Malawi Oct. 7 – Nov 11 – Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics

Malawi: Oct. 7 – Nov. 11

Please see my full year trip log Sept. 2022 – Sept. 2023

Malawi, starting Oct. 7, 2022 I’m planning to have a 3-4 day bus ride to Dar e Salaam; meet RVB; then Malawi. RVB’s description of what he plans for me: Our 300pcs of eWant cookers finally cleared customs, and I hope to have 100 or so electricity meters in Malawi by the time you arrive. I am hoping that you can supervise/oversee the following activities when you are there: (1) demonstrating cookers, (2) calibrating how much food of different types can be cooked with different amounts of energy, (3) measuring the equivalent amount of wood or charcoal used to cook the same amount of food using traditional methods (4) helping me set up an incentive system for people using the different types of solar electric cookers based on the amount of wood and charcoal they save.

This should set us up for a carbon-credit-like incentive scheme for the adoption of ISECs and other off-grid solar electric cookers.

I actually would like you to do something similar for solar pumps and solar vehicles too.

We hopefully will start delivering the solar vehicles to the villages about three weeks into your stay.

We have a house for you out in Mpita village in Machinga District, technicians available to help you in your work, and hundreds of users/customers who should be using the cookers and pumps by the time you arrive. Top, left, is a map of Malawi and surrounding countries. Follow the arrows right to Mpita (where I will spend considerable time), and the arrows downward to Blantyre (the city where the business is centered). In Kampala, I realized that there was nothing for me to do in shepherding the 20 ISECs to Dar es Salaam…. I didn’t need to be on that 36+ hour bus ride…. I bough a plane ticket… At 8:30 PM Oct 6, I boarded a plane for Nairobi, connecting to a flight to Dar es Salaam.

Friday, Oct. 7, 2022 I come in at ~ 1:00 AM and wait for about 2 hours because of crossed communications, but get a ride with a German couple to the Grand Villa Hotel, where I stay the night. Then I take a bajaji or Tuk Tuk (a motorized covered tricycle) to The Slow Leopard about 5 km NE of Dar es Salaam. They pack about 10 beds to a room and charge ~ $10 a night – including free breakfast, that would cost more than $10 in the states. The atmosphere is bohemian, and there’s a super diverse crowd of local people and travelers. In the afternoon, I walk across the peninsula to see the Indian Ocean and walk south to Coco Beach… there’s waves!

Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022 I met Henry (Slow Leopard owner) before 6:00 AM to surf. The waves were small, so he didn’t go in, but I was just happy to get wet… and actually had fun. With concerted dedication, I was able to enjoy my two-day holiday.

Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022 The beach was an absolute celebration of family joy. I felt so welcomed… and only after sometime, noticed I was the only white person there. Sunday evening, I met with RVB as well as Sangoyan and (his nephew) Kelvin, two Maasai working with ICSEE-TZ, dedicated to Maasai stoves and solar. Sangoyan and I will be working on solar stoves. We leave at 4:30 Monday morning for a 16-hour bus ride to the Malawi boarder.

Monday, Oct. 10, 2022 Monday morning my holiday in Dar ended… in the extreme. In the next two and a half days, we slept about 5 hours, spent 22 hours on a bus, and changed our clothes zero times. The 18-hour bus ride from Dar passed by a park and I saw my first wild giraffes, zebras, gazelles, and baboons. The trip left us on a small road near the Malawian boarder. Immediately, about 10 motorcycles showed up to take us and the 300 kg of ISEC to our next stop. Eventually, we were able to take a minivan to a place where we found only two rooms with rather small beds (full?) for the 4 of us. We managed.

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2022 We wake up at the boarder in Tanzania, cross the boarder and spend most of the day waiting to take the afternoon bus to Lilongwe. At 9:00 PM, the folks from the village on Lake Malawi come to the road to sell to the bus. I bought three fish for $0.40. Kelvin and I agreed they were pretty bad tasting. Wednesday morning, we arrive in Lilongwe. I saw her three times… on the bus in Tanzania, crossing the boarder, where she hugged my legs, so I picked her up, and then at 1:45 AM in Mzuzu, when her mother came over to say hi.

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022 I hate the ASEI ISECs a little more each time we have to move them, put them in another bus, clear them through customs, or pay extra money to porters because they are too heavy. This was a great learning experience because we realize the need to make products lighter and nested… that is, they can fit inside each other. The ISECs arrived pretty beaten up. In M’bangombe, From left, we march across a soccer field… note how dry things are, we insert the water pump into the local stream, producing a strong flow of water on the crops, and a woman poses with the water pump box. Note how green the crops are in comparison to the background of dry, unirrigated land.

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 I was responsible for the cooking demo today as we returned to M’bangombe and set up the solar kitchen: two ISECs from Uganda, and two EPC (Electric Pressure Cookers) from China. Sangoyan, Kelvin, Daniel, and I combed the market to get all the food while Rachel, Christina and RVB purchased solar panels. We arrived in M’bangombe in early afternoon and quickly assembled the solar power system in front of the women’s shop, continuously instructing the kids to back away so their shadows didn’t fall on the solar panels. As the shadows grew, the panels moved further into the road, but most of the food was cooked, so we installed the solar panels one cooker system at a time onto the roof. From left, we set the solar panels in front of the women’s shop, Rachel and the kids, the village chief stops by and insists on having his picture taken eating our solar cooked feast because “people say that electricity cooked food doesn’t taste good.”… but this tasted great! We are making use of a $10 power meter (PZEM-031) that also integrates power over any amount of time to read total energy used. This is important, because it allows us to monitor the use of the cookers, water pumps, and everything else. RVB is actually paying people to use electricity – they can buy more subsidized solar panels if they use the solar cookers… This may be the best way to get people to try new domestic processes… changing lifestyles. We are also using a $20 MPPT controller that optimizes the power from the solar panel to match the resistance of the load (cooker or water pump)

Friday, Oct. 14, 2022 We came into Mganja, the home town of Rachel and Christina, taking turns riding in the back of the truck. In the village, a small group of women lying by the roadside motioned to us to park across the street. As I unpack, they start singing… I mean not like “happy birthday”… it was incredible. Rachel interrupted them, which made more sense to me when I realized the one she was talking to was her mother. They represented the women’s solar collective. Anyway, you really have to hear this welcome song to appreciate it. Rachel translated for us, “You are welcome here, you can stay here, you will be safe here.” Afterwards, we went into town for dinner, where they use charcoal for cooking (see above, right). I’m not sure how literally they meant that we should stay in the village, but we decided to spend the night… I shared a bed with Sangoyan. And Richard, our driver slept in the next room. .

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2022 Sleeping in Mganja afforded us an early start to install the solar kitchen in the women’s shop. We set up a solar panel to power a DC charger for my computer, which charged all of our accessories… sadly, the first and only time the system worked. As Sangoyan started the cooking, the women’s collected busted out a happy song celebrating solar electric cooking, joined by the two young men who helped install panels in the roof. Things went so well that (after we had a chicken killed) we decided to leave before lunch so we could make Mpita before dark and get settled.

