Nairobi, weekend three:
we finally figured out our weekend activity schedule for the rest of the weeks in kenya: this weekend to lake naivasha, weekend four to mombasa (on the coast), five in nairobi, and six to maasai mara (for a safari)
lake naivasha is an easy hour and a half mutatu ride northwest of nairobi; it was a great weekend with pascal and the three of us walking and biking around lake naivasha and hells gate national park; saturday was spent checking out the campsite where we stayed and the nearby village; this morning we got up early, rented bikes and paid $25 to get into the park; there was some amazing scenery on the ride through the main road of the park, but the best part was taking a tour of the hell's gate gorge; hell's gate is named for the volcano and hot springs in the area, but is anything but a vision of hell; the gorge was cut by a stream that grows to a river every rainy season and descends into maasai land to the south; we walked through the bottom of the gorge, from the start to the devil's mouth (the point of no return) and to the first of the hot springs before climbing back out; it was a two hour tour (with a guide), but next time we'll have to take the 5+ hour tour that goes to the large hot springs and caves near the end of the gorge (and some scenes from the first tomb raider movie were filmed in the gorge and at those caves); definitely worth the entry fee, and definitely worth repeating if i'm ever in the area again
and of course we had to watch ghana beat the usa, as well as germany smoking england, and argentina beating mexico; wes is a soccer (properly, football) fanatic and so cheers for mexico first, then germany, then usa; so though germany had success tonight, he may end up drowning his sorrows in fanta (orange and black currant) after the mexico loss (we'll see how he takes the knockout) ... either way, now that the elimination rounds are started, there should be some excellent matches to watch every evening
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Nairobi, week three:
instead of boring you with repeated accounts of weekly work at APDK, i'll attempt to keep further descriptions a touch more brief
wes, maddie, and i went searching for an engine on our own on monday (without allan from APDK), and found the nobody imports anything new and smaller than 125cc; so we had no idea of what to do for an engine besides shipping from the states; which is when i talked to rich at upperhill after being asked the question "how's the wheelchair coming?"; that's when we discovered the world of ngo ni wewe and parts mechanics ...
ngo ni wewe and the mechanics have no actual connection other than that the heads of the n.g.o. have tons of connections to mechanics and old parts dealers; ngo ni wewe is an n.g.o. based in gikomba (another nairobi slum) at a location called the treehouse (built around a tree more than in it); they work to take boys off the street (and off drugs) and get them involved in their drumming and acrobatic performances; so we walked around nairobi with matthias and ndogo (two of the heads of ngo ni wewe) for 4 hours on tuesday checking for engines ... result of the story being that after wednesday of walking around with these guys, there were promises of engines on thursday; nothing very fruitful on thursday produced a full day on friday where we finally found parts and an engine that should be good enough for an initial prototype ... as i had suspected, we had been asking the wrong people, the wrong questions; oh yeah, and we ended up ordering an engine from a kenyan guy in texas for a final prototype (we'll do more searching later for a reliable source of engines for eventual production)
besides spending time searching nairobi for engines with matthias and ndogo, we've hung out with them and at the treehouse a fair bit this week; we had a drumming session one morning, met the monkey that sometimes visits the treehouse, and found a couple good, local places to eat; needless to say, we'll be seeing more of the guys at the treehouse
instead of boring you with repeated accounts of weekly work at APDK, i'll attempt to keep further descriptions a touch more brief
wes, maddie, and i went searching for an engine on our own on monday (without allan from APDK), and found the nobody imports anything new and smaller than 125cc; so we had no idea of what to do for an engine besides shipping from the states; which is when i talked to rich at upperhill after being asked the question "how's the wheelchair coming?"; that's when we discovered the world of ngo ni wewe and parts mechanics ...
