Sorry it’s been a while since I last updated on what’s going on, things have been very busy!!! After coming back from Zambia I had a lot of work to do. I had to draw an electrical plan based on what I had discussed with Solar Aid. I needed to research alternative materials for roofing tile compared to what Zambia was using, so instead of using red oxide, which costs a bomb using limestone to make it green or crushed gravel to make it a grey colour and then making the roof a green roof with grass. As well as finding out more information about the Biogas and Waste water system and how that could be incorporated into the project and IF it could be incorporated into the project. There was a lot of research I had to do because I was a bit out of my depth. I have never been in charge of all the aspects of the plans like electrical, plumbing, sewage, etc. I never realized that before you can draw the foundations you have to have all these other things planned and in place. This was frustrating to me because I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere that I hadn’t put anything on paper. So a million emails, hours of research and much frustration I had a plan, which included a trip back to Zambia, I had it all worked out for the end of June but then…one of my contacts in Zambia, the man I needed to see is leaving for Germany for 6 weeks on the 19^th of June. That totally shot my plan out the window. So I had to re-think and find out did I have the time and resources to go back to Zambia in such a sort space of time, would I be able to get it all done. I didn’t have an electrical plan drawn out…I didn’t have an electrician! So I was thinking that maybe this all wasn’t going to work, and then I went to Harare for the monthly AIDS clinic and I ran into a friend. He asked me how I was doing and I explained my situation and he said the best sentence I ever heard “Did you forget I’m an electrical engineer” Music to my ears!! So we sat down and drew a plan so I could take the plan with me to Zambia and meet with Solar Aid and meet with the Biogas and Waste Water guy. BOO YAAA. So now I had to plan the trip and it actually came up at a good time because my visa has to be renewed by June 13^th. Due to time restraints and previous experience I decided to fly to Zambia (I just finished having my car fixed in Harare so it’s running like new, but that’s another blog). So I was able to get a ticket to fly on Sunday morning 6:45am (yuck!) and come back Monday (that’s right the next day) at 9pm. So 36 hours in Zambia to do what I need to do, no diddling around. While this is all going on I met a volunteer at the AIDS clinic, a student in mechanical engineering who is doing his final project on electromagnetic boiler systems for industrial use. This really means using electricity to clean and heat water for a hot water heater. As he was talking about this the hamster in my brain started running on her wheel and the light came on, is it possible that this electricity could also cool water? Could it be used to power the movement of air through a building? How much electricity would it take? How much fuel would it take if the power goes out? Well WHEN the power goes out? What if we could apply this system to an HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). Part of the project is to build a prototype. So after asking my questions and thinking I thought it’s crazy enough it just might work. So I made an appointment to meet his team at the university and talk it out. While I was there I met the Chairman of the department, after a chat, he offered me a teaching job, teaching “Strength and Materials” to second year students. It was a lovely thought but when would I have time to teach? The project has to be approved and the prototype work to pass and it was the condition that I made if it was to be used for the project. The project is to be handed in at the end of the month and approved by the Chairman by the end of July when they graduate, which actually works out pretty good timing wise. So another section well on it’s way. My next big headache is plumbing. Any suggestions? This has been a HUGE learning experience for me and I’m loving every minute of it, even though at times it’s stressful, I’ve met some fantastic, brilliant people and learning about all sorts of new technology.

Winter has arrived in Zimababwe!! I never thought I’d get cold in Africa but here I am thinking I should’ve brought a nice Irish wool sweater!!! Oh well, hindsight is a beautiful thing. So I am held up in my house, working hard, planning designs, drawing out plans and calculating loads. Reading through a million different books and trying to get everything to work together my desk has never looked better an organized mess. When construction starts we’ll be building in the winter, good thing I went to university in Calgary where I was surveying in - 40° weather with snow, which will make this a cakewalk. I miss that if I need drafting supplies I can walk or drive 10 minutes from home and buy what I need, here in Africa I have to plan to drive 3 hours to Harare or if I’m lucky I can get what I need in Mutare (1 to 1.5 hours) away. Sometimes Mutare gets the supplies but sometimes (more often than not) they don’t.

