Mshale bwino. This is the way Lala Bembas say goodbye. Literally translated it means "you stay well," a polite phrase announcing ones departure, and implies a fondness for those left behind. This month I bid farewell to my tribal family in Changilo and moved out of my home these past 23 months to begin work on my third year extension projects. The occaision was marked with a final meeting in which the village wished me well and expressed their gratitude towards myself and Peace Corps with a few gifts and a shared meal. I gave "rememberances" (parting gifts to friends) and we prayed for continuing prosperity in Changilo village.
The evening became more sentimental after I opened a jerry can of home brewed beer and we broke out the instruments. Adam had recently moved to a village about 12 kilometers away to work with agro-forestry projects and he brought his mandolin to the festivity so that we could jam a bit. Raised near Tazwell, Virginia, he knows a good bit of the bluegrass and old-time tunes that I picked up during my schooling in Blacksburg. The local men (women do not drink in public until they are very old in Lala culture) danced an instinctive clog as we played the music of Appalachia into the cool Mkushi night.
A Peace Corps Landcruiser picked me up on a quiet morning a few days later. I have never bid someone farewell with more literal honesty than I did at that moment. There is an emmense love in my soul for those farmers in the Mkushi hills and I wish only the best for them. They have undoubtedly taught me more than I could ever teach them and they have changed me forever. I am proud to be the one called Ba Nkalamu by the Lalas of Changilo. I'll carry this with me for the rest of my life. Mshale bwino ba Changilo, Nalebafaluka ifwe. Ndefwaya kubwela nobeline.
I hardly had time to process my emotion before leaving for Solwezi in the North-Western
Province of Zambia on my first assignment, facilitating a week-long appropriate technology workshop. I would be taking over as the volunteer program coordinator for appropriate technology in October and the workshop functioned as a "training by fire." Luckily, I didn't have to fly solo as the outgoing volunteer program coordinator and volunteer logistics manager were on hand to make sure that everything was on track. B is taking over for the logistics manager so I had a competent partner in crime throughout the workshop. B and I facilitated sessions on design, problem framing, resource management, and design assesment during the first few days and then broke participants into groups based on interests indicated via survey.
The four groups were responsible for designing, constructing, and testing three technologies each. Using the design tools provided earlier in the week, participants adapted technologies to fit the needs and resources of their respective communities and then set about fabricating the devices that they designed. This approach recognizes that Western industrial designers cater to about 10% of the worlds population. Fostering a culture of innovation in the other 90% will not only breach previously untapped pools of ingenuity but empower rural inventors to use their poverty as a means to create sustainable and effective solutions. Each volunteer participant had to apply with a Zambian counterpart with the idea that the two will work in tandem to bring appropriate technology thinking to their village.
The four teams also worked on a "design challenge" project in which all of the group developed
different designs to solve the same problem, keep pests out of foodstuffs using only bush materials. Later in the week, we brought in several local women (identified as the target user group for the devices) in as a random sample group to test the devices and give user feedback. Our sample group provided insight that the designers applied to their other projects, allowing them to begin to think as a user as well as a manufacturer.
B and I helped acquire materials, guide the groups by asking user related questions, as well as
helping with labor in a few instances. We also set up and demonstrated a few technologies of our own throughout the week across three distinct categories: Pedal powered machines, water santitation/irrigation, and alternative cooking methods. The demonstrations inspired the teams by showing how a mechanical (simple machines) or chemical (using electricity to turn salt water into chlorin) principal can be applied to solve a problem in a resourceful way. We were on hand during the workshop to relate the principals demonstrated directly to the designs of each of the respective teams. At the end of the week, we invited people active in the Solwezi community to come and see what we had accomplished during a "technology showcase." Participants had a chance to let users try out their designs and explain how they developed the idea from concept to construction.
Pedal powered machines are one of my favorite concepts, especially if the bicycle is still a
functional mode of transport after the modification. This maize sheller cranks out kernel after kernel about twenty times faster than by hand and the bike can still be used as a mode of transport. This device comes as a kit from Global Cycle Solutions for about 30.00 USD and the modification takes about fifteen minutes. We used this model alongside a pedal-power cell phone charger to demonstrate how cycling energy can be harvested in a variety of ways.
