Wednesday, May 27, Musinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST)

Wednesday morning, Herb fired up the electric burner, scrounged up a frying pan, and used real butter to make toast. We also brewed coffee. The rest of the morning was spent on three projects: setting up Quicken to do the financial reports, organizing the books in the library, and investigating why one of the pumps in the water system does not seem to do anything.

Water is collected from the roof and stored in 3 tanks at ground level. There are pumps to move the water from these tanks to the water tower. However, one of the tanks which has its own pump does not empty, no matter how long the pump runs. We chiseled away some of the concrete surrounding the plumbing and exposed the problem. The way the pipes were connected, the pump pumped the water in a circle, but none went to the water tower. Now that we know the problem, we can get someone to correct it. It is a little amusing that when they discovered the pump was ineffective, and the storage tank always remaind full of water that could not be used, rather than finding the real problem and fixing it, they simply added an outdoor faucet (sticking right out of the ground) that could be used to get water from the lower storage tank.

Hopefully this can be fixed soon. We also need to rig some sort of water level indicator so they know when to run the pumps. I would like to put in an automatic pump control system, but the expense may be prohibitive as the pumps are located pretty far apart.

After lunch, Gail, Evey, and I went to Masinde Muliro University to meet with Juma Kilwake, Chair of the Department of Computer Science. Charles drove us. We stopped on the way to see Jackie at her stand in Kakamega. She wanted to take us to meet some people that operate an organization to aid women. In addition to educational programs, they organize special projects. One of the current projects is weaving. Gail and Evey each bought one of the handmade scarves. Hopefully we can visit them again before we leave.

At MMUST, Juma was tied up in a meeting, and we were met by Mr Rotich (the chico man) whose office is next door to Mr Kilwake's. He told us a little about the university, and then Juma appeared. We went into his office and talked about potential collaboration. He invited me to give a seminar for the faculty on Tuesday next. Juma has 5 children, and he had to pick them up from school on the way to drop us off. When his 4 year old was coming out to the car, he said the tire needs pressure. Sure enough, the tire was pretty low. We stopped at a petrol station, but there was a tractor filling one of its BIG tires from the little electric pump. When it finished, we backed up to the hose, and the attendants filled the tire and checked for a puncture.

When we got to MTTF, we drove into the compound, and Juma and his children got to see the orphanage, meet our children, and greet some of the people here. It was nice to meet him in the context of family rather than just an academic contact.

After supper, homework, cards, and fellowship closed out the night. Now I have to work on a sermon and music and a seminar on assembly language.