Thursday June 27

With only two days left in Buseesa, today was a day to assess
remaining tasks, divide the work, and get down to business. Much of
our time has been spent gathering broad information about he community
and putting out feelers for future projects, but we recently have
focussed back in on the biogas. We need some key information on manure
production, site layout, and water supply before we can head home and
begin design work. Some stove use questions still lingered as well,
and Marc wanted to try solving a problem with "exploding" water tanks.

Christina, our medical student from OSU, accomanied Sister Anita to
Mubende for the removal of the cast from her broken foot. John and Ed
made a rough topo map of the proposed digester site, and thought of a
possible new loaction as well. Marc, Jackie, and Christina interviewed
Rose, one of the school cooks, who supplied valuable insight into
cooking techniques and firewood use. Erin went to map local water
sources with GPS and do water quality testing.

One of the elder Ugandan teachers, Joseph, age 70, spontaneously
invited us to join him in the cafeteria at tea time. He hoped for a
chance to just sit and talk with us while there was a chance. He very
generously produced two mandaazi (a sweet roll, fried like a donut)
for each of us that he had purchased at a shop. He taught local
language, local music, and agriculture to grades 4-7. He lived 32 km
away and only returned home every other week to "take care of
problems". It was nice to slow down briefly and share some
conversation with a gentleman.

Marc, Jackie, Erin, Christina, and friend Maria planned an evening
boda boda trip to Karaguuza to investigate local supplies, and sure,
to eat out at a restaurant. They rode with Michael, Moses, and Matea
(you can do the math... three to a boda boda except for one) who
managed to show them shops that will provide a majority of necessary
building supplies only 20 minutes from Buseesa. Shops even had the
basic plumbing piping and valves that we anticipate needing. Matea
also showed the group his welding shop, where he makes metal doors,
and could be a place where more-efficient wood stoves could be
produced locally.

Wednesday June 26

The guest house offered a fine breakfast spread for all of the guests
around one large table filled with boiled eggs, bread, jam, local
honey, and passionfruit juice. After doing some brief shopping for
souvenirs at the guest house shop, we departed Kasiisi and drove our
rough dirt road in reverse. We only had to stop once to let a baboon
cross the road. Viennay, Ankh, and Lauren followed us in a separate
car.

We immediately jumped into giving Viennay a tour of the SND grounds so
he could formulate his ideas of whether the site merited a biogas
digester at all, and if so, where the best location would be. This
took some time, but finally we all sat down in the coolness of the
convent and discussed the project with Sister Rita. Viennay confirmed
EWB's views that a digester would work well here, and the farm had
ample animal wastes to use, along with the potential for using latrine
waste, kitchen waste, and crop waste. While Viennay has built almost
30 fixed dome digesters and is an expert in their construction, EWB
proposed working with him to develop a plug-flow design for the site
that would be more efficient in terms of gas production. This design
would hinge on gathering information on an acceptable method of
sealing a flexible membrane top to the concrete digester, and EWB
offered to test some prototypes over the next 6 months in Cincinnati.
It was a positive conversation that could lead to an innovation for
Green Heat. Vianney also shared with us his interest in developing a
method of heating very large cookpots with steam from a biogas heating
source, so that he could surpass the sizing limits of available
Ugandan burners. We offered to bring this challenge back to our stove
committee and see if they could assist.

Later in the evening, Vianney shared his spreadsheet calculator that
he uses to determine potential gas production from various wastes and
for digester sizing. This could be a valuable aid as we work together
in the future and can compare numbers based on similar assumptions. So
far, we have been working with a variety of assumptions and data from
differing sources, and our results have been all over the place.
Another positive outcome for this trip!

