Update May4, 2012 from the travel team

Hi all, Here is the update of May 4, 2012 from the travel team. "2nd driver finally arrived (late afternoon) Good by to Mattru : ( Stopped to see Francis Mustafa. Back on Road again, In Freetown about 9 PM. Drive from Mattru to Bo was very bad. We took mining road. At Jay's very late, sent Sullay home to his family, granola bars for dinner." Regards, Jamee

May 2-3, 2012 travel team report

Hi All, Here is the May 2-3 report from the travel team. "Paramount chief had given us our mende names. Herb is Joe Jange, Bill is Momotu Jange, and Jim is Tommy Jange!" "Got 3 bags of cement delivered 330 pounds total, it came on the back of a motorcycle!" "Hard Rain last few nights, the rainy season has begun!" "When someone dies, a memorial service is held at 40 days, 1 yr, 5 yr, 10 yr and 20 yr." "Pump installed and tested. Hand pump 3-6 gpm. Water samples taken. Leaving Mattru in about 2 hours." That is all for now. Regards, Jamee Pembert

Hi all, Here is the latest news May, 2 2012 Well Casing is all in. Pad poured. All is going great! :-) Finished 10 carboys. Solar software on Sheiks laptop. Chlorination training for teachers. All done today. Pump testing, 2nd highest producing well ever for Edal. A conference call was held with the team last night. Here are the meeting minutes taken by John Cirucci: Teleconference with EWB travel team 5/1/12 SL: Bill, Herb, Jim, Lauretta, Moses (?), Ahmed(?) US: Diana, John, Tom Well casing is installed Pump test completed – capacity is fantastic – on order of 100s gpm Pump test could only handle 15 lpm so drawdown was minimal 47 m deep, 11m water table Water conditions: pH = 7, k = 240 microsiemens/cm Don’t yet know quality – Diana emphasizes that people shouldn’t be falsely secure; to be mentioned in CIIB meeting tomorrow. Samples for Joe Ben Davies, water ministry and return to US Hand pump is there but not installed yet due to rain. Concrete will be laid for apron tonight or tomorrow morning (Same guy who is pouring apron also works on tanks) Tank is about ½ full. Water ministry was there. CTA (Communities and Teachers Association) Meeting today Every major representative there – paramount chief, town chief, ed dept, etc -- ~80 people A lot of work spent to bring people in. Lauretta had done 3 hr meeting Agreed to fees of Le 10,000 / student / semester No govt obstacles Recorded and documented unanimous vote Equivalent to ~$10k/year for infrastructure This goes beyond EWB projects. Every stakeholder emphasized most important project is a FENCE – want to secure campus. ALL AGREE ON THIS. Required to protect other improvements Will investigate tomorrow and will talk with CeOSA on Saturday. Can get community labor sweat equity Paramount chief emphasized that with well, people will build near and encroach. Hence need fence. For now, will put lock on hand pump for security when not in use Herb Klotz photographed the bank book. Le 265000 balance (2 x 150000/mo less one 35000 withdraw) Tomorrow at CIIB will change so that the Admin is NOT the signatories on the account Jim: repeated – 2 sites identified. Ground based system. Trying to find out who put in Govt system Trying to find Supreme Ventures (will install 23 solar powered wells NE of Freetown for Ministry). Even with perimeter campus fence, will need additional dedicated fence around panels for safety and security. All lights changed to 8W. Software loaded on Sheks computer and taught him and Chris how to download the data. Will be very interested to see how it works when rain starts There will be a Peace Corp worker replacing Chris in July. About 1 month overlap. Person not yet identified. Water disinfection training – Sheik and Chris, others identified. ENCISS is ok working with teachers. 10-3 time is not convenient for teachers but would have about 1 hr On Monday asked Ahmed to put together a series of detailed estimates for 1) Refurbishing 4 buildings – new roof/ceilings/doors for Chem/Physics lab; Ea building ~$15k 2) Boys and girls toilets - ~$1k ea 3) Piping of water system The team travels to Freetown on Thursday. Regards, Jamee

