Preparing for Bolivia: Packing!

It's interesting to think that I'll be leaving for Bolivia in less than 24 hours. I can't wait to finally meet the community of Quincucirca, who I have been working with for the last 2 years through Engineers Without Borders-UC Davis.

I really appreciate that the Blum Center is funding my trip, so that I can work with the community, the NGO Engineers in Action, and EWB's Bolivia team in order to build a water distribution system for the town of Quincucirca.

Now I just need to finish packing, spend the night in LA, and then fly out in the morning. Geronimo!
After overcoming my initial fears and worries, I'm really excited for the trip. Initially I was worried because my mind was running through every possible scenario I could imagine, good or bad. However I finally realized that I could arrive in Bolivia and be scared of the possibilities; or I could jump in, say Geronimo, and deal with situations as they arise.

Jordan Thoennes, undergraduate, Civil Engineering, UC Davis

Comments

Welcome to the UC Davis Blum Center Blog!

Here you will find updates on our organization, and blog posts written by each of our Blum Fellows about their experiences abroad. Make sure to check out our website at blumcenter.ucdavis.edu, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCDavisBlumCenter to get regular updates and see our upcoming events.

Manufacturing in Phnom Penh by Purva Juvekar

During winter and spring quarter 2017, my teammates and I (Team WASHOut) designed a sanitation station using a Biosand Filter. This was our effort towards providing clean water to students in floating schools on the Tonle Sap lake. We were provided with the opportunity to go to Cambodia and implement our project in person through the Blum grant, and we worked with Wetlands Work!, our clients for the senior design class. Figure 1 Rendering of Sanitation Station We spent our time at UC Davis designing the station – sketches, CAD models, renderings, dimensions, engineering analysis and testing. We made a prototype in Davis, which we showed during the Senior Design Showcase in June, to test flow rates and water quality standards. The next step was to take the design to Phnom Penh and manufacture it there. We got to work as soon as we got there. My teammate and I were introduced to people on the WW! team who could help with translation, and we began scouting the city to fin...

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing, By Abe McKay

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing (3 of 3) 2017.09.12 In my second week in Kenya, I was back to visiting farmers, both with Vibrant Village and through other connections. However, I receive my biggest surprize in between site visits. I was walking with Ernest Kulali, a field officer and farmer from Vibrant Village, and he was telling me about the effectiveness of farming techniques. Using traditional methods, Ernest was getting 20kg of maize (corn) in a season from his shamba , his farm . When he switched to using purchased seeds and fertilizer, the same land produced 360 to 540kg of maize. What!? I had him run the numbers by me again, 20kgs → the range of 400kgs. I still didn’t believe it, but Nick the Vibrant Village director later agreed that farmers were seeing that magnitude of increase. Not just doubling their income/food supply, but a twenty-fold return! Further farming modifications will not yield as large a jump, but that sort of scale encouraged me that changing te...

UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Search This Blog