North-Western province produces alot of honey. The wet tropical environment is ideal for the type of vegetation that allows the bees to thrive. As a result there are numerous companies purchasing raw product for processing that offer better prices for pressed honey. The problem is that honey presses are expensive and largely unavailable to farming communities. This team set out to design a functional honey press out of broken jerry cans and wood. The resulting prototype was able to crush the comb and harvest honey but proved rather difficult to clean. The team redesigned the press by the end of the workshop and intends to build it with the assistance of carpenters in Mwini Lunga district (West of Solwezi).
Jatropha trees are also found in abundance in North-Western province. The trees were brought in years ago when leading economists cited jatropha oil as one of the next great renewable
energy sources. The group that I am partnered with, Southern Bio Power, purchases large ammounts of jatropha seed to produce biofuel for generator and automotive use but there is little that small jatropha growers are doing to benefit from their trees in the village. One potential application is to use the raw oil from a village press as a fuel for laterns. Unfortunately the oil is too viscous for a wick so the latern must pressurize the fuel. Using a gravity fed fuel well and a charred maize cob for a wick, this lamp burned for several days. The team constructed the lamp from an old bottle, can, bottle caps, and tubing to demonstrate how a gravity fed system with a more porous wick can create a highly efficient jatropha oil lamp.
Every Zambia road has a substantial ammount of litter alongside. Travellers and tourist
routinely throw all trash out of the vehicle with the assumption that burning season will erase all traces. In the villages, children use the litter to fashion toys, but little is done to clean up the roads in towns and cities where wild fires can't reach. One team decided to address this problem by developing different uses for discarded plastic. The most interesting concept involved roofing tiles made of old plastic bottles and melted plastic bags. To test the idea, the team constructed a small demonstration. Photo-degradation of the compounds in the plastic got cited as a potential challenge over time and we are looking forward to seeing a full size house tiled with plastic for an acurate empirical test.
Wood charcoal is a major problem in Zambia. Deforestation has become endemic due to population growth and increased demand for cooking fuel. This made alternative cooking
methods a popular topic at the workshop. This simple metal cylinder uses packed sawdust as a cooking fuel. The dry sawdust is packed around a pole that connects to an air intake at the bottom of the cylinder. The pole is removed during ignition and the sawdust provides a steady source of heat for about 4-6 hours. We found out just how efficient the stove is when we went to empty it out in the morning and found that the fire was still burning. Lumber mills in Zambia routinely burn their sawdust piles to dispose of them so this technology could provide an additional source of revenue for mills seeking to cut down on waste and deforestation as well as a fuel source in deforested areas.
Pop-can stoves have been used by backpackers in the States for years. I constructed this one with two soda cans, some sheet metal, and an old tin lid. All of the materials were pulled out of a
trash pit. The bottoms of the cans were cut off and put together to create a closed compartment. This was the hardest step as fitting two cans of the same diameter together without creasing either can is not an easy task. Once the compartment is formed, small holes were nailed around the top for gas to escape and one large hole was put in the center to allow me to fuel the stove. To use the stove, I put four cap-fuls of rubbing alcohol (1 liter cost 3 USD in Zambia) into the stove via the fill hole and then covered the inlet with the cap from a coke bottle. The stove is on the tin lid with a dash of spirits spilled on it and the lid is ignited. The flame on the lid quickly boils the spirits inside the stove and sprays out of the top holes under pressure (Boyle's law), ignited by the flames underneath. The stove looks very much like a gas burner and is considerably efficient. I constructed a triangular windscreen/pot holder out of the sheet metal for ease of use.
Dehydrating foods is one alternative method of food preparation that is already alive and well in
Zambia. Sun drying caterpillars and mushrooms is a traditional activity during rainy season but success is completely dependent on the weather as it takes several days to completely dry something in the open air. Using the greenhouse effect to harvest solar energy, food can be dehydrated much faster and without damage from rain or pests. This dehydrator uses a greenhouse chamber to feed hot, dry air into a food compartment. The compartment is ventilated to the allow continous flow of hot air.
