Our first full day in Puno was grand!
The first item of the day was to get ourselves out to the Uros Islands. We had scheduled a meeting with the islanders to talk about why we were there, give a brief overview of our projects, and invite them to come by for the next few days and learn more. (I have no idea if that was what Porter actually said, but they seemed excited about whatever he did say.)
Following that we headed over to Nelson's island to begin working on our projects. Because Nelson & Dora's main source of income is through a tourist restaurant they run on one end of their island, we were relegated to an area behind their storage shed to maintain "authenticity". Because Whitney and I were done with testing we split up that first day to help some of the other teams out. I spent most of my time with the Reed group, while Whitney helped out the Oven group.
Reed Group:
Objective: Come up with a better way for the islanders to cut reeds.
Background: The people of Lake Titicaca live on man-made islands. They make these islands out of the reeds that grow all around them in the lake. In order to avoid falling into the lake, the islanders must "resurface" their islands with several inches of reeds every 2 weeks. Gathering enough reeds for even the smallest of islands takes about 4 days of all day labor. At that time the people used blades lashed to the ends of poles to cut the reeds. They then hauled the cut reeds into their boats and rowed/motored back to their island. Needless to say, they wanted a way to speed this process up.
Ideas: When they headed to Peru the team had two solutions, one more expensive than the other. The first idea was a weed whacker adapted with saw blade to cut the reeds. Testing in Utah had proven the concept, but the main concern that purchasing a weed whacker and the needed parts to adapt it, would prove too expensive. The second idea simply involved welding a knife blade to a metal sleeve and securely attaching it to a pole with a screw. The team reasoned that they would already have the knives and didn't think that welding would be very expensive.
Results: The first day was spent learning more about the actual reed cutting process, and adapting the weed whacker. Stay tuned for what happened the rest of the week!
Whitney spent a lot of her time helping out the Oven group.
Oven Group:
Objective: Create an oven whose heat source is the propane powered stoves used by the islanders.
Background: For most of the time that the islanders have lived on the reed islands, they have cooked on open flame on the floor of their islands. This went a lot better than expected, considering that they live on islands made of very flammable reeds. However, after a particularly bad year, resulting in several isalnds burning down, the islanders decided to start using propane powered stoves. Because propane is so expensive GEO spent a couple of years trying to develop alternate methods, including making charcoal and several rounds of solar powered devices. None of these proved very successful for various reasons; some burned houses, other proved to difficult to use, to required to much change from current cooking methods. This time around the islanders had expressed the desire to be able to bake bread, and cook several other traditional dishes that they couldn't with their current stove tops.
Idea: During their time in Utah the team designed and refined the manufacturing to a square oven that would sit on the top of the propane stoves. The oven is cut and folded out of sheet metal in much the same way that you make a box out of paper in kindergarten when learning about 3D shapes. The oven was held together by rivets, and a swinging door attached with hinges.
Results: The team spent much of that first day cutting out the shapes they would use to folder later. They wanted to save as much as the folding process as they could for when the islanders were around so that they could demonstrate the process.
The other group work was the Washing Machine group. (For those that care, this group consisted entirely of men.)
Washing Machine Group:
Objective: Design a washing machine easier than the current method.
Background: This was a second generation project that had received a lot of attention the previous summer when two of team members (from the team the year before) stayed in Puno the entire summer and did some work on it, in addition to research for someone's PhD. In the first year the team had developed a nested barrel system that housed in a wooden frame. The user would put their clothes into the perforated inner barrel. They would then pour the desired amount of water into the outer barrel (actually half a barrel), and begin to crank. The crank was a converted bicycle pedal (bicycles are common in Peru) which used the original gear/sprocket assembly to turn the inner barrel while leaving the outer barrel stationary. The islanders generally liked the idea, but the project turned out to be very expensive and difficult for a person to build without extensive training.
Idea: When this team began in Utah they knew that they needed to decrease cost. So despite all the work that had been done previously, this team started back at square 1. What they came out with was a single barrel with an attached pole. The barrel rested on the ground and featured corrugated plastic to cause a roughness/mixing. The user put his clothes in barrel along with the desired water. The user then stood and rocked the barrel back and forth for several minutes until the clothes were determined clean. This idea was far less expensive, and the team hoped that the motion would be comfortable because it was similar to rowing a boat.
Results:
I'll be honest, I spent very little time with this team so I'll just give an overall impression on the last day.
