Tinkering in the Workshop

I’m afraid that we’ve been a bit boring recently.  We’re building a new workshop, which is a slow process, but it’s nearly complete, so things should really be buzzing soon here.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some fantastic pictures of a solar water heater that Bernard developed using old fluorescent light tubes.  He had built one for his father’s house three years ago and people started asking him about it, so he decided to make the unit a bit bigger (50 liters of water per day). and a prototype for a blender that he’s hoping to attach to a bicycle.  It feels like all of our energy is going into getting this workshop finished, so it’s always exciting when I look up and see that Bernard is tinkering with something new.  In fact, several people have been asking about the solar water heater and we have two orders already.

Clockwise from top left: Bernard opening the tap on his solar water heater that we keep on hand to show to prospective customers; Oscar (one of our young mechanics) welding the frame of a solar water heater that a customer has ordered; Oscar grinding down the weld; the solar water heater in progress; and the finished product.

Clockwise from top left: Bernard showing off the pitcher that he made; an upclose view of the pitcher (using a standard water pitcher sold in the Arusha market); the base of the pitcher; all the pieces laid out on the workbench; the drive mechanism.