And so... My time at SELCO is coming to a close...

Sad times!

Over the next few days I will be wrapping up a few loose ends from my time here. In the last week or so, quite a lot has happened here with the work I've been doing.

I heard the great news that the stove I ordered for an institution in Gulbarga has finally been delivered to the right place, and the clients have been using it. So far, initial trials seem to be going well, and over the next two months more testing will be carried out. It sounds like the guys there really like the stove, and are interested to get some more so they can carry out all their cooking on them, however its difficult to assess how much of the enthusiasm comes from SELCO having initially paid for the first stove on their behalf. Assuming the stove is used correctly, I think that they should make savings that will start to pay off quickly, while saving the women who cook for 100+ people, three times a day from inhaling large amounts of harmful smoke.

Also, our designs for a paddy separator tray have materialised as a neatly welded and nicely painted steel machine! We've assembled most of it, and managed to create an ugly but (hopefully) effective linkage for the motor (see below for a bit of over-zealous welding by a college technician, assisted by Seb.)

Seb "Sea-Bass" Burn assisting with some welding and managing to burn his hand through the terrible quality welding gloves... Well at least they had some, unlike most places! 

The paddy separator design almost constructed...

I've also finished a rather complicated Solidworks model of the paddy transplanter which I've mentioned in previous posts. Since it fell off a bus (yes, that actually happened, somehow) at the end of last transplanting season, its been a little worse for wear. I've made some modifications to improve the design, and so that new parts can be built at a workshop near here. 

Solidworks model of a paddy transplanter with a few modifications (and accidentally a bit shiny)

Meanwhile I've been able to give the machine a lick of paint, a bit of oil and grease and general TLC so that it can be ready to be taken to Puttur in a few weeks for an agricultural show and hopefully impress lots of farmers.

In other news, we've had a new face in the office (and our appartment) since Sameer arrived from the US to work with SELCO for the next year. Its been great fun so far, and I think he'll do a fab job here.

Finally here's a video I made while we were at a waterfall near Ujire... (put the quality up so it looks good :) )

Weather Update and my trip up north

On sunday we ventured out to a beach in a town called Malpe. We weren't expecting any good weather, but after a little time the sun came out and it was roasting. The sea was warm and pretty clean so we spend a while in the waves. Later we brought a lot of attention to ourselves by digging a big hole to bury Vidyut in...

We stayed the night in Mangalore and managed to watch some of the Olympics- even staying up til 2am to watch the 100m final. 

Since we got back to Ujire yesterday it has been raining. Non stop, seriously heavy, tropical rain. About 24 hours of it! There was some thunder and lightning last night too which was pretty impressive.

I now understand why everyone has an umbrella round here. I find it quite ironic that having lived most of my life in England and never having bought an umbrella, but on coming to India I've got one after less than a week!

So tomorrow I'm off to a place called Gulbarga which in in the extreme north of Karnataka. I'll be doing a needs assessment and observing cooking habits at a small institution. Should be interesting, though I'm not quite sure what to expect. I'll travel up there with Deepti who is doing some different work in the area, looking at trials of solar fencing, and Robin who's going to assist me (especially with translation!).

Its meant to be a 16 hour bus journey to get there, which isn't a particularly fun prospect, but is a true Indian experience :).

16 hours rattling around in an old bus