Appropriate Tech.

As I write this post I'm sitting in Solwezi (my provincial capital) and trying to unwind after a third straight day of training.  The training is focused on appropriate technology, which is an area of my work here in Peace Corps that I'm really starting to enjoy.

Appropriate technology (AT for short) is a program we have here in Zambia that promotes the idea of finding village solutions to some of problems that arise in the rural settings that we volunteers work in.  For instance, how to preserve and store food better, how to cook with less fuel (cooking fuel is a leading cause of deforestation), and even how to shell maize and peanuts more efficiently.

I love AT if for no other reason than we get to design, create, and test out a lot of cool machines - some fail, some are tinkered with further, and in the end some work well enough that they'll be used in a village setting sometime soon.

Working with two counterparts to design and test an irrigation system for tomato plants.

I'm one of 5 volunteers at this workshop and each of us brought a counterpart from our village to attend and learn side by side with us.  I brought my good friend Mr. Nshimbi.

At the workshop it isn't so much about sitting in a classroom and listening to someone yap on about this and that, but rather it is very much hands on and lots of sweating.  It's a great event and to make this even better we're paired into "design teams" for different "design challenges."  My design team consists of myself, one other volunteer, and two Zambians.

Mr. Nshimbi building a peanut sheller from common timber.  Peanuts are one of the more labor-intensive crops grown in Zambia and any means of separating them from their shells in a speedier fashion is great.

My team has been tasked with designing a stove that uses less charcoal than the traditional means, a solar drier for fruit and vegetable drying, and a way to irrigate a garden more efficiently during dry season.

This last one is my favorite - it's something I'm very interested and so far we've been really successful with our designs.  Today, we designed a system that uses a 20 liter bucket, two bicycle tire inner tubes, and some lollipop sticks.  It worked perfectly on the first try.  I felt even better when one of the counterparts said that he was going to build one as soon as he returns to his village.  He was so surprised at how simple and inexpensive the design was.  I completely agree and will be taking this design back to my village as well.

Making a frame for a solar drier to help in food preservation.

I've come to realize that appropriate technology is fun technology, useful technology, and also interesting technology - who knows... maybe I'll bring some of these ideas back to the USA at the end of my two years.