Planting Spinach

April 18, 2017

We started the day by looking at the water farming project.  Since we don’t have fish in the tanks yet, it’s time to add some manure in the water to help the plants grow.  Typically, the wastes from the fish would act as manure. 3.5 Tablespoons were added. 

We are going to plant the spinaches in the rocks.  The only trick is making sure the roots are deep enough to reach the water. 

Spinach and sunlight cover

Planting the spinach one by one

Farm Surrounding

The rest of the day we just planed a lot of lumber, to prepare pieces ready for the second bed frame (Top bunk). There are 37 pieces total for the whole bed. All 2X4 and 2X6.  The longest 76’, and shortest 36’. (Not including supporting pieces/spacers).

Here we have glued the four legs necessary for this jig.  Since we don’t have a table saw, We will use the jig to split one 2X4 into two 2X2’s.

I forgot to mention that for breakfast, we always have masala Chai tea! (Breakfast is usually around 9-10am, but I usually like to heat up something earlier because I like to eat breakfast first before working)

Masala Chai Tea

Cool Charcoal Pot in the kitchen!

Village Life

April 17, 2016

William’s dad has a friend who built an underground water tank (collecting rain water for house use).  They wanted to go and visit to see how it was done, so they can also build a similar one.  This friend also does a lot of agriculture and farming at his own house.  So we are going there to learn his techniques.

We did about an hour of wood planing before we left.

Here are some view along the way.  One interesting thing: we drove pass the equator! Basically we were driving from the southern hemisphere, pass the equator, and to the northern hemisphere.  There was a landmark there but the car was moving too fast so I couldn’t take a picture.  We passed through this town called “Luanda”.  It’s quite busy, with lots of markets and people walking on the street.

people carry huge stuff on their heads! This woman is carrying a basket of bananas and chatting at the same time.  It takes skills.

Some interesting facts I forgot to mention about Kenya:

1. People drive on the other side of street, just like Japan.
2. The electric outlet here is different.  It’s a “Type G” outlet. You need to buy a convertor.  I got this one about 200~300 shillings from Nakumatt.

Type G Adaptor

William's dad driving. Notice driver is on the right. Also, there is a cow on the upper right corner!

Here is the friend’s house.  A bit about this friend: he teaches at Maseno University, which is the university we are building the bunk beds for! 

They have a big farm with corn, papaya, avocado trees. We had lunch here.  There was mixed fruits for dessert - Mangos, papaya, watermelon, melons, it was good!

The house

Papaya Tree

The banana leafs are quite soft

Taking a picture with the banana tree

This small water tank is use for collecting water for farming  

Here is the underground water tank.  You see the two circular concrete on the ground. The small one is the filter.  The big one is the underground tank.  Rainwater is collected from the gutter on the roof, leading to the filter.  After water is filtered, it will flow to the big tank.  This tank holds 20,000 liters of water.  The above-ground tank that you see on top of the structure is where water is pumped to (from the underground tank).  From here, is where gravity does its job and allow water to flow to the house, the sink faucet and shower heads etc.

In the villages like Kisumu (except in Nairobi), domestic water system isn't managed by the government.  People have to find ways to collect water for themselves.  For people who can afford it, they use the water tank like this, dig a well, or pump water from underground.  For people who cannot afford it, William says many of them just dig a hole in the ground, and put pond-liners on it to collect water.  The problem with this is that there is no lid, so anything could get in the water and contaminate it.

Pond liner is basically a plastic sheet made of PVC or EPDM material 

After this, we went to another friend's house.  Their house has more traditionally built structures, such as leafs for roof and mud+cow dung. They had tons of animals here!  Chickens, cows, ducks, sheeps, cat, dog, they all seem to get along peacefully.

You can see the walls are made of mud + cow dung

Close-up of the wall

chicken coop

Interesting plant I saw on the way

The roof is made of leaves.  This is a very traditional way of building

This is the house! There is a dog resting in front of it

Having a good meal and good chat.  I didn't understand any of it but the conversation sounded very animated

This Ugali was HUGE.  They said it's brown because it's a village special. They mix in corn and other ingredients. I liked it a lot!! It was more sticky and chewy and tasted great.

We washed our hands like this before eating. We are going to eat everything by hand! (the correct way)

My Plate - chicken, veggie, beef stew, beef intestines (yes, I am used to this as a Taiwanese person)

The cat grabbing a piece of chicken bone

 Here's a video of what the house looks like.
(Video will be posted once I have access to wifi)

Sunday

April 16, 2017

Yesterday night rained pretty hard.  It was so nice to sleep listening to the raindrops.  Plus, the temperature is also a lot cooler which makes it nice to sleep.

Today is Sunday so we are taking it slow.  We had bread, eggs, sausages and tea for breakfast.  William’s dad and brother (Maurice) went to church while we stayed at home.  I did some reading on “Blink” (by Malcolm Gladwell).  On Chapter 4 now! Hopefully I’ll get to finish the book before end of this trip.

At about 2pm we started working again.  The 90 degree jig I made yesterday worked well!  It was cutting perfectly perpendicular but at one point the jig broke (guess wood glue wasn’t strong enough).  So, we nailed it in and just waiting for it to dry now.

