Safely back home!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that we are all safely back home after some extensive travelling. We took the ferry from Freetown to Lungi International Airport, and from there we flew to Ghana for a brief layover before flying direct to Dulles International in Washington DC. For me I added a plane ride to Raleigh with a connecting flight in Atlanta for a total of 36 hours traveling from the LemonAid House to my house in Archdale. Needless to say, I was appreciative of my first real shower in almost two weeks!

As you have noticed, we were not able to post to the blog as much as we would have liked while we were gone due to a lack of internet access. However, to make up for it, Ed, Dylan and I plan to continue writing posts for the next couple of weeks to share our favorite stories and experiences from the trip.

Thank you to all of those who have been supporting us and reading our blog!

-Bryan

Another Update

Dylan here.  One thing Bryan forgot to mention in his last post was running out of gas on our first full day here, the 29th.  Our car’s gas gauge read empty when we left the house before the hour ride to the school and hour ride back, so it didn’t come as a surprise when our engine sputtered out in the middle of a busy intersection on the way back to the house.  A couple local boys helped us push our car to the side of the road (for a few leons, of course) and Sahr took an empty oil can out of the back to venture for “petrol.”  Half an hour later, Sahr emerged from the sprawl of the city victorious, with enough oil for us to make it to a gas station.  The gas station was a whole other ordeal.  Due to an oil shortage, there were cars lined up down the block to one of the few gas stations that had gas left.  There were many pedestrians with cans (like Sahr a few minutes ago) and motorcycles that were not allowed to get gas at the time we were there. The gas station was a hub of activity, to say the least.

Last night, Sahr and Momed (our driver) took us out for local music, where a band played from 8 until far after we left at 12.  It took some convincing, but Bryan and I got up to dance for a song.  Ed was more than happy to get up and dance with the locals, who called us their “white friends” during an impromptu speech between songs.  It was a great time, but after an exhausting day we were ready to go home and sleep.  Alas, sleep was not easy to come by, as the entertainment center right next to the LemonAid fund house played the same type of music all night long.

Today Bryan Ed and I made it out to the school once again to take some more technical measurements.  We took an inventory of every item at the school that used electricity, noting the voltage, amperage, and wattage of each item.  We also made sure to talk to Sahr about the possibility of a battery storage room having to be a little bit bigger than the converted toilet stall that was the electrical room.  All in all it was a successful day on the technical aspect of our trip.

Arrival in Sierra Leone!

Hey everyone!

After Ed’s last minute flight changes, and a cab ride between airports in NY, we were all able to meet together in London in time to depart to Sierra Leone. After a fairly noneventful flight over, we arrived at Lungi airport at about 8:00 at night. Arrival at the airport turned out to be quite an experience. We walked out of the plane in the warm, ocean air to a small crowded bus that took us into the airport. We soon found ourselves in a crowded room, with a mob of people rushing to various security checks. After showing all of our paperwork and answering some questions, we left a tip with the document checkers to get our passports back. We then tried to make our way through the large crowd which had gathered to collect checked bags. For almost an hour we fought the crowd while Dylan got his checked bag, and Ed kept waiting. Eventually the crowded room was as empty as it had been before our arrival, and Ed still had no bag. So after filing more paperwork with BMI, we went on to meet Sahr outside the airport and begin our journey from Lunge to Freetown.

This began with a car ride through the pitchblack streets till we reached the ferry. We quickly found that the rule of the road is governed by rule of horn, as we passed countless motorcycles and cars – horn blaring the whole time. We quickly made it to the ferry where we took an hour-long trip to the bay of Freetown. While travelling to the lights of Freetown in the distance, we met with an EWB-USA chapter from Oklahoma State and a youth mission group from Virginia. From the ferry, Sahr introduced us to our driver for the week and we made our way to the LemonAid house in Freetown where we would be staying. At this point it was after midnight, so after travelling since Tuesday we were ready to get some sleep and prepare for the next morning.

The next day we got our first glance of Freetown in the daylight. We were able to travel to the school, and begin talking with Sahr about the current electrical situation at the school and potential improvements. We also went to BMI to try to collect Ed’s bag, but were told we had to wait till Tuesday, so we bought a couple shirts on the street so he would have at least a partial change of clothes.

Overall things are going very well with the trip. I will share more about our first days in Sierra Leone when we next have a chance. Right now however, I am writing in an Internet Cafe and my time is almost up.

Thanks for taking the time to follow our trip, and keep looking back for more updates!

-Bryan

Travel Update

I just received an update from Bryan and Dylan, who were in Washington DC, about to board their flight to London Heathrow.  Their flight is still on schedule, and they are currently estimated to land at 9:45am in London, before catching a 1:05pm flight to Freetown, Sierra Leone.  Ed, who is departing from New York, had a flight change, and is now leaving from JFK, and will be arriving in London Heathrow at approximately 10:00am, where he will meet up with Bryan and Dylan before continuing to Freetown.

Keep checking for more updates throughout the next couple of weeks.

Sincerely,

Nate Klingerman
Engineers Without Borders – USA
NC State Student Chapter, President

Away we go!

In less than 24 hours, the Sierra Leone Renewable Energy travel team will be on a plane headed to Sierra Leone! This trip has been a long time in the making, and we would like to thank everyone who helped make it possible. Special recognition goes to the North Carolina State University College of Engineering and the Park Foundation for their contributions to this project, as well as the many donors and volunteers who have taken part in EWB fundraisers through the years.

This trip will be the first assessment trip taken to investigate the energy resources of the LemonAid Village Schools, an educational facility in Lower Allentown that serves more than 500 students. We are partnering with the community to develop an energy system that can meet the needs of the students and help the school extend its services. Specifically, we are trying to develop reliable methods to power a small computer lab and library for the school.

Our travel team consists of three members: myself (Bryan Peele, senior in mechanical engineering), Dylan Cawthorne (a sophomore in environmental engineering) and our mentor Ed Witkin (a builder and educator with many years of experience designing and installing renewable energy systems). Together this team will strive to collect the technical data and to make the personal connections we need to work towards the design and implementation of an energy system for the school.

The first step in this journey will be the 17+ hours it will take to get to Freetown. We will be leaving on an overnight flight from Washington DC at 10:oopm on Tuesday to arrive in London the next morning. If everything stays on schedule we will leave London to arrive at Lungi Airport in Sierra Leone by 8:00pm Wednesday night. From there we take a ferry to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.  We will update this blog as often as we can throughout the trip to share our progress, and any adventures we have while travelling!

Cheers,

Bryan