The Fon´s waterturbine and a big suprise for the Germans (by Edwin)

29.10.2009 von Johannes.

Travel

On Tuesday the 14^th of July 2009, Johannes Hertlein and Njonguo Edwin of GREEN STEP e.V. were joined by Kristen (a United States Peace Corps Volunteer working with Nkong Hill Top-Buea), Folefac Vincent Anu (Delegate of Nkong Hill Top) and Sylvester Fondu the driver, for a field trip to Lebialem from the 14^th to the 17^th of July. Johannes parked all the stuff needed for the trip in the vehicle on the eve of the trip to ensure timely departure at 7:00 am on Tuesday 14^th. This worked out until 7:00 am when Johannes and Vincent met Edwin and Kristen at the Nkong Hill Top office at Buea from their Great Soppo Street 8 residences. At the office, Vincent remembered that he forgot his laptop at home so there was need to go back to Vincent’s house. Kristen and Edwin therefore packed their stuff in the boot of the vehicle (Toyota Hilux) haphazardly because Sylvester was still waiting at his Bonduma residence where he was supposed to pack his lots in the vehicle and seal the boot for the trip. Driving from Street 3 junction to Street 8 junction to collect Vincent’s laptop, Edwin’s bag (brief-case) containing documents and a digital camera dropped. This was only noticed when the team joined Sylvester at Bonduma. Johannes told Edwin of the missing bag, but Eddwin though Johannes was joking until Edwin alighted to cofirm for himself. “What if the bag is missing?” Johannes asked. “Then it is missing”, Edwin replied, adding that luckily, there was no laptop inside. The team made a u-turn to go in search of the bag between Bonduma and Street 8. Just then did Atemnkeng Claudia of Nkong Hill Top call Vincent saying that the bag was found at Street 7, Great Soppo. It could never have fallen in a better place than in front of the house of a former Nkong Hill Top staff, Forcha Angeline, fondly called Madam Angeline. The bag was therefore collected from there and the team hit the road at exactly 7:45 am. Without any stop, not even at Melong for the usual snacks and drinks, it was a very smooth 4hour-ride till ACREST at Baleveng, a small village beside Mbouda in the Western Region of Cameroon.

 

ACREST

Momanyi the Kenyan, Ghislain and Arsene who had just returned to ACREST from a wind turbine training workshop organised at Buea by GREEN STEP e.V. and Nkong Hill Top were very fascinated to see and welcome the team of 5. They could however, recognise just Vincent, Johannes and Edwin. Kristen and Sylvester were then introduced to the ACREST staff. The latter showed the visiting team around ACREST, especially for Vincent, Kristen and Sylvester who were all visiting for the very first time. About 45 minutes later, the Managing Director/Proprietor of ACREST in the person of Vincent Kitio, arrived from the market where he went shopping. A complete introduction was made, with Vincent (Nkong Hill Top) and Vincent (ACREST) gladly meeting each other. It was now time for GREEN STEP e.V. (represented by Johannes) to agree on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ACREST (represented by Vincent Kitio and Simon) in the presence of Nkong Hill Top, represented by Vincent Anu and Edwin who doubles as GREEN STEP e.V. staff.

Johannes could not print the MoU because his laptop broke down just before he could back up his files on Sunday 12^th. Therefore, Simon needed some 1hr to download and print the MoU sent to ACREST by Johannes via internet. Very few, if not no questions or objections, came from ACREST regarding the draft MoU presented them by GREEN STEP e.V. Both organisations signed 4 copies of the MoU with each organisation retaining 2 copies. Immediately after the signing, the team from Buea again hit the road for M’muock through Dschang where Alemnkeng Francis of GREEN STEP e.V. joined the team.  

 

M’muock

It took some few minutes short of 2 hours to arrive M’muock Fosimondi from Dschang, although the state of the road is getting worse by the day. There was no need for any announcement prior to everybody dressing warm as the cold of the area said “Welcome” especially to Vincent and Kristen who were visiting for their very first time. To Sylvester, his second visit seemed colder than the first. “Everybody may have to be evacuated from this village”, he said in humour. A relaxation night at the market-square over a few bottles of beer was characterised by some general discussions on the village and its people. Johannes and Kristen were later taken to the Nkweteyim’s beside the Nkongle Market, where GREEN STEP staff usually lodge, while Vincent, Francis, Sylvester and Edwin lodged at Foh-Zeshung’s palace at Mbelenka, some 150m away from the market square. This was just for Tuesday night though, as the team was to descend to Fon Fozao’s residence beside Molah Palace on Wednesday morning to start work.