In the meantime, we planed a lot more lumber.  Getting faster at these things now.  

Here are the steps to planing lumber:

1. Pick up a lumber (2x4 or 2x6)
2. Inspecting all sides to check if wood is curving or bending
3. Measure the length to see how much we can use (sometimes one end of the wood bends so much, or gets so thin that we have to cut it off)
4. Pick the most flat side to start planning
5. Because the fence is strangely installed on the planar, we get a little lip on the wood which we have to chisel off.
6. Now we have one flat side, which we will use to push against the fence, and now we plane the short side of the wood.  As a result we will have our first 90 degree corner.
7. At this point, we will have two flat sides.

After this, we place the flat side on the resize feeder, this will shave off the top side and make it flat.  Do the same with the short side of the wood, and now all four sides have completely flat surfaces!

Oh, and here's a chicken giving birth.  We put a soft cloth below her, and put a basket over her, so she won't run around when she's laying her egg.

First Bed Frame!

April 15

Finally I can take a hot shower today! For the past three days I think the water pressure was too low so somehow couldn’t get hot water.   

I helped cooked some sausages in the morning, and also helped Jacinta (the house helper) make some Ugali!  This is a staple dish in Africa, you mix the flour-like power in hot water, and continue stirring it like this. She also made Masala tea, which we have everyday for breakfast.

Me mixing ugali

Jacinta making Masala tea

Masala tea in boiled water+milk

Most of the time today were spend on making jigs.  We finally finished the two jigs needed for cutting the bed slants, and started on making the jig for cross-cuts (square cuts) using the circular saw.

And…. We finally glued and nailed our first bed frame!!!! Vua-Laaaa!!

Good Friday

April 14, 2017

The power was still not back in the morning, but it was okay because today is Good Friday, so we went to church (just a block away).  It was supposed to start at 9am, but we had breakfast and tea, so we didn’t get there until 10:30ish.  When we went in, the service STILL hasn’t started yet!! I think it finally started around 11am which is almost 2 hours later lol.  

Ps. On the plane from Amsterdam to Kenya, I sat next to a girl from Amsterdam (her name is Astrid) She warned me about “Kenya time”, where pace of life is super slow in Africa, and usually everything is delayed.  Thanks to her, I am adjusting to the schedule better and not surprised. Astrid is very interesting and she had a wonderful smile.  She told me she was going to Malawi for 2.5 months to do public health research.  She is a master student studying International health.  The last time she came to Africa was to Uganda, also for research.

Both the church and the water tank were built by Marera NPO

The church

Here is the tab

This water tank was funded by rotary club.  It allows anyone in the community to get free water if they need. (There is a water tab set up nearby. 

Here are all the NPO's past projects in panoramic view

The church service lasted about 1.5 hours.  After it is done, we went across the street to check on the Pre-school.  This was one of the NPO's past projects.  The ground was dirt floor, so to improve this workers were putting in new tiles for the floor.  The first room is almost done, and now they are starting the second room.

First Room 

Second Room

Another room will be added here 

Exterior

Interesting fact about putting the tiles:

The workers soak the tiles in water first like in the picture below.  This is to soften the tiles so they will stick to the concrete easier(the concrete is spread on the ground, and tiles are placed on top).

To cut the tiles in different sizes, this is the tool the workers used.  Basically, you first make a line (a slight crack) on the tile.  Then, you push down on it to break the tile along the crack.

Tiles are in this tank

Close-up

Tile Cutter 

Make a line, then press down to break

We got back home around 12:30pm, had lunch, then I started researching on how to build a jig for the circular saw.  We were also considering building a jig to turn the circular saw into a table saw.

After research is done and I had my notes, it’s time to start working.  The test pieces from yesterday seem to both be super strong.  So, I think we will just stick with using nails rather than pocket hole + screws.  Nails are much cheaper, and if outside force is applied, it will bent.  Screws on the other hand, may break.

The old jig that William made was not leveled, so we glued down an extra piece to the lower side to make it even height.   Another piece  was added horizontally, so we can make 90 degree crosscuts.

I think the major problem we ran into is making 90 degree corners, and making completely flat/leveled planes.  The fence on the planar machine was great, but it left a slight extrusion on the wood since we couldn’t push the fence all the way (so it had a small gap, where the blade can’t touch the wood, therefore that gap is not being cut)

We solved this by chiseling off this slight extrusion.

Now we are finally making 90 degree corners!! It’s a big accomplishment!

Since we had to wait for the glue to dry on the jig, we use this time to plane more 2X4.  Each piece is getting better and better!

Putting a brick (something heavy) for the glue to dry on our new jig

Around 7pm we had to clean up because it was getting dark.   The paster and his four children came over for dinner, so we had about 10~12 people all eating together.  It was fun.  It was my first time having fish in Kenya, it tasted really “Tuma” (means delicious in Sawhili)  William’s dad talked about how he visited Japan once in the 1980s and couldn’t get himself to eat raw fish.  People here cook everything and nothing is raw.   

I made a new friend today - her name is Helen, and she makes amazing Mandazi! (African donut with spice).

Helen cutting ugali

I feel pretty tired, I think we worked hard today!