,This week I was finally able to collect the Heat Exchanger I'd had designed. On Tuesday I bought the glass for the solar collector and packaged the dryer securely in cardboard boxes.
Sam, the other EWB placement volunteer arrived on Wednesday morning at 5.45am. I went to meet him at the bus stop, but we somehow managed to miss each other, only to meet up half an hour later after I had walked to the town and back.
In the afternoon, we packaged the dryer into the back of Anand's (the managers) jeep and drove to his farm. His farm was a half hour drive along tarmacked roads. 4-wheel drive was needed for the last 20 minutes of the journey, up a steep bumpy track leading to his farm. The farmhouse had fantastic views across to the steep, waterfall covered western ghats on the opposite side of the valley. The fields were terraced into the hill, with rice paddy, ginger, onions and coconuts being some of the main crops grown on the land.
The dryer was built by two of the local farm workers following the instructions I had given them. They had a few problems identifying which piece fitted where, but an hour and a half later they had constructed the dryer – a successful result, proving that the design was sound and my instructions were clear.
Yesterday, went to his farm by bus, walking the last part of the journey up the track. The two local farm workers helped light a fire underneath the dryer, and prepared several trays of coconuts to dry. At first a simple fire was built, which proved to be far too smokey, and quickly smoked most of the coconuts in the dryer. A better, more contained stove was built which gave a much improved result with most of the smoke going out the chimney.
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