Dar es Salaam

Last week our tutor from the TUDelft, Henk Kuipers came to join us in Tanzania. He visited both Dar es Salaam and Njombe. It was very nice to work with our teacher outside of the university. The Njombe team made a presentation on Monday at SHIPO. On Tuesday the Njombe team and Henk Kuipers, traveled to Dar es Salaam to meet up with the Dar team. On Wednesday we visited a university in Dar. It was really interesting to meet the students there who are also studying industrial design.

The remaining days of this week, the whole team will discuss their research and draw conclusions and design requirements. Coming weeks, we will finish the research phase and concentrate on the solution phase.

We are really enthusiastic and cannot wait for it to begin!

Focusgroup Njombe

We (Onno, Martijn en Greetje) also did a focus group, but this time in a village far away from Njombe; Igosi. We chose to do the focus group with women of different villages, therefore it took a while for we got everyone together.

In the beginning all women were a bit quiet, since it was the first time they every participated in such an exercise. We didn't anticipate that all women also would bring their children with them. On the left picture you can see how they working together and showing us with beans what they found important about their drinking water.

We also tried to understand what they find beautiful products. This proved to be difficult; the only things they found beautiful, were the ones they already knew and looked functional. We have to re-think how this can help us in our design process...

At the end of the day everybody was excited and they couldn't stop chatting while we brought them back to their villages. It was very fun to do and we learned a lot. Coming days we will report all the experiences we had the past few weeks in one single report.

Dar es Salaam

Last week we (Gijsbert and Louis Pierre) started a pilot version of the focus group session, with six volunteers. Patrick and Lydia, two Tanzanian students (wana funzi)of the university of D’ Salaam, helped us doing the session.

Although it was just a first trail we immediately got some interesting responses.
• They categorised their own water attributes with decreasing importance: Cleanness (most important), Type/brand, Taste, Price, Origin of the water (source), Surroundings in which the water is bought, Temperature and Appearance of the unit that contains the water.
• After we asked them the grade different water products (like bottled water, water filters, boiling buckets etc). They really had a strong argue with each other! Each of them preferred its own product, by several different reasons. Apparently this group had some diverse preferences for products.
• During Ramadan people urn less income, because many customers (40 % Muslims) of Dar consume a lot less.
• One participant suddenly asked whether she could use the filter for some time, to filter the water she is selling to her customers. She will use the filter for a week and will be interviewed afterwards.

In the suburbs of D’ Salaam we found different kind of water sources. Some people used wells, SimTanks, tap water, and the river Ruvu. We often see the Simtanks placed on roofs, which are used for water storage, sinking the sand and creating water pressure.

Mhaji village

Monday morning the team split up to also do research in Dar es Salam. Here in Njombe we have visited numerous of villages to talk to people who have and who haven't been using the filter.

This weekend the Njombe team has visited and slept over in Mhaji village nearby Njombe. We were invited by a peace corps volunteer. Mhaji and the nearby village have been chosen by us as the two villages we will use for further analyses of the interaction between the people and the filter over a longer time.

Since it is really hard to find good coffee in Tanzania, the volunteer really made us happy with some of hers.
It was a terrific experience to stay in a village and meet some of the wonderful people living there

Njombe

Habari!

Right now we are in Njombe. We have been working at SHIPO the whole week. Tuesday we had a introduction at SHIPO and in the afternoon we had time to wander into the nice town of Njombe.

We had lunch at Altek internet cafe/restaurant and after that we went back to the hotel.

Wednesday, Pierre, Martijn and Greetje had the opportunity to meet people that have been using the SP (siphon filter) in 4 villages around Njombe. Gijsbert and Onno joined in a workshop that was organized for well makers. During visiting the villages a lot of information has been gathered and grouped. It was wonderful to be welcomed in these villages by all the people living there. People were really enthusiastic and open to our visits, questions and photographs.

Thursday, Gijsbert and Onno had to opportunity to visit other villages. These villages had access to tap water but still needed to filter the water at their homes.

Friday we had prepared a presentation for SHIPO. After lunch we presented our goals and plans. Everybody is enthusiastic and we received very interesting contacts in Dar es Salaam.

Coming weekend we will explore Njombe even further and brainstorm together on the interesting things we have seen so far.

Badaaye!!