Sunday, Oct. 15, 2022 Between the heat, dust, language barrier, traveling, attention to have enough drinkable water and electrical charge on our batteries….and physical labor, I’m exhausted here in a way that I struggle to remember. Sangoyan tells me, “you’re tired, Pete”… I deny it. And then lay down in bed around 9:00 PM and as soon as I close my eyes, it’s morning, and we start again. Today was excruciatingly hot. We stopped working after lunch. Tomorrow, we’re going to work earlier, before the sun. We took down the 36 V, 300 W solar panel on our building and replaced it with two 18 V, 135 W solar panels… because 18 V power systems are more common, but we can use the 36 V panel on the Mpita women’s collective for the EPC.

Monday, Oct. 17, 2022 Noel, Sangoyan and I left this morning for the women’s shop at about 5:30 AM to get the heavy work done before the sun’s heat… while Rachel and Christina made breakfast. By 7:00 AM, we were done installing the 36V, 570 W power system, and we started cooking 1 kg of beans in the EPC and 1 kg of dried corn in the ISEC from ASEI…. had most or the day’s work done before 7:30 AM. Malawi is so resource limited that rarely does something go to waste. Sangoyan pointed out the roofing provided by our solar panel boxes (above middle). Notice in the background, there’s nothing going on at the market. It’s a holiday. Oct. 15 is Mother’s Day in Malwai. However, when it falls on a weekend, they celebrate it on Monday. Coming home, we met Christina fetching water. I carried two solar panels on my head with the women from the collective… but it was difficult. I could not carry 20 liters of water (20 kg – 44 lbs) on my head… or at least, I’m not willing to try. In California, I’m pretty sparse with my water use. In Uganda, I wasted water with the rest of the community… as it’s plentiful. Here, I keep things pretty dry, out of respect for the considerable effort by Rachel and Christina. Of the 70 + women’s groups in Machinga, they’ve sold a total of 53 solar irrigation systems… 10 before lunch today, expecting 13 more later. They sell at a subsidized cost of 100,000 Kwacha, or about $80. The true cost is well over twice that. The systems pay for themselves in a single growing season (4months). The cooking of dried corn and beans is part of our experiment: to compare the energy inputs and environmental impact of solar electric cooking to traditional combustion methods. We started cooking at 7:18 AM and finished the cooking at 10:40 AM. The corn in the ISEC consumed 659 Wh, and the beans in the EPC consumed 734 Wh. Some details to consider: 1) There wasn’t much power at 7:18. The EPC started at 83 W and the ISEC at 150 W. At 9:32 AM, the powers were 345 W and 200 W, respectively; and 353 W and 200 W at 10:40. 2) the EPC periodically turns off when it reaches its high pressure cooking temperature. 3) To the 1 kg of beans and corn, we added 2 kg of water, and then half way through the cooking process, we added one cup of water (~ 1/4 kg) to each because they were a little dry. For reference, the amount of energy needed to bring 1 kg of water from 20 C to 100 C is about 92 Wh, so bringing 3.25 kg of water to a boil from room temperature is about 300 Wh, indicating a practical heating efficiency for our two pressure cookers is about 40%. We calculate the amount of fuel used to cook the same amount of food in order to assess the benefit of solar electric cooking toward reductions in deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. We engaged our neighbor Emmanuel, a primary school teacher to do this part. He cooks with charcoal, so we gave him 1.4 kg of charcoal, 1 kg of dried beans, and 1 kg of dried corn. In the picture below, Noel, Emmanuel, and Emmanuel’s daughter unload his family’s charcoal purchase for the week… not the 1.4 kg amount we gave him. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the burning of charcoal can be as much as 9 kg of CO2 (equivalent) per kg of charcoal burned, most of which comes from the upstream production of the charcoal… although other publications list values that are considerably lower: ~1.5 kg CO2 per kg of charcoal produced, plus the 44/12 kg of direct emissions, or about 5 kg of CO2/kg of charcoal consumed. Leaving a more detailed analysis for another day, we can assign an averaged value of 7 kg of CO2(e) per kg of charcoal. I bought 1.4 kg of charcoal for 300 Kw. Emmanuel used 1.06 kg of charcoal cooking 1 kg beans last night. He will cook the corn today. The 0.34 kg of charcoal he has left probably isn’t enough for the corn, so we added some of his mother lode of charcoal to what he had left. He will start with 1.385 kg today. He finished with 0.525 kg, using 0.86 kg of charcoal to cook the 1 kg of corn. A reasonable estimate is that Emmanuel’s cooking of the beans resulted in 7.4 kg of CO2(e), which would be offset by the 734 Wh of solar electricity had he instead used our EPC. So, our first estimate is 1 kg of CO2(e) abatement per 100 Wh of solar electrical cooking investment…. for charcoal. Or about 1.35 kg of charcoal abated / kW(solar electricity). There are some (small) embodied emissions I’ve neglected in the solar panels, EPC, and Emmanuel’s traditional improved cookstove as well as transportation and installation-related emissions.

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 We started the morning with a staff meeting. Today, Rachel and Christina will collect user data on all the women’s groups who purchase solar water pumps for their farms, Noel will install another solar lighting system, and Sangoyan and I will cook… and get other people to cook. After the staff meeting, Sangoyan and I moved all the solar panels and other materials to the far end of the women’s shop. Then I cleaned where we will be cooking. A woman saw me sweeping and brought me this long handled thing with a fuzzy plant thing on the end. I guess she could see what I was trying to do and I cleaned the walls of dirt and spider webs. Then I swept the floor and we now have an uncluttered working area. The plan for Sangoyan and me is to get as many people as possible to cook with charcoal so we can see how much charcoal is used with traditional cooking… I first verified that people only cook with charcoal. All sources said “yes”. Sangoyan and I purchased 30 kg of charcoal in 3 kg bundles, and 10 kg of beans and corn mean (for nsima) in 1 kg bags. We were planning on getting 10 families to cook while we measured their charcoal use… So, imagine convincing a group of women (who can’t speak English… Sangoyan doesn’t speak Malawian) to cook their families beans and nsima (that we are glad to give to them), while I take pictures and weigh the charcoal that we provide…. what could go wrong? Many moments of confusion and riotous laughter. From left, Sangoyan masses one of the 20 bags of charcoal we purchased (~ 1.5 kg per bag, we gave each woman 2 bags), Lucia starts her charcoal with melting plastic bag material, Veriasima washes her beans, Lucia stirs the nsima while the beans (with added tomatoes and onions) boil to the right. Lucia used 1.205 kg of charcoal, and Veriasima used 1.505 kg. They used less than half of what we left them, but it’s important they know that they can keep any left over charcoal so they use it as they would their own charcoal. All the while, we are repeating the cooking in the kitchen… except, after beans and corn for lunch and dinner yesterday… we decided to eat chicken, potatoes and beef… chicken to satisfy my environmental concerns, and beef because the Maasai (pastural herdsmen) do not eat chicken or fish.