Today is my first experience of “load sharing”. Instead of ZESA cutting everyone off, they just limit the power everyone gets. For instance some lights don’t work and others are dull, the fridge works but the cooker works much slower and you have to put it on full to get it to work at all. Water in the kettle boils but it takes more than twice as long, computers work but the use your battery as well as the power. I find this worse than no power. At least I know without power that I have so much time on my computer or I have to use the gas to cook or boil water or use candles or my solar lamp. But with load sharing some things work and some don’t and you have to go around testing lights and things to find out when full power has come back on. This also is frustrating because some amenities in town work and some don’t. Government facilities aren’t open because they want full power, the gas station is running but only some of the pumps and part of the station work. Most places act like there is no power because it means that they don’t have to work. I thought this would be ok but I find I’m more frustrated trying to find out what works and what doesn’t that I would just rather have no power.

Today I had my first experience (I’ve had a few this week) of a bat in the house. In the roof, we had a bat that got out through a hole. It was flying around the veranda, the dog went nuts and we tried to coax it out the front door. I have never seen a bat up-close nor did I think they lived in Zimbabwe (you learn something new everyday). The event ended by the bat flying out the front door, but it may end up that we have another pet.

Anyone know a good electrician who knows about solar electricity? Or anyone who can tell me how to make a biogas wastewater system flow into and be a part of electricity? I’m stuck!!!! Thankfully I have help even if they are in Zambia, it looks like I’ll be taking another trip to Zambia sooner rather than later (maybe this time I should fly). BUT after 2 days with no ZESA I got some major email feedback and it’s all good news, sometimes people are just fantastic and I could kiss them all (but I won’t). SO I just might be able to pull this off.

On a different note, I read in the paper yesterday that Zimbabwe is going to send electricity to South Africa for the World Cup. Yes you heard me right, Zimbabwe, where our electricity is rough at best is going to be sent to South Africa so that people can watch soccer! Please explain this to me??

So today I met with the Engineer Officer for the Nyanga Council. The reason for this meet was to ask him about surveying the site. The map I was given by the office is less than desirable and didn’t really tell me anything. So I asked if either they could survey the site OR give me the equipment to let me survey the site. He was more than happy to have me survey the site (and a few others) and he would give me the equipment. I met with his staff member in charge of surveying and he showed me the equipment. It looks like it’s from the 60’s or 70’s but luckily other than a computer screen and buttons not much has changed. So he loaned me a worker and off we go to survey the site. I had drawn out the points (28 in all) that needed to be done, which also included the existing building which had never been surveyed (which explains why the foundation has cracked down 2 walls and the floor has separated). So at 2pm this afternoon, I went and picked up the equipment and took it to the site with 2 helpers and Willie (my colleague and local support). I set up my equipment and looked through the lens and … the equipment was off, and not just a little bit but WAY OFF. So we started surveying the existing building and it was harder than I thought it would be, and also my eyes just wouldn’t focus, so between the 4 of us, we scrambled through and finished!!! After this was complete, Willie said “My GPS has geodetic elevations on it, we can put it at each corner and check the work”. So I’m going to use this as my back up and hopefully between the 2 we won’t be far out. I know this doesn’t sound very technical or precise but TIA. The 2 staff the council loaned me thought I was a genius (and I’m not going to tell them otherwise). So this was a big step in the project and the drawings can now go to council for approval. Day 2 of surveying was all calculations. I want to ask a question to anyone reading this, why would contour maps and elevations in a country that is metric, that was “owned” by a metric country and has never been an Imperial country use Imperial heights for elevations??? It makes things complicated AND means that I had to do calculations twice after realizing I made a HUGE mistake and did everything metric. This also means that the drawings will be in metric AND imperial so that no one gets confused. Maybe they had an American come to Nyanga and survey the entire area and then leave and no one bothered to check the work. This also means that the site plan has become a mess of numbers that on one but me is going to be able to read! Between the drawing and the math my brain has packed it in and some changes to the site plan needed to be made. Now I’m starting all the engineering drawings, which I’m expecting to be really exciting, stressful and I’m probably going to want to pick up a drinking habit more than once during this process but it’ll be a good learning experience and that’s what it’s all about right?!

