Mkuru Kwa Njenga Visit 2

Today, Lindsay and Dave (more Sanergy people) dropped us off at Kwa Njenga where we had a chance to talk to Daniel and Daves (both youths from the Amusha Youth Group) again. After showing us their biocenter again, we were able to talk to them and Stephen (another youth) about what they think about showers. From their perspective, we were able to learn more about what they feel are important features. Culturally, they think women would like a changing room or somewhere so they don't have to walk so far. They definitely think that it is hard for women to shower when they have guests or have other children home because it is hard to make them leave the house. However, their main concern with our project comes back to water drought again.

The main issue that they brought up was water...they were saying that these past three days have been a shortage of water for them in which the government rations how much water they get and what days they get them. Sometimes they don't get water for a few days (around 3 or so) and they have to get it from one of the 3 or 4 water points. So they took us to see a few water vendors and the water bank (one of the local points) where the water vendors all connect their pipes to. Apparently all of the water vendors in the village know each other well (brothers or from the same tribe originally) and know how to cut off water so that people in certain areas can't use the water or have to go really far away to get water.

Also, they told us that they would be able to take us door to door to talk to some of the people and then possibly let us talk to landowners and other groups in a forum next weekend if we were willing. What do you guys think? What do you think we should approach them? We have some ideas but would love to hear more. 

   After that, they took us to Viet Nam (another neighboring area in the Mkuru slum) where they showed us ComCleen Center, a community based center that was funded by a French organization and is currently being constructed by the Umande Trust. It was crazy to see what they were building there. Literally, they were being runned by the community itself where the community got together and shared the funds amongst the group. Right now, they have a biocenter which wasn't too unique in which it was a circular structure with several toilets and a shower (separated by gender). The cost was the same as others at 3 shillings for toilet and 5 shillings for showers (but i think it was 6 shillings for boiled water baths) Similar to other biocenters and other places that we saw in Kibera, the showerheads were also not functional in which the pumping was not built and they couldn't pump hot water in (no electricity). Water apparently for them was not a problem ( they had a 10,000L tank) which they directly buy from the vendors. They were able to sell the water to the people at a monthly cost as well.

However, there was more to the center in which
1. they were already reusing the biogas  produced from converting the wastes in the toilets to power stoves (that they would let people boil their water on and have a warm shower)
2. (this is the craziest aspect) there was a Dutch engineer who was hired by the Umande Trust who was trying to build a sewage treatment with a full on system going letting the water going through multiple chambers, filter afterwards and an aeration pond at the end. it was crazy that they were building it! (attached to this blog are pictures of their spec for what they are planning on building).

 After that, we were able to talk to two of the women there who lived around there. One of women lived nearby to the biocenter and was telling us about how she would love to use the biocenter to shower but money was a major issue for her. It's also awkward for her to walk over with a towel and would love a place to change before showering... she was also telling us how it was a long process to heat water in which it was costly to get water and boil the water before taking a bath. It also takes time to clean up the water after bathing in their house.

Another lady that we had talked to told us how she valued showers but she was also affiliated with the youth organization (in which she was once part of one of the members). She told us that she feels that it would be beneficial to the community.

So after taking us around, Daniel and Daves were talking to us about what are important them. I think it would be great to work to with them if possible. The idea that I wanted to make sure to let them know was that we wanted to understand their culture and share ideas with them. I am not sure if we are taking the right approach but I wanted to confirm that the EWB mission is to understand the community and let them build whatever we think of...and have sort of a dialogue rather than in the case of Sanergy which is selling the idea to them. They seemed to be open to talking to us but don't want us to take advantage of them (which i completely agree).

Anyways, other ideas and problems that were brought up include
1. their tank problem where they aren't able to store water during those 2-3 days when they don't have water... i suggested maybe we can think of a low cost way for them to make durable tanks ...apparently bricks and stones are hard to get here and are costly...transportation is apparently also hard here...but interestingly enough, the neigborhood houses are all built from metal (mostly looks like corrugated metal)
2. sewage water...what can we do to treat it?
3. how can we help with the water problems?

Plan for tomorrow:
- talk to more people in Kwa Njanga
- look at other biocenters

Plan for saturday:
-reevaluate and take some samples to run some tests with the soil 

 Water bank

 Comcleen Center

 biogas stove

 nonfunctional shower

 drainage for the shower

(the circular figure is the biocenter and the rest is the layout for what they want to add for filtration)