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022 For the next round of experimental refinement: 1) We need to weigh the cooked food. Yesterday was really difficult, so we need to design something to weigh the cooked food. 2) We need to cook corn rather than nsima because even though nsima is what folks eat here, we need data for cookstoves in Tanzania where people mostly eat corn. Making nsima amounts to stirring corm meal into boiling hot water. It is a very fast process. Hence, cooking dried corn requires considerably more stove fuel than nsima does. 3) We need to use firewood rather than charcoal. While the three people we worked with the last two days are charcoal burners, most people in this region (and in Tanzania) burn firewood… which doesn’t burn as well as, but is cheaper than charcoal. 4) It is not enough to know the total fuel used. We need to measure the amount of firewood used separately for the corn and for the beans. HENCE, we (below, from left):

Started with a meeting to get organized. Unfortunately, by 8:00 AM, when we got to the shop, there were already three women there ready to cook…. so we had to fly the plane while we built it.
We bought dried corn,
had it shelled in the facility (for 200 Kwacha ~ $0.20)
We bought ~ 20 kg of firewood (2600 Kw ~ $2.60), and assembled it into bundle
We built a wire cage to hold the pots so that we could weigh the pots before and after (full of hot food)… and the pieces of burning wood left over.
We gave each of three mamas: a 1 kg bag of beans, a 1 kg bag of corn, two bundles of firewood – one for each of the dishes, and we weighed the empty pots.

We returned to the women’s shop to find a solar powered irrigation system taking off for delivery. We had lunch and went back to visit each mama to record the masses of the finished food and leftover firewood. Vaishi’s (above left) 1 kg of dried beans produced 2.985 kg of cooked beans, using 4.295 kg of firewood in a, indoor mudded cookstove. Her 1 kg of dried corn produced 2.51 kg of cooked corn, using 3.045 kg of firewood in an indoor mudded cookstove. Eniferansa’s (Above middle) 1 kg of dried beans produced 3.205 kg of cooked beans, using 7.775 kg of firewood in an outdoor 3SF. Her 1 kg of dried corn produced 2.87 kg of cooked corn, using 3.475 kg of firewood in an indoor 3SF. Asetukum’s (above right) 1 kg of dried beans produced 3.375 kg of cooked beans, using 4.70 kg of firewood on an indoor 3SF. Her 1 kg of dried corn produced 3.19 kg of cooked corn, using 3.425 kg of firewood on an indoor 3SF. We finish the day cooking dinner for Rachel and Christina because they will likely be in the fields collecting data on the solar water pumps until after dark. Yesterday, we bought a large chicken and 1 kg of goat meat. We cooked half of it yesterday for dinner, and heated the other half at night and then again in the morning to prevent if from rotting, and we are cooking them now again for dinner: onions and cabbage, with chicken (EPC) and goat (ISEC). We had it all in the EPC last night, but the chicken taste didn’t settle well with Sangoyan.

Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022 The food makande has regional meaning. Rachel (from Malawi) says it is cooked dried corn (after the hull has been round off), while Sangoya (Tanzanian Maasai) says it is corns and beans. Today we planned to have three mamas cooking mixed corn and beans on wood. But this morning, Rachel told us she had four mamas lined up, and the wife of the land owner of the women’s shop also said she’d cook today. Rachel added that they were already waiting at the shop (at 6:30 AM). We went to meet them and saw there were actually 7 mamas waiting to get fuel, corn, and beans. They all live about a half hour away. This was overwhelming. We spoke with the landlord, who agreed to allow them to cook behind the shop. We said we could have 4 mamas today and 4 more tomorrow. They said they’d pair up, so we have 5 mamas cooking behind the shop, including the landlord. We bought 48 kg of firewood for 3000 MWK (~$3), and carried it back. We gave each mama 1.00 kg of beans mixed with 1.00 kg of dried, shelled corn, and about 8 kg of firewood (massed and recorded to 10 g precision). After an hour, we visited each woman’s station… as they busted out happy singing… With their 1 kg of dried beans and 1 kg of dried, shelled corn each mama made: Farida 6.01 kg of makade using 8.42 kg of firewood, on an outdoor 3SF Losebi 5.99 kg of makade using 8.05 kg of firewood, on an outdoor 3SF Esnot 6.32 kg of makade using 8.04 kg of firewood, on an outdoor 3SF Grace 6.43 kg of makade using 7.73 kg of firewood, on an outdoor 3SF Joyce 5.82 kg of makade using 6.62 kg of firewood, on an outdoor 3SF Shortly after noon, the mamas’ makande was getting done, and they sent an emissary to ask about salt, oil, tomatoes. We responded that they could do this if they wanted, but we are providing only the beans, corn, and firewood. They responded that they had no money to buy any of these things. This was complicated by the fact that they were not home. Where would this end? Tomorrow would there be a need for goat meat? But we could afford it… in the end, we were here to see how much energy was used in cooking makande… it was complicated enough. We decided to leave it at that. At 1:00 PM, the four mamas stopped by the women’s shop to express gratitude; and then marched off on the half hour return to their community, pots of makande balanced on their heads. Simultaneously, back in the women’s shop, Sangoyan and I cooked 1/2 kg of dried beans with 1/2 kg of dried, shelled corn in the pressure cooker with 2.25 kg of water, while we sautéd onions and vegetables in the ASEI ISEC. We’d cleaned and ordered the bench top and I washed one side (a little), and we had a kitchen, with a wooden cutting surface… heaven. When the onions start smelling good, a bunch of young women appear, babies in tow, to investigate; and are taken up with seeing Sangoyan’s pictures. He leaves for a moment to check out the firewood supply for our 5 cooking mamas, and one of them grabs his cell phone so they could continue looking at his pictures and videos. The started cooking at 9:27 at 160 W, which increased to well over 300 W as the sun climbed. At 10:43, we noticed the EPC boiling, and at 11:50, Sangoyan opened the EPC added ~ 0.25 kg of water and closed it up. At 1:00 PM, we realize the EPC turned off when Sangoyan opened it…. we need to remember that the EPC automatically turns off when the pressure is taken off. We turned it back on, and a 1:29, we pronounce the makande finished, having consumed 669 Whrs of solar electricity, corresponding the heat of combustion for about 0.15 kg of dried wood, using 16 MJ/kg for the energy density of our wood. Unfortunately, we didn’t think to measure the final mass of the cooked makande until after we’d eaten some… improvements for future experiments. At the same time, it’s a good bet the final mass is within 100 g of 3.0 kg. We will measure it next time. In the ISEC, we caramelized some onions then added a few chili peppers, and then added okra and then Chinese Lettuce (a big leafy green). After the veggies cooked down, Sangoyan cut up lots of tomatoes and we put them in the EPC to stew. After the makande was finished in the EPC, we moved the veggies into the EPC because Sangoyan said it worked better: the EPC was putting out 350 W rather than the 185 W of the ISEC, and .the outside of the ISEC was warmer than that of the EPC meaning the ISEC was losing more heat to the environment. I went out to look for potatoes, escorted by a little boy who would help me. We visited a few places and came up empty handed. I bought a half kg of rice, and we cooked it in the ISEC in 0.7 liters of water. Sangoyan reprimanded me for buying crappy rice. It was really dirty, so Sangoyan spent a lot of time washing it and pulling out things that weren’t rice…. AND it cooked to a mashed potato consistency. The total EPC energy use was 1093 Whrs, and the ISEC was 904 Whrs. Unfortunately, I failed to take the energy measurement on the ISEC when we moved the veggies into the EPC… I took two pictures of the EPC energy meter (And we didn’t take the mass of the food….more improvements for next time). However, the rice couldn’t have used more than 200 Wh, so caramelizing the onions / stewing the tomatoes consumed about 1100 Whrs. At about 4:00, the electricity went out… again, and we connected the inverter to the ISEC power source (via a diode chain to stabilize the 18 V of the solar panel to 12V. to charge our phones and power banks. In general, an enormous about of attention is allocated to keeping phones at an adequate charge level. 12 small (3 L) manual pressure cookers (MPC) arrived (below, right). The plan is that tomorrow, we will do a quick demonstration about how they work, and give them out to women to use, while we measure the energy use…. and if they like them they can buy them.

Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 We decided to run the MPC demo for 12 mamas today in the area by the front porch of our house. After I gave them the pressure cookers, before the started cooking, at 10;53 AM, there erupted my favorite Cooking Happy Song and Dance. See it here: https://youtu.be/xSo2wEPtnNY Lucia used 0.72 kg of charcoal to make 2.605 kg of makande Masi used 1.095 kg of charcoal to make 2.795 kg of makande Farida used 4.57 kg of firewood to make 2.36 kg of makande Maria used 1.755 kg of firewood to make 2.66 kg of makande Flores used 0.615 kg of charcoal to make 2.795 kg of makande Estarucias used 0.885 kg of charcoal to make 2.955 kg of makande Margarite Wiskesi used 4.26 kg of firewood to make 2.68 kg of beans Patuma Matenda used 0.925 kg of charcoal to make 2.87 kg of beans Janet Matenda used 0.905 kg of charcoal to make 2.88 kg of makande Margariti Talega used 1.7 kg of firewood to make 2.875 kg of makande Enfanjawanja used 0.735 kg of charcoal to make 3.025 kg of makande Samia Georgia used 3.125 kg of firewood to make 2.755 kg of makande However, it is difficult to draw from our data reliable measurements for MPC fuel use. After a half hour, it was apparent that no one know how to use a pressure cooker, although it had been explained before the use. We really needed a full, hour-long demonstration with discussion and questions. Such a demo was originally my plan… However, we made the mistake of giving out the MPCs after the explanation, and then I noticed ours was never put on a fire. Beans cook faster at higher temperatures. So, the cooking speed is limited by the boiling point of water: 100 Celsius at atmospheric pressure. At high altitudes (lower air pressure) the boiling point is lower than 100 C, and at higher pressures, the boiling point increases. A pressure cooker works by sealing the top of the cookpot, so as the water begins to boil, the pressure rises (to about two times atmospheric pressure) increasing the boiling point….increasing the temperature of the water to about 120 C…. allowing one to cook beans in a single hour rather than the customary 3-4 hours! However, if you continue heating the water to higher temperatures, the pressure will increase and possibly explode the MPC. Thus, you need to have a pressure control mechanism. In our MPC, there is a tube sticking up through the pot top with a weighted cap on it. Gravity holds the cap down, but at high enough pressures, the air can escape by pushing up the cap… audibly. In case this escape gets blocked, there is an emergency valve on the other side that will break open at higher pressures to prevent an explosion. So, in order to use a MPC, you need to reduce the heat once you can hear the vapor escaping. This is a great way to save energy! If you want to open the pot, you have to first take the pot off the heat and release the pressure by lifting the cap on the escape valve. If you try to open the pot under pressure, the water will spray out the sides of the pot’s lid. I write the above, because all that information must to be understood by any MPC recipient… which our users didn’t understand. A full demo is really necessary from beginning preparation to yielding the finished beans… Our 12 mamas used their MPCs just as they use regular pots. They didn’t put the top on, or didn’t clamp it down, or didn’t seal it. They kept a strong fire going, even after the boiling started. If the pot was sealed, the strong fire caused a very strong emission of stream through the pressure valve. One mama tried to remove the top of a pot under pressure without first releasing the pressure, spraying water all over the fire. The effort was additionally complicated by providing everyone with 1 kg of beans or beans/corn. This requires the addition of 2 liters of water… which is doable, but brings the water line up to the rim of the 3 L pot. People are used to having the food well below the lip of the pot in order to limit the loss of boiling food. Thus, everyone cooked their beans dry (with too little water), and needed to open the pot to add water. However, again they were reluctant to add water to the lip of the MPC. I was pretty careful to take notes on each user and take a picture of each user in the same order that I took her data…. and I took the pictures again in the same order a half hour later with the fire. So Sangoyan and I were surprised when the group directed me to a pile of charcoal to weigh for a documented firewood user. When I protested, I was directed to a different cooker that also used charcoal… I don’t know where the communication barrier happened, but I pulled out my computer and showed the picture of each woman by their stove, and we were able to finish the data collection. When we were taking the mass of the leftover charcoal from one stove, a different mama dumped the left over coals from the stove we were measuring into her stove, preventing an accurate fuel measurement for either mama. In summary, folks did eventually learn how to use an EPC (I think). However, neither of the benefits of a pressure cooker manifested: users used about the same amount of fuel they would have with a regular pot, and they didn’t cook their beans any faster than usual. Sangoyan and I weighed the last pot and fuel at about 1:40, and I thanked the mamas… they thanked me back. I came into the house, sat down to reflect, and ate lunch. At 2:00 PM, Rachel said that the woman wanted to know if it was OK for them to leave… they’d been waiting to be told what to do next. I apologized. No one seemed annoyed. Most everyone left with their MPC because they had nothing else to carry their food home in. I don’t know if they will buy them or bring them back. Afterwards, I explained to our neighbor (who had missed the event) how the MPC worked… I explained it very carefully while she smiled. Afterwards, I said, “the way you’re looking at me, I think you don’t believe me.” She smiled more broadly and nodded. In the future a full demo is strongly encouraged before anyone touches a device. The plan is to leave for Zomba (2.5 hours away) at 6 AM tomorrow and do it all again.

Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 We got on the road before 7:00… so not bad. Arrived in Malukula, Zomba district before 9:00 AM; and before 10:00 AM, we were charging my computer in the women’s shop with two of the 5 (135 W) solar panels we’d just installed on the roof. Having finished the solar electricity on the women’s shop by 10:00, we set out to demonstrate the pressure cookers… learning from yesterday’s lessons. This time, we made it a contest. The team that made great beans with the least amount of firewood would win 1000 Kwacha ($1.00), AND I was going to compete too (but I’ve never cooked beans in a pressure cooker) … and I had a teammate, Neres. I explained how pressure cookers worked and Rachel translated. They brought us some firewood and charcoal and beans (which we bought). Before I gave the beans and measured firewood, I had everyone watch me and Neres get our beans started. I asked everyone what I should do, and made sure I demonstrated all the mistakes that I’d witnessed yesterday. Every participant received 0.90 kg of mixed makamde. Neres and I used 0.99 kg of firewood to cook 1.925 kg Chris used 0.46 kg of charcoal to cook 2.775 kg Margaret used 1.755 kg of firewood to cook 2.71 kg Esnot used 1.41 kg of firewood to cook 2.87 kg Anafi used 0.45 kg of charcoal to cook 12.69 kg Jeniferi Kaka used 0.415 kg of charcoal to cook 2.48 kg …. with adequate understanding and enthusiasm, we see we’ve cut the use of fuel in half.. Certainly, the anthropologist in me has been replaced by the marketing agent…. and teacher. After everyone had started their cooking, we demonstrated the EPC, adding that Sangoyan wasn’t allowed to compete in the contest because he was using sunlight, so he’d automatically win…. besides, he, a Maasi warrior, would be cooking beef. Neres and I started a half hour before everyone else, because I needed to demonstrate the use of the MPC. About an hour after our MPC started boiling, we opened it and Neres pronounced the beans done. Thus everyone could have left well before noon for lunch, but instead they all reappeared with vegetables to complete their bean stew, remaining until about 2:00. After hearing some commotion around 1:00, I was greeted with an apologize from Neres, who had somehow dumped a good portion of our bean stew… “I’m sorry”… but we celebrated the failure. Afterwards, the group implored that there should be a cooking activity. We asked them what they propose. They said we should give them some money to buy things and a different group will return tomorrow. We toyed with the idea of having each person cook at home and we could visit them to see how they cook. We decided to do it here again in order to make it simpler for us and because on a Sunday, it would likely result in a lovely public spectacle. Afterwards, we ate some beef and rice cooked in our EPC and Rachel and I bombed off on a motorcycle behind Mr. Shaw to collect data on one of Rachel’s customers. The field is fed from a wide bore hole (they call a dam) that fills slowly, They dig several of them between fields because the hose is short. Also, the dam fills slowly, and is the rate limiting factor to how fast they can irrigate. Miscellaneous from left: Neres and Esnot celebrate their victories in the firewood and charcoal categories, Rachel leads Agnes and to the farm, a worker uses a stick to jab holes for fertilizer, Noel relaxes with some guitar music, Christina has watermelon, a dangerous troll scares children down the street. Zinab (living with her brother this week in the adjacent building) and I learn/debate the virtues of solar energy, Islam, and pressure cookers. The accommodations in Malukula come with rave reviews! Sangoyan demonstrates (from left) the night life, the family room, the shower, the toilet, the spa, and the sleeping quarters. The vigorous recreation during the day affords good sleep at night… from 9;00 PM – 5:00 AM

