Sunday, January 14, 2024

Final post, Sunday, Jan. 14: Kwa Heri, Tanzania!

After a few action-packed days on safari, we awoke following our final night at the Lutheran Center in Iringa. The bus was loaded and ready to go by 6:05 a.m., a mere five minutes after our intended departure time, which had to be a record. Everybody said goodbye to Iringa and packed onto the "coaster" bus, for the approximately 12-hour ride. 

Friday, January 12, 2024

Day 12 - 14: Safari and last night in Iringa

The gang just returned from Ruaha National Park today after a few days on Safari. We've spent the last couple of days diligently noting every species our group saw, from the tiny Dik-Diks to the creepy Hyenas. 

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Day 11: Presentation Day

Today started like any other day with breakfast at the Lutheran center, except for the fact that each of the students was looking forward to their presentations later today. Work began right after breakfast with each group continuing to work on their presentations. All the computers were filled with MATLAB and Google Earth. Each group worked hard to design the different solutions for their village, including cost estimations, distribution points, maps, and pipe sizes.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Day 10: Project work and fun little hike

After a long but exciting weekend in the villages, each group promptly began work on their respective water system solutions. We collected lots of data in the villages on elevation, water source locations, and population size. Every group started by mapping out their villages within Google Earth and by creating hand sketches. We created rough drafts of our presentations and some brave group members tackled a MATLAB challenge to solve a fluid system in a system of equations.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Days 7-9: Our intrepid engineers return!

For the last three days our class split into three smaller design teams and spent the weekend in their individual remote villages.  While there they collected data in order to be used to guide their water system designs.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Day 6: Village visits and unexpected trouble

Today's plans consisted of visiting the villages Lukani and Kidabaga. At Lukani we viewed the water systems of the village designed by previous students. At the next village, Kidabaga, we went to the borehole drilling site, which was being dug with a mud rotary drill. 

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Day 5: Learning about village churches and the roles of Bega Kwa Bega and Saint Paul Partners

After the usual breakfast of eggs and toast this morning, the group headed over to the Diocese to learn more about the structure of the village churches, as well as the roles of Bega Kwa Bega and Saint Paul Partners.