I’m not really sure where to begin with the events of today…I wasn’t feeling tired until I sat down to write this.
I met with the students discussing the sampling and data input for the project. They had some useful additions and are really starting to own the project. I think the best part of the day was the personal time I spent with them. I was grilled with questions about the US. They were quite surprised to find out that minimum wage was $7.25 AN HOUR. I quickly explained how much rent I pay for my apartment, but it still was a shock to them to think that the majority of Americans make in an hour what a Kenyan doing reasonably well makes in a day.
I spent part of the afternoon getting a tour of Moi University with Timothy, one of the students. Moi has about 30,000 students, but it is so spread out that it feels like it has less. Overall, it’s quite beautiful and different than a typical large university in the US. Purdue’s environment is easily trumped and even IU-Bloomington’s natural beauty pales in comparison to Moi’s. I took a few pictures before my battery died, but I’m not sure when/if I’ll get around to uploading them anytime soon, but we’ll see….
One piece of good news is that we finally have official approval for our project from Moi University’s oversight board (required since we’re conducting surveys). You may be asking why we’re just now getting approval, but its best summarized as a requirement for using Aqua Clara’s survey information in the project rather than any of the data collection that the Moi students are doing. We can now pursue equivalent approval from Purdue which is needed so I can access the completed surveys as I’m the lucky person that will input the data electronically.
Here’s an idea of the water quality here. I am staying a relatively higher-end neighborhood. We have piped water, but since I’ve been here the water has been more like the brownish color of raman soup than anything else. As unfortunate as it is, that’s part of the reason I’m here!
-Steven
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