The first item of the day was to get ourselves out to the Uros Islands. We had scheduled a meeting with the islanders to talk about why we were there, give a brief overview of our projects, and invite them to come by for the next few days and learn more. (I have no idea if that was what Porter actually said, but they seemed excited about whatever he did say.)
Following that we headed over to Nelson's island to begin working on our projects. Because Nelson & Dora's main source of income is through a tourist restaurant they run on one end of their island, we were relegated to an area behind their storage shed to maintain "authenticity". Because Whitney and I were done with testing we split up that first day to help some of the other teams out. I spent most of my time with the Reed group, while Whitney helped out the Oven group.
 |
| Disassembling the weed whacker |
 |
| Nelson demonstrating his reed cutting skills. |
 |
| A successful hour at cutting reeds. |
 |
| Deep discussions between Peruvian children, a sociologist, and an engineer. |
 |
| About to test the Reed Whacker |
 |
| Everyone had an opinion. |
Objective: Come up with a better way for the islanders to cut reeds.
Background: The people of Lake Titicaca live on man-made islands. They make these islands out of the reeds that grow all around them in the lake. In order to avoid falling into the lake, the islanders must "resurface" their islands with several inches of reeds every 2 weeks. Gathering enough reeds for even the smallest of islands takes about 4 days of all day labor. At that time the people used blades lashed to the ends of poles to cut the reeds. They then hauled the cut reeds into their boats and rowed/motored back to their island. Needless to say, they wanted a way to speed this process up.
Ideas: When they headed to Peru the team had two solutions, one more expensive than the other. The first idea was a weed whacker adapted with saw blade to cut the reeds. Testing in Utah had proven the concept, but the main concern that purchasing a weed whacker and the needed parts to adapt it, would prove too expensive. The second idea simply involved welding a knife blade to a metal sleeve and securely attaching it to a pole with a screw. The team reasoned that they would already have the knives and didn't think that welding would be very expensive.
Results: The first day was spent learning more about the actual reed cutting process, and adapting the weed whacker. Stay tuned for what happened the rest of the week!
Whitney spent a lot of her time helping out the Oven group.
Oven Group:
Objective: Create an oven whose heat source is the propane powered stoves used by the islanders.
Background: For most of the time that the islanders have lived on the reed islands, they have cooked on open flame on the floor of their islands. This went a lot better than expected, considering that they live on islands made of very flammable reeds. However, after a particularly bad year, resulting in several isalnds burning down, the islanders decided to start using propane powered stoves. Because propane is so expensive GEO spent a couple of years trying to develop alternate methods, including making charcoal and several rounds of solar powered devices. None of these proved very successful for various reasons; some burned houses, other proved to difficult to use, to required to much change from current cooking methods. This time around the islanders had expressed the desire to be able to bake bread, and cook several other traditional dishes that they couldn't with their current stove tops.
Idea: During their time in Utah the team designed and refined the manufacturing to a square oven that would sit on the top of the propane stoves. The oven is cut and folded out of sheet metal in much the same way that you make a box out of paper in kindergarten when learning about 3D shapes. The oven was held together by rivets, and a swinging door attached with hinges.
Results: The team spent much of that first day cutting out the shapes they would use to folder later. They wanted to save as much as the folding process as they could for when the islanders were around so that they could demonstrate the process.
The other group work was the Washing Machine group. (For those that care, this group consisted entirely of men.)
Washing Machine Group:
Objective: Design a washing machine easier than the current method.
Background: This was a second generation project that had received a lot of attention the previous summer when two of team members (from the team the year before) stayed in Puno the entire summer and did some work on it, in addition to research for someone's PhD. In the first year the team had developed a nested barrel system that housed in a wooden frame. The user would put their clothes into the perforated inner barrel. They would then pour the desired amount of water into the outer barrel (actually half a barrel), and begin to crank. The crank was a converted bicycle pedal (bicycles are common in Peru) which used the original gear/sprocket assembly to turn the inner barrel while leaving the outer barrel stationary. The islanders generally liked the idea, but the project turned out to be very expensive and difficult for a person to build without extensive training.
Idea: When this team began in Utah they knew that they needed to decrease cost. So despite all the work that had been done previously, this team started back at square 1. What they came out with was a single barrel with an attached pole. The barrel rested on the ground and featured corrugated plastic to cause a roughness/mixing. The user put his clothes in barrel along with the desired water. The user then stood and rocked the barrel back and forth for several minutes until the clothes were determined clean. This idea was far less expensive, and the team hoped that the motion would be comfortable because it was similar to rowing a boat.
Results:
I'll be honest, I spent very little time with this team so I'll just give an overall impression on the last day.
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