Just when I thought my car adventures were over…I left for Zambia and I was feeling pretty good about it, my tires were checked, the headlights were working and it was running fabulously. Things were going great until we got to the Chirundu border. First off the border crossing is a maze of gates and buildings that don’t do anything. So you park the car, go through the Zimbabwe side where you talk to the customs about why you’re going, where you are going, blah, blah, blah. Then you go to Interpol Zimbabwe where I filled out a form about my car and they stamped the form. Then I went to the Zambian side where customs were asking me all about Canada and why a nice girl like me is in Zimbabwe. I paid for my visa and then walked on to Zambian Interpol to check in my car. The Zambian officer went out to check my car’s engine and chassis numbers to make sure they matched what Zimbabwe Police in Harare had written on my international clearance. He was checking the chassis number as saw that the police had only written the last 6 digits of the number instead of the whole number, which is about 20 numbers and letters long. The Zambian police told me he wasn’t allowed to pass my car. I couldn’t believe it, I was going to have to drive back to Harare and ask the police to do their job. I went back to the Interpol Zimbabwe and talked to the officer there, he was embarrassed because he was suppose to go and check the car as well but had just stamped the form thinking that Harare Police had done their job. So we was worried what to do, he took me from office to office talking to all sorts of people and finally we agreed he would write an amendment to the form and correct the mistake and when I got back to Harare would fill out a form and have the police change all my car paperwork. Interpol Zambia was reluctant but felt sorry for the foreign white girl and stamped the form and let me through. I thought that was it, that was my incident in Zambia BUT I was wrong. The roads in Zambia make the potholes in Zimbabwe look like brand new roads. So I was trying to be cautious because my car isn’t a F150. I was driving along minding my own business when a car comes barreling down the road trying to pass a car heading in my lane, he wasn’t going to make it so I slowed down a massive pothole taking up the entire lane, sinking down a few inches was right in front of me and I just couldn’t avoid it, I slowly hit the hole and flattened a tire. Well no big deal, I would just change the tire, BUT my 17mm spanner was stripped to a point where it wouldn’t grab the nut. So I flagged down a car and they were gracious enough to help me out. So I headed back on the road, the car was driving fine BUT it was making a little squeaking noise. When I got out to pay a toll I checked the tires and quickly looked under the car and saw nothing. When I arrived in Lusaka and arrived at my friends house, I asked if she knew a mechanic that could just take a look under the car to make sure it was ok. I took the car in and found out that the whole right side was out of line, that there were parts that needed to be replaced. They were unsure if they had the parts and so they told me they would check around. I thought to myself, ENOUGH! I’m done and also thought to myself the first thing I’m doing when I get back to Canada is to take a mechanic’s course! I want to be able to fix a car myself.

Today, I had an AMAZING day. I met with a man from Washington state who works for Pestazzoli Project. They are an NGO that helps high school students in rural areas get an education. The project is a village where students learn and live both life skills and academic skills. They create their own roof tiles on site, which is why I was visiting the project. When I got out there and was taken around the village I was shown around I saw a Bio Gas and Waste Water Treatment System. This system uses organic materials and human waste to create a fuel or gas and the water from the rain and wastewater used in the village to irrigate and put back into the village and the fuel is used for cooking. This system has helped the village become more self sufficient and environmentally friendly. So tomorrow, I meet with Solar Aid and go to the company that sells the tile press to find out how we can acquire one and send it to Zimbabwe.

Today I met with Solar Aid and it was a good news bad news situation. Bad news is that the project is going to be too big and have too much electrical for solar panels to be effective. Solar panels have a life span of 15-20 years, the batteries and inverters have a life of 4-6 years so replacing them 4 times within the life span of the panels. They suggested putting away $100 USD a month to pay for the replacements. YIKES! So we talked about other suggestions. Using LED lighting having 2 circuits one that powers the building and one that stores power to a back up so when ZESA goes out the second circuit will power some of the building (computers and some lights). It wasn’t my ideal but still environmentally friendly and there will still be power when ZESA goes. The back up can be run off the Bio Gas that I was looking at the day before, which made me happy. So things are coming together. I am now trying to plan, research and draw all this before I forget it and the I’ll go back to Zambia meet with people to look over the work and bounce ideas off of. Everyone was so helpful and wants to keep in contact, Solar Aid would love to do a project like this but trying to find a way to make solar panels an effective way to power the building or how effective will this idea we’ve put together work.

