Ben and I have not stopped doing field research since 7:30 Monday morning. We met up with Zakeria, gave him our chair, and rode into Shanga with him. We had to take two daladalas in order to get to his work, but all the folding and transferring went smoothly…but then again Ben and I were the ones folding/unfolding. The good news though, the 5 times we’ve taken the chair onto the daladala with us we have not been charged any extra fees.
The chair rode straight and true for Zakeria as he rolled into work, and all of the workers gathered around us to watch our amazing folding chair. They were all excited to see it, and it felt good to see the mute and deaf’s happy expressions and we watched as they signed with each other. Before we left, I decided to ask Zakeria if he could fold the chair back up, as we would be leaving him and need to see how user friendly it was, and he would need to know how it worked for when he took the daladala home. It took him about five to ten minutes to do it, but he finally got everything where it needed to go. The backrest fold was definitely easier for him to do, as the caster wheel provides a lot of torque and is difficult to maneuver into its slot.
On Monday it was Nanenane day. Nane is 8 in Swahili (so August 8th, 8-8). It is a national holiday for farmers, and there was a huge festival in the Southeast area of Arusha. Ben and I had hoped to go, but we weren’t sure where it was exactly. So we went back to the hotel to figure it all out. As we passed by the local futbol field, I noticed there was a pickup game, the first one Ive seen since being here. Geoff had always planned on joining in on one of those games, so I thought to myself that it was too bad Geoff had gone to Dar es Salaam for the rest of his stay in Tanzania. But when I walked into the hotel, Geoff turned the corner! I immediately told him about the futbol game, and we got our shorts on and played for about an hour with 15 local guys. We approached the field and asked if we could join. They told Geoff to go one way, and me the other. It didn’t take long to realize I was surrounded by 8 opponents, and I only had one teammate around me. There were a couple other guys on my team, but were cherry picking on offense. So it ended up being 10 on 5, though the four guys on my team were clearly more skilled than the other team. It has been a long time since I’ve played soccer, and on straight dirt and rock, it was very difficult to control the ball. Needless to say, I made a pretty good fool of myself by losing control of the ball on a couple of breakaways. Finally, I was able to score a goal (on an unmanned foot wide goal, marked by a couple of stones). Geoff was also fortunate to score…shooting about five feet wide of the goal, deflecting off my inner calf, and rolling into the goal. It was one of the experiences here that was truly unique and I will always remember.
After showering, Geoff, Ben, and I took a taxi to meet Beth by the festival. We got 5 minutes out of the festival, when we ran into the heaviest traffic possible. So we ended up getting out and walking the rest of the way. The festival was pretty much an expo for a bunch of farmers to show off their products, as well as for developing farming techniques companies, and a zoo where we saw a bunch of cows, snakes, a baby hyena, pigs, and chickens.
The festival is three days long, beginning on Sunday. Daniel visited on Sunday, and had told Ben and I about the Arusha Technical College booth, where they had developed a motorized tricycle (something Daniel wanted us to work on if we had time). As good of an idea it is, an average chair costs $250. A motor cost around $500. So motorizing a wheelchair triples the price of the chair, and very few people can afford something like this. I talked with the guys who made it for a while, and asked if there was a differential in it for turning. They told me it did, but I couldn’t see one. Regardless, it was neat to see and to talk with the guys there.
Today, Ben and I went into the shop to find now power. It didn’t matter all that much, since we didn’t have much to do. We spent a few hours cutting material and riveting seat and backrests so they could be tied onto the chairs. Shortly after lunch, the power came on and I began working on a way to consistently drill a centered and straight hole through angle iron. I found a way to do so, and successfully did it twice. I could have continued, but the large drill bit is a bit dull and catches on the material, and I can only endure so much semi-unsafe drilling.
We then took the backrest/armrest from our failed prototype here, cut it apart, and rebent the armrest to the 24.5cm radius. We then stuck one of them on the jig and made another successfully folding armrest. We hope to use our two armrests (one which was made on friday) and put them onto the chair we made in Boston once we get it back from Zakeria.
Lastly, Ben and I discussed further steps. Ben suggested we email some of the wheelchair donors and see if they would give Mobility Care some funds in order to make 4 or 5 prototypes of the chair as well, to insure they could make the process repeatable on their own. In the next few days, I will make a neat instruction manuel in order to help them with the process of making the chair. It’s amazing to think that I will only have one day with power here. At the same time, I can’t wait to get home!
