Day 17: Troubleshooting

Day 17: Troubleshooting in Yua

Today we continued troubleshooting on what could possibly be wrong with solar panel-to-pump connection. We pulled the pump out of the borehole and tried to consult the manual and fiddle with the wiring but nothing seemed to work. It seems that the solar panels are hooked up properly so we are assuming there is either a problem with the pump itself or with the controller that sends power to the pump. I have to say today was a little discouraging as we hoped to have water flowing by now. We have a number of technicians meeting us at the solar plaza tomorrow to take a look. Hopefully tomorrow we will get it all sorted out.

While Matt was in Bolga gathering technical support, I had the opportunity to take a bike ride into Burkina Faso to take a look at a dry season farm that is in operation there. It was really quite a sight. They really have an ingenious irrigation system worked out there which involved pumping water from the river and flooding a series of irrigation ditches one at a time. They control which ditch is flooded by placing and removing dirt barrier walls at the entrance to each channel. It is a great system if you happen to be farming near a river. 

Hopefully the drip system will be way more efficient for those who have less access to large amounts of water. After seeing the farm in operation and explaining how drip was different, I think the people of Yua are ready to try drip and they have a better idea of what to expect. They have been having a little trouble coming to terms with the face that we are going to be poking pinhole sized holes in a PVC pipe and watching water trickle out. They were skeptical at best but James (a Yua community member who has been helping out a lot with the projects) said today that though they have never seen anything like what we are talking about doing, they are ready to try. Good enough for me. Tomorrow we build!

Kate

Day 15: New Years!

We hope everyone had a wonderful new years. With many prosperous wishes for you and your family's health and happiness in 2012.

Yua brought in the new year with full force! We were very fortunate to have been able to share this day with them and experience more of the Yuan way of life. The day began once more in the pews of Yua's open window church. Another three hour service, and lucky for us, Steve (the traveler from New York) had to dance for everyone just as we did.

After the service, we went straight to the water plaza in hopes that we could get the water running for this special day. Unfortunately, once the proper connections were made with the solar panels, the pump still didn't run. So some further troubleshooting will be necessary. We didn't have enough time to continue, as we had to go back to SWOPA and prepare for the afternoon's big event!

The program for the ceremony began two hours later than planned, but that is to be expected in the timeless days of village life. There was a small arena made, encircled by chairs containing the elders, us, and Steve. Everyone else filled in the remaining chairs and the area around us. Once seated, the assembly man announced that we would have to get up and walk over to a small clearing to watch an impersonation of a tribal fighting scenario. Two men dressed in nothing but a diaper and sash of animal skin (and tennis shoes of course). They pranced around shooting arrows at each others feet. They held the innocent expression of concentration and excitement one could find on the faces of young school yard boys in an intense game of Cowboys and Indians. It was quite a show, and when they shot arrows at a nearby tree we all cheered when the target was successfully hit. This is when the appearance of the drumming group caused us to return to our seats. They thrilled us with a performance and set the evening's background music (James, one of the plaza workers among them). There were also several speeches that followed, an expression of thanks to Engineers Without Borders, with intermissions of female dance groups. Their dancing was feverish and strong. As Kate mentioned to me as an aside, which I found interesting: “its curious how dancing here resembles working, while dancing in the US seems to be more of an expression of sexuality”. Regardless, it looked like so much fun. One song had even been written for us and I noticed Veronica, the wife of one of the elders among them. How special!

Then came the EWB return speech; Matt, Moses, and I walked forward to the elders and I said a few words of thanks followed by Steve. The drummers got shooed away during the speeches so the crowd died down. As we waited for the program to continue, we began dancing with the small children.To our surprise drummers had returned and a large crowd had formed around us. Moses jumped in and grabbed my hand to pull me into the midst of the group and we danced! Oh was there dancing! It was thrilling. Next Max got pulled in, and that boy sure can move, it was the talk of the evening. 

Anna

This is blog post is approved by Belinda.

Day 14: Installing the Panels

Gafara. Sorry for the slight absence in communication. The past few days have been rather busy, and we haven't been spending too much time at SWOPA so there has been less time to spend on the blog.

Day 14: Installing the Panels

Saturday started out rather slowly because we were waiting for a welder to show up from Bolga. Joe, a friend of Pok, uses an oxy-acetylene torch which allows him to be relatively portable (he does not need the power grid, which does not exist where we are working).

Joe showed up to the plaza and immediately looked disappointed. He could not weld the thick angle iron that we were using to build the structure. I was also disappointed as the welders in Bolga had made our supports incorrectly. There was nothing more we could do about that then, so we had to move on. After deliberating with the local contractor, Moses, Joe, and the team, and hearing Pok's confidence in the strength of the structure, we decided to postpone the additional bracing. Because we cannot weld, it will have to be bolted on to the structure, so can be done after the panels are mounted without risking damage to them.

Joe was able to help us correct the level of one side of the structure before he went back to Bolga. Thank you Joe for taking a day off work to help us in Yua.

After seeing Joe and the girls off to Bolga, Max and I began working on laying out the cable for the panels while Moses painted the top of the structure. We ate a lunch of rice balls while the paint was drying, then began to mount the panels. We have carried these panels with us from Accra, so although we were disappointed, we were not surprised when one of the four was broken. Thankfully, the panel was still fully functional, so we can use it until we find a solution to the problem.

We ran out of daylight to complete the connections, so must wait to see what problem will arise next.

Matt