These are just a few of the designs that came out of the Solwezi workshop. The real work was empowering counterparts to become inventors. To inspire the spirit of creation in our participants was worth alot more than showing off all these cool machines. Although, I must admit, the technologies are pretty cool.
The evening became more sentimental after I opened a jerry can of home brewed beer and we broke out the instruments. Adam had recently moved to a village about 12 kilometers away to work with agro-forestry projects and he brought his mandolin to the festivity so that we could jam a bit. Raised near Tazwell, Virginia, he knows a good bit of the bluegrass and old-time tunes that I picked up during my schooling in Blacksburg. The local men (women do not drink in public until they are very old in Lala culture) danced an instinctive clog as we played the music of Appalachia into the cool Mkushi night.A Peace Corps Landcruiser picked me up on a quiet morning a few days later. I have never bid someone farewell with more literal honesty than I did at that moment. There is an emmense love in my soul for those farmers in the Mkushi hills and I wish only the best for them. They have undoubtedly taught me more than I could ever teach them and they have changed me forever. I am proud to be the one called Ba Nkalamu by the Lalas of Changilo. I'll carry this with me for the rest of my life. Mshale bwino ba Changilo, Nalebafaluka ifwe. Ndefwaya kubwela nobeline.
I hardly had time to process my emotion before leaving for Solwezi in the North-Western
Province of Zambia on my first assignment, facilitating a week-long appropriate technology workshop. I would be taking over as the volunteer program coordinator for appropriate technology in October and the workshop functioned as a "training by fire." Luckily, I didn't have to fly solo as the outgoing volunteer program coordinator and volunteer logistics manager were on hand to make sure that everything was on track. B is taking over for the logistics manager so I had a competent partner in crime throughout the workshop. B and I facilitated sessions on design, problem framing, resource management, and design assesment during the first few days and then broke participants into groups based on interests indicated via survey.
The four groups were responsible for designing, constructing, and testing three technologies each. Using the design tools provided earlier in the week, participants adapted technologies to fit the needs and resources of their respective communities and then set about fabricating the devices that they designed. This approach recognizes that Western industrial designers cater to about 10% of the worlds population. Fostering a culture of innovation in the other 90% will not only breach previously untapped pools of ingenuity but empower rural inventors to use their poverty as a means to create sustainable and effective solutions. Each volunteer participant had to apply with a Zambian counterpart with the idea that the two will work in tandem to bring appropriate technology thinking to their village.The four teams also worked on a "design challenge" project in which all of the group developed
different designs to solve the same problem, keep pests out of foodstuffs using only bush materials. Later in the week, we brought in several local women (identified as the target user group for the devices) in as a random sample group to test the devices and give user feedback. Our sample group provided insight that the designers applied to their other projects, allowing them to begin to think as a user as well as a manufacturer.B and I helped acquire materials, guide the groups by asking user related questions, as well as
helping with labor in a few instances. We also set up and demonstrated a few technologies of our own throughout the week across three distinct categories: Pedal powered machines, water santitation/irrigation, and alternative cooking methods. The demonstrations inspired the teams by showing how a mechanical (simple machines) or chemical (using electricity to turn salt water into chlorin) principal can be applied to solve a problem in a resourceful way. We were on hand during the workshop to relate the principals demonstrated directly to the designs of each of the respective teams. At the end of the week, we invited people active in the Solwezi community to come and see what we had accomplished during a "technology showcase." Participants had a chance to let users try out their designs and explain how they developed the idea from concept to construction.Pedal powered machines are one of my favorite concepts, especially if the bicycle is still a
functional mode of transport after the modification. This maize sheller cranks out kernel after kernel about twenty times faster than by hand and the bike can still be used as a mode of transport. This device comes as a kit from Global Cycle Solutions for about 30.00 USD and the modification takes about fifteen minutes. We used this model alongside a pedal-power cell phone charger to demonstrate how cycling energy can be harvested in a variety of ways.
