Trying to put more into the hands of the students and local staff, we had a meeting–most of the Wodaabe came, but only a couple of Tuareg.  The Wodaabe who came were asking for a per diem, which we had given the first two trainings.  It always went against the grain for me because we are paying them to get training; wouldn’t our college students love that!  But it is a standard practice developed by NGO’s for a long time.  It is a way of enticing them when many do not see any value to learning new skills.  So we explained to them that the training period is over and now they have to prove to us that they are competent enough to be paid for quality work.  I know this will be a slow process and the early panels will likely still be ugly–but the foundation needs some working panels so we will accept the ugly ones as long as they work and  hope they figure out ways to make them prettier.

The really bright side is “Arnold”  (His real name is Moussa, but no one calls him that.)  He is the most consistent Tuareg who has been at all three trainings and is very bright.  I never gave him a lot of credit before because he looks like a punk.  Always has earbuds in his ears and could be straight out of east LA–except his pants fit too well

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But does he ever solve problems.  First was the pump at the garden which we had sent another one of the students out to find out what was wrong.  The guy came back and said he could not figure it out.  So Arnold gave it a try and the pump is working better than it ever has.

Then I gave him some little solar lights whose switch was not working–he repaired that.  Then he came and said that the method of cutting the cells was not precise enough with one of the diamond cutting discs (which are made for a dremel motor tool–but he did not know that) which we were using by hand.   So he wired one up to a cell phone plug in thing–I can’t figure out how he did it, but it spins and cuts very precisely.  I was impressed.

Then we asked if he could figure out how to charge our fixed phone at the office.  We have a land line (that isn’t actually a land line but a portable phone that needs to be plugged in only to charge the battery.) The secretary who we let go decided not to give us back the charging cable–she had taken it to her house and was mad at us for letting her go for embezzling so she kept it. We went to the telephone company and asked for a new one.  They did not know what to do since each phone has its own plug in charger.  So we tried for 5 months to get a cable for the phone from the phone company—all the while paying $10 a month for the service without being able to call.  They said we could buy a whole new phone, but not a cable, or maybe a cable but it had to come from Niamey–any way nothing happened.  The day we asked Arnold he went to a local boutique and found the necessary charger.  So now he is off to the center to make sure the electric system there is working properly before the doctors arrive.

I know this  is probably pretty boring.  Soon I will actually have some photos and some progress.  I just have to report frustrations so you know how difficult it is to take the tiniest steps forward.

We will go out to the garden to have a picnic and see our onion and moringa harvest tomorrow.  I can hardly wait.

I have gone silent since my departure from the US 10 days ago.  This is the lengthy process of getting here.  Three days from LA to Niamey.  Preparing things in Niamey and then in Agadez.  Authorizations need to be gotten to go into the bush.  The local staff needs briefing about the mission and I have arrived with enough solar material to start larger scale fabrication of panels.  The solar students have been called to come today so I will be going to the office for the first meeting and the turning over the management of the manufacture to them.  We will of course provide oversight.

The logistics of getting the volunteers, Bob Skankey and his wife Louine and Linda Lamb from Niamey to Agadez always proves challenging–about  40 emails and phone calls have flown back and forth to accomplish this.  The simplest of tasks here takes on grand implications.  For instance we have been authorized to take a special UN humanitarian flight from Niamey to Agadez, but just learned that they more than doubled their prices.  This is a jolt, but ok since we really don’t want the UN flight program to shut down which would prevent us from going at all since we are not authorized to drive without an escort–this would involve two extra vehicles plus 20 armed men in addition to our own–at a totally prohibitive cost not to mention the 14 hours of horrendous roads.  But with the new austerity of the UN flight they are refusing to accept overweight.  We are allowed 15 kilos and must pay $2 per kilo overweight.  So I paid $120 and decided since there will be twice as many bags of medicines arriving with Dr. Skankey, his wife Louine and Linda Lamb, we needed to find another solution.  So we will have the driver who picks them up take them to the bus.  So the bus decides not to take unaccompanied baggage until our secretary calls a friend and calls in a favor, but we have to be sure our customs list and exoneration papers are well visible so they will not be confiscated by customs en route.  This is after they have been cleared at the airport–not sure why internal transport is a problem except that being a customs agent is a poorly paid salary, but a very lucrative job based on “negotiations”

So then we have to get the volunteers from the airport, but there is no one taxi that can take all three plus 6-8 bags so we have to get two taxis, but no taxi’s know Sue Rosenfelds house where they are staying.  So you may ask why don’t you just give the address or gps –yeah dream on.  My address in Agadez is a post office box.  NO ADDRESSES HERE!  So we have to find a friend that can do it who has a big car and will be in town.  Eureka we found one.  So keep your fingers crossed everything goes as planned which is highly unlikely.

Saide plastering over the electrical wire.

Four of the solar students showed up at the center–we are really in the middle of nowhere–and installed the electric system. They worked for four days according to Rich’s plan and got it done. We now have lights, plugs, and ICE!

Because our materials did not get through customs in time, they did not have their teacher with them to do the installation as planned, but he trained them well and drew a diagram of the system.  They figured it out–it is probably a better learning process than being able to fall back on the expert anyway.  I am so proud of them.  Dr. Rich Komp I hope you read this and are proud too!

Kitchen light

Nomad Energie Solaire sign

Before we left Agadez our final step was to hang the NOMAD ENERGIE SOLAIRE sign in the office.

The students got their diplomas today.  First we chose the best panel and awarded Djabo the solar T shirt for doing the best job.

Djabo is awarded a T shirt for the best panel

proud of their work

Each student received a certificate

Diplomas

Today was the final day of the program. It actually worked out OK that the materials to make the large panels never arrived–they are still in customs limbo–but we got our NIF–so maybe someday they will be liberated.
Because the students weren’t focused solely on making panels they learned a lot of other things. Like making the solar ovens–for cooking and for making our fabrication process cheaper. They learned how to make the racks with aluminum we had purchased for panels, but now we are using wood.

The students loved the logo with the camel and sun behind, but the Wodaabe would have preferred a cow.

We painted the Nomad energy logo on the solar oven.

Learning to install an electric system

Since Dr. Komp will not be here for the installation of the solar pump and electricity at the education center, the students will be on their own.  They will likely learn better if they have to depend only on themselves.  We will see.

Our biggest challenge to date, besides customs of course,  has not been teaching the concepts of solar energy, but instilling the idea of straight, square or precise.  I decided to try to clean up one of the panels and make it prettier so they could see the difference.   So they set to sanding, filling gaps and painting.  Here are the results…

Some of the students trying to clean up and beautify the panels

Painting panels

It was not easy to get them to hold the brush correctly and drag it along.  Their inclination was to push it against the bristles.  I have noticed that this is also the way they sweep with brooms.

Prettier panels