Let’s see, where to begin…
Yesterday was fairly unexciting. The power was out for an hour or so in the morning meaning I had some forced relaxation time. The remainder of the day was spent helping a hired hand with where to find cleaning and laundry supplies and working on the computer.
Scott, Claire, and Shannon (an IU student working as Aqua Clara’s intern for the summer) returned in the evening, yesterday. Today, we went to main campus to meet with the students. Claire spent the morning giving the students some training in the basics of Aqua Clara’s water filters and program in general. It’s a little frustrating, because I’m realizing how little I actually know (or at least have experienced) of their program so my ability to transfer information to the students is difficult. Also, since our schedule has been delayed from what we originally planned it has been difficult to give them direct, specific information, but I have been giving them more general directions on what they will probably do….
I did go over the lab procedure with the students, and they seemed to handle it well. We have continued to improvise with the lab equipment. Many of the things you would expect in a typical American University’s lab is not a guarantee…for example, much of the glassware in the lab is broken leaving only very large and very small graduated cylinders. It certainly won’t provide the best environment for precise measurements, but we’ll have to make do.
The most random encounter of the day was with Matt Whiteman (an entertainingly fitting name), a master’s student from the University of British Columbia. He’s doing research on host’s impressions of short-term volunteer groups. An example would be interviewing an orphanage that has a short-term team come for a few weeks. We ran into him at lunch, and I got his phone number so I may contact him if I need some western company.
On Monday, we will meet for the (hopefully) last time before the students head to the field. The students are still somewhat unclear as to the protocol for visiting houses and collecting samples. It’s difficult to tell them what to do without showing them. Printing is quite expensive here (~10 cents/page) so we’ll have to print all the data sheets for the students this weekend.
I still haven’t used the public transport here. I had planned to do so today, but my plans changed since Claire and Shannon needed to come. This weekend may provide opportunities for adventure with having to get stuff printed in town. It will be nice to get out of the house and away from a computer. I’m not sure it will be any less stressful than teaching and navigating an unfamiliar lab, but it will certainly be different!
-Steven
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