North-Western province produces alot of honey. The wet tropical environment is ideal for the type of vegetation that allows the bees to thrive. As a result there are numerous companies purchasing raw product for processing that offer better prices for pressed honey. The problem is that honey presses are expensive and largely unavailable to farming communities. This team set out to design a functional honey press out of broken jerry cans and wood. The resulting prototype was able to crush the comb and harvest honey but proved rather difficult to clean. The team redesigned the press by the end of the workshop and intends to build it with the assistance of carpenters in Mwini Lunga district (West of Solwezi).Jatropha trees are also found in abundance in North-Western province. The trees were brought in years ago when leading economists cited jatropha oil as one of the next great renewable
energy sources. The group that I am partnered with, Southern Bio Power, purchases large ammounts of jatropha seed to produce biofuel for generator and automotive use but there is little that small jatropha growers are doing to benefit from their trees in the village. One potential application is to use the raw oil from a village press as a fuel for laterns. Unfortunately the oil is too viscous for a wick so the latern must pressurize the fuel. Using a gravity fed fuel well and a charred maize cob for a wick, this lamp burned for several days. The team constructed the lamp from an old bottle, can, bottle caps, and tubing to demonstrate how a gravity fed system with a more porous wick can create a highly efficient jatropha oil lamp.Every Zambia road has a substantial ammount of litter alongside. Travellers and tourist
routinely throw all trash out of the vehicle with the assumption that burning season will erase all traces. In the villages, children use the litter to fashion toys, but little is done to clean up the roads in towns and cities where wild fires can't reach. One team decided to address this problem by developing different uses for discarded plastic. The most interesting concept involved roofing tiles made of old plastic bottles and melted plastic bags. To test the idea, the team constructed a small demonstration. Photo-degradation of the compounds in the plastic got cited as a potential challenge over time and we are looking forward to seeing a full size house tiled with plastic for an acurate empirical test.Wood charcoal is a major problem in Zambia. Deforestation has become endemic due to population growth and increased demand for cooking fuel. This made alternative cooking
methods a popular topic at the workshop. This simple metal cylinder uses packed sawdust as a cooking fuel. The dry sawdust is packed around a pole that connects to an air intake at the bottom of the cylinder. The pole is removed during ignition and the sawdust provides a steady source of heat for about 4-6 hours. We found out just how efficient the stove is when we went to empty it out in the morning and found that the fire was still burning. Lumber mills in Zambia routinely burn their sawdust piles to dispose of them so this technology could provide an additional source of revenue for mills seeking to cut down on waste and deforestation as well as a fuel source in deforested areas.Pop-can stoves have been used by backpackers in the States for years. I constructed this one with two soda cans, some sheet metal, and an old tin lid. All of the materials were pulled out of a
trash pit. The bottoms of the cans were cut off and put together to create a closed compartment. This was the hardest step as fitting two cans of the same diameter together without creasing either can is not an easy task. Once the compartment is formed, small holes were nailed around the top for gas to escape and one large hole was put in the center to allow me to fuel the stove. To use the stove, I put four cap-fuls of rubbing alcohol (1 liter cost 3 USD in Zambia) into the stove via the fill hole and then covered the inlet with the cap from a coke bottle. The stove is on the tin lid with a dash of spirits spilled on it and the lid is ignited. The flame on the lid quickly boils the spirits inside the stove and sprays out of the top holes under pressure (Boyle's law), ignited by the flames underneath. The stove looks very much like a gas burner and is considerably efficient. I constructed a triangular windscreen/pot holder out of the sheet metal for ease of use.Dehydrating foods is one alternative method of food preparation that is already alive and well in
Zambia. Sun drying caterpillars and mushrooms is a traditional activity during rainy season but success is completely dependent on the weather as it takes several days to completely dry something in the open air. Using the greenhouse effect to harvest solar energy, food can be dehydrated much faster and without damage from rain or pests. This dehydrator uses a greenhouse chamber to feed hot, dry air into a food compartment. The compartment is ventilated to the allow continous flow of hot air.These are just a few of the designs that came out of the Solwezi workshop. The real work was empowering counterparts to become inventors. To inspire the spirit of creation in our participants was worth alot more than showing off all these cool machines. Although, I must admit, the technologies are pretty cool.
The appropriate technology volunteers from 2011 passed the torch to the 2012 coordinators at the Solwezi workshop.
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