After Solar Aid I spent 2 hours in a REAL bookstore and looked through construction books, novels and just puttered. I started to get the stink eye from the security guard, but he looked happy when I walked out with a book in hand.

Driving back to Harare was thankfully an uneventful trip, my car survived, I avoided the potholes like the plague AND I had no problem with the border. Funnily enough the officer for Interpol Zimbabwe was the same guy I had going and this was the opposite office. He remembered me and signed my paperwork and wished me well and to come back to the border as soon as I could.

I spent a few days in Harare to relax and do some running around, trying to get find someone who can fix my car, unfortunately I’ll have to wait for the parts but I found someone YEAH! So that was my Zambia adventure, I am now back in Nyanga and full of energy to get these ideas into practice.

Even though my excursion into the bush was more excitement than I had planned, I was really honored because in true rural, “old school” tradition, his family killed a goat in my honor. I wanted to stay but it was getting dark and because there was no signal and I hadn’t told anyone I was going into the bush, I wasn’t able to stay for dinner or the night. Instead I was given a trunk load of fruit and vegetables including; pumpkin, watermelon and fresh homegrown peanuts. I felt really bad about not staying and especially bad for the goat who had to die for someone who couldn’t eat it but it was nice just the same.

I met with a teacher from a school in Rusape, which is about an hour from Nyanga. This teacher, along with some of his colleagues is manually drawing some of the architectural plans for the project. The purpose of the meeting was to see how he was coming along, what changes he needed to make and for me to get copies so I can survey the site and design the foundation, footings and drainage.

Next week I head of to Zambia to look at the Pestazzoli tile project. This project uses a simple machine to manually make roofing tile. This follow along the lines of the brick machine it uses natural products that when mixed together is pressed in a machine to make the tile. The other project I am looking at is from Solar Aid. They teach communities how to build solar panel electricity. They give them the materials and the education to make their own solar electricity and putting this technology in schools, clinics and community centres. Like Zimbabwe, Zambia’s electricity is not reliable and so powering community amenities like schools and clinics seems like a reasonable thing to do.

On my way to Zambia, I’m making a stop in Harare to look at some natural filtration water tanks. These tanks have been put into high-density communities in Harare where water cuts are frequent or they just don’t have water. Each tank supports a cluster of families. The plan is to harvest the rainwater (Nyanga gets a lot of rain), filter the water and use it for the library.

The last 2 days at our house we haven’t had ANY water. Usually we can get by on what we have stored but this week we’ve had a team of 5 from Oasis helping out my roommate and so the water has been stretched. This also means the toilets haven’t been flushed and we haven’t been able to shower. It really struck me on day 2 how much I take water for granted. In Canada, we just turn on the tap and there it is, we want hot water and we turn on the tap, we want hot water and we boil the kettle, we want to do laundry we turn on the machine. We don’t plan our day around when water AND power will be on at the same time to do laundry or worry that our clothes will come out more dirty than we started with because the water is brown, or putting our family on water restriction because we aren’t sure how long the water has to last.

I came to Harare on Saturday for a few different reasons and on my way back I blew a tire on the side of the road! So I changed the tire (myself!) and saw that it wasn’t just a puncture but I had really busted the tire, I was driving on the rim. Don’t ask me how I did this but it had to do with the temperature of the road and the melting of the rubber. So I spent the first day in town going to a few car places and getting things fixed. I first wanted to get the headlights fixed. I went to a place I had used before and the owner was impressed that I wanted to see what was wrong and was it something I could’ve done and I stuck around while it was being fixed. Needless to say the fuse panel is plastic and the conductors are metal and so the plastic had melted! I then went to get a new spare tire and to have the other 4 checked. The tire guy asked me what I was doing when the tire blew and were there any casualties. He was surprised that no one was hurt. The big reason was for HIFA. HIFA stands for Harare International Festival of Arts.

HIFA 2010 will be the eleventh Festival. Since its inception in 1999, the Festival has received recognition for its support of arts and culture in Zimbabwe and is seen as a major contributor to development in this area. HIFA is now the largest cultural event in Zimbabwe and among the eight major festivals in Africa. HIFA has gained local and international media praise on many fronts, for example, Robert Grieg writing in the South Africa Sunday Independent -“The Harare International Festival of the Arts is probably the best organised festival in the sub-continent and one of the most manageably diverse.” More importantly in the current socio-economic situation HIFA has come to be seen as an important symbol of something positive about Zimbabwe.

