by Fenton Rees
Editorial Note: This entry was originally written by Fenton on September 16, 2017, and distributed to a small group of praying friends at that time. This is the third post about Fenton's second trip to Zambia. Read the first post here and the second post here.
We have finished the four days at the mission, presented them with a preliminary report, and then drove over seven hours south to Livingstone (as in Doctor), flying out tomorrow lunch-time, and heading to home. So how did it go?
Sunday: On the way from Lusaka to Chikankata on Sunday morning we stopped off at a Salvation Army congress (= convention), that was the last day of four. It was out in the middle of nowhere and down a rough dirt road that appeared to lead nowhere and then we came across a large somewhat covered area with perhaps two thousand people in it. Many were in SA uniform, indicating they had “signed up” with a commitment to Christ as well as agreeing to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. Impressive. Definitely SA but also very definitely African with dancing and great singing.
The reason for my time here in Chikankata was mainly to sanity check and fine tune the information we gathered in February and add then to take more data. I have been mostly working with Emanuel the electrician and sometimes with Wil K, the engineer that helped with the contractor interviews and is somewhat conversant in things electrical.
On Tuesday morning I had Emanuel take me on a tour of the hospital, as I missed out on that in February due to missing the plane in DC. Quite a sprawling place, with about 180 beds, but at less than 50% capacity. Surgery is mostly only on Thursday plus any emergencies that come in. They have quite a lot of half-way decent equipment, although they also have the “usual” slew of equipment that is parked in a corner because it is “broke”. Apparently the training here (high school, nursing and bio-med) is actually a higher priority than the medical, probably due the proximity of other hospitals in Lusaka less than three hours by road.
Even though this place has obviously degraded somewhat from its former “glory”, it is still mostly quite clean and does not smell bad like some of the other mission hospitals I have been in.
One of the surveyors (Mari) has a nifty drone she uses to take photos in order to properly locate future water and sewer items. Too bad I can’t think of a reason to have one for the electrical work, Ha!
On Wednesday we went back the 30 kilometers back to the main road on the very rough dirt road that goes to and from the mission. And then south to the nearest largest town to see the electricity utility (Zesco). Not unexpectedly, they are unlikely to fix the voltage variation problems that exist at the mission, as it is not a local problem but affects much of the rest country--too much demand and too little generation. Not the answer we were hoping to hear, but at least we now know that for sure and it is now off the table. Therefore we will have to install extra gismos inside the campus to take care of the problems--like the “CVTs” at Bongolo (Gabon, 2015) and/or the power conditioners at Kibuye (Burundi, 2016).
So we now have the challenge of fine tuning solutions that will work in an environment where maintenance is often times skipped and spare parts cannot be afforded--both on the electrical side and for water and/or sewer.
The hospital always struggles with adequate funding, so much so that Zesco has installed electrical meters so they now have to pay in advance for their electricity, much like a prepaid cell phone.
“Science Experiment” on Thursday morning. This was to test an idea I had that is not normally on EMI’s radar, what’s called “power factor correction”. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say it involves math functions like cosines and connecting “capacitors” across the motor for a water pump. I was working with Emanuel and “Chongo”. They had covered this kind of thing in tech school but had not actually done any experiments due to lack of resources. So we went through the theory and then did the experiment with them helping to assemble the hardware. It worked more or less as expected, so in might become another tool in EMI’s toolbox. We used my “Leatherman” to do some of the assembly--and Emanuel had Leatherman envy (actually tool envy in general)--so as this was the last day I gave it to him. So that will be something I need to replace at Home Depot or REI. (I gave a test meter to Chongo, that I had brought for such a purpose). Quite sad to see how resource limited this place is with government or donor funds having to be parceled out between drugs, medical equipment and all the maintenance requirements.
The final presentation Thursday afternoon: We successfully pulled all our findings together and presented them to the local Salvation Army leadership as well as the mayor of the neighboring village. There was a lot of interest in the problems with the water and sewer systems (such as they are), as the water being distributed thru the pipelines is not at all safe to drink, due to a whole host of issues.
Even though things have not gone exactly as we expected for the electrical issues, I still think it falls into the category of “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”, Psalm 127. If we had not talked with the four contractors and not talked with the electric utility, our original design (from February) would have to some significant degree missed the mark. BUT that initial trip in February (and the subsequent two months of analysis) was a necessary precursor; otherwise we would not have known what questions to ask.
Saturday was our “fun” day, which meant the nearby Victoria Falls, sometimes included in lists of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. We started off doing a short boat trip across the Zambezi River to Livingstone Island--the place where Dr. Livingstone was taken in 1855 by the local people and hence became the first ever westerner to see the falls; “The Mist that Thunders” in the local language.
Then most of us swam a short distance (maybe fifty yards) across to another island so we could take a dip in what is called “Devil's Pool”. This is a jacuzzi-sized natural pool on the lip of the falls, separated by the 400 foot vertical wall by about two feet of rock. Oh, and did I mention there hippos in the river? Okay, now that I have your attention, here is the “rest of the story”. We went with professional guides, the hippos a mile away upstream, and there a two safety ropes to (hopefully) grab on to if you get swept towards the lip by the current. It was safer than it sounds and actually quite a hoot. Then we walked around and viewed the falls from sides, the Zambian side we started from and the Zimbabwean side.
The main part of the attached photo is from the “other” side of the canyon later in the day with another group of people at the pool. The inset is some of OUR team getting into to pool. Those in wetsuits are the guides.
Once I get back home, there will still be more analysis and report writing to do, due in about six weeks.
Well that’s about all for now!