Now Where Were We...

Hello again everyone!

It has been quite a while since we have sent out an update, and we have a lot of stuff to talk about.

The last time we talked was back in December, right after Richard and myself finished the third implementation trip to Burere. There has been a lot of activity in Burere in the last 9 months, so that is where we will begin our journey. Upon the restart of classes in January, we started to plan our next implementation trip in April/May to put the roof on the school (if you don't remember, the concrete ring beam was put into place in December). We once again turned to Richard Elliott to guide us through the process of how to build the trusses and put the roof on the building. Richard was traveling back to Tanzania in March with Dr. Michael Zaretsky of VLOP and some students from UC. The plan was for Richard to create a mock-up of one of the trusses, so that when the implementation crew arrived in April, a "cookie cutter" pattern of the truss would be ready to be used and streamline construction of the roof. Richard was successful in this regard, and sent us a picture of the completed truss.

Truss built in March

 Yeah, it's pretty big. And 13 of them will be placed on top of the ring beam.
   Next big event for Burere was the 4th implementation trip in April. Selected to go on this trip was Justin Thompson, Sean Buchanon, John Wynn, Matthew Menche, Devin Metzger, and Richard Elliot. Unfortunately since I was not on the trip, I can not give you day by day updates on construction. Matt was able to send me some photos of the trip, so those will have to do to describe events that occurred.

Construction Team and Kingigoro Students

Putting Trusses in place

Moving the truss into place

                                                                                                                                       

Drilling holes for the bolts

At the end of the trip, all 13 trusses were in place and 2/3 of the roof was complete. Our trusty contractor Julius completed the roof for us over the summer. Then in August we received some pictures of the completed roof. It looks absolutely amazing.

 A job well done by all those involved! Then a few weeks later, Rosie sent us a picture of the school, with classes in session! To say we were excited would be the understatement of the year. 

Julius (right) helping to officially open up the school.

We still have a few things left on the school to complete, but since the main structure is complete, EWB-UC will now begin to focus the majority of our attention on raising funds for the Nyambogo Water Project.

 A very big thank you to those who have supported us throughout this incredible journey. Jay, Julie, and Jason at THP Limited for there work on the design, Richard Elliott for traveling with every team to build the school and lending us his experience working in the area, Emily Roush Elliott for helping us begin implementation, being there to guide us through the building process, and for letting us steal Richard when we traveled, Dr. Lewis and VLOP for helping us through this long process, and to all the students and faculty at UC who played a part in the Burere Schoolhouse Project. Thank You!

Just to Bring You Up to Speed...

Sorry for the delay in posting an update, we lost power in Shirati for a while.

Let us start with what occurred on Friday. Friday was a much slower day than hoped, with most of the day spent finishing formwork, putting bolts into place, and beginning to straighten some of the corners. Since our rebar crew was out of work, they began moving the aggregate into position near the mixing pad. We worked hard until 430, then had a meeting to discuss options for pouring concrete on Saturday. Julius believed it would take 12 hours to pour. We toyed with the idea of working til nightfall to straighten and level the formwork, but then decided we would end up making more errors than progress with everyone being exhausted. On the ride back to the hostel, we toyed with ideas to see if we could pour zege on Saturday, since no one really wanted to pour on Sunday. I believed it would only take 5-6hrs to pour, so we decided that we would pour at night if necessary. Julius, Daniel and Sakai went to Shirati that night and rented a generator, lights and cables in preparation to pour at night. That concluded a long day five and we hit the hay soon after dinner.

