January 14, 2013

Water, Winnowing, and the Tentacles of Donald Trump

A quick matatu ride down A2 from Kakamega got us to Kasavai this morning.  There we were greeted at the CLOUT/Watafutaji office by two widows who were hauling out soy bean plants that had been held (over night?) in the now even more multipurpose office.  Today would be a day for winnowing.

 

But first, there would be the putting away of new books and play school supplies and instruction on the use and care of biosand water filters to be installed later in the day in the office and in three selected widows’ houses.  About 25 widows crammed themselves into the front room of the office along with the four filters and all the play school and sewing equipment as Eric from Friendly Water for the World instructed the group on the use and maintenance of the filters.  Everybody seemed to comprehend all, but only time will tell.

The instruction was followed by the immediate installation of the first filter in the back room.  The hollow concrete box with imbedded syphon weighed about 100 pounds before measured amounts of rock, gravel, and sand were added sequentially, followed by a metal diffuser plate and about 20 liters of dirty stream water into the top of the concrete tank.  After the first 20 liters or so of water had been added and the tank was full to the top of the syphon, a splash of brown water popped from the spout to be followed by a continuous and ever-more-clear stream as additional water was poured in to the tank. 

 

 

The stream halted automatically when the amount of water dispensed equaled the amount of water added and the level in the tank lowered to the top of the syphon tube.  Only one more step to go.  Since we were not in a hurry to get potable water today, Eric had time to do a sanitizing step.  He poured some bleach solution backwards into the syphon in order to assure that the downstream portion of the filter system was germ-free from the start.  Once he had done this, all there was left to do was to pour copious amounts of water through the filter unit and then let it sit until tomorrow or the next day, at which time it will be fully functional.  Over the first 30 days or so, the unit will reach its full potential as the local bacteria establish themselves in the “bio-layer” and then can eliminate the maximum amount of harmful water-borne organisms.

Eric, David Ashimosi (a 2011 Mukumu Boys HS grad), and I then delivered the remaining three filter units to selected widows’ houses scattered around the village.  We could do this only with the help of three strong guys who we hired for the task along with their cart.  Moving the units (two at one time and one later) across hill and dale was an unbelievably strenuous task.   My guess is that the first house was about one mile from the office, the second was three miles from that, and the third was two miles from the office in the opposite direction.  Eric installed the first two of these household units (adding rock, gravel, sand, water, etc.) and he expects to do the same with the last tomorrow or Wednesday.

 

 

When we returned to the office to pick up the last of the units for delivery, we found Sandy busily engaged in the winnowing of soy beans with the widows.  These beans had recently been harvested by the widows from their collective plot and were ready to be freed from their pods, stems, and stalks.  Sandy was beaming with excitement and joy.

 

After the harvested plants had been dried (and been stored in the office) the widows spread them out this morning on tarps under the full heat of the equatorial sun.  By afternoon they had dried sufficiently more and were ready to go.  First, the beans had to be freed from the dried plants.  This involved stomping on them and beating them relentlessly with large sticks.  Sandy loved this part and she thought she had winnowed for the first time in her life. 

 
Not so, she discovered as time went on.  This was just preparation for winnowing.  Next, the largest stems and stalks were picked up and removed from the beaten pile.  Then the winnowing act itself was carried out by only one of the widows.  She held a bucket of beans and broken stems and stalks above her shoulders and poured it carefully into another large basket on the tarp, letting the wind separate the majority of broken stems, stalks, and pods from the beans.  She did this repeatedly until the beans were clear of refuse.  And to assure that not one bean was lost, a few widows swept the tarps clean and others bent over at their wastes in the grass and picked up beans that had strayed from the tarp.   All was completed in one afternoon.

While the ladies winnowed, I delivered filter units and discovered that 2 of 3 Kenyan men believe (now, believed) that our President, Barack Hussein Obama, is a Muslim.   Why?  “He must be, his middle name is Hussein”.  Needless to say, the sample size is small but Sandy and I performed an educational intervention on the two, nonetheless.  Has Donald Trump been here?

 

Boil this water no more.