Even in the worst conditions in Zimbabwe (inflation, farm take-over’s, etc.), HIFA has survived. It doesn’t matter what your politically views are, religious views or colour, HIFA is for everyone and everyone attends and not just one show but the WHOLE week. I didn’t truly understand what HIFA meant until I went to a show and see how Harare shuts down for a week and everyone goes. I saw 2 shows; the first was from the British Embassy an a cappella group called The Magnets. The stage was a park and it was PACKED! It was really well done. Sunday I went to the closing ceremonies where a famous Malawian singer who’s the most accomplished Albino in Africa rocked out. He opened the first HIFA in 1999, it was like listening to an African ACDC, and it was great.

I went to Harare this week to collect a package from home from a fantastic woman named Kirstin who was visiting from the States working with Operation of Hope, an amazing organization that does facial reconstruction for victims of war, fire and birth deformaties. I drove a friend back to his villiage, which I was told was just past Nyanga Town. Well, we zoomed past Nyanga and kept going, we soon hit a dirt road and then we were driving in the mountains. I politely asked how far were we going and was given the answer “only 60km”. On a dirt road this turned into 2 hours. We then left the road for another 10km trek through the bush, and I mean the bush. We were driving through tall grass swerving around trees and bushes. We arrived at a group of huts or round mud houses with thatched roofs. It was hard not to ask what his address was but I didn’t think he’d get the joke. Anyways after unloading his bags I asked him to drive me back to the dirt road since I had no idea how to get back and my driving skills are not bush-proof. I was so proud of my car, it handled it like a true F150! By this time it was starting to get dark and I was wanting to get home. I plugged along swerving to miss pot holes and giant rocks coming out of the road. About an hour into the drive my headlights decided they had had enough and shut off. I spent a few minutes trying to get them to work and found it a useless event. I thought, well this is a good time to call my roommate to drive in front of me and guide me home, but being in a truly rural area there of course was no signal. I turned on my hazard lights and got out my flashlight that I keep in my car for such emergencies and held it out of the window lighting up the road. After about another 30 minutes luck struck and I got a signal, so I called my roommate to guide me home. I told her I would keep driving and meet her. BAD IDEA!!! I hit a rock or a boulder or something because next thing I knew my left front tire was swerving. I stopped, checked out my tire and it was turned sideways and I couldn’t get it to go straight. Luckily for me it was a matter of minutes before my roommate showed up to rescue me. We left the car there and the next morning we towed it (ourselves) to a garage where it was fixed in only a few hours. I go to Zambia next week to look at a project where they are making an all natural roofing tile AND another project where they show communities how to build solar panels and batteries to create electricity for their homes and commercial buildings.

Sorry it’s been a while but unfortunately ZESA has been a struggle. Most of our power comes from 3 turbines in Karbia. Kariba is a damn that borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. ZESA has decided to do some maintenance on all 3 turbines at the same time, which they say will take a month or 2. I would have thought that they would just do one at a time so that there would be power but I guess not. The project is moving along, the final architectural plans are going to be looked at early next week. A school in one of the surrounding areas is doing them and I will be checking them. The old building has 2 walls that need to come down so the extension will go there. The city council put rocks (property pegs) where they are allowing us to build, however we have to go another 3m in from that as our setback. Luckily the biggest space is along the 2 walls we are taking down so the extension will go there. I wanted to see what the slope and elevations were like so I could plan for drainage as well they elevations have to be shown on the plans, I asked for the original building plans but there were none, all that was there was a rough map with the city lots and a few contour lines (lines that show the earth’s curve above sea level). Luckily there was enough I could calculate the elevations of the lot, but I don’t know where on the lot the old building is or where our property pegs are. So I asked if they had a surveyor who could map them for us and they said they didn’t but they had the equipment. I thought about it and said that I could do it (I took surveying in university in -40° weather and snow). The man at the desk seemed thrilled that I could do it and asked if I could do some other lots as well. So things are coming together. Materials from the area are being collected and taken to site over the next few weeks, we are hoping to use Solar electricity and a water tank so we don’t have to rely on ZESA and the municipal water.