Currently in: Naivasha, Kenya

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Coolest Couple ever and Shamless Pitch



My apologies for the ubber long delay with out updating. Life, mainly work, kinda took off here in Naivasha. It’s always hard deciding what to update on and in what order.

So for once, I am actually going to start with all the work I have been doing here in Kenya (yes I do work).

So you know how my dream has always been to live in a village in Africa and learn from people and then work with people to just try out new ideas to help right? Because there is no “silver bullet” no 1 answer to solve a problem in every situation around the world, but if you live with people and work with them to make solutions you can try and try again till you get what fits that problem in that situation. Well that is exactly what I am doing right now here in Kenya.

Meet Nancy and Francis. 


Coolest couple I have ever met. Both are over 60 and both have been working endlessly to make a change in their village of Mirera for ages. Nancy is a community health worker, as in works for the DPHO voluntarily to help push anything from people’s right, to sanitation, to women’s groups. Francis is a Fundi (or carpenter/mason) and an elder in the village. They have a small “shamba” where they take care of their mentally disabled daughter, 1 young son and about 6 grand children. Also on there plot is a small garden where they try and grow vegetables for there home and a church. The church building was built by Francis and meets every night of the week in a small mud building near their house. This couple is all about progress, about helping the whole village, about making a lasting difference. When I barley mentioned the idea of Solar Toilets in a community meeting Nancy immediately jumped on saying that she loves experiments and we can use her plot and any way she can help should would love to. I went to visit her at her Shamba and found that the entire church (50 people every night) uses Nancy’s 1 latrine (that her and Francis built themselves) and that she would love more than anything to have a toilet just for the church. She loved the idea of our solar toilets so she could use the treated waste in her garden where the soil is basically sand. She got very excited, and thanks to GIZ- Hana and I working here as Sanivation had funds to be able to build and test our solar toilet for this church.

Designs began, of how to build a shared toilet and urinal that the church could use that would allow the waste to be treated on a solar concentrator, then composted, and re-used in the garden. We also wanted this toilet to be used long after we are gone weather solar treatment catches on or not. So we designed a solar shared latrine that also has a pit below it as an out strategy if all else fails. We found Chris, another Mason, to help finalize our designs and begin the material purchase. We told Nancy and Francis the dimensions of the pit (4ft diameter, 20 ft deep) and by 9am the next day this older couple, just the 2 of them were almost done digging the pit!

We told them the tree in their garden might be a problem for the solar concentrator and their immediate response was – “we will cut it down if it stands in the way of progress!” We told them we needed to collect some human feces in which to test and they opened up their old pit and started loading waste into the steel drum. We told them we wanted some kitchen scraps (organic waste) to begin compost and the NEXT day she had I giant drum full! Apparently she went around to all the vegetable stalls in the village to collect organic waste. I showed Nancy a picture of a cheap hand washing station called a Tippy Tap and the next day she had one 5 times better built and running next to her toilet!

Any time I mention any idea, both of them are ready and willing to do anything to help try it. We have since then sent up an incinerator for testing on their plot, we are now setting up a solar shower, and solar cookers- all ideas that they are helping me make and test into reality. And it is so much fun! I barley mentioned the idea of Eco-Bricks- these use trashed plastic bottles stuffed with other trash as building blocks and the 2 of them were ready to have 100 Eco-Blocks ready by the weekend for testing. And because of who they are, all the villagers listen to them. We are constantly having locals come by to see what all is going on, and they sit there and explain to people all these new ideas and about the experiments we are doing. It is the best testing site EVER. Both Hana and I LOVE when we get to go to their plot because we know it is going to be so productive and be a total blast.

So here is our solar toilet, still being finished. And here is our solar concentrator used to heat the waste over 70°C in just a couple hours.



All of that has been paid for by GIZ. Then other prototypes such as the solar shower, incinerators, solar cookers, are just coming out of our pockets and I love giving that to these people, but if we want to scale, if we want to do multiple iterations and then teach others how to make these so that it can become a business of its own here, we do need more capital.

Now here is my shameless pitch: if you would like to donate to such an incredible cause here is your chance. Incinerators cost about $50 and can help so much with the trash problems here. Solar showers cost about the same about and so do private solar cookers. All need to be developed till we get it just right and at the right price, then it needs to be taught, then some initial capital to help start a business. We will have locals, currently unemployed, trained in making these and selling them at prices people can afford and work toward new sustainable technologies made by people here in Naivasha for the people of Naivasha.

Let me know if you need/want more details, I am currently working on a way that donations could be made directly to an official non-profit company for tax purposes.

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