“There’s nothing like being there.” That’s a good summary for my trip. We learned more in a week than we could have in many, many months from the States.

After a small entry-visa glitch that delayed my departure by a day, I arrived safely in Uganda late on Saturday, October 23rd. I was met by Daniel, who heads the small R&D group at Engineering Ministries International (EMI). He and his family also provided me with meals on Sunday. In fact, all of my dinners through the week were with EMI staff families or friends; plus EMI allowed me to stay in an apartment belonging to one of their staff families who were traveling out of country. You couldn’t ask for better hosts (or a less-expensive visit). 

I joined EMI staff at their office in Kajjansi (about half-way between Entebbe and Kampala) beginning Monday and was there each day through the week. I met with Daniel, Phil (the office manager), and David Wit (the project manager for the water box trials) to more fully introduce them to the water box and our goals for the field trials. EMI, primarily through David, had already provided significant input into the project, helping with tasks such as preparing our ethics committee application, developing our field trial methodology, and selecting Ugandan engineers to participate in the trials.

The two Ugandan engineering graduates that we selected from a pool of applications, Mary and Nathan, came mid-day on Monday and were with us through the remainder of the week. Both recently graduated from Uganda Christian University. Mary finished her degree about a year ago and Nathan a few months ago, but neither has landed a long-term job yet. They became more engaged and interested as the week went by and I expect very good contributions from both. They will be the ones directly interacting with the participating households. That’s important for gaining meaningful results plus it will help them learn the practice of engineering and build their resumes.

 
Our days were spent:

• Introducing Nathan and Mary to the water box and the goals for the trials.
• Discussing the selection of participating households (deciding that we will work through the Local Council Level 1 leaders in three nearby districts).
• Visiting one of the LC 1 leaders as a trial run.
• Discussing how to introduce the water box to a family, including obtaining their consent for participation.
• Practicing bacteria testing from a nearby contaminated source and for water treated by a water box.

As Dave Conklin has reminded me, when it’s research, it means you don’t have all the answers yet. The bacteria testing didn’t give us the results we were expecting but by adjusting the automatic time to about 2 minutes instead of 1, it appears we are able to achieve 99.999% removal of bacteria. We’re reviewing additional data but will likely make the change. The significant impact to our field trials is that we are delaying the start to January 2022. This gives time for EMI staff, with help from Mary and Nathan, to make the changes to the 29 units in Uganda.

Aside from this adjustment, we all learned a great deal—about typical conditions in homes, about the level of contamination in city water, about first reactions to the water box, about electricity coverage in Kampala, and related concerns, issues, and opportunities. I’m already envisioning a different version of the water box. However, we need the field trial results before jumping to conclusions.

Thank you again for your contributions that allowed this trip to happen. So many have been generous and I want you to know that all of the water box volunteers are working hard to develop a good product that can help many in the developing world.

Sincerely,

Paul