Day 10

Everyone was up early today, excited to visit Java House for another American meal. I think we are all ready to have Java for the rest of the trip. We had John drive us into Kisumu and let him roam the city while we prepared for several meetings at Java.

After ordering our coffees and smoothies we had our first meeting with Evans, a representative from Water Is Life. We were hoping he would bring a prototype of The Drinkable Book, which comes in a 3D printed case and has pages that act as filters. It would be awesome if we could get our hands on a few for the Kolunje community, but unfortunately they are still in development. Instead we had to settle for the filtration straw and bucket he brought, which were still pretty cool.

Next to walk in was Ryan, who is an engineer from America living in Kenya and working for the NGO, Innovations for Poverty Action (not to mention he also has a striking resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch). We informed him about our project over croissants and mocha lattes, and also learned about his Kenyan experience. Living here for a year, he’s gotten used to the interesting way of life, using the local tuk tuks, botas, and mutatus to get around. He and his coworkers don’t even take malaria pills anymore, because to them it’s like getting the Flu, and easily treatable.

Finishing lunch, he travelled with us back to Kolunje, as we were all eager to show him in person what we have been doing in the community. The first stop was back at the guest house, where Christine made us eat even more food for lunch. None of us wanted to stuff ourselves further, but you don’t disobey Christine. She’ll cane you with a fresh stick.

Christine packed the left overs for us to bring to Heather and Tom, after which we headed to Lunga. Today they were running the 2D resistivity tests at Lunga Primary School, which they set up along 1200 feet of hillside. Throughout the day Heather had to protect the line from curious goats and children, but eventually recruited the children as her little helpers. We introduced Ryan to the 2D resistivity equipment, and then made our way to Miranga Secondary School.  Ryan specializes in water treatment and quality, so he was able to aid us in experimentally figuring out how much chlorine is needed to shock chlorinate the tanks. A few of the tanks have E. Coli in them, along with plenty of other unknown bacteria. It’s important that we add just enough chlorine to kill any organic material in the tank, but not so much that the school kids will taste chlorine and not drink the water. Through some makeshift chemistry with water jugs and bleach, we figured out a correct amount and plan on chlorinating the tanks tomorrow. In order to prove the water is now safe to drink, Jared and Tristen both acted as test dummies today, filled their Nalgenes, and drank in front of the school.     

Around 5 storm clouds began to gather, and it was time for Ryan to head back to Kisumu.  We drove him to the nearest town so he could catch a mutatu, and then made our way back to the guest house to relax for the rest of the day. We started watching the first Harry Potter movie. Maybe, if there's time, we can get through the whole series before the trip ends.