Rocky Road

The past few days have been very busy and consisted of completing precursor activities for implementation of the new plan for the slow sand filter in Tshapasha. Our plan consists of lowering the JoJo tanks about 1 meter, installing a new weir, constructing higher walls in the SSF, building a new pipe network at the bottom of the slow sand filter and a new grading scheme of the materials inside the compartments of the SSF. In addition, we are also going to install a new larger diameter 80mm pipe from the pipe junction at the bottom of the SSF to the weir that will increase the outflow rate from the SSF. We have spent the majority of our time digging out the area for the JoJo tanks but encountered a very large rock that required a bulldozer to remove. After two and a half days of hard work digging up so many rocks that we could not possibly fit them in the hole we removed them from, our team celebrated for a moment in a completed 7m by 3m hole that we be the final place for the Jojo tanks.

In preparing the new outlet network from the SSF and constructing the new weir we were fortunate to meet Sean, the owner of a local hardware and plumbing store in Thohoyandou. With his help we were able to get our new network in place, as well as fit our custom weir with fittings for the larger pipe. The purpose of the weir is a reservoir connected to the filter that is exposed to atmospheric pressure and placed at such a height to ensure the water level in the SSF will not fall below a certain the water level in the weir. New materials have arrived on site daily this week, including 50m of our new 80mm pipe, and close to 1,000 bricks that we will use to build up the walls of the filter to accommodate the adjusted layers of filter materials. Our daily lunch of chicken and pap is growing on us every day as we both grow more accustomed to the local dish and our work days get longer. Despite this, we are all still a long ways away from being able to eat even half of what our UNIVEN partners can somehow fit inside their stomachs. The long bumpy stretch of dirt road out to the villages has taken the first visible toll on our small Nisan Tida, as the metal latch on our trunk gave way after experiencing more than a lifetime of abuse in two weeks of travel with us. Now held closed with a short bit of twine we are carrying on, keeping our fingers crossed every trip we make out to the work site.
We celebrated the first of three team member birthdays occurring this month when Jimmy turned 22 on July 5th. To celebrate, we took a trip to the local casino Khoroni, which is only a few kilometers away. Fittingly, Jimmy had some incredible birthday luck and made enough Rand to cover our bulldozer expense, although these funds will most likely be enjoyed by the team as cold refreshments after long days in the field. Our team is excited planning a trip to Kruger National Park this weekend, which is the largest national park in the country. We hope to have some close, but not too close encounters with the big 5 (water buffalo, lion, zebra, rhino, and elephant). Next week will be a big week for us as we connect our system completely and make any final adjustments with the hopes that we can leave a completed system by week’s end. Shown below is the schematic of our system.