On the Road Again - Tuesday, June 25

Up at 6 am today to make breakfast in our kitchenette and do final
packing for our journey to Kasiisi, just a little bit south of Fort
Portal, a 2-3 hour drive west from Buseesa. We take the Toyota Land
Cruiser (with double gas tanks) on a short cut that, believe it or
not, John B. was able to show Sister Rita and driver Phillip from a
Google Map printout he brought with him. This road turned out to be a
hellacious (to an American) ride on a narrow rutted track diving
steeply down and up again... the ride was even rougher for those
riding facing sideways in the rear jump seats or sitting in front
squeezed between the driver and passenger. After sailing through two
dirt roundabouts along the way and passing many cattle and villagers
on foot, we came out on the glorious macadam of the Mubende-Ft. Portal
Road. Pavement never looked so good!

During a brief latrine stop, John and Marc spoke with some roadside
craftsmen selling their solid mahogany bed frames and headboards...
most furniture here is made of mahogany since it is such a common
local hardwood. Unbelievable to American woodworkers that pay top
dollar per board foot for mahogany!

Tea crops begin to appear along the road first in small patches and
then in huge plantations that sprawl over entire hillsides. Fort
Portal is very picturesque with Mt. Rwenzori and the Mountains of the
Moon towering near 20,000 feet on the dusky horizon. The source of the
Nile River is nearby, where whitewater rafting is offered to tourists.
The standard of living is noticeably greater than it was in Buseesa,
further "upcountry". Our destination is the Kasiisi government Primary
School, with 1000-1200 students, where a Peace Corps program for the
Kibaale Forest is based. Our contact, Keith Miller, and staff, offer
forest conservation information to the schoolchildren and their
families that live on the outskirts of the forest. They have an
operating biogas digester on site that is one of the high points of
the trip. It is a 16 cubic meter fixed dome unit running mostly on
latrine waste with some food scraps and chicken manure, and produces
enough biogas to run a large single burner (600 liters/ hour) several
hours a day at the guest house kitchen. There appeared to be more
biogas potential, as bubbles rose visibly from the effluent in the
secondary chamber, and indeed the school planned to add another supply
line soon to a set of 3 small burners in the school kitchen. Keith
opened the valve at the water trap and biogas roared out of the 3/4"
line, also giving us a noseful of what biogas smells like! It
certainly does have a barnyard smell, but there is no odor when
burning in the kitchen, or any lingering odor around the digester
itself... at least nothing noticeable above the integrated latrine
house. Chef Paul at the guest house cheerfully demonstrated his biogas
burner in a small corner of the kitchen - he had just finished deep
frying samosas for lunch, which we soon ate with an avocado salad and
lemongrass tea. The guest house offered tasty fare with an Indian
bent, a remnant of the days when uganda was a colony of the British
Empire and the infrastructure was run mostly by people from India.

Our digester education continued with a trip to the school farm a
short distance away. There, Vianney Tumwesige, the owner and
mastermind of Green Heat Ltd, was working with his crew on
constructing a 12 cubic meter fixed dome unit almost identical to the
one at the school site. This digester was to take waste from a 3-seat
latrine as well as a piggery and create gas for a future guest house
for tourist/workers interested in the organic practices being used at
the farm. The workmanship was excellent, and Vianney explained that it
is better to build a quality product from the beginning instead of
returning later to make regular repairs. He explained the digester
layout to the full group and answered some of our specific questions
well. A South African man named David joined the tour, and explained
that he was from a group called Shine Africa that was attempting to
promote briquetting technology as a replacement to firewood use.
Sister Rita was interested in his information, as Buseesa villagers
often grow g-nuts (peanuts) and have the dry shells available for
briquetting with a little cassava flour.

Now we had a little time to be tourists. We drove to Lake Nkuruba with
hopes of seeing monkeys, and were rewarded with the antics of a large
troop of Colobus monkeys and a scattering of Vervets. What a noisy
bunch! Even though they are fascinating, maybe we are glad to not live
alongside monkeys, as they would always be into mischief. The lake
itself was one of several local crater lakes formed from an old
volcanic crater. Several others were nearby, and we drove to one strip
of road that meandered along a narrow ridge between two deep lakes.
The sunset pictures were postcard-perfect, and a group of boys proudly
displayed their stringer of tiny fish caught earlier. The road was
crowded with mostly young people filing back and forth carrying jerry
cans for water. Bicycles loaded with matoke bunches were pushed on
foot towards town center where buyers piled the local produce onto
heaping payloads bound for the city.

The evening meal was enjoyed back at the Kasiisi school guest house,
in the company of Lauren Haroff (a Fulbright scholar doing microbial
research with Vianney), her friend Brian from North Carolina, six
volunteers and their leader from West Point, three summer-long
volunteers from Harvard and Grinnell Universities, and Vianney's
Polish fiance, Ankh. A very eclectic crowd that socialized late into
the night.

Our accomodations were at the Rainforest Guest House, above average in
Uganda but still a bit of an eye-opener for our group that has been
enjoying the pseudo-western facilities at the convent. The beds had
mosquito netting but the shower water was off, and the latrines were a
small adventure. Our hosts were wonderful and very happy for our
visit; they announced that because we had come, they could now afford
their childrens' school fees. It looked like this location is a good
kickoff point for tourists to explore western Uganda, go on safari
tours, or climb some high African peaks. However, we were eager to
return tomorrow to Buseesa with Vianney and investigate the biogas
siting questions with him.

Monday June 24

Today we are in for a real African experience.  We meet at 7 am in front of the convent and load into the back of a Land Rover truck equipped with a set of bars arching over the bed.  Nicholas demonstrates that we will ride standing up, holding onto the bars and using our legs as shock absorbers.  Sister Rita accompanies us, riding in the cab, with Phillip driving.  Our objective will be to visit some locations of potential projects in the adjoining community.

Sunday June 23

What better way to start a visit to a Catholic mission school than to attend the Sunday morning mass!  And what better way to be introduced to the community of devout parishoners than to say hello at the village church?  We sat shoulder to shoulder and knee to back with children from the school on low wooden benches while Father Godfry led mass, students sang and drummed, and a special troupe danced up the aisle and back.  Ugandans are very religious in general and are predominantly Catholic.  The Sisters of Notre Dame are well respected in the local communities and are entrusted with the care and education of many local children.  If children can't afford the school fees (often paid in firewood, ground maize, matoke bananas, or farm labor) then they attend the government primary school across the road.  There is a significant difference in the quality of education they receive, however, so parents often go to desperate lengths to afford SND.

Saturday June 22

We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of sweet singing and drumming of African children from the nearby morning mass being held at the Pre-School in Entebbe. Roosters and raucous jungle birds added their interjections. We soon were shaking hands with the singers outside, as they introduced themselves in quiet soft voices, told us we were welcome, and asking our names in return

Update from Friday

The travel team has arrived safe and sound.  Here is the latest update from Ed Kohinke:

Our flight across the Atlantic was uneventful except for the welcome discovery of a great selection of free inflight movies. No one got more than 4 hours of sleep before a rainy grey 9:30 am landing in Amsterdam. Christina Durchholz, the sixth member of our group, joined us like clockwork at the departure gate for Kigale.

The flight to Kigale took us over the brilliantly white Alps, down the coast of Italy, across Sicily in view of Mt. Aetna, over the incredible expanse of the Sahara Desert, around some massive thunderstorm clouds above the Congo, and through a deep inky violet sunset into Rwanda. Within the hour, we hopped over Lake Victoria to Entebbe. Five stars out of five for the incredible food on the KLM flight; we look forward to it again on the return flight.

After taking care of our visa, we rendezvoused with Sister Rita, Sister Marge, and our driver Phillip, and were whisked away through the smoky Uganda night to the SND Pre-School facility in Entebbe where they also have a resting house for travelers. We were surprised to meet Jay Bayer and three of his kids at the house, who are also from the Cincinnati area, who had just completed 2 weeks of surveying for the Sisters. After a brief introduction, everyone retired to our excellent accommodations and got right to catching up on our sleep. At least, we did after the neighborhood rooster stopped crowing!

Bon Voyage!

Five members of the EWB-GCP travel team departed from the Cincinnati International Airport today at 3:35 PM en route to Amsterdam, where they will rendezvous with Christina Durchholz before continuing on to Uganda.  Here is a picture of the happy travelers at the airport!

Click on the link for more info on the travel team:  Meet the Travel Team

The World Works in Mysterious Ways

After thinking for months about the conceptual what-if's for this trip to Uganda, the certainty of departing tomorrow brings a sense of relief and clarity. Our group has met several times and discussed every imagineable detail of the journey. Now we can give ourselves a proverbial pat on the back for our preparations and feel comfortable that only minor issues remain, like what reading material to bring on the plane.

Our trip will take us about 7,600 miles from home to a place that none of us have ever visited or have known much about. We will meet new people from a completely different culture, breathe the air of a totally different climate, and be unable to speak more than a few words of the local language. Yet we are determined to generously offer our problem-solving skills and engineering know-how in some way that could improve living conditions or somehow touch the lives of strangers. Engineers Without Borders and the Sisters of Notre Dame have provided the connection to the needs of this faraway place, and it is a blessing to be capable of doing the work that is asked of us. I think this sentiment applies to all of us leaving tomorrow, and I know we all at least look forward to a successful start to our chapter's 5-year commitment to the village of Buseesa!

Project Overview

It would probably be fitting to start this blog with a brief introduction of our project, for the benefit of anyone who is not familiar yet with the Buseesa Alternative Energy project being undertaken by EWB-GCP (the Greater Cincinnati Professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders). This project is a collaboration with the Covington, KY province of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who began building their first Buseesa boarding school in 1996. Known as the St. Julie Primary Boarding School, it is now accompanied by a Senior Secondary School, a Nursery school, and a subsistence farm that is the largest employer in the area. The location of Buseesa is nearly impossible to find from browsing Internet map sources, but Google Earth will quickly zoom to it if you paste these coordinates into the search bar:   0°46'43.00"N     31° 9'25.00"E . 

The K-12 education provided at the SND schools has produced some of the top-ranked students in Uganda. Approximately 500 students and staff live at the site during the school year, and require a significant amount of nourishment from the cafeteria. And since the conventional cooking fuel is wood, the Sisters have to purchase about two truckloads of firewood a week to meet their kitchens' needs. Although firewood is currently the easiest source of fuel to obtain, the Sisters are aware of the impact this has on local forest resources, and have decided to work with our Cincinnati group to explore the possibility of replacing some of their fuel consumption with biogas.

Bio-what? Engineers are always interested in new challenges, even if the bulk of the work is just getting up to speed on alternative fuel technology that has been used around the world for decades. Biogas is the combustible product of anaerobic digestion, a natural decomposition process. Engineers (and just plain tinkerers) coax this process into a sustaining reaction inside an airtight tank, and regularly feed in a slurry of organic material mixed with water to produce a steady supply of methane mixed with carbon dioxide. This "biogas" can fuel a stove, light a lamp, power a refrigerator, or run a generator to produce electricity. Although  high-tech commercial power plants run on biogas in Europe, our project will focus on the low-tech application of running a pipe from the top of the digester to the kitchen stoves.

The EWB-GCP efforts will also focus on trying to introduce Buseesa villagers to wood-burning cook stoves that burn more efficiently than the traditional open-fire-under-three-large-rock design. Again, much work has already been done in this area by others over the years, and various NGO's have been successful with tested designs like the "Rocket Stove". Our group will assess the best way to make these stoves affordable for villagers that subsist on less than $1 a day.

There will be 6 members traveling on this initial Assessment trip. We will fly into Entebbe on June 21, stay the night, and drive for about 6 hours in a Land Rover west towards Lake Albert. During the course of the week, we look forward to meeting the Sisters and students at the school, the villagers of Buseesa, and the staff of the local microfinance group BCDC. We plan to tour at least one operating digester at a different school and assess the feasibility of implementing a biogas system at the SND schools. We will also meet with a local contractor that has built several biogas digesters in Uganda and discuss their proposed design. Evidently the Sisters are eager to get the project started, and already have the funding available, so it will be exciting to see some results of our work soon!