The Magical land of Kedougou

This past week I traveled to Africa.  Well I already live in Africa, but this was like "real" Africa with baboons, and warthogs, and jungle and waterfalls.  Kedougou city is approximately 585 kilometers from my site.  It took us two days to get there (we stopped off in Tambacounda to spend the night at the regional house there) and even with the cramped sept-place it was totally worth it.  The Kedougou regional house for those of you who have never been there is much less like a house and more like a camp ground.  It's made of lots of different huts rather than one big building.  Its really pretty sweet.  So why you may ask did I venture to this strange far away land?  I came to learn how to move water.  Not on the Moses scale but on a much more manageable from well to surface and from surface to plant kinda way.  Yes this was a water pump formation (training for those who are frenchily challenged).  We learned how to contstruct and install two different water pumps.  First a rope pump that pulls water up from a well by using little plastic washers tied to a rope to pull water up a pcv pipe. 

Yes that well cap will do just fine

And here is the pump in action.  It gets great flow on shallow wells

The second pump is the Rocker Water Pump designed by the Full Belly Project.  Check out their website, its a great organization.  http://www.thefullbellyproject.org/ 

Here's the main mold.  The hoses create the channels for water to travel to each piston and then to the outlet on the right.

Just add concrete and a little steel for reinforcement and pop it in the oven to bake for 48hrs.

So what do you do in Kedougou when you have to wait for concrete to dry for two days... Waterfall!!!

The hike through the jungle to get to the falls.

Waterfall!

Waterfall with friends!

Through the wondrous magic of my blog it's now 48hrs later and the concrete is ready! 

Isn't she pretty :-).  water comes in from that tube on the bottom of the picture and goes either left or right depending on which piston is down and then goes to the front chamber and out into the world to grow wonderful nutritious veggies.

Pistons, and rubber seals to prevent leakage and back-flow.

The finished product.  You stand on the board and shift you weight back and forth and that works the pistons. 

Thanks David Campbell for bringing these technologies to Senegal and for putting on this formation.  Kaolack now has molds for the rocker pump and I cast one up myself two days ago.  It's out of the molds and looking fabulous.  I brought back a rope pump as well which I'm going to try to get copied by a metal worker in Toubacouta.  Needless to say I'm really excited to start working on both these technologies.  I contacted the Full Belly Project and they're going to send another set of molds for the Kolda region and then we should really be cookin.  Speaking of cooking...

David Campbell's wood fire pizza oven.

David making pizza.

Yeah I am so making one of these in my back yard.  This was our last night in Kedougou and it was a fabulous way to finish out our little trip down south.  I have a feeling these technologies may become a big part of my service so be prepared for lots more on the rocker and rope pumps.  Do check out the the Full Belly Project too they really are doing some amazing work.  Also to the Chico State engineers without borders club (if you're reading that is) Peace Corps is a great organization to partner with to get experimental new technologies out into the field.  I would love to test something new anyways.  Just a thought. 

Cheers
Garrison