This was it. Day six. Zege day. Whether we were there til 5pm or 11pm, zege was going to be put into place one way or another. We hit the ground running with another 630am start and immediately started working our butts off once our boots were on the ground in Burere. The day started with Richard and I running a water level, getting all the marks to which we would level the formwork. Once that was done, Richard went around one side leveling and straightening formwork, while Sakai and Daniel went the other direction. While they were doing this, I continued to place bolts in there proper locations. By 11, the formwork had been leveled, and 18 of the 26 bolts were in place. At this point we started to pour zege. Richard, Otoke and another worker started in one corner while Otienu, another worker, and myself started in another. The zege crew was well versed in the process, and everything ran smoothly. After a while, I had to take a break from zege and finish putting in the bolts into position, making sure the crew didn't put zege in that area without the bolts in place. Things ran smoothly, and the zege was completed by 330.

DONE. Mission accomplished. And it only took four and a half hours to pour the beam. It required six long days of work but the third phase of the project can be checked off the list.

Sunday was a day of relaxation with trip out to Roche in the morning. In Roche, Richard did a quick inspection of the building, then we set about the main task for the trip out to Roche. We were there to take photos of the rough location for the planned doctor housing to be built on site. After the trip to Roche, we went back to Shirati, and Sakai invited us to his house for lunch. To say it was a good meal and a large one at that would be the understatement of the year. Sakai had a whole feast for us. Ugali, chapati, beef, fish, rice, mangoes, cabbage, pineapple, bananas, you get the picture. Sakai had a wonderful spread, and we ate til we were almost in a food coma. The rest of the day was spent relaxing fishing and just being lazy.

And that brings us to today. We left Shirati this morning and we are now relaxing comfortable at the Mennoite Guest House. Tomorrow we head to the market to do some shopping, then from there we board our plane in the evening for the long flights home.

Good Night and Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

A Little Different Perspective on the Trip...

Two posts in one night? I must be spoiling you.

   This post is a little bit different than any previous posts we have done for the Burere Schoolhouse Project. Most of the time you hear about the updates on how construction has been going, and what the travel team has been up to while over here in Tanzania. Most of the people who follow what we do know that it has a positive impact on the region, but they have not been able to actually make the trip. They hear the stories we tell of funny events that occur during the rest breaks, and they get to hear a few names of the people we meet. In this post, we wanted to put a face to the name, and discuss the impact we are having on a more personally note with regards to the villagers.

Deo with his daughters, Anna (left) and Sofia

   Tonight I introduce to you Deo (pronounced Day-o). Deo has been one of our hardest workers, helping me cut and bend rebar, as well as helping to put it into place. We have been able to get to know him better than some of the other crew members, since he can speak some English. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with him, and (hopefully) he has enjoyed working with us.

   This project is a little bit more than just a job for Deo and a lot of the villagers we work with on site. This is something they do for there families (both by blood and community). He actually attended school at the Kingigoro Primary School, and two of his three children do as well. Maurice is twelve years old, Anna is eight, and Sofia is four. This is something that is very humbling and exciting, knowing that some of the crew themselves went to this school and they are sending there children there as well. It makes the time and effort we put into theses projects so much more enjoyable.

Rebar Cage in Place

Good Evening from Shirati!

   Work continued into day four and I am excited to inform you that ALL of the rebar has been placed for the ring beam! While we will still have some minor adjustments to be made to the position of the cage, work is progressing ahead of schedule. The hope is to begin pouring zege on Saturday, assuming that there are no major complications. Sakai now has the formwork in place around over half of the building, and the hope is to have the remaining formwork in place by the end of the day tomorrow. Tomorrow will not see any ridiculously fast paced progress, as we will be placing the bolts for the truss, and adjusting the rebar cage and formwork. So we will be checking the elevations and clearances multiple times so come Saturday we can pour zege with confidence that everything is in place where it should be.

   This afternoon right before lunch, I decided to take a little trek up the hill over looking the school. I was able to take some amazing pictures of the school, as well as a few panoramas of Burere, which I will post once I am able to compile them together.

   The crew from Burere worked as hard as ever, allowing us to stay ahead of schedule. Even Obama, our work site clown, has been able to be helpful the past few days. He does this all while talking, despite the fact that we have no idea what he is yapping about. The crew has worked hard for the past four days, and they will get a lighter day tomorrow since the rebar is already in place.

