Reserve your spot now!

Lara Kroeker Interactive

POST 5: Let’s Talk Science (sayansi)

I met with the water technician, Jafari, who is a wonderful addition to our water team.  Jafari is the regional hydrologist in Dodoma and has worked in the Kondoa region for a long time.  We spent the evening together and he explained to me exactly what happened to the well in Iyoli and what we are going to do tomorrow.  It’s great to have Jafari because he’s following the water policy, regulations and water act closely and registering everything properly (we sent a letter to the the regional office letting them know what we are doing) PLUS he has a woman on his team.

The map that I attached is a beautiful mish mash of colours that show the magnetic intensity of Iyoli, an important resource to know where to go. Basically the pink regions are where minerals can be found, and not water (higher intensity), and going down the legend to the blue regions, to the lower intensities, where there is a good chance of finding water.  It’s the structural information of the area and we will use this as a guide, along with the knowledge of the villagers, to pinpoint these spots.  The first one is the magnetic survey which will measure and records spatial variations in the Earth’s magnetic field (moment of truth: I googled that.).  The second test we will do is a vertical electrical test which sends electricity to the ground and that (somehow) tells us how deep the water is in the ground.

The Iyoli well has a story too.  It was built in 1973, has a depth of 101.3 and has 11 mq of water.  It actually still has water but collapsed, probably because the metal casing rusted OR because the casing sunk downwards.  Between 1960 and 1990 casings did not go all the way down the borehole and when rocks have water they get heavy and over time sinks and they were made of metal which rusts.  Now casings are built with plastic and go all the way to the bottom of the borehole.

Tomorrow we are choosing the 2 best science student in the village school to shadow Jafari as he does all these tests so that they can learn and teach the other kids at the school.  The kids are going to know the history of water in their village.

To much science?  Ok.  I’ll tell you another story.

In Tanzania peple for some reason always serve Nescafe instant coffee. Tanzania is one of the best producers of coffee in the world, even grown in some of the villages near Iyoli.  I have been trying to explain to everyone that nescafe is TERRIBLE so today I went to the market and bought coffee beans and then asked if Katherine and Aisha, the girls at the hotel, if they would roast and grind them for me.  They did and at this moment I am chewing this lovely coffee because I did not know how to ask for a strainer and I do not want to insult them by not drinking it.