More about Boa Bakundu and our project

I will now go into greater detail regarding preparation for the Boa Bakundu project and the scope of our work this summer. Mark Ewalt, Brian Baker, and I were enrolled in EGR 330 – Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology. EGR 330 is a course that helps prepare students for ETHOS immersions. The class focuses on topics such as travel safety, vaccinations, cultural awareness, and researching appropriate technologies (among other topics). Students must complete a full technical report upon return from their placement to receive a grade for the class. I am glad UD offers this class with the ETHOS program. The advisors reminded me about upcoming requirements for things like vaccinations or visa applications. We also used this time to fundraise for our trip. In total, we managed to exceed our goal of $20,000 through grants, family, friends, and corporate contributions. I want to say thank you to all of the people who donated so that we can make a difference in the lives of the villagers of Boa Bakundu. This money will fund our travel expenses and purchase construction materials. EGR 330 also taught us how to get the most of immersion experience. The motto on the back of our ETHOS t-shirts sums it up best: “Change the world, let the world change you.”

We wouldn’t be able to start our journey without one of our advisors, Dr. Julius Amin. He provided additional assistance and coordination for our trip. Dr. Amin lived in Cameroon before moving to the United States. Dr. Amin’s contacts in country were invaluable to us. Moreover, Dr. Amin will lead an immersion group on a tour of Cameroon during the same time period. The village we will be living and working in is Boa Bakundu in the Meme Division of the Southwest Province of Cameroon. We will travel to the nearby city of Kumba as necessary. ETHOS has travelled to Kumba the last few years and has established great contacts within the city. Some of these connections include a hardware store, plumbers, and many friends willing to provide assistance.

In addition to performing research and talking with advisors at UD, we have been in contact with Mr. Feh Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin is a Rural Engineer for Community Development in Kumba. ETHOS has worked with Mr. Benjamin on projects in the past, including last summer’s water project in Barombi. Mr. Benjamin helped us narrow down the choices for this year’s project. He proposed we choose to work in one of three villages. Ultimately, we chose the village of Boa Bakundu. It is a village of approximately 4500 people located 15 km from Kumba. The village is separated into 8 quarters, each with its own quarter head. The village is headed by a chief who is elected democratically. Currently, the village gets its water from nearby streams and a spring that is polluted.

The village has split their project into 4 phases. Boa Bakundu has already created a catchment, or dam, to collect water from a spring in the jungle which is phase 1. They have also raised funds to assist in buying materials for construction. Phase 2 is construction of a large tank in the first quarter of the village and running a pipeline from the catchment to the tank. We have been in contact with Mr. Benjamin and we are hopeful that the tank will be complete by the time we arrive. Our primary goal for the summer is to place approximately 1.2 km of pipe from the catchment to the tank. Phase 3 is running pipeline to the second quarter of the village. Finally, phase 4 connects the rest of the village to the water supply. The villagers have established a water committee, which is essential to continue with other phases of the project and maintain the system once it is in place. Mr. Wakouwa David is chairman of the local water committee. Villagers have pledged to assist in all phases of construction.

Our first goal upon arrival in the village will be a thorough assessment of current conditions. This will most likely include a tour of the village itself, visiting the spring location, talking with the water committee, and a complete survey of the proposed pipeline route. After completing our study, we will be able to design the system. The pipeline will be a will be a gravity flow system, meaning that gravity is the only source of energy provided to move the water through the piping system. Gravity flow systems eliminate the need for pumps that would require a power source. Mechanical pumps would greatly increase maintenance costs for the pipeline. After design, we will have to travel to Kumba to order the necessary pipe, valves, tools, and any other supplies. Acquiring materials can be a hassle in a country such as Cameroon. Concrete is especially scarce (and not nearly the same quality as in the United States).

While waiting on materials to arrive, we will most likely begin excavation along the route. After placing pipes, we will need to leak test the system to ensure that no contamination will occur as the water travels through the pipeline. After testing, we should be able to turn on the tap and fill the tank in the village. It sounds pretty simple now. I just hope it ends up being that simple in real life. :)

We would have liked to implement filtering like the ETHOS Cameroon group did last year. However, we have a group of engineers that is half the size and Boa Bakundu is over 10 times larger than Barombi. Perhaps for next year, a group could return to Boa Bakundu to implement either a large central filter or smaller individual filters for each home. I feel the project will be a great success if we can get the pipeline to the tank and provide the village with an adequate source of clean water.

My personal goal is to use this experience to learn more about myself and another culture. I hope this will be a life changing summer. Stay tuned to the blog for more information. The next time you hear from me, I should be in Cameroon. :-P

The last year

Now that I've updated you through last summer, I'll focus on what I've done the last year. Last summer I took a required summer surveying class. The class should be beneficial to me when I'm surveying in Cameroon this summer. After completing my surveying class, I continued to live on campus and worked for Ulliman Schutte Construction in their Miamisburg office. My primary tasks in the office were to estimate architectural aspects of jobs, scan/copy bid documents, and assist other engineers obtain quotations from vendors/subcontractors. Although I didn't like office life as much as being on the jobsite, I worked with fun, intelligent people and tried to learn as much about the bidding process as possible.