Sunday, April 29, 2012 Hello everyone, I am a bit behind on all the updates so I will fill you in here, lots of news! First the well drillers hit water today at 22 meters!!!! We had a conference call this afternoon (Sunday about noon EDT). Below are the notes taken by Tom Power (Thanks Tom!!!!) on all the items we discussed, at that time we had still not begun drilling due to problems with the drilling rig. CSS Travel Team Call on April 29, 2012 On the call: In Sierra Leone: Bill Macnair Jim Butt Herb Klotz Ahmed Shiek In the USA: Diana Dunn Lori Cirucci Jamee Pemberton Tom Power Bill The well-drilling truck had blown it’s engine and had to be towed from Bo so they were just starting the drilling Sunday. A second truck was bringing a compressor for the hammer drill. It arrived two hours before the call. They hope to drill 15 meters Sunday and finish drilling on Monday. They will do a flow test on Tuesday They will install the hand pump on Wednesday Herb Held a CIIB Board meeting on Tuesday and it went very well Board members agreed an infrastructure fee made sense The team and Board will meet with parents on Tuesday to discuss the fee and the improvements. Two meetings will be held, one at 10 AM and one at 5 PM. Notices of the meeting were read on the radio and an announcement was made at the UBC church at mass. They have stressed that this may be our last trip if the school and community does not get behind the project especially financially. CSS is saving 150,000 Leones towards maintenance. CSS showed Herb the bank book but did not open it. Herb has asked for a photocopy of the balance. Bill told the Board and CSS administration that the community involvement and financial support was more important than a well. Loretta and Bill put the agenda together for the Tuesday meeting with the parents. Jim Replaced the 11 Watt bulbs with 8 Watt Had Dennis and Abdul change the lights Compared a classroom with 8W to a classroom with 11W and could see no difference in the amount of light. With the 11 Watt bulbs the system was getting to the float stage almost every day and often was in float for 4 hours. Found two sites for the pump solar array, both ground mount Behind boys’ bathroom North of well head in field east of library Will look for more sites Bill Paramount Chief tracked Bill down and talked to him about the water shortage in Matru. Tank inspection is scheduled for Monday. It will be done by a technician from the Ministry of Water. Jim Will have fences around ground mount. They worked on the women’s staff toilet and fixed the cesspit. They will also repair the men’s staff toilet. Work should be complete by Tuesday. Herb Sheik has volunteered to help out with the water chlorination. They will be talking to the students about hygiene and water. They are going to install carboys with faucets in the classrooms. Asked Ahmed to give them estimates on: Finishing the 6 girls’ toilets Finishing the 7 boys toilets Piping from well to toilets Re-roofing of chemistry, biology and dining hall. Estimate will include termite-free wood, ceilings, and windows. NCIS is open M-F 10-3 which is not convenient for teachers and school staff. Team will meet with NCIS on Tuesday Jim - EDAL has done one solar well with Supreme Ventures. Supreme Ventures has done solar wells with the government. And here are some fun Mattu facts that you may not have known :- ) that the team has learned: Rich people eat spam, chicken and ketchup, Common people eat shrimp, lobster, clams and fish!!!! A toilet is called a "sitter" the town radio station is 88.5 "the voice of women" crushed stone is called "granite" and people called "stone breakers" make it by turning big rocks into little rocks. That is all the news for now. Oh and one final note: Mattru is experiencing a very dry spell, this includes the guest house that travel team is staying in. This means they have not had water all week from their rooms, they have been using buckets all week for cleaning, not a problem for this group. Will keep you posted of any other news as it comes in. Best Regards, Jamee

April 27, 2012 Here is the latest from the travel team in Mattru: "Hi Jamee I (Bill MacNair) sent some tech info to Diana. In addition we went to a Mattru vs. Makanji (Macungie) soccer game. Tickets were 1000 Le (20 cents). Herb and Jim routed for their "home" team. Ahmed and I routed for Mattru. Had swarm of termites last night when we had Mr. Gobio over for dinner. One more think, Joe's mom stopped by the guest house. Great visit! Jim got to share a picture of himself and Joe (because his sister is so smart)." That is the latest! Best Regards, Jamee

Hi All, Here is the latest from the group, as you can see they had a little fun! " Sierra Leone Independence Day is tomorrow, Friday, 51 years old. I got 51% bonus on my phone units recharge. Went to see the classroom lights tonight-awesome! Smoked whole lobster at Mattru market $1.50! New lower wattage 8 watt bulbs are as bright as 11 watt bulbs. First rain last night, BUGS tonight!! Forgot to mention that all 3 classrooms were in use by students. One was an English class of 30-40 students taught by David Murphy. " Best Regards, Jamee

Hi All, Here is the latest update from the travel team. "Drill still has mechanical problems, hopefully they will be fixed, tomorrow or Saturday. I hope to find out more tonight. Installed toilet. Fixed wash barrels. Made progress on parents meetings, will have 2 on Tuesday. Tank evaluation person coming Monday. We went to market day. Gave Mohammed his gifts-they were appreciated. Also measured overhangs on building roofs. Other measurements requested also completed. Measured site elevations will repeat to verify." Best Regards, Jamee