This morning I was up with the birds, I mean with that darn resident rooster, and made my way to the center to make some badly needed clutch adjustments on one of the ploughing tractors before it went out. I didn't dare wait until the weekend fearing that major clutch damage could result even with one more day of ploughing. To change a clutch in a tractor like that one is no small task especially if you have to work without jacks and lifts and only have a CTC tool kit to work from. The task would literally require splitting the tractor in half.
Rural filling stations without electricity use a more traditional set of pumps, a container that holds exactly 10 L and a funnel. This is their fuel storage depot.
Carolyn and I spent from mid morning on with a team of "field experts" touring remote settlements in the back country around Kimilili to check out some of the unprotected drinking water sources. This was basically an assessment to see what would be involved to convert some of these water sources into safe and protected drinking water supplies and to confirm community participation in these projects.
At one location I stood by and listened to the technician have a conversation in Swahili with a very loud lady who didn't seem to be in very good humour. He later told me that she didn't want him to disturb the water source because she thought it would kill the water supply. She seemed content to scoop her water from a supply shared with animals oblivious to the risks of drinking contaminated water.
Classroom at Omwabini
Carolyn and Redempta, our cook, went to the local mill have a mixture of millet, sorghum and cassava ground into flour
This evening was another "mechanics lesson" with the drivers and others. One of the topics I made sure to include was "clutch pedal free play". The 65 or so video clips that I brought on my laptop does help bridge much of the language barrier.
No comments:
Post a Comment