   On another note, I believe a good thoughts should be sent Richard's way as he broke his trusty, loyal hammer yesterday while trying to split a pre-cut 4x4 into two 2x4s. He somewhat fixed the hammer by chiseling the wooden handle and sliding the head back on, as well as adding two pieces of #3 rebar and duct tape (what can duct tape not fix?) to it as well. But the hammer will never be what it once was, will be forced into early retirement, and it will be missed.

Ring Beam Beginning to Take Shape

    Day three got a bright and early start again this morning, and things started off well. We had to stop in Shirati to pick up the rest of our lumber since they were only able to deliver 2/3 of it the night before (the truck that they used to transport 100 2x4s and 10 1x8s was the size of a Chevy S10, and looked like it was about to break). After picking up the lumber, it was off to our special little hillside in Burere.

Day III progress

   Richard started the morning by helping Sakei work of formwork and bracing, while also making sure the crew placing the rebar cage into position was doing it correctly. While Richard was doing this, I was working with Deo, Michael and two others (hopefully I will know and remember all their names by the end of the week) cut and bend #6 rebar. We cut and bent a total of 15, 40ft pieces by 11am, so the day was off to a great start. I forgot to mention it last night, but our rebar crew is one well oiled machine. They cut and bent 332, 8" square stirrups in two days! So, by the end of the day all off the rebar needed for the ring beam has been cut and bent, and is now just waiting to be put into place. Sakei was his normal beastly self, working hard as ever to make sure the progress of the formwork stays on schedule.

Rebar cage in place

   The first section of rebar that we implemented on Tuesday took a little bit longer than expected, but by this afternoon the crew putting it into place seems to all be on the same page, and is running much more efficiently. This afternoon they successfully put in the cages in the corners of the building, so now over half of the rebar cages are in place. There will still be a few adjustment that need to be made  before concrete is poured, but we have been making wonderful progress.

Usiku  Mwema! (Good Night!)

Phase III Has Begun

Good Evening from Tanzania!

     Richard and I arrived in Shirati Friday evening after three full, tiring days of travel. Upon arriving in Shirati we stopped in to say hi to Dr. Esther and Josia Kawira. We then had a quick dinner and then it was time for some much needed rest.

Burere Schoolhouse

    On Saturday, we started the day by heading out to Burere to view the site and perform an inventory of what we had available supply wise, and to finally see what the building looked like after the ISSBs were finally in place. We were not disappointed, and the building looks amazing. It is pretty awesome to see so many years of hard work paying off. While in Burere, we also went down to take a look at Jim Moyer's pit latrine project, which he completed while he was on Co-op with Village Life.

SOTA Clinic

    After spending the morning and part of the afternoon in Burere, we decided we needed to see the SOTA Clinic being constructed by the one and only Julius, our contractor in the region. The building is very big, approximately 175ft by 30ft, and sits right along the shore of Lake Victoria. We also find out that the same crew in Burere that had made the bricks for the schoolhouse had been given the job of producing 15,000 ISSBs for the SOTA Clinic. It was pretty cool to see some of the construction techniques we had taught them on display at another project in the area.

Two of Julius's Children

  
On Sunday we decided it was a good day to relax and coordinate logistics and our plan of attack for the coming week. December 9th is also Tanzania's independence day, so that just made the decision easier. We began the day by hanging out with Julius, Daniel (our translator), and Sakei (our carpenter). We had breakfast and lunch at Julius's house, and then returned to Shirati in the afternoon for a meeting with SHED.

Then it was off to bed since we were going to leave Shirati at 7am.

Bracing being put into place

    On Monday we began work in Burere. We immediately had the workers start cutting and bending the #3 rebar for the stirrups (we need 332 for the ring beam), and we hit the ground running. Sakei began creating the bracing the formwork, and Richard and I ran the water level around the top to find the exact height of the bottom of the ring beam. In the afternoon I began working on the #6 rebar for the beam, and the workers and I had successfully cut and bent 8 pieces of rebar for beam.

