Category Archives: Kenya Travel Blog
Day 3: Nairobi to Nakuru
Today we drove from Nairobi to Nakuru; 3 hour drive, we saw some zebras and beautiful landscapes. The pictures with Daniel are when we arrived at the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru and there are also some pictures of the facilities at this place.
Week -1: Engineering in a Complex World
Week 1 in Kenya.
Karagita
KaragitaWater kiosks in Karagita sell borehole water and defluoridated borehole water. As a reference, the World Health Organization maximum concentration level recommendation is 1.5 mg/L. Children are particularly vulnerable to developing these diseases, since their teeth and bones are still developing and growing. Knowing the levels of fluoride to be ~8 mg/L, WSUP contacted the Nakuru Defluoridation Company to supply the kiosks with defluoridation filters and launch a campaign to educate the community about fluoride and its effects. These filters have now been in operation for five years. The kiosks provide both filtered and unfiltered water. Unfiltered water costs 2 Kenyan shillings (0.02 USD) for every 20 liters of water, while filtered water costs 3 Kenyan shillings (0.03 USD). The increased price for filtered water covers the cost s of replacing the filter material.
Water selection
Lesson 1:
Engineering is a complex process. Traditionally, engineers designed solutions with technical and economic constraints as their only considerations. This paradigm must evolve to include social, cultural, behavioral, and environmental constraints.
Lesson 2:
Engineers do not have the tools to measure economic, social, cultural, and behavioral phenomena, which is why it is important to reach out to and collaborate with people in other disciplines in order to create and implement truly effective and lasting solutions.
– Daniel Mosiman, Graduate Assistant with the Safe Global Water Institute
Day 2: Arrive in Nairobi, Kenya
Graduate students Lauren Valentino, Bernardo Vazquez-Bravo and Undergraduate students Kristin Managlia, Xiaoge Tang, and Madeleine Turk arrive in the Nairobi Airport.
Photo credit: Madeleine Turk.
Day 1: Depart Chicago O’Hare for Kenya
Pre-Trip: Packing field equipment
The Kenya travel team is getting everything ready for departure this Friday. Each travel team member is packing their one carry-on. Our luggage is mostly field equipment. TAs Bernardo and Lauren have been packing the water quality testing gear. TA Daniel is already in Kenya visiting homes, taking water samples, and meeting with manufacturers about his research on fluoride removal using bone-char.