 

Trip to Fon’s Private Residence/Molah Palace

On the way down to Molah Palace, the team got stuck at the middle of nowhere when Sylvester announced that the vehicle clutch was finished. This was about mid-way Mbelenka and Molah Palace. How could this have been sensed so that a spare clutch was taken along. There was no choice than pushing the vehicle off the narrow road and attempting to rely on mechanics of the area who were also not available. There was now need for Edwin to call Fonang Jacob (owner of a similar Toyota Hilux) and get the contact number of his mechanic at Dschang to rush and salvage the situation.

 

In order to save time and cost, Edwin further called the Nkong Hill Top mechanic in Buea, obtained the exact description of the clutch-plate type which David Tanjong gave as ASCO 106, and provided the mechanic from Dschang with. Meanwhile, Johannes, Francis and Kristen were already trekking to Fon Fozao’s residence. Dr. Kennedy, who just arrived the palace Wednesday morning on special assignment from MUDECA and the Fon sent some 3 boys to transport the few portable materials that the hired motor-bike could not take along.  Vincent, Sylvester and Edwin later trekked down also. After trekking for over 45 minutes instead of the 20 minutes estimated by Johannes, Vincent said “Johannes estimated the distance as a typical BANGWA-MAN would do”.

With all the necessary working materials and tools available at the Fon’s residence, work proceeded smoothly for the installation of the water turbine to generate electricity. In a bid to test Francis’ ability after his training by Johannes since late February, Johannes left most of the work to Francis which he successfully did, that is, construction of the dam, piping and fixing the turbine to the ground. Meanwhile, the rest of the team from Buea, accompanied by Dr. Kennedy (also from Buea) and Ajamah (Teacher from Yaounde) visited the GREEN STEP constructed water turbine at Folepai water-fall which powers Molah palace. A few irregularities such as water getting into the altenator casing were identified as the possible cause of the turbine not working for about a week. It was not even possible to measure the electricity output from the turbine because the volt/ahm metre battery got broken. Johannes promised to work on it on Thursday morning. By 4:00 pm, all converged at Molah palace for a hectic lunch prepared by the wives of the palace. Francis and the boys who assisted him, as well as the mechanics from Dschang who had also completed their job and drove the repaired vehicle down to the palace all joined the hectic lunch. The mechanics were however, in a hurry since it was getting dark hence departed for Dschang. It was another relaxation evening over a few bottles of drinks at the 3-corners market square where there were interesting discussions on politics, education, development, etc. The cold and the rains were however irresistible, so by 9:30 pm, all headed home where supper was already set: next was sleeping time.

 

 

 

Connection and Completion at Fon’s Residence

            On Thursday morning, Johannes and Francis connected the Fon’s residence directly from the turbine through a battery bank and a 1000w inverter. The residence was and is presently powered through this renewable energy technology. All present shouted in joy as it lighted: there was no doubt if it will work yet there is always joy when it works. Epessa and Peter were guided and given strict instructions on how to manage the system. Edwin put the instructions in writing and designed tables in an exercise book to ease data collection for the two. The two were provided with Francis’ contact number to always call in case of any fault.

      

 

Coronation of Nkem at Palace

Little did the GREEN STEP/NKONG HILL TOP team know that Dr. Kennedy’s special assignment extended beyond witnessing the installation of the water turbine at the Fon’s residence. By noon on Thursday, a more hectic lunch was prepared at the palace for their guests. To some of the guests, it seemed like celebrating the newly lighted house, but it was more to this. After eating and drinking, Dr. Kennedy and some notables ceremoniously marched into the palace community hall with two sets of beautiful regalia. The wives of the Fon craved the indulgence of all and expressed their ‘thank you message’ to GREEN STEP/NKONG HILL TOP for all they had done to the palace and to M’muock Fosmondi, making mention of the renewable energy and environmental education benefits. Particularly, they declared to Johannes and Cornelia (in absencia) that they have now become son/daughter of M’muock Fosimondi, and should therefore feel at home any time they are at M’muock Fosimondi.