    Tuesday we got a bright and early start (we were on the road by 620am) and the second day was off to a good start. Sakei successfully got the bottom of the box into place, constructed scaffolding, and we began placing the rebar cage into place at one end of the building. This was a very difficult task, and we spent most of the day working on getting the four pieces of #6 and the stirrups into place. Work was slower today than it was yesterday, but hopefully the pace will pick up so we can pour concrete on Saturday. Once work was completed for the day we went to Shirati to place and order for the necessary lumber for the second half of the building it ended up taking one and a half hours to order 100 2x4s, 20 1x8s, 32 1x2s, 8 1x6's and 12 1x4's.

The day has finally come to an end and progress is being made on the third phase of the project.

Good Night! (or Good Afternoon for those 8 hours behind us)

Breaking Ground in Burere

Today was the highly anticipated groundbreaking of the Burere Village’s new 2 classroom building at the Kingigoro primary school.  The event marked a major milestone of a long journey of work by UC engineering students, our mentors from THP, UC, and Village Life, and the generous contributions from our donors.  The patience of the Burere people, our partners, and our students is showing some significant steps now as we prepare to begin excavation at the site Monday.

Richard and Jim at the Burere committee meeting

To begin our day at Burere, we held a meeting to discuss the construction plans and the role of each party involved in the project.  Video and more pictures are coming shortly upon the Village Life team’s return to the USA.  We discussed the road and the leveling of the site which are major community contributions to the construction.  The road, we were told, has already been repaired and the site will be leveled per our markings starting tomorrow.  This was an excellent sign; the community had already begun to mobilize before our arrival and was eager to begin the long awaited construction.  Once the meeting was over and the discussions concluded, the district representative, the acting village chairman, Manaen Kawira of SHED, and I signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the responsibilities of our respective parties.

The Burere groundbreaking ceremony

The event was attended by members of our Cincinnati-based partners, Village Life, including the founder, Dr. Chris Lewis, and the Executive Director and Burere Travel Mentor, Richard Elliott.  Another major partner who attended was the Shirati Health, Education and Development Foundation, (SHED), represented by the chairman of the board, Manaen Kawira.  The other leaders in the groundbreaking team were a representative from the Rorya district’s education office, the acting chairman of the Burere Village, and me. 

The EWB travel team is en route and should be landing in Nairobi shortly.  Tomorrow, they will make the long road from Nairobi, Kenya to Shirati, Tanzania.  I expect to see a happy, but travel-weary crew tomorrow evening for dinner.  I hope they are eager to experience a new country and continent which includes a unique people and culture.  I also hope they are ready to get their hands dirty and get some concrete in for the foundation! 

Thank You Bricks for Burere Supporters

EWB-UC Friends and Supporters,

Let me take a moment to thank you for your generous support of the University of Cincinnati Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Your contribution to our most recent fundraising event, Bricks for Burere, has allowed us to take one step closer toward our funding needs for the Burere project. The people of Burere have been patiently waiting for our return to their community to begin construction. Through fundraising events like these, you allow our group to ensure our projects come to successful implementation as soon as possible. In its first year, Bricks for Burere raised $1,000 dollars towards the Burere School Project. This money alone will cover half of the expenses for masonry materials.

In December, our group will submit our Pre-Implementation form. This form details the entirety of the school projects, including: all design calculations, engineering and architectural drawings, project budget, material costs, and all the work that will be completed during the first phase of construction. Pending the success of this project submittal after our design is reviewed by a panel of professional engineers, we will traveling to break ground this coming March. The first trip goals will be to completely lay out the school site, dig out the foundation mold, and pour the concrete foundation.

Without your help and support, this project could never be realized. Thank you again for your contribution and all of us at EWB-UC thank you for your generosity!