In the fall semester, I moved into my second UD house at 218 Lowes Street. I was living with 3 new roommates in a much smaller house but it was just as much fun as the previous year. I was taking another full load of 18 credits in the fall. At this point, I was getting into the meat of civil engineering classes. The classes were tough but it was exciting to see how civil engineers go about designing various systems that we use everyday. After taking these classes, I can't help but be amazed when I walk into a complex building or drive along one of the interstates. It boggles my mind to think about the impact engineers have on our daily lives that we take for granted. We just assume our cell phone will receive calls, our car won't break down, and that buildings will remain standing. I think thats partially why I chose engineering in the first place. I wanted to better understand how the world around me worked.

It was in the fall semester that I first began to seriously look at the ETHOS program at UD. My roommate John had lived and worked in Peru the previous summer. He helped a local school that was interested in advancing its computer technology. Another influence for me to look at ETHOS was 6 fellow civil engineers who had traveled to Cameroon last summer and worked on a water project. You can read about their trip in UD's Quarterly magazine. To summarize, the ETHOS program at UD was started when students decided they wanted to use their technical knowledge to serve others. Since its founding, ETHOS has sent engineering and science students all over the world. These students immerse themselves in the local culture while improving the lives of those around them. After hearing about my friends' rewarding experiences with ETHOS, I applied, interviewed, and was accepted into the program in the fall semester. I was told I would be working with friends and fellow engineers Mark Ewalt and Brian Baker in Cameroon on a water project.

In addition to ETHOS, I was involved in a lot of other interesting activities during my 4th year at UD. In January, I had the opportunity to travel to Denver, CO for a youth leadership conference for the American Society of Civil Engineers. I had been recently elected vice president of our student chapter for the 2009 calendar year. I also travelled with ASCE down to the regional student competition in Bowling Green, KY. We participated in all events again this year, including concrete canoe and steel bridge.

In case you didn't know, I'm also a huge Dayton Flyers fan. I especially love going to volleyball and men's/women's basketball games. Without a doubt, Flyer fans are some of the most loyal and best travelling in the country. I had high hopes for the men's basketball team this past year and they did not disappoint. My former cross-hall neighbor Chris Wright and his boys ended up making the NCAA tournament. Due to my consistent support of the team throughout the season, I had the chance to get tickets to the first and second round games in Minneapolis, MN. I knew I had to go. So 4 friends and I piled into a Chevy Malibu and made the 12 hour drive through the night to Minneapolis. I could probably write a few entries about that weekend alone. It was definitely a classic road trip. We got to Minneapolis (which was a pretty neat area if you ever get the chance to go) and watched our Flyers pull the "upset" over WVU on Friday. It was amazing to be there to witness the first NCAA tourney win by the Flyers in nearly 2 decades. We hung around on Saturday and went to the Mall of America and a local casino where I proceeded to win $50 in video poker. Sunday's game against Kansas didn't turn out the way we had planned, but nonetheless it was still an amazing adventure.

In addition to my "normal" classes in the spring semester, I was also enrolled in CEE 450: Senior Design. This class is a comprehensive design exercise that requires students to use knowledge gained throughout their studies to design a "real world" project. I decided to be a project manager for our senior design class. The other project manager and myself would be responsible for monitoring 34 fellow civil engineers, a few visual arts students, and some mechanical engineers during design of a vast church campus located in West Dayton. This was by far the most time intensive and challenging course I've ever taken. We began working on the project in October and finished up in mid April. I put in hundreds of hours as did many of my fellow classmates. It was an eyeopening semester. The key to good project management is learning about the members of your project team. I really believe that the class will help me in the future. As a class, we became a very close knit group and even hung out on the weekends. I've included a snapshots of the work the visual arts students put into the project showing the buildings and site work that we designed.

After CEE 450 was finally done, it was time to study for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. In order to become a licensed Professional Engineer, an person must meet certain experience and academic criteria. One of those criteria is to pass the FE exam which shows a basic level of engineer knowledge. I was very worried I wouldn't do well on the test, but it turned out UD had prepared me well. I haven't gotten the results back, but I believe I did well enough to pass.

After another finals week, it was time for graduation for many of my friends. It was tough saying goodbye to so many great people that have come into my life since enrolling at UD. Many of them said I was lucky to have the opportunity to come back to UD next year for my "victory lap." I couldn't agree more. After graduation, I headed to Daytona, FL for Dayton to Daytona. Dayton to Daytona is another unique aspect of UD. This year over 2000 UD students made the trip to Daytona, FL for our own little spring break trip. It was so much fun hanging out with many of my friends at the beach. I even got the chance to hang out with some people I hadn't been with since freshman year. It gave me the chance for extended goodbyes to some of my best friends. (free beer everyday wasn't too bad either) Everyday was about 90 degrees and sunny. It was tough to land back in Pittsburgh with 40 degree temps. After touchdown, I would have 2 weeks to finish preparation for Cameroon.

Tomorrow's post will go in depth about our project and the steps we've taken to prepare for our trip.