Last week I was the lead engineer for the groups solar installation at the Mfiome dispensary in the Iringa region of Tanzania. I originally planned to design the system for the Mlowa dispensary, but we discovered that the government will to provide Mlowa with grid power in the future. Thus, I was assigned the Mfiome dispensary that lies 50km north of Iringa and serves 3,200 residents. I sized the Mfiome system to provide 3 cell phone chargers, 14 lights, and stand-by power for a vaccine refrigerator. We arrived at the site around 10am and we were finished by 4pm. The installation went smoothly despite taking slightly longer then usual due to a wiring dilemma. Unlike most of the buildings we have worked on, the concrete walls ran all the way to the roof. Therefore we were forced to run our wiring outside of the building to provide light to the birthing room and several other high priority areas. Despite the minor setback, my team worked great together and we were very efficient. Cayleigh and Paul completed the racking, Mike and Chris worked on the electrical components, Lura instructed the nurses on maintanance and troubleshooting,and Donald entertained the children with his laptop. I have included the group photo that we took underneath our solar panel upon site completion.
The past week was great for extracurricular activities as well. We stayed the night at Ruaha national park and went on both a driving and walking safari. I really enjoyed my safari experience the second time around. We went on an evening game drive and witnessed a lion stalking a giraffe and an authentic African sunset. That night We stayed in bungalows protected by guards armed with semiautomatic rifles. The campsite was serene and swarming with hippos, elephants, and an occasional lion. To say the least, there were many nervous mazungu's (white people) around the campfire that night. The next morning we woke up early to go on a walking safari. Once again, we were accompanied by armed guards and everyone was on edge, especially when the guards informed us that the week before we arrived a park ranger was killed by a hippo. The walk was surreal and we captured some impressive photos. Jake has let me pirate a few of his photos for your viewing pleasure. Sorry for the delayed update, Iringa's internet has been out for the past few days. We will complete our installations and evaluations sometime next week and I plan to post one last blog update from Zanzibar, my final stop before heading back to the US.
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