filters are coming in the village!

Hello Everyone,

Happy late 4th of July! When you were probably grilling out, swimming, and watching the fireworks we were in the bush celebrating. Overall, we are all having a great time staying in the village. Even though there are lots of bugs, we are having a blast! During the day we work on either the pipe line of filter construction and by night the boys are ready to play some soccer while the girls hang out with the kids, play cards with the women, and help with dinner.

As you may know, our main goal for the Barombi Water Project is to provide Barombi Village with clean drinking water using affordable and appropriate technology. The pipe line will provide the water while the point-of-use filters will be implemented to provide clean, healthy drinking water.

For the first three/four weeks here Katie, Marissa, and I worked with a welder in town to fabricate a mold which we are using in the village to cast the concrete forms for the filters. After finishing the mold, we casted our first form at the hardware man's house; unfortunately, we had to destroy the form because the extractor fabrication errors. The welder made some adjustments, and we were successful on our next try. The mold and other necessary materials were then transported to the lake on a motorcycle and then carried to the village by canoe late last week.
Last week, for the first time, all six students stayed in the village for the week. Construction for the water distribution system continued and the production and implementation of the filters started. The team met with the water committee to start organizing for production, education, and distribution of filters. During the week we worked with a few men everyday to teaching them the process of making the concrete forms; by the end of the week 4 forms were constructed. We also met with the women in the village to give them a brief summary of the filters using visual aids and help from Carin, our Cameroonian mommy, who helped translate for us. This Thursday we will be having our first filter demonstration to show the villagers how they work and let them start signing up for their very own. As for the distribution, as a team decided that it would be best for the villagers to pay for a jug (which will be used to carry the clean water) and to provide a half liter of oil for the steel mold. The money collected will go to the water committee for future filter maintenance and materials.

This weekend we came back to town to catch up with our Kumba Town friends and gather more materials to build the concrete filters. It was a pretty big adventure trying to send more concrete and sand to the village. We had to find a truck which was willing to drive back to the lake side; it's not an easy drive with all the hills and pot holes (I think it could be called Father of the Beast). The best part of it is that the truck we used is 48 years old (If you have seen the movie Cars, it looked just like the old rusty truck Mator, haha)!! Tomorrow we will meet up with Justin, Mark, and Liz in the village and continue making the point-of-use filters (hopefully the men will not need any of our help!), start painting the forms, and filling the forms with the sand and gravel. By the end of the week we will be done with the pipeline and everyone is going to want there very own filter after seeing how beautiful they are!

We are all excited to come home and tell you all more about the village life and the project, it really has been a blast. Despite all of the midgets, mosquitoes, and the outhouse, we are all loving it. Well anyway, I hope you guys are having a great summer, I can't wait to hear about your summers too.

Keep in touch and see you in a few weeks,
Hayley