Follow up blog from last week

Last week I put out a couple of questions and some beginning of projects so I wanted to follow up.  First the above picture is from a friend's balcony who lives in Kinampanda which is along the ridge line before you drive into the valley where I live.  This is her view overlooking said valley.  I had to visit Kinampanda with work this week so stopped in to see her after I heard she got stung by a bee again and missed a day of teaching.  

Next the answers to the questions that frankly I was shocked no one even ventured a guess about.  All my engineering and creative friends and no one guess!  I guess I should offered something more than imaginary or useless points but since they do it on Whose Line is it Anyway I thought I could get away with it.

Why does we need to add more water here to get the same workability or mix strength as we would say in South Carolina or even Peru? The answer has to do with the dryness here but specifically the fact it is so dry the aggregate materials have no moisture in them.  Normally you would have to account for residual moisture in the sand and gravel when figuring out how much water to add to a mix, but since the sand here has absolutely no moisture that can be detected and I have done the standard weight comparison of sand natural and sand after being cooked in a pan.  The same holds true for the rocks.  So that accounts for between 25 to 30% additional water needed.  Now you know.

What am I planning to use the hard rubber bushings for on the music station? 

The team will slide them over a long bolt and then use washers and nuts to secure them in place and they will become "drumsticks" so the sound heard is not a piece of metal striking the can or pipe but the sound of the can or pipe vibrating.

I showed a photo of making a stool using a 5 gallon  bucket so here is the finished product.

You can level them up using washers on the legs and I was going to use the hard rubber hand grips for bicycles they sell here but I did not like how short it is so I busted it up to reclaim the steel and will make another one in the future with longer legs.

This week was a lot of welding and woodwork in the prep for the team.  The only concrete was to make additional concrete "stones" for the David and Goliath story.  I welded up frames for the solar panels, shelf framing and bench framing for the tv.

I was also told they broke 6 desk units the other week (typically they have the pre-school children drag the desks out for the teacher's naps and because they cannot lift them they damage the legs a lot)  so I spent one morning evaluating and doing the base carpentry to fix.  I still have to sand and stain the wood but that will have to be later.

In addition I attempted making a simple shelf unit out of some scrap lumber and steel where all you do is drill a hole for the furniture pipe and then slide the wood over it.  To get it to stay in place I use a wood glue that expands on the underside.

This weekend I have made change so I can seal all the team members individual Tanzania money up.  I prefer to have them send some money over to purchase sodas, small items etc. to be exchanged so we are not in a rush to do it while they are leaving Arusha their first morning in country.  They will have more time when doing their real shopping on the way home.