For the first time, I’m attempting to write a blog post from an internet café in Lomé using a very sticky French keyboard. Tomorrow night we’re leaving Togo for America and then a couple days later I’ll be in Australia. But let’s stick to what’s already happened for now.
I think the most important thing to say at this point is no, we did not finish our project. This whole time we keep finding more and more unanticipated problems that we’ve tried to remedy but this project is really quite large. We found out that to be able to have our pipes slope properly down we had to build a wooden platform to raise our tank (which we did) and dig a hole to lower our solar steriliwer (which they were starting when we left). We finished connecting pipes up to the raised tank but found out one of our valves was bad quality so we couldn’t connect it and that our digester cover wasn’t long enough.
Worst of all, Connor fell off of a ladder and hit his head on a peice of rubble. François, the physician’s assistant gave him 6 stitches but otherwise, he’s ok. No concussion, no broken skull, no loss of memory or anything like that. He’s going to the doctor later today just to check though.
Overall, I had hoped to leave the project better off than it currently is. We were so pressed for time I didn’t get to say good-bye properly either. I definitely want to come back with Connor in December to finish though. I look forward to seeing this whole thing working.
