Good news and Bad news

Sorry to keep you all on the edge for the final installment of the blog, so here's a long one...

The last week of the trip went by in a blink - there was so much to be done and little time for it. We learned the importance of budgeting time for things to be done on Malawi time and not rushing everyone we interacted with. I definitely appreciated this when we were talking to a man who enjoyed small talk when I just wanted to pay him and run, but it was really lovely chatting with him for a bit. 

The completed set of drawings for the grinding system was brought to Paolo, Kamwendo, and Non Ferrous Industries and they began work on them; however, not as much was completed as quickly as we were hoping. On Wednesday, we received the stand and brought it to Kumponda to be painted with rust-resistant paint as most of our parts are some kind of metal. Non Ferrous Industries also informed us that they would not be able to complete all the parts we needed, including bevel gears, by Saturday aka the last possible second we had to get everything done.

We set out again in Blantyre in search of places that could make the remaining parts we needed to get at least one system working. First was Encor, a place we had visited earlier in the trip, hoping they could make us burrs before we ordered them from Central African Traders. Since Encor's power outage occurs on Thursdays, they were not able to help us, but they did send us to Agason, a place specializing in maize mills and car parts, to see what they could do. Luckily, they agreed to do four of our parts that were essential in the completion of one grinding system by Friday, which really meant Saturday. They sadly could not complete a set of bevel gears in the timeline so were sent back to NFI to see what they could do; they agreed to adapt a pair of bevel gears they had lying around to fit our current design.

From Wednesday to Friday, our days were spent making sure we had everything ready for maize mill. We went through the Bill of Materials to add all the nuts and bolts and washers and key stock that we needed to purchase from Formex as well as Bearing Centre. We definitely learned that standard metric sizes are in evens such as m4 and m6, not m5. It was interesting to walk into Formex on Thursday to find that the man who sold the nuts and bolts did not come into work yet so that purchasing was postponed until Friday.

On Wednesday, we ran into an interesting problem with the burrs. Upon their delivery to Central African Traders, the bill for those parts gave us pause about the sustainability of the project. So we had a conversation later that evening including a cost analysis which caused us to go ahead and purchase them on Thursday. The staff at Central African Traders proved again and again to be very generous and even served us breakfast the following morning when we went back to pick up the burrs.

Regarding the borehole, after trying to test the borehole with Petrifilms and an incubator, we decided to go ahead with testing the water through the government just in case. The borehole water turned out to be clean to Malawi standards!! We also paid the government conduct a 5-day borehole training for the borehole committee members since it was something that came up in a lot of the interviews. 

Saturday was spent entirely at Non Ferrous Industries. We thought the parts would be done by noon, however, after picking up the parts from Agason, we discovered that they did not fit the parts machined at NFI. Paolo, Kamwendo, and the rest of the staff worked with us all day on the lathes, mills, and welding parts to finish what we needed by 6pm - much after the sun had set. We finally had everything we needed with only one day left to assemble it. We thank NFI very much for all the help they provided us!

Sunday was a big day for the team and the community. We arrived in our EWB polos, with goat, vegetables, and firewood in hand, ready to work hardon this final day. The morning felt promising with the bearing plate and U-bolts attached to the grinder shaft and the chain ring adapter assembly, The chain disassembled and shortened using a hammer and nail (since chain tools are nowhere to be found and unnecessary according to the staff at a bike store) to fit the distances on the bike and chain rings. Following a delicious nsima lunch, we were back to work centering the chain rings, aligning the chain, reassembling a bike wheel that had lost numerous ball bearings, and completing the grinder housing. Attaching and aligning the bevel gears proved to be the most difficult part, especially since the only nuts Formex had were lock nuts, which made adjustment a lengthy process.

With everything set up, pedaling commenced later in the evening than we had hoped, no allowing for much adjustment time. The bevel gears would spin with the burrs inside the housing but the forces on the grinder mount occurring after an introduction of maize to be too much. A change in a prospective redesign would be in the size of the slots as well as the distance between the bolts attaching the grinder housing to its mount. We were able to get maize flour coming out of burr system at the right consistency but not much until the system would lock up. This is not dissimilar to the early stages of the prototype that was created in SLO. The team had to wrap up the evening without the completion of the mill much to the disappointment of the team and the community members. During a final discussion with everyone, it was determined that we needed to come to the community again the following day to say goodbye to the chief and move the supplies out of the community center. 

Monday morning, we were finally early to a meeting with the community and we brought soda and cookies as well as the frames designed by the cultural education team! The AfES committee members loved their photos and the frames to put them in! The meeting with the chief and AfES committee went well and we discussed to future of our partnership with Kumponda, the maize mill project, other projects, and the success of the borehole. The supplies were separated into what we want to bring home and what will be left at Mr. Masamba's house and brought back to his home. We took a final group picture, said our 'musale bwino's and 'tio na na's, and left in the van with a lot to think about. The rest of the day was very much a rush to catch our plane. A giant wrench was thrown into the mix when we had to chase down a police man after he stopped Thompson and took his license - definitely created a nail biting last few hours. Saying goodbye to Thompson was one of the hardest as he has been through this entire process with us, showing us lots of new and old music, helping out at the community, translating Chichewa, and making sure we don't get ripped off. 

After 40 hours, we finally reached SLO. We ate interesting plane food (our diet mostly consisting of Emergen C and rolls with butter), got inspected heavily at airport security, played Hive, and modified our class schedule with the help of airport Wifi. A huge thank you to everyone who was involved in this implementation and monitoring trip in Malawi and back in the states. We truly could not have done it without help. Also, a big thank you to our Cal Poly faculty advisor, Dr. Liz Schlemer, and professional mentor, Anthony Ruh, who joined us on the trip; your direction, organization, and insights into development are highly valued. Thank you to everyone who read the blog and followed along on this trip as well. Going into fall quarter, the EWB Malawi team has a lot to debrief about, prototype, and consider for the future of the partnership with Kumponda. We are greatly looking forward to another year!