Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Midway (2 of 3)
2017.08.26
Jua kali - literal translation from Swahili is “hot sun”
Colloquially means “modifications” as in the
changes made by the workers out in the sun in order to keep things running
Tuesday night around 8pm, when I was
reassembling the pump’s gearbox, my heart sank. Earlier in the evening, I had
made a bold choice to repair the gearbox with a larger gear than before. It
would improve the performance, but I hadn’t tested the change. Plus, the larger
gear had been welded permanently in place, so no take-backs.
My feeling of doom stemmed from a big issue:
the larger gear wouldn’t fit between gearbox’s support bolts, rendering the
pump unusable. I could move the bolts, but only if I could drill new 10mm holes
that night. All of the engineering shops and even hardware stores in town had
been closed for hours, and my ride to meet farmers would be leaving at 7am the
following morning.
Adrian -a tall, red-headed, French-Hungarian
host at the guest house- brought in some good news: he happened to have a 10mm
drill bit, although no drill. One step closer.
Ten minutes later we were in a dark,
open-sided shack of corrugated sheet metal. The man that we’d hoped to see
nodded; Yes, he did have a drill. After a few minutes, a boy retrieved it and
after another few minutes of wrapping together exposed wires, the drill had
power. A group of young men gather around as Adrian cut clean new 10mm holes.
Alright, the gearbox was back in business.
Adrian
drills as the crowd watches
Fresh
new holes, the gearbox is saved...for now
The late night drilling was just one of many
modifications made under the night sky as well as the hot sun. In my first week
in Kisumu, I had to opportunity to test the pump in a variety of situations.
Working with a farming NGO called Vibrant Village, I took the pump to the plots
of a handful of farmers to get one-on-one feedback. This first type of
interview yielded detailed information from a small number of respondents. For
example, one farmer, Job, told me that he was the sole person working on his
plot; well, he and sometimes his kids. When one of the little ones tried
working the pump though, it was a complete failure. While an adult can pedal
bow-legged to avoid the pump, a kid’s knees are too far forward to avoid the
obstacle. Noted: the pump’s position has to be acceptable to child pedalers
too.
Job and
Abe by Job’s plot.
Rosemary
and Edith give their feedback near a spring
Just by lucky timing, I also happened to be in
Kenya for Vibrant Village’s quarterly gathering. In this second type of user
feedback, a few hundred curious farmers came by the bike pump’s demo station.
Eric -a plucky Kenyan that had earlier fixed gearbox with a well placed nail-
and I answered and asked questions to groups of about ten at a time. Though the
information had less depth than the earlier interviews, there was a far wider
breadth of respondents. We could gauge the overall priorities of the group
based on how often a question was asked. For example, everyone’s first question
was for the cost of the pump, reflecting the importance of the price-point.
Hundreds
gather for the Vibrant Village quarterly meeting
Eric
demonstrates the pump as farmers arrive to the meeting
Ester
gives the pump a try
Next week (which is the second of the two
weeks that I am here in Kenya), I will be returning to Vibrant Village to
conduct more one-on-one interviews. Although the pump is mostly working as
expected, I am confident more obstacles will appear. So far though, with help
from all sides, we have been able to find modifications to keep pedaling.
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