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022 The participants arrive punctually at 7:00 AM… but we were not ready. They watched as we had breakfast. Today’s participants brought their own food and fuel. We gave each participant 2000 Kwacha last night. Everyone brought dried beans, and we weighed out 0.90 kg for them. Margret used 0.595 kg of charcoal to cook 2.59 kg of beans Agness used 1.48 kg of firewood to cook 2.15 kg Christina used 0.415 kg of charcoal to cook 2.63 kg Roda used 0.42 kg of charcoal to cook 2.41 kg Emma used 1.18 kg of firewood to cook 2.815 kg Losina used 1.505 kg of firewood to cook 2.64 kg Below left, we asked Zinab to be a translator for us because Rachel was in the field. Zinab proved to be an amazing teacher, motivator, and information gatherer. She asked many questions, to test understanding and solicit feedback. I’m grateful for her contribution. Interestingly, yesterday, I started my team with 1.7 kg of firewood and the women agreed that this would not be enough to cook the beans. We used just under 1 kg. Today, the participants brought very small amounts of firewood. Losina brough only 1.875 kg of firewood. Christina brought only 1/2 kg of charcoal. Above, second from right, this is the first stove I’ve seen filled way under capacity to start cooking. Above, right, we celebrate the victories of Emma (right) in the firewood category, and Christina and Roda’s tie in the charcoal category . We finished everything we had to do in Malakula before lunch, packed up, and left on 4 motorcycles to a place where we could get a minibus to Blantyre. My backpack is pretty heavy and the roads are bumpy… it was punishing and scary bouncing over the road; and for the first time, I asked the driver to slow down. We got there safely, but I made some resolutions for future travel. Things changed radically for me as we came into the city of 800,000. Our group split up, and I was to find my own housing. I entered Blantyre at sundown, feeling disappointed, isolated, bewildered, and a little frightened….. and as always, I committed to make the best of the situation. Mostly, I miss being with the group, especially Sangoyan. For the past 2 weeks, we’d shared every waking hour (and many of our sleeping hours), our stored electrical charge, our purified water, our food (bananas), frustrations, victories, medical remedies, ridiculous laughter, and stories!…. stories of growing up, our families, religion (or lack thereof), women….. I am a physics professor with a PhD, and he is a Maasai Warrior with a herd of cattle. Yet somehow those distinctions evaporated in less than 10 days…. and he feels like family. It was going to have to end. I just didn’t expect it yet… so abruptly.

Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 Woke up outside of Blantyre in a small, but nice room I’d found online, and took a minibus into town for 500 Kwacha. I walked to United Purpose who distributes locally manufactured improved , ceramic, cook stoves, the “Chitetezo mbuala” that should be more efficient and less polluting. I buy two and the driver generously takes me to JB-12, the shop grounds of Kuyere!, FaceBook page, run by Lawrence Kachione (right), who found me during my experiments and warmly welcomed me to the site. Today, I conduct two tests:

I compare the ability to cook beans in the MPC on the improved ceramic cookstove, “Chitetezo mbuala” versus using the MPC on a 3-stone fire.
I measure the thermal efficiency of the Chitetezo mbuala by boiling about a kg of water away while measuring the amount of firewood used.

The experimental set up: three MPCs being heated. From left, the MPC on the 3-stone fire, the MPC on the Chitetezo mbuala, and an MPC full of water on the Chitetezo mbuala. I don’t use the MPC for water boiling as a pressure cooker. The gravitational valve is removed, and the lid is not secured.
The Chitetezo mbuala showing how I propped up the ends of the sticks to lower the fuel inside the cooker (explained below).
Arnof Anse splitting sticks by hitting a machete from above with another stick.
Gilbert, the company’s chief technical officer.
Liquid boiling out of the end of a fuel stick.
inconsistent with past cooking by almost everyone, having two times as much water than beans (by mass) is more than enough. No water need be added. The beans were soft and there was plenty of liquid left over after 1.5 hours of cooking.

In both pots of beans, 0.90 kg of dried beans were mixed with 1.805 kg of water. Both pots of beans lost some water (liquid water boiled out of the pressure valve and water boiled), but I was careful to not let them boil too hard. I didn’t need to add any water. 3-Stone Fire: I cooked 2.49 kg of soft beans using 0.92 kg of firewood. Lost 300 g of water Beans on the Chitetezo mbuala: I cooked 2.54 kg of soft beans using 0.955 kg of firewood. Lost 170 g of water. Water boil test: Starting with about (more about this below) 2.6 kg of water, we finished with about 1.18 kg of water, boiling off about 1.4 kg, using 2.025 kg of wood. We absorb heat to raise the temperature of the 2.6 kg from 20 C to 100 C, and then to boil off the 1.4 kg, yielding total energy of about 4.17 MJ. We estimate the energy density of our wood to be 13 MJ/kg, as Gilbert pointed out that the wood was not adequately dried. These numbers yield a thermal efficiency of about 15%. This is slightly better than the reported thermal efficiency of the 3-stone fire. There are many things that went wrong with this investigation, and there are many reasons that the final numbers should not be taken for face value. However, there was much learned in this process that can be taken away. My foremost finding is that the Chitetezo mbuala does not improve the efficiency of cooking beans with the 3-L MPC… or at least not the way I used it. Cooking efficiency and the ability to measure cooking efficiency depends on many factors including: competence of the fire custodian, wind strength and direction, the size of the pot, and power produced by the fire. Some of these factors I was unaware of until now, some I was unable to control, and some of them changed over time.