Regards,

Mark Schutte

Vice President – External Affair, EWB-UC

Special thanks to Corporate Sponsors:

Consumer Solutions, Inc.

EMA Construction

Star Building Materials

EWB kicks off Bricks for Burere

As EWB-UC ramps up its efforts to begin implementation of its second major project, the organization hopes to close the gap in its monetary needs through a truly exciting event in Bricks for Burere.

What: A fundraising event to help raise money to build the walls of the Kingigoro Primary School in Burere, Tanzania. Most students currently learn in collapsing classrooms - or must have class outside due to an already collapsed classroom.

When: September 19th - October 16th (last day of Homecoming week), the "brick wall" will begin construction at the start of October.

Where: Lobby of the Rec Center (where the old smoothie stand used to be)

How: For every donation, a brick will be given to the donator to be decorated and returned to EWB to be placed in the wall. Pricing is as follows:

One Brick, Student = $2

One Brick, Non-Student = $5

Family Brick (4 Bricks) = $20

Student Organization Brick (3x3) = $30

**Families and Organizations can purchase another row/column of bricks for $20 per added dimension.

Companies are being contacted to match on campus support.

EWB cannot not wait to demonstrate the support and encouragement found in its own university through this event.

Be on the look out for EWB's wall!

Committee Updates

This week the Nyambogo Project Committee has two new advisors, Nalin Sahni and Todd Trabert. We are looking to have our alternative analysis for this project done by the end of the month and we are hoping to move into the design phase by the beginning of next year.
In the Burere Project Committee, we are looking to meet with Peter next week for our assessment form and getting ready for the summer assessment trip. We are slated to have this project implemented during the winter holiday next year.

The Banquet is swiftly approaching and with only 2 weeks left we are kicking it into high gear to get everything ready in time.
We are stepping it up in our Fundraising Committee as well. We are in the process of applying for a grant that will hopefully cover the cost of our Otho Abwao project. We are also working on business cards and donation boxes.

Burere Assessment Trip

This week we finished up the Assessment forms and submitted them to EWB-USA for the trip this June with VLOP. We also added a few new members to help Avdhesh and the design team; Alex, who is a fifth year Civil student, and possibly a first year graduate student in structures will be joining us this week. We will continue to meet with THP to improve our design and get ready for the Implementation forms which we will be starting soon.

A Weekend with Bill Clinton: CGIU 2011

The beginning of this month signaled a return of EWB-UC's representatives at one of the biggest youth leadership conference's in the United States - Clinton Global Initiative University (http://www.cgiu.org/meetings/2011/). This three day conference in San Diego aimed to bring together some of the world's youngest and most active philanthropists, innovators, and movement makers - the future NGO CEO's of the world. Sponsored by Bill Clinton and his foundation, the free conference (this year held at the University of California San Diego) played host to around 1,500 young men and women representing all 50 states and 90 countries. Mark Schutte and Jim Moyer, recently elected External Vice President and President of EWB-UC, both had the privilege of going to the conference in early April.

The conference consisted of large group panel discussions, followed by small breakout sessions and plenty of time for networking. "It was really an incredible experience - there were so many big names that came out to speak: the co-founder of Youtube, Sean Penn, Mandy Moore, Drew Barrymore, countless CEO's and policy makers, and of course, Bill Clinton himself," says Mark, "But really just being a part of such a huge group of people, all working towards some incredible commitments was the most rewarding part of the trip for me. It helps give me energy to go out and get to work on our EWB projects when I get to see all the great ideas others have come up with." Jim had a similar experience: "It was unbelievable how ingenious some of the commitments were. Jessica Matthews, presented her invention: the sOccket, a soccer ball that converts the kinetic energy used to kick it into electricity. Just 15 minutes of kicking creates 3 hours of light! Truly inspiring." (http://www.soccket.com/#!)