 

 

It was at this juncture that Dr. Kennedy spoke on behalf of MUDECA and the Fon, sending words of thanks across and re-assuring collaboration between M’muock Fosimondi and GREEN STEP/NKONG HILL TOP. The highest-ranking notables then rose, invited Johannes to stand before all present, coronated him with the rank of NKEM, decorated him with traditional regalia, and automatically changed his sitting position. “Welcome to the trail of NKEMs”, he was told. Onwards, he will always sit to the right of any building in case of any traditional occasion. Kristen did the great ‘photography job’ in and out of the hall as well as in front f the palace. Although absent, Cornelia Ehlers was raised to the same ranks. Her absence was really regretted as she had to cut-short her stay in Cameroon for some very important call back in Germany. Her set of traditional regalia and good-will messages were sent through Johannes who will be travelling to Germany at the end of the month.

 

 

 

Departure to Mbelenka

The coronation of the NKEMs was great but the team was again thinking of how to arrive Mbelenka again, considering the bad state of the road and the great hills. With this fear of being stuck, the team trekked for about an hour to the point of the vehicle which went ahead. The vehicle was full beyond capacity and Edwin had to make it up to Mbelenka sitting on the luggage. The trip was far better than was expected as we were not stuck at any point. After the team visited the rain-water harvest tank constructed by GREEN STEP, Dr. Kennedy and Ajamah continued their journey to Buea and Yaoundé respectively.

 

Departure through Dschang to Menji and back to Buea.

On Friday 17^th, the GREEN STEP/NKONG HILL TOP team departed M’muock at 7:00 am. Hendrieck, a German volunteer working at Bamenda-Cameroon, joined the team at Dschang where Edwin transited for some 5 hours as they headed for Menji. The plan was to pick Edwin up at Dschang upon return from Menji for the return trip to Buea, while Kristen and Hendrieck travel to Bamenda. On the to Dschang from Menji, Johannes called to tell Edwin that they mistakenly forgot to pick him up and were already at Santchou. Both Edwin and Johannes bursted into laughter over the interesting joke, then Johannes told Edwin they were to arrive Dschang in about 15 minutes which they did. The team was again at Buea by 9:30 pm for Vincent to have a rest and prepare for the NKONG HILL TOP General Assembly meeting which was slated for Saturday 18^th July 2009.

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WIND TURBINE TRAINING WORKSHOP – 30th MAY TO 14th JUNE 2009

10.7.2009 von Cornelia.

(Author: Edwin Njonguo) A training workshop on Wind Turbine construction was held from Saturday May 30^th to Sunday June 14^th, 2009 at the National Advanced School of Public Works – Buea Annex (NASPW-AB). Organised by GREEN STEP e.V. GERMANY and NKONG HILL TOP-BUEA, the training workshop was aimed at representatives of Schools, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and individual craftsmen in order to create a Renewable Energy multiplier effect in Cameroon. The workshop had as objectives to train participants on how to construct whole wind turbines, maintain broken wind turbines, create renewable energy multiplier effects, and to promote renewable energy businesses in Cameroon.

 

 There were thirty two (32) participants split into two groups, working for six full days each. The first group began training on the 30^th of May and was only having sessions over the week-ends (staggered training), that is, Saturdays and Sundays for three consecutive weekends, ending on June 14th. This group was made up of 20 participants, 15 of whom came from the NASPW-AB (2 teachers and 13 students), and the rest 5 were individual craftsmen from within Buea.

 

The second group was made up of 12 participants most of whom came from outside Buea, representing organisations/institutions such as ACREST of Bangang (beside Mbouda in the Western Region), Government School Fosimondi of M’muock Fosimondi village in Lebialem Division, Strategic Humanitarian Services (SHUMAS) of Kumbo in the North Western Region, Ecole Nationale Supérieur Polytechnique (ENSP-UYI) of Yaoundé, International Centre for Norms and Values (ICNV) of Buea, Dav Furnitures (DAVF) of Buea, GREEN STEP e.V. and Nkong Hill Top CIG of Buea. The session for the second group ran from the 9^th to the 14^th of June (block training), with both groups working together on the last two days (13^th and 14^th) of the whole workshop.

The workshop trainer was Johannes Hertlein who worked from May till June 14^th without any weekend, alongside Njonguo Edwin, the workshop coordinator, and Bambot Lynda who was in charge of catering and always ensured that participants had their meal, and in time.

 

Johannes took the participants from scratch, beginning with some theory for about an hour, followed by actual hands-on training. All these included training on identifying a favourable site for wind and the quantity that could be harvested; the size of the turbine; where the materials can be found and their prices; carving the blades; making the coil winder and moulds; winding the coils; placing magnets; fabricating the stator; explaining the rectifier, cable and battery system; constructing the tail; vanishing and painting; turbine assembly and wiring; fabricating the tower; erecting the tower and finally erecting the turbine. Basically, it involved metal, wood and electrical work