Engage Now Foundation Office Arsi Negelle, Ethiopia Monday, July 10, 2006

Nothing moves fast in Ethiopia. Just about everything takes at least twice the time you would expect it should take. For instance, just getting a connection for the internet took an hour of redialing, and downloading the EarthLink website took 10 minutes. Driving down the main road is a real trip. People walk along the shoulders and lead their cattle and donkeys, which go into the traveled lanes all the time. Our driver, Isaiah, is really great at driving around all the people, animals, wagons, and other obstacles. Isaiah had been engaged through ENF to assist our needs for weekly shopping trips for food and supplies and to take us on our one day a week R & R. He has become a real friend to us all, is friendly and accommodating. On our way into food shopping this afternoon, he took Pinky and me by his house located behind his Mobile gas station and had his wife serve us traditional Ethiopian lunch and soda. (He is Orthodox Christian and is fasting so does not drink beer or eat sweets for the present.) For most of last week the Princeton EWB group has been concentrating on testing and trying to prime the portion of the siphon installed to date, unsuccessfully. I don't think they will be able to get the siphon going unless they extend the line to a lower elevation in the alignment to get a greater head from beginning to end and possibly overcome friction losses to the extent needed to start flow through it. I'm not an expert on siphons by a long shot, but I've told the group that I believe the only feasible way to get the siphon primed and operating on a long-term basis is to use a priming pump at the tank. Such a pump should be able to pull water through the line and get it started and operating to the point that the pump could then be disattached and only subsequently used when the siphon needs repriming. The group has not bought into my reasoning yet but has been spending much time approaching the siphon as a research project. Time is running out, and we have to finish installing and backfilling the line and attaching it to the tank by this coming Friday. At that time, we will be breaking camp in preparation for a Saturday AM departure for Addis Ababa, where we will spend the night and embark on a 10 PM Sunday evening flight to the US. The project continues to have its share of construction problems besides the operational problem I described above. Last week we had three significant rainstorms in a row, all occurring at night. The river came again during one of them, but not to the extent that it did when the last dam that was built washed out. However, the last storm washed away a lot of the soil placed carefully around the pipe to provide bedding for it and a part of the backfilled trench. Work ensued on Saturday to restore the eroded trench and pipe bedding, losing us some valuable time. I continue to help troubleshoot and to lend labor to the project. I've used a shovel over the past three weeks more than I have at home for the last 30 years. Saturday morning we took our day of R & R and drove south to Wando Genet and stayed at the hotel there. The hotel looks like it came from a combination of the Jetsons and Tomorrowland in Disneyland of the early 1970's. I can't adequately describe it, but it looks really weird. As with most Ethiopian infrastructure, particularly that owned and operated by the government, the hotel doesn't look like much has been done to it since it was built back in the early '70's. The draw is its location - in the mountains and next to a hot springs. We all spent 2 hours soaking in the two swimming pools fed by the streams - one a warm pool temp, the other about the temperature of a hot tub. It was delightful. We watched the world cup last night on a TV in the bar of the hotel restaurant. It didn't start until 9 PM here, and I couldn't stay awake past the 1st half. Before the game started, I did successfully predict the 6-4 final score in favor of the Italians! The Princeton group continues to work so hard on the project and, despite some doubts, believes they can complete it successfully in the limited time left. I continue to marvel at their work ethic, tenacity and creative thinking. However, despite all that we don't yet have a completed project. This will be a hard week - much physical work needs to be done, and the siphon need to be primed successfully. My next, and last, email will let you know how it finally works out. This has been quite an experience! It's a good thing I'm in reasonably good shape, or I'd have broken down long before. Pinky has been a terrific support for me and the others, offering some motherly help and advice along the way. We have all gotten to know each other really well and are almost like a family, not so surprising I suppose after living so closely together for more than 4 weeks.