Competence: This was my first time doing this kind of measurement on my own. I think Sangoyan and myself did well documenting how the mama’s cooked, but cooking with a fire myself is new. And maintaining three fires myself was overwhelming. I found it considerably easier to start and maintain a fire in the 3-stone fire than the Chitetezo mbuala. At one point Arnof Anse (the young woman who doesn’t speak English that was assigned to work with me, but also had other responsibilities cooking lunch) noticed me screaming obscenities at the Chitetezo mbuala cooking beans. She calmly dumped in some twigs, and possibly embers from another fire, starting the fire again, but also slightly increasing the mass of firewood consumed. The fuel entrance of the Chitetezo mbuala is smaller than the area inside. Thus, this entrance forms a fulcrum for the sticks on top and because the length of stick outside the stove is longer than that inside, the sticks in the fire are elevated preventing proper air flow. This problem is partially remedied by placing an elevated platform under the firewood outside of the Chitetezo mbuala as shown in the picture.

Wind: When Gilbert came by, he offered that it is best to put the opening of the Chitetezo mbuala away from the wind. I had originally oriented the water boiling test with the opening toward the oncoming wind thinking it would be like blowing on the fire. However, this wind pushed the fire away from the wood. When I turned the stove around, it seemed to burn better. Even so, in the image (above left) you can see the smoke coming from this very stove indicating the flame had extinguished. The 3-stone fire sustained a working flame with little effort.

Pot size: The 3-L MPC is smaller than the opening in the top of the Chitetezo mbuala (above, second from left). It is likely that a larger pot would absorb more heat from the same size fire because the hot exhaust would circulate around more pot. The small pot could easily be brought closer to the flames and then embers of the 3-stone fires. Likely a larger pot would be found to be more efficient in the Chitetezo mbuala.

Power produced by the fire. Much attention is given to the technologies used for cooking such as if it’s a pressure cooker or if the fire is an improved stove. However, it seems to me that the way the woman cooks has much more to do with the efficiency than the technologies used. Once the pot of beans is boiling, there needs to be almost no flame to keep it boiling. However, many of the women kept a roaring fire resulting in vigorous boiling. For instance see below left, where the boiling is visibly ejecting substance from Eniferansa’s pot as she burns 7.775 kg of firewood in an outdoor 3SF to cook 1 kg of beans. High power boiling doesn’t cook the beans any faster than if the beans are barely boiling; it only uses more firewood and boils away more water. Hence, lowering the fire will reduce fuel use far more than implementing an improved technology. For instance, I was able to use less than 1 kg of firewood (to cook 0.900 kg of dried beans in an MPC) in both a 3SF as well as a Chitetezo mbuala. On October 20, we were able to cook 1 kg of beans in an EPC with the electrical energy corresponding to about 0.15 kg of dried wood. Not only does the EPC lose very little heat to the environment (yes it IS efficient: the outside walls are not very hot), but it also doesn’t boil a lot of water because it automatically turns the heating off when the temperature his high enough to boil under pressure. AND the EPC with our solar panels does not have the several kW power potential of a fire anyway. Once the beans in the 3L MPC began boiling (and spitting brown water over the MPC tops because they were over filled), I made every effort to decrease the fire. I found the sound of escaping air continued sustainably with no visible fire, but just a few red coals, meaning the pressure cookers were at their maximum pressure and temperature while consuming little fuel. When I decided the fire should end (after slightly more than an hour at pressure), I removed all the firewood, beat the attached embers dead (to count in the final mass of usable firewood left over), and allowed the remaining red embers in the fire under the MPC to keep heating the beans in the MPC until the pot was no longer pressurized, lasting about another half hour. The top beans in both pots appeared to be dry, but tasted done. The beans underneath were mushy soft, and there was significant water left over as well (see above, right). The extra water and the low amount of fuel used are both the result of having a very low fire once the boiling point is reached. I think it would be a good idea to, after an hour of boiling, quickly stir the beans before replacing the top, allowing the pressure to rise again, and then removing the remaining fuel to allow another half hour of boiling at low intensity. The take away from my cooking tests is that the cooking technology used has way less bearing on the amount of fuel used than the way people cook – UNLESS you are also considering electric cooking technologies (which by default change both the technology and the process). If you want to decrease fuel use, the most important first step is to convince mamas to burn fires very low as to reduce the intensity of boiling. I was able to do this in the “contest” format…. competing for the $1 prize… the same strategy would save $1 many times a month just from reduction of firewood/charcoal use. Full disclosure: I failed to record the initial mass of the water in the water boiling test. This glaring incompetence as a scientist is embarrassing. I recognize that I was compromised by the complicated emotional landscape and new environment, but I am just not as organized and methodological as a good scientist should be. I remember filing the MPC, so I know the mass was very likely slightly under 4 kg, by comparing my memory of the water level to the level of water and beans in the two bean dishes. At the same time I learned what I think I needed to. The thermal efficiency for the 3L MPC is no better with the Chitetezo mbuala, or at least I didn’t measure it as such. If we want to get accurate numbers, this experiment should be run again… many times, while making considerations for all the factors that affect efficiency. But I think it’s time for me to move on with the experience / knowledge gained. AND: just like in every other country/society, it’s really easy to reduce energy use if people are motivated to reduce energy use… which they rarely are. This experiment, trying to maintain three fires burning with inadequately dried firewood afforded me a wonderful opportunity to empathize with the mamas’ condition. laying on my belly, blowing on red embers sent red embers a flight, burning my face, neck, back (and holes in my shirt) while the smoke burned my throat and eyes…. a one day stint for me, but every day for the mamas… but they are not alone…. the World Health Organization estimates that 44% of pneumonia deaths in children under 5 years old is caused by household air pollution.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022 I’m sitting at a café next to the Kameza roundabout. I think my internet isn’t working, and ask the guy next to me… he says his WhatsApp isn’t working, and he’s received communication from his friends that it also isn’t working. He said it once happened about three years ago, and lasted about a day. Holey Shit!… global communications come to a screeching halt: commerce, social, romantic. How dependent is the world on this app? I sat in the café for 9 hours analyzing and writing up yesterday’s activities.

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022 At 9:00 AM we prepared to take the solar-electric cars to be loaded onto a flatbed truck at a “loading dock”… a small cliff at an elementary school where the cars could be easily lifted onto the truck. The cars are bound for most of the places I’ve visited: Mganja, Mpita, even Arusha, Tanzania. RVB asked me if I wanted to drive one… “are you kidding?”. I promptly collided (gently) with one of the other cars. I was horribly embarrassed until RVB did the exact same thing. I only drove on the wrong side of the road for a short time… which in Malawi isn’t a big deal because people use the whole road to navigate the smoothest path. We drove the few miles to the school with two extra electric cars to take the rest of us back. After the loading, securing, and fanfare, I said good-bye to my friends, returned to the shop by Njamba Park, and prepared to leave Blantyre. At noon, I’m sitting at an art gallery / café in Blantyre, organizing thoughts and plans. In Blantyre, they have planned periodic load-shedding electricity black-outs… daily, or several times a day, for about 5 hours. Also, the water usually goes out… not all the time, usually in the morning, just when you need it. And there’s lots of mosquitoes… bummer. Malaria is a big deal in Malawi, and I’m not on prophylaxis. Consequently, the refrigerators are often empty and unplugged. However, it should be the opposite! We filled the refrigerator with bottled water and all the food we could find… and especially put as many plastic water bottles as possible in the freezer (Phase Change Thermal Storage!) – crunched down to about 90% of original volume, so that they don’t break when they expand upon freezing. And (hurray!), we now have a perfectly functioning reliable refrigerator. Just as we save heat (cold in the refrigerator), we can save water by keeping a bucket and water bottle in the shower. So when the water goes out, we can still bathe… and drink it – although it doesn’t taste so good, and I’m not in a position to vouch that the quality control in Malawi is any better than it was in Flint, Michigan. I bought a meter of flexible, fiberglass screening at the hardware store for $2.50, and glued it to the window sill with the Chinese RTV white glue that I brought with me for ISEC construction. The glue worked great, and I have confidence that the screen will hold nicely to temperatures in excess of 300 C. I left the bottom part of the screen unglued, so we can still open and close the window. The screen can be sealed at the bottom by the row of body-care products.

