Bearings, bevel gears, and burrs; Oh my!
Yesterday (the 3rd), was a big day for the team. First,
we went to AfES to meet with the team that works there. During this meeting we also brought up how our
team will not be able to start a new five-year partnership in Malawi due to
financial constraints. Daniel was beyond understanding of the situation and
expressed that he was sad we would not be able to continue working together in the long term. However, we will continue to stay in touch with AfES since we have a long history and a strong partnership together. Daniel and the team will meet again a few more times before we leave. We got to hear all about the new
projects that have been starting like the beekeeping project near Lake Malawi. It
was great to hear that their impact in Malawi has been growing!
After meeting with AfES, Daniel and the team went to meet with
the AfES Committee and the Chief in Kumponda for the first time. Some of the committee
members were not able to be there since there was also a funeral that same day.
During the meeting we explained to the community our goals for the trip and we
asked about the borehole and adding the generator to the maize mill. The committee
said that the borehole was working well and no one has been sick from drinking
the water. They also expressed that they liked the new addition of the generator
but they mainly emphasized how they really want the maize mill to be finished
on this trip. Once the meeting was complete, part of the team got the maize
mill from Mr. Masamba’s (the head of the committee) house while the other half
started testing the borehole water with the Petrifilms and the test kit the team
made in country (Thanks cultural education team!!)
After the short visit to the community we continued our search
for the conical burrs that we need for the maize mill design. We drove around
Blantyre and the surroundings visiting store after store. Every time we visited
a store we were given a recommendation on another place to look but none had burrs.
We went back to the lodge feeling a little defeated.
The next day was dedicated entirely to finding the burrs and
the other miscellaneous materials that we needed. We started with our usual
pattern of store, rejection, recommendation. At one machinist shop that someone
recommended that we visit, we split up. Emma, Maggie, and Anthony waited to talk to the boss and JoJo, Liz, and I went to purchase some bearings from store
we had visited earlier. At the bearing store, we met the very kind semi-retired
owner. Although we had asked other employees there earlier about the burrs, we decided
to give it another shot. He began calling some friends and was unable to locate
where we could get any burrs; however, he said that if we knew a company where
they could order them from for us they would do that. Luckily enough we had
found a website that sold them the night before and we gave them the company’s
phone number. The company picked up right away (note: we tried calling a
bunch of times but they didn’t pick up.. we must have been doing it wrong) and had
only one kind of burr in stock………. and it was perfect!!
With our quest for the burr finally complete we celebrated
with some spicy Malawian chips that the owner offered us and headed to the machinist
to give him our designs for some parts to be machined. He invited us in the
back of his shop and we followed him around as he looked for some old parts
that he could reuse for us. Miraculously he found pieces that were the exact
right size to be the casing for the burrs
that we bought earlier! We decided that his store must be magical because he always
seems to have what we need.
We were so relieved that we found the burrs and once we got
home Jojo and Anthony celebrated with some bubblegum milk from Shoprite
(the milk tasted like Altoids).
-Torrey and the Team
Super great news that Daniel was so understanding and that the borehole is going so well and that you found the burrs!!
ReplyDeleteA Team,
ReplyDeleteAhh yes, the exhausting and occasionally frustrating “Malawi Material Missions”. Oddly enough, they make up some my fondest memories; the satisfaction of attaining a desired part upon relentlessly searching for hours, if not days, is a rarity in the States, especially with Amazon Prime, haha. Way to persevere and experience that satisfaction, the genuine excitement in the burr photo is priceless. Thoroughly enjoying these updates, keep it up, rooting for you guys! -A.Bruce