat at and if it was expensive, we must eat at the dreaded Shaky's the next day. Max was able to find a bakery, where we ordered many Sambusas from an Austrian lady. They were very good, but not as tasty as the ones we had gotten along the way from street vendors. We ended the night with our usual tradition of playing cards.
We will be staying in Musanze for Sunday and then get back to the community on Monday!
-Sam and Xilal (mostly Xilal)
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