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022 I’m sitting again at a café next to the Kameza roundabout, waiting for a minibus to pick me up to take me to Kindle Orphanage Outreach, in Salima, right on Lake Malawi. Kachione, LLC is poised to light up Malawi… and then the rest of Africa with solar electricity. The recent MECS supply line challenge grant is arguably an effort to replicate all over Africa the success RVB’s had in Malawi. In recognition of the importance of this project, I committed before coming, to do what I am told and question as little as possible… in order to avoid conflict. After close to three weeks, I noticed that this constant effort began to feel submissive… emotionally unhealthy… like that illuminated by those two famous studies: the Yale Milgram Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. I regard this submissive feeling as one more opportunity to empathize with people who don’t share my extraordinary privilege. I found myself submissive for a few days and recognized it as unhealthy… what of the people born into poverty and/or the subordinate end of systemic racism… for their entire lives? Can my focus be about them and not about me? My experience with RVB’s project was beautiful and valuable. It was time to leave. The minibus to Salima came two hours late to the Café House. Busses are run by a pair: a driver and a “pusher”. The pusher’s job is to manage payments and make sure the bus is full of riders. The minibuses don’t leave until they are full. When you appear at a stop area, the pushers fall upon you to convince you to come into their bus. It’s their job. It must have taken 2 hours to fill the bus in Blantyre before they departed to pick me up a few miles north. Five hours later, Chicku from Kindle picked me up. He brought me to this lodge. In the evening, he picked me up with his 9-year-old daughter. They took me to a café where I had some chicken, veggies, rice, and beans on the porch.

Friday, Oct. 28, 2022 Chicku from Kindle spent the day with me and I met Grandstone. We visited villages, schools, irrigation schemes. The trunks of the Boabab Tree can grow large enough to shelter inside of. Charcoal production is prolifically deforesting Africa. Everyone I know prefers to use charcoal over wood, and it is sold roadside. They stack the bags atop stacked rocks to make them more appealing to the shopper. I think they said there’s 132 students in this class… they lack adequate space, resources, and teachers.

Kindle is also involved in afforestation/reforestation efforts. This is where they have been hugely successful, and an opportunity for YOU to get involved. They engaged each village to plant cassia trees. Kindle has a cash prize toward a community resource such as roofing for a community meeting place. They planted 60,000 trees a year using a $2000 annual donation. That’s 3 cents per tree! Then COVID happened and the donor disappeared. So if you have $2000 to spare… you can’t find a better reforestation project: contact Kindle. Kindle has a vocational school open to all (although nonorphans must pay tuition) with three majors: Tailor, Bricklayer, Carpentry. We are contemplating starting a solar electricity / appropriate technology course starting January, 2023.

We visited a worksite where the bricklaying students are building a carpentry shop. I shared with the Cal Poly’s motto of “learn by doing”. The shop is for a famous graduate of theirs who is confined to a wheel chair. Despite being crippled, he won awards for his tailoring ability, catching the attention of an American donor, who is funding the construction of his dedicated shop and marketing area.

In the afternoon, I was a tourist. We visited the local croc farm and beach resort. “Teach me to swim!” she demanded with a beaming smile. Suddenly, I had a half dozen dedicated students (mama among them), blowing bubbles, falling face first into the waist-deep water… some gently, some violently. On the beach a group of young entrepreneurs were relaxing from their marketing conference. Maliton directs water use for a water board in one Lilongwe district and is interested in solar technology. He will contact his connections in technical fields and get back to me. The band was placing instruments, amplifiers, and speakers on the beach as we left. Kindle’s medical clinic sees about 200 patients daily… there’s two doctors there and one nurse. I saw only one doctor… I didn’t speak with him long… he was busy. We passed rice fields on the way home.

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 Grateful to have two days with nothing to do… so I can relax and enjoy… working. I don’t know why, but I got up at 1:30 AM… ready to go. I meditated, played the guitar, and was on the computer for a few hours. I think I napped a little. Andy came with breakfast. I worked on my computer, but didn’t connect to the internet. I was out of “bundles” (of internet bandwidth). So it was a peaceful morning working alone. As I’ve stated twice above, I think, we have the luxury of taking for granted several reliable commodity flows that are intermittent (at best) for Africa…. electricity, coldness (in home and fridge), and water… now I can add to them gasoline and bandwidth. Being deprived of either of the last two leaves you dead on the roadside. I had a debate with Tim (pictured by electric car somewhere above) where I claimed they are not comparable… without gasoline you are really stranded… he disagreed. When I woke up at 1:30 AM and realized I’d run out of bundles, I saw things differently. I couldn’t call, I was alone… In the morning, Andy walked me into town and we bought 17 Gb for about $6, and I was on the road again. From left, the shop where I bought the bandwidth, and Andy in front of the shop. At 1:00 PM, Andy and I returned to town so I could buy lunch. We walked around for about a half hour seeing places were closed, and then found Ellie, who was painting a sign for her restaurant. She had some goat stew, beans, and okra. She asked me if I wanted rice or nsima (thick porridge from corn meal). Malawians are surprised if an American chooses nsima. I heard he say it would cost 1000 Kwacha ($1.00). I had two extra helpings of okra… lovely, but was I eating her profit? Money is not the same as in the USA… there are no jobs, so the market price for labor is 10 cents / hr… functionally free. Petroleum is the same price as in the USA… so a labor would work 100 times as much for a gallon of gas as in the USA. A large bunch of bananas are about $2.00 almost the same as in the USA, because of a crop failure recently. Mango season has started and so mangos cost about 1/10 as much as bananas. Tipping is not customary, although no one complains if you do. I paid $2 for lunch and made reservations for tomorrow’s lunch. At 2:00 PM Chicku picked me to take me to the beach so I could swim again. It’s about 20 km away. I came to regret this because it required him Sunday morning to wait in a line to buy gasoline. Gasoline is difficult for several reasons: (1) it’s very expensive, (2) it’s extra scarce now because of the war in Ukraine (which may also lead to mass starvation in January as the “hungry season” begins), and the electric gasoline pumps don’t work in a black out… which is often. Chicku wanted to get gasoline on our way, and there was no line at the gas pump we passed!… but that’s because there was no electricity. At the resort, I found no swimming students, but swam down the beach to a village area where women were washing clothes. A gang of kids saw me and exploded with “MZUNGU!” and swam out to meet me… or, well, walked. The lake is shallow. We chatted a bit and I swam back to the resort.