For all the hard work, Jim and Mark certainly were successful in networking with students and young adults from all over. They look forward to bringing back what they have learned to better serve EWB-UC and the UC community! Of course, not all their time spent was hard at work - San Diego's beach towns capped off the weekend beautifully!

A New Tradition: EWBer of the Month!

EWB has started something new and exciting! As of winter quarter, we’ve established EWBer of the Month. EWBer of the Month is chosen by the Exec board and has to be an outstanding member of the group. They must be outstanding in the fact that the work that they are doing is pushing their project, committee, and/or the group as a whole forward.

I am pleased to announce that we have already named two EWBers of the Month. The EWBer of the Month for February was Ryan Deffinger. Ryan has done a great deal with the External Affairs Committee. His work focused on fundraising for EWB on a very personal level and in doing so, he also recruited Dr. Ming Tang, a professor of an Architectural Design course in DAAP, to help revise and provide constructive criticism with the Otho Abwao and Burere schoolhouse schematics and blueprints. Ryan has also been seeking out companies for donations and sponsorship. Through personal connections and donations, Ryan has raised $676 for the group! He plans on continuing, and expanding upon, his efforts. Great job Ryan!

The EWBer of the Month for March is Avdhesh Gaur. As a graduate student from India studying Civil Engineering, Avdhesh is a very crucial member of the Burere Project. He has been working closely with THP and his work on the seismic and wind load calculations for the Burere school is extremely valuable for not only Burere, but for the entire group to use on future projects. Avdhesh has also been working on the structural design of the Burere school - another thing that will be very useful not only for Burere, but for projects to come! Keep the good work coming Avdhesh!

Congratulations again to these two gentleman. Keep up the outstanding work, our group wouldn’t be where it is now without you! Stay tuned for more EWBers of the Month!

Summer Travelers Selected

After reading all the applications, we've selected our two travelers for the June assessment. Linea Olsson & Jim Moyer will represent EWB on our assessment in Burere. This assessment is focused on preparing all the final details necessary before school construction can start. We'll be bringing an updated memorandum of understanding to sign with the village council, and showing layout drawings of our proposed school. Linea & Jim will also be planning out water management necessary for concrete mixing on site, and securing building materials.

This trip will be part of a Village Life Outreach Project brigade. Along with representatives from EWB, UC med students will be traveling to conduct health clinics in VLOP's three communities. Students from the UC Honors Program will also be traveling on the brigade, as a culmination of a humanitarian design class taught by DAAP architect Michael Zaretsky. This multidisciplinary team will surely create an exciting and unique trip experience for all the travelers.

Jim is a 3rd year in Civil/Environmental Engineering originally from Toledo. He's currently EWB's internal vice president and has been since Spring of 2009. Jim has also worked closely on the Burere design since he first joined EWB during his freshman year. Jim's the person who schedules all of our great general meeting speakers, plus he oversees our project committees.

Linea is a freshman in Chemical Engineering who is actually an international student from Sweden. Linea has already gotten involved in both the Nyambogo committee and External Affairs. Through External Affairs, she's managed to forge connections with the co-op office (we're now presenting about EWB in Intro to Co-op classes) and Student Government(SG is currently investigating a bill that would make service-based travel eligible for UC International Grants based on their educational merit).

We're excited to have two great EWBers representing us on our assessment. As it gets closer to June, look for more updates on our trip.

Burere Update

Over the break the Burere project has been looking over documentation from VLOP and researching information about materials, building techniques, and the government in Tanzania. Before break we contacted THP Limited, Inc. to help us with the structural issues with our first design. This quarter we will be continuing to communicate with THP and figure out exactly what we need to do on the assessment trip this summer.

Latest Burere School Design

Our Burere team has been hard at work over this summer, finishing up the school design for this Winter's implementation.

Here are the latest drawings of the school.  It's a four-room school-house with each room intended for one grade level.

The walls will be concrete columns and confined masonry in-between.  The roof with be wood and corrugated metal sheeting.  The foundation will be constructed while our team is there this December!