ngo ni wewe and the mechanics have no actual connection other than that the heads of the n.g.o. have tons of connections to mechanics and old parts dealers; ngo ni wewe is an n.g.o. based in gikomba (another nairobi slum) at a location called the treehouse (built around a tree more than in it); they work to take boys off the street (and off drugs) and get them involved in their drumming and acrobatic performances; so we walked around nairobi with matthias and ndogo (two of the heads of ngo ni wewe) for 4 hours on tuesday checking for engines ... result of the story being that after wednesday of walking around with these guys, there were promises of engines on thursday; nothing very fruitful on thursday produced a full day on friday where we finally found parts and an engine that should be good enough for an initial prototype ... as i had suspected, we had been asking the wrong people, the wrong questions; oh yeah, and we ended up ordering an engine from a kenyan guy in texas for a final prototype (we'll do more searching later for a reliable source of engines for eventual production)
besides spending time searching nairobi for engines with matthias and ndogo, we've hung out with them and at the treehouse a fair bit this week; we had a drumming session one morning, met the monkey that sometimes visits the treehouse, and found a couple good, local places to eat; needless to say, we'll be seeing more of the guys at the treehouse
Nairobi, weekend two:
if every weekend is as adventurous as this one, i will not have a minute worth changing the whole 7 weeks that i am here ... from one of the biggest slums in africa to a countryside of british and indian estates, we got to see quite a lot
after sleeping in (more than weekdays) saturday morning, we went with pascal, a friend from work, and jenny, one of pascal's friends who works with an orphanage organization in nairobi, to kibera, one of the biggest slums in africa; the most surprising thing about it was the number of people packed into the area (guessed at ~500,000); after seeing some extremely poor communities and rural life in burkina, i was not entirely taken aback by the mud brick houses and sea of tin roofs; of course, with the large number of people comes a large amount of trash, which ends up on the ground (like everywhere else in africa), kibera however, had trash covering a majority of the open ground space; walking was not always on a dirt path, and we passed several surprisingly large mounds of refuse; though seeing the slum did not shock me into a realization of how poor some parts of the world are, it reawakened the question of what to do about it, and how can i help as one single person among hundreds of thousands
and that night i went clubbing with jessi and rich and a few other upperhill patrons; the district of nairobi called westlands has a large section of nightclubs that stay open (and busy) until at least dawn; the black diamond club was quite a change from kibera in the morning, with many whites of all ages, loud music, lights, and dancing, and an atmosphere matching some of the ridiculous descriptions of nairobi nightlife i had heard; after getting frisked at the door (everybody was), the night was entertaining, finally ending in sleep at about 4:30am
before going further, i should explain what a mutatu is; functioning as the major form of public transport for nairobi and most (if not all) of kenya, these toyota hi-ace vans come in one shape, but infinite colors and patterns of window stickers; every single one of them has a replaced audio system, many with huge subwoofers (and some tvs) to pump tunes at enormous volumes throughout the day of driving; there are 4 rows of seats behind the driver's row, all barely upholstered and crammed tightly together, allowing minimal room to sit, let alone climb in and out; depending on the time of day, a ride will cost $.25 to $.60; the drivers hardly stop for passengers to get on and off and are constantly looking for ways to get around traffic, including darting through roadside gas stations and driving in the opposing lane, even when cars are present (they create a third lane in a road that is maybe 2.5 lanes wide) ... needless to say, traffic is even crazier here than boston
we went for another dose of tourist prices and pushy salesmen (and women) on sunday late morning/early afternoon at another maasai market closer to upperhill before taking a mutatu out to the giraffe center; at this place, you can (surprisingly enough) interact with and feed the giraffes ... but we didn't get to experience this, because after taking a wrong turn and walking for an hour and a half, i realized we just might not be where we were supposed to be; so we asked some people on the side of the road, got our directions straight, and eventually found the giraffe center, half an hour before it closed ... but no matter, because the multiple hours and kilometers of walking accumulated that afternoon were spent in the beautiful kenyan countryside with views of wealthy estates (through half open gates and over boundary walls) and distant tree-covered hills; a sight for sore eyes after almost 10 months of concrete (boston and now nairobi)
if every weekend is as adventurous as this one, i will not have a minute worth changing the whole 7 weeks that i am here ... from one of the biggest slums in africa to a countryside of british and indian estates, we got to see quite a lot
after sleeping in (more than weekdays) saturday morning, we went with pascal, a friend from work, and jenny, one of pascal's friends who works with an orphanage organization in nairobi, to kibera, one of the biggest slums in africa; the most surprising thing about it was the number of people packed into the area (guessed at ~500,000); after seeing some extremely poor communities and rural life in burkina, i was not entirely taken aback by the mud brick houses and sea of tin roofs; of course, with the large number of people comes a large amount of trash, which ends up on the ground (like everywhere else in africa), kibera however, had trash covering a majority of the open ground space; walking was not always on a dirt path, and we passed several surprisingly large mounds of refuse; though seeing the slum did not shock me into a realization of how poor some parts of the world are, it reawakened the question of what to do about it, and how can i help as one single person among hundreds of thousands
and that night i went clubbing with jessi and rich and a few other upperhill patrons; the district of nairobi called westlands has a large section of nightclubs that stay open (and busy) until at least dawn; the black diamond club was quite a change from kibera in the morning, with many whites of all ages, loud music, lights, and dancing, and an atmosphere matching some of the ridiculous descriptions of nairobi nightlife i had heard; after getting frisked at the door (everybody was), the night was entertaining, finally ending in sleep at about 4:30am
before going further, i should explain what a mutatu is; functioning as the major form of public transport for nairobi and most (if not all) of kenya, these toyota hi-ace vans come in one shape, but infinite colors and patterns of window stickers; every single one of them has a replaced audio system, many with huge subwoofers (and some tvs) to pump tunes at enormous volumes throughout the day of driving; there are 4 rows of seats behind the driver's row, all barely upholstered and crammed tightly together, allowing minimal room to sit, let alone climb in and out; depending on the time of day, a ride will cost $.25 to $.60; the drivers hardly stop for passengers to get on and off and are constantly looking for ways to get around traffic, including darting through roadside gas stations and driving in the opposing lane, even when cars are present (they create a third lane in a road that is maybe 2.5 lanes wide) ... needless to say, traffic is even crazier here than boston
we went for another dose of tourist prices and pushy salesmen (and women) on sunday late morning/early afternoon at another maasai market closer to upperhill before taking a mutatu out to the giraffe center; at this place, you can (surprisingly enough) interact with and feed the giraffes ... but we didn't get to experience this, because after taking a wrong turn and walking for an hour and a half, i realized we just might not be where we were supposed to be; so we asked some people on the side of the road, got our directions straight, and eventually found the giraffe center, half an hour before it closed ... but no matter, because the multiple hours and kilometers of walking accumulated that afternoon were spent in the beautiful kenyan countryside with views of wealthy estates (through half open gates and over boundary walls) and distant tree-covered hills; a sight for sore eyes after almost 10 months of concrete (boston and now nairobi)
Friday, June 25, 2010
Nairobi, week two (full week one):
the week consists of 5 days of going to APDK at 8 in the morning, taking tea (tea and milk to make "chai") at 10am, lunch at 1pm, and leaving at 4:30pm; outside of our time at APDK we probably won't do any significant traveling or sight-seeing; this week wasn't entirely exciting apart from a couple good world cup games and some trips to downtown to look for engines
after looking around a bit on monday in the city center for engines, we were not impressed with what we found or the seemingly potential availability of 50cc engines, let alone with pull starts and centrifugal clutches; after discussing our options a bit and realizing that it might be a while before we found a suitable engine, we started working on a tensioning system for the chains; after much deliberation of design issues and discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of different stock shapes of steel, we settled on a couple basic designs that we would subject to test and possible modification once we got an engine; the fabrication of our chain tensioner took only parts of two days and so we were left only with the issue of finding an engine by the end of wednesday; so we went to town again ... and didn't find anything, on thursday or friday; all three days we went in with allan (the guy at APDK who started the project several years ago before MIT got involved), and so felt bad for dragging him around town for so long, but also were grateful for his help in talking to shop owners and exploring possible options ... we also decided towards the end of the week that we wanted to look into electric start, which will make finding an engine of such small size slightly more difficult, but i still have faith in the size and proximity of nairobi to china and its mass manufacturers
i keep getting the feeling that we're not asking the right questions to the right people; after the first day of looking downtown, we talked to allan and clarified what we did and didn't want, which meant that thursday we spent most of our time in shops that ended up only selling generators and larger engines (5.5 hp, ~125 to 150cc), and friday we spent the day asking around the auto parts area; we also got ripped off on buying bolts to mount the chain tensioning system, but i can only blame myself for non-confidence in bargaining, haha; more skills to brush up on ...
we're also trying to learn a little swahili; on our way out of the gate in the morning, we try to exchange greetings with the guard and ask/learn something new every day ... i've got greetings figured out, so we'll see how long it takes to learn some regular conversation and useful questions
and of course the world cup; lots of drama and intrigue, many interesting games as well as lots of ties and lackluster play by some good teams (germany lost to serbia, and spain lost to slovakia); it was also heartbreaking to see the usa get robbed of the game winning goal that would have put them on top of their group (the ref called something, nobody knows, and took away the goal that they had scored; after much television replay, it was very clear that they had fairly scored ... so they officially tied); but there's still one game left in group play through which they can still make it to the final 16; we've been mostly just watching games in the evening after we get back from APDK, so it's nice to sit and relax, but i'm also somewhat anxious to get out and see more of nairobi and kenya as a whole
the week consists of 5 days of going to APDK at 8 in the morning, taking tea (tea and milk to make "chai") at 10am, lunch at 1pm, and leaving at 4:30pm; outside of our time at APDK we probably won't do any significant traveling or sight-seeing; this week wasn't entirely exciting apart from a couple good world cup games and some trips to downtown to look for engines
after looking around a bit on monday in the city center for engines, we were not impressed with what we found or the seemingly potential availability of 50cc engines, let alone with pull starts and centrifugal clutches; after discussing our options a bit and realizing that it might be a while before we found a suitable engine, we started working on a tensioning system for the chains; after much deliberation of design issues and discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of different stock shapes of steel, we settled on a couple basic designs that we would subject to test and possible modification once we got an engine; the fabrication of our chain tensioner took only parts of two days and so we were left only with the issue of finding an engine by the end of wednesday; so we went to town again ... and didn't find anything, on thursday or friday; all three days we went in with allan (the guy at APDK who started the project several years ago before MIT got involved), and so felt bad for dragging him around town for so long, but also were grateful for his help in talking to shop owners and exploring possible options ... we also decided towards the end of the week that we wanted to look into electric start, which will make finding an engine of such small size slightly more difficult, but i still have faith in the size and proximity of nairobi to china and its mass manufacturers
i keep getting the feeling that we're not asking the right questions to the right people; after the first day of looking downtown, we talked to allan and clarified what we did and didn't want, which meant that thursday we spent most of our time in shops that ended up only selling generators and larger engines (5.5 hp, ~125 to 150cc), and friday we spent the day asking around the auto parts area; we also got ripped off on buying bolts to mount the chain tensioning system, but i can only blame myself for non-confidence in bargaining, haha; more skills to brush up on ...
we're also trying to learn a little swahili; on our way out of the gate in the morning, we try to exchange greetings with the guard and ask/learn something new every day ... i've got greetings figured out, so we'll see how long it takes to learn some regular conversation and useful questions
and of course the world cup; lots of drama and intrigue, many interesting games as well as lots of ties and lackluster play by some good teams (germany lost to serbia, and spain lost to slovakia); it was also heartbreaking to see the usa get robbed of the game winning goal that would have put them on top of their group (the ref called something, nobody knows, and took away the goal that they had scored; after much television replay, it was very clear that they had fairly scored ... so they officially tied); but there's still one game left in group play through which they can still make it to the final 16; we've been mostly just watching games in the evening after we get back from APDK, so it's nice to sit and relax, but i'm also somewhat anxious to get out and see more of nairobi and kenya as a whole
Friday, June 18, 2010
Nairobi, weekend one:
the first weekend in nairobi, and we didn't bother going out to do tourist-y sorts of things ... partly because of the england vs. usa game saturday night, but probably mostly because we wanted to sleep in and catch up on a little sleep (i'm expecting much better sleep tonight even though tomorrow morning will be early to get to APDK by 8am) ... wes went to church this morning, but i decided to sleep in again instead of going to the 8am service; he has missionary friends who live in mombasa (coastal city in southeastern kenya) and were in nairobi for the weekend; they went out and saw the "rift valley" (beautiful valley north of nairobi with fertile farm ground) after lunch while i hung around upperhill and met some of the other guests; three of them were actually from indiana university and had grown up in the goshen area and so we were able to make a connection over mennonites and goshen things (fair warning amanda, i told them to visit you at rachel's bread)
maddie came in tonight, so i went to meet her at the airport; with all three of us here now, the trike work can really begin; we'll see if jetlag hits her like it hit wes and i, and see what we can get done tomorrow at APDK; hopefully we'll be going into town to look (and maybe find) an engine for the trike ... let's hope 50cc, pull start engines are as plentiful as they sound in the nairobi markets
the first weekend in nairobi, and we didn't bother going out to do tourist-y sorts of things ... partly because of the england vs. usa game saturday night, but probably mostly because we wanted to sleep in and catch up on a little sleep (i'm expecting much better sleep tonight even though tomorrow morning will be early to get to APDK by 8am) ... wes went to church this morning, but i decided to sleep in again instead of going to the 8am service; he has missionary friends who live in mombasa (coastal city in southeastern kenya) and were in nairobi for the weekend; they went out and saw the "rift valley" (beautiful valley north of nairobi with fertile farm ground) after lunch while i hung around upperhill and met some of the other guests; three of them were actually from indiana university and had grown up in the goshen area and so we were able to make a connection over mennonites and goshen things (fair warning amanda, i told them to visit you at rachel's bread)
maddie came in tonight, so i went to meet her at the airport; with all three of us here now, the trike work can really begin; we'll see if jetlag hits her like it hit wes and i, and see what we can get done tomorrow at APDK; hopefully we'll be going into town to look (and maybe find) an engine for the trike ... let's hope 50cc, pull start engines are as plentiful as they sound in the nairobi markets
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Nairobi, day three:
i did wake up around 3:30am again, but was fortunate enough to fall back asleep relatively quickly, hopefully the jet lag will be gone by the start of next week; we actually made it to APDK just after 8am today, and started the morning off messing with last year's trike again; however, most of the day was spent waiting around for a presentation and discussion of our work plan for the following six weeks to the head engineer in the workshop; the technician who will be working with us is getting back from on monday (as well as maddie arriving sunday night), so the project work will commence in earnest then; it was another short day, but we weren't too worried since the first game of the world cup was tonight (5pm local time); it will sure be nice watching the cup from africa! (as opposed to in the states where times are weird and nobody cares as much); every tv at upperhill was tuned to the two games, first south africa vs. mexico, then france vs. uruguay; since wes's mom is mexican, he is a hard core supporter of mexico, and so was disappointed that they came away with only a tie last night (they were pretty heavily favored to win); and the fra/uru match was disappointing since there were no goals scored at all; i guess we'll have to wait for argentina vs. nigeria or england vs. usa to see a few more of those
as we get more and more used to upper hill, we are meeting more guests, both those who are here for a few days and those who stay for more than just a summer; most of the people around upper hill are white and so it will be quite a contrast to working at APDK in terms of meeting and interacting with foreigners/visitors and kenyans; in both cases, our interactions should provide us with numerous intriguing stories
i did wake up around 3:30am again, but was fortunate enough to fall back asleep relatively quickly, hopefully the jet lag will be gone by the start of next week; we actually made it to APDK just after 8am today, and started the morning off messing with last year's trike again; however, most of the day was spent waiting around for a presentation and discussion of our work plan for the following six weeks to the head engineer in the workshop; the technician who will be working with us is getting back from on monday (as well as maddie arriving sunday night), so the project work will commence in earnest then; it was another short day, but we weren't too worried since the first game of the world cup was tonight (5pm local time); it will sure be nice watching the cup from africa! (as opposed to in the states where times are weird and nobody cares as much); every tv at upperhill was tuned to the two games, first south africa vs. mexico, then france vs. uruguay; since wes's mom is mexican, he is a hard core supporter of mexico, and so was disappointed that they came away with only a tie last night (they were pretty heavily favored to win); and the fra/uru match was disappointing since there were no goals scored at all; i guess we'll have to wait for argentina vs. nigeria or england vs. usa to see a few more of those
as we get more and more used to upper hill, we are meeting more guests, both those who are here for a few days and those who stay for more than just a summer; most of the people around upper hill are white and so it will be quite a contrast to working at APDK in terms of meeting and interacting with foreigners/visitors and kenyans; in both cases, our interactions should provide us with numerous intriguing stories
Nairobi, day two:
waking up at 3:30am and not sleeping more than half an hour or so before the alarm rang at 7:30 didn't make for an extremely awake day; i also took one of the coldest showers of my life in the morning, i guess i got the shower head without a working heating mechanism (the higher the water pressure, the warmer it should get), but at least the towel worked
we got to the APDK compound an hour later than expected, at 9:30, and got a tour of the facilities as well as an introduction to absolutely everybody that works there, remembering names will be the worst part; the "lower" workshop is occupied by ~12 people during the day who are working on prosthetics, crutches, leg braces, and painting wheelchairs; the "upper" workshop, where we'll be working, is occupied by ~15 guys who are working on making parts for and assembling wheelchairs and pedal trikes; it's a farm-style workshop with mild steel working tools, so no fancy mill or lathe machines, but still a full set of cutting, grinding, and welding equipment; we also got to eat lunch with APDK people at a place right next to the courtyard; we had japati (sp? almost identical to tortillas) with a bean and corn stew ... finally the taste of africa i was looking for! haha; it ended up being a short day at the shop after looking at the trike they had from last summer; the real work won't start until the beginning of next week
waking up at 3:30am and not sleeping more than half an hour or so before the alarm rang at 7:30 didn't make for an extremely awake day; i also took one of the coldest showers of my life in the morning, i guess i got the shower head without a working heating mechanism (the higher the water pressure, the warmer it should get), but at least the towel worked
we got to the APDK compound an hour later than expected, at 9:30, and got a tour of the facilities as well as an introduction to absolutely everybody that works there, remembering names will be the worst part; the "lower" workshop is occupied by ~12 people during the day who are working on prosthetics, crutches, leg braces, and painting wheelchairs; the "upper" workshop, where we'll be working, is occupied by ~15 guys who are working on making parts for and assembling wheelchairs and pedal trikes; it's a farm-style workshop with mild steel working tools, so no fancy mill or lathe machines, but still a full set of cutting, grinding, and welding equipment; we also got to eat lunch with APDK people at a place right next to the courtyard; we had japati (sp? almost identical to tortillas) with a bean and corn stew ... finally the taste of africa i was looking for! haha; it ended up being a short day at the shop after looking at the trike they had from last summer; the real work won't start until the beginning of next week
Nairobi, day one:
or more like evening number one; got in at 6:45pm, figured out visas and got picked up by a taxi driver and taken to upper hill campsite (if you google them, it's the first website); with a $20 taxi to the airport and a $4 supper, i'm starting to think our experience will cost more like boston/america than i had thought; but it still looks and smells like africa (or burkina anyway), so i'm definitely pleased
we woke up around noon the first morning (not because we didn't sleep much during the night due to jet-lag or anything) and proceeded to a nearby shopping center get cash, phones, minutes, towels, and some other basics; many of my expectations of kenya (based on time in burkina faso) are turning out to be mostly incorrect, or maybe it's just that we're in the city and living more like north americans than i did in burkina; there are shopping centers/malls and the prices all seem to be close to the states for food and clothing and such, so i'll be trying to explore more and find the africa that i am fond of (cheap and imported from china)
so now we have internet and a connection to the outside world (receiving texts is free, not sure about calls, but you can try if you like: 254 0711 214 964) ... getting used to upper hill and the bus system will be super fun; it will be fun living in a two-person tent with wes for 7 weeks, but i'll be glad to be back in a house after our time here
or more like evening number one; got in at 6:45pm, figured out visas and got picked up by a taxi driver and taken to upper hill campsite (if you google them, it's the first website); with a $20 taxi to the airport and a $4 supper, i'm starting to think our experience will cost more like boston/america than i had thought; but it still looks and smells like africa (or burkina anyway), so i'm definitely pleased
we woke up around noon the first morning (not because we didn't sleep much during the night due to jet-lag or anything) and proceeded to a nearby shopping center get cash, phones, minutes, towels, and some other basics; many of my expectations of kenya (based on time in burkina faso) are turning out to be mostly incorrect, or maybe it's just that we're in the city and living more like north americans than i did in burkina; there are shopping centers/malls and the prices all seem to be close to the states for food and clothing and such, so i'll be trying to explore more and find the africa that i am fond of (cheap and imported from china)
so now we have internet and a connection to the outside world (receiving texts is free, not sure about calls, but you can try if you like: 254 0711 214 964) ... getting used to upper hill and the bus system will be super fun; it will be fun living in a two-person tent with wes for 7 weeks, but i'll be glad to be back in a house after our time here
Travel:
all flights went according to plan, nothing too special (besides large amounts of boredom for 15 hours on the flight to dubai) ... the time in dubai was quite an experience; after getting through customs claiming bags, we got put up in a rather fancy hotel (at least 4 stars) for the night with three meals included; since wes and i were still on US central time, we didn't get tired very early and so took a 2 hour bus tour around dubai starting just after midnight; it was still easily 95 or 100F and more than 90% humidity, so the air conditioned bus was welcome after getting out to take pictures; in the two hours, we got to see the two most famous towers in dubai (the world's tallest and the crazy looking, super-expensive hotel) as well as the new hotel on one of the man-made palm-tree-shaped island clusters and a drive-through of much of downtown; before leaving the next afternoon, we took a taxi downtown to the dubai mall (bigger than the mall of america); wes took a trip to the top of the world's tallest tower while i walked around the mall and checked out the aquarium and halls of gold and diamond jewelry shops ... all of this to discover that dubai is truly an artificial city, built in the middle of a desert where hardly anything existed 25 years before
all flights went according to plan, nothing too special (besides large amounts of boredom for 15 hours on the flight to dubai) ... the time in dubai was quite an experience; after getting through customs claiming bags, we got put up in a rather fancy hotel (at least 4 stars) for the night with three meals included; since wes and i were still on US central time, we didn't get tired very early and so took a 2 hour bus tour around dubai starting just after midnight; it was still easily 95 or 100F and more than 90% humidity, so the air conditioned bus was welcome after getting out to take pictures; in the two hours, we got to see the two most famous towers in dubai (the world's tallest and the crazy looking, super-expensive hotel) as well as the new hotel on one of the man-made palm-tree-shaped island clusters and a drive-through of much of downtown; before leaving the next afternoon, we took a taxi downtown to the dubai mall (bigger than the mall of america); wes took a trip to the top of the world's tallest tower while i walked around the mall and checked out the aquarium and halls of gold and diamond jewelry shops ... all of this to discover that dubai is truly an artificial city, built in the middle of a desert where hardly anything existed 25 years before
Information:
i'll be in nairobi, kenya for 7 weeks (beginning of june to end of july) with a team of three from MIT; wes (a sophomore in mechanical engineering) and i will fly from houston to dubai to nairobi on the 6th of june, and maddie (a junior in mechanical engineering) will be flying in on the 13th of june; i'll be coming back to the states on the 23rd of july, followed by wes and maddie on the 1st of august
once in nairobi, we'll be working with the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) to develop a motorized wheelchair-trike; the trike is a hand-pedal-powered wheelchair made by APDK that we will modify by putting a small engine (50cc) on the back to power the chair; with this modification, the user will still be able to pedal around the market or streets, but will be able to stop and pull-start the engine in order to navigate more difficult terrain, such as hills, sand, rough ground or longer distances; the goal is a completed "conversion kit" that APDK can offer to their clients in addition to the trike ... much work was done this past semester at MIT in terms of prototyping and continuing the work done by a similar team last summer, and our time in nairobi will be spent building on their work and implementing a few new designs of our own ... i'll post pictures when i have a significant enough quantity and a decent internet connection
i'll be in nairobi, kenya for 7 weeks (beginning of june to end of july) with a team of three from MIT; wes (a sophomore in mechanical engineering) and i will fly from houston to dubai to nairobi on the 6th of june, and maddie (a junior in mechanical engineering) will be flying in on the 13th of june; i'll be coming back to the states on the 23rd of july, followed by wes and maddie on the 1st of august
once in nairobi, we'll be working with the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) to develop a motorized wheelchair-trike; the trike is a hand-pedal-powered wheelchair made by APDK that we will modify by putting a small engine (50cc) on the back to power the chair; with this modification, the user will still be able to pedal around the market or streets, but will be able to stop and pull-start the engine in order to navigate more difficult terrain, such as hills, sand, rough ground or longer distances; the goal is a completed "conversion kit" that APDK can offer to their clients in addition to the trike ... much work was done this past semester at MIT in terms of prototyping and continuing the work done by a similar team last summer, and our time in nairobi will be spent building on their work and implementing a few new designs of our own ... i'll post pictures when i have a significant enough quantity and a decent internet connection
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