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022 I slept in a little… I found my bedmate patiently perched on the netting when it got light enough to see. She’d given me quite a time last night, and I promptly dispatched her, smearing my blood on my palms, without thinking to ask who she might have been with previously…. important information. And malaria is an infectious disease… claiming ~ 600,000 lives annually, mostly children. A third of Malawian’s get malaria each year, and 40% of the visitors to Kindle’s clinic are there for malaria. Kindle is taking part in a contact tracing program that has been shown to eradicate malaria in areas. It’s like with COVID… as soon as a case is reported, a team goes out to test all the people in the vicinity and treats every positive case. Andy announced that he’d procured me a bike… like all bikes here, made in China, heavy AF… this one had been repaired several times, the hand breaks were disconnected, but the rear wheel break was hacked with a rubber-band secured foot lever. It was so rickety and loose, shaky But it was a BIKE, yeah, baby! And just as the bicycle was my first experience with unbridled freedom, 50 years later, this was no different. It was so beautiful riding through town (I was so lost)… being yelled at by everyone. Who knows what they were saying, but a mzungu on a bike… not evening just riding on the back? Looking for Ellie’s restaurant, contemplating google maps… I meet Jameson, “how much to take me…?” I say 200… and he’s on the back. I warned him he was my first passenger, and the breaks didn’t work, and he should be ready to bail in an instant… undaunted. We almost collided with another bike getting going until I figured out the balance, and then we were on our way! But after a hundred meters or so, he demands we stop, and remembering the breaks, he jumps off the back and grabs the passenger seat to stop me. You come here!… he demands we see the real Malawi. I follow him down an alley… it’s broad daylight, but some trepidation. And it opens up to a place with some small shops… huts really… fixing a car, a small barbeque, and he directs me to a place where men are shooting pool… and drinking beer on a Sunday morning. A speakeasy? He takes my bike… I take it back. I meet everyone in a row, and Jameson says I take beer… How deep of a cultural experience to I want?… I remembered drinking once with a group of Fijians at 10 AM… they’d started the previous evening…. and continued again until after dark when we disbanded in a sudden outbreak of domestic violence. I said, “absolutely not”. He said, “you don’t take beer?” I said, “not in the morning! I’m riding my bike.” He understood… “but I like beer and the cheapest beer is 200… you buy me.” And we had a laugh because he was supposed to pay me 200, but in the end, I gave him 200 and resumed my search. I saw the sign Ellie painted yesterday and remembered I needed to use the footbrake to stop. Before I could step down, I could hear her laughing inside and knew she must have seen me. Anthony was there… Andy’s brother by marriage… Andy and Anthony married sisters, and Anthony is the sun of Ellie’s brother. A woman came by with a basket of bananas on her head, exchanged a few words and left. I chased after her and bought a bunch… bananas for everyone… It’s like buying a round at the bar, except it’s way cheaper and there’s no regrets… just plain goodness all around. Ellie’s son was scared of me at first, but warmed up. At 5:30 PM, it’s nearly dark… Malawi is on the eastern edge of it’s time zone. Andy and I went into two to buy food for dinner at his house with his wife, Ronica and three sons. They fried the chicken on the street, but we cooked it again when we got home.

Nov 1 – Nov 5: Just a tourist in Nkhata Bay, on Lake Malawi. Met many people, and rescued a lovely crab from a abandoned fishing net.

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022,

I presented this idea at the meeting of the Global Learning Community:

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022, just after midnight

My flight on Kenyan Airlines leaves at 2 AM for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I gave my last Kwecha (Malawian money) to the taxi…. And he’s gone. The lights were out in the entire airport when I arrived and there were no people there. I found a grounds guard who told me it was cool, and I could stay with him. The main gate guards handed me a printed sheet of paper with “Pilot Strike” written on it in magic marker. I didn’t believe them..

So, I look up the news, and there’s a pilot strike. The only information I have from KA is a confirmation…. Furthermore, you can still buy tickets for the flight that is cancelled. So I sat down and saw that Ethiopian Airlines flights to Accra are really inexpensive right now, so I bought some… and they pass through – you guessed it – Addis Ababa. It costs way less to fly through Addis Ababa to the other side of the continent (Africa’s big by the way), than it costs to just fly to Addis Ababa.

The airport guards come out of the building and start harassing me… why am I there?… dude, why do you think I’m here?… so they make some calls… and they start laughing, and the woman in the bunch says, “pack up your things, you can stay inside”… and the guy with the automatic weapon introduces himself as Christian and says I can sleep on the benches. He takes my knife and says he’ll give it back to me in the morning.

I spent the day buying a ticket to Accra on Ethiopian Airlines, check my bag to board the plane at 11:00 AM, grateful to have this crazy mess over with… really?

Massive fail. I needed a visa to board the plane. Although it’s clear that you can get an emergency visa at the airport upon arrival, they don’t tell you that in order to board the plane you need to present a commitment letter from the immigration authority in order to board the plane.

Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, evening, can’t believe this is only one day later, back in my same room in J&J Lodge, Salima. Tomorrow we will interview candidates for the Solar Electric Technologies Vocation School. So, it’s OK.

Tuesday, Nov 8, 2022

We interviewed two candidates for the Solar Electric Technology Vocational School Instructor. There were only two candidates and they were both very nice and had good resumes. I was part of the four-person board, but the only technical person. I had a small solar panel, a bunch of electrical components and a digital multimeter. After the major discussion, I gave them the solar panel and they designed a circuit and we went out into the sun to measure the panel’s output (~ 1.8 W). It turns out that Victor knew all the electrical physics necessary! We hired him on the spot.

In the afternoon, I returned to Lilongwe and stayed at the BareFoot Lodge West of Lilongwe.

Wednesday, Nov 9, 2022

I went into Lilongwe and purchased a ticket to Accra, Ghana at Ethiopia Airlines. I had received notice from Bismark that he’d procured a visa commitment from the immigration authority, and I was clear to fly. I updated my flight for a mere $150 penalty fee. I went to Lilongwe Technical College (LTS) and met with the principal. He was enthusiastic about collaborating with me and with ISEC building. I met Nicolas of the Electrical Technology department. I toured the facility, seeing a vast array of technical hardware and machining tools – all donated, mostly from Germany. I asked how many of the lathes (that had served them for 40+ years) were working. They indicated that three of them were very good. LTC has a very “learn by doing” motto… like Kindle and like Cal Poly. Their carpentry students were finishing up a large batch of desks for sale to a school, and they had outdoor dining facilities.

Both Victor and Nicolas plan to come to the ISEC workshop in Togo, Nov. 25 – Nov. 30.

Thursday, Nov 10, 2022

Crazy day of travel… Starting from the BareFoot Lodge, carrying my full backpack. First a mile on the back of a bicycle. At the main road, I car offers me a ride. Save the Children… Then various minibuses, cars and a motorcycle to the airport junction, and several miles on the back of a bicycle again. The internet at the airport is down, so I can’t buy a ticket out of Accra and the official from Ethiopia Airlines told me that can turn me around at the airport and send me back if I don’t have a return ticket. The staff in EA office tries to help me buy a ticket, but they are blocked from the EA website (in their own office), he explains because their currency has no integrity… as evidenced by the fuel shortage. They never asked for a return ticket in Accra, but I had considerable anxiety until I bought a ticket in Addis Ababa…. Where Ethiopia Airways put me up in a really nice hotel with dinner and breakfast (at 5 AM). If felt good to get on the airplane rested, showered, in a change of clothes.