Arrival 2015

The travel team made it to Buseesa just fine, after buying the pump in Kampala along the way. As befits a Sunday morning, they attended the Parish mass. Afterwards, Erin and Jim ran a community meeting about the water project. As described in the last post, the well drilling is going better than expected!

One of the next tasks for the day will be to resolve some questions recently raised about the actual cooking routines used in the school kitchen. Our EWB chapter has interviewed the cooks on two previous assessment trips and, based on that information, is recommending the modification of two large wood-burning stoves to use biogas (in addition to installing two new large stovetop-sized biogas burners). This modification will be done by placing institutional-sized biogas burners inside the stove drum. The biogas burner will stand on its own supports inside the drum, and can be removed in case the gas supply runs out and the cooks need to revert to using wood.

However, the biogas contractor, QEnergy, conducted their own interviews on their recent site assessment visit, and their information conflicts with ours. QEnergy is suggesting only modifying one large kitchen stove. So John and Jim will verify the cooks' needs today, and the information will be relayed back to the contractor.

This is a good example of how difficult it can be to get a clear understanding of local operations in another country, even after several conversations. Language difficulties get in the way, different personnel may say different things, and a given process may not even be consistent each day.