Volun-told

Akwaaba! My name is Kyle Smith, and I am the Biochemistry major among the group of engineers. We are sorry for WIFI being down for the past day or so, and hope this one gets to be posted tonight.

Today was another project filled day for us: starting with a meeting in the morning, we then split up into groups where we would tackle individual tasks that needed to be finished for the project. My job, along with Sam, Joe and Billy was to clean the inside of the filter and clarifier tanks. These behemouths demanded that someone go inside with a hose and towel and clean it from the inside. Billy and I, being the smaller of the 4, “volunteered” for the job. We had to squeeze our way through a hole only large enough for one shoulder to fit at a time and then get to work. Luckily I am not afraid of spiders…Ha ha haaaa….(I’m actually terrified). I must have killed 4 or 5 spiders while confined in a 2500 liter tank. It was not the most fun thing I have ever done, but nonetheless needed to be done. While we did that; Hanleigh, Carson, Salah, Austin and Billy were constructing the control panel box and the measurement box. The control panel box is in charge of distributing the power to the rest of the system and the measurement box houses the electronics that record data and return it to our data system at Lipscomb. McKenzie and Leah were in charge of constructing the dispersion nozzle that would later be installed into the filter tank to help disperse the effluent that will be treated.

After our tasks were complete, we later had to work more on the site where the tanks would be implemented. This consisted of a lot of manual labor and many blisters amongst all. Our job was to identify where the pipe was in between the septic tank and another holding tank. To do this, we needed to dig a 5 and a half foot hole into the ground to find the pipe, and from there we plan to attach a Y-connector, so that we may in the future connect this to the clarifier tank. After we finished all of our tasks, we were able to spend some time with the community. Some of us spent time playing football (soccer), playing basketball, or singing and dancing with the girls. After a hard and stressful day’s work, it was a much needed time for many of us.

As for the rest of the trip, we believe that we will be able to accomplish all that we set out to accomplish, but we appreciate prayers to make this a reality. Thank you to all that are supporting us by following our blog, and we will try to make sure you are updated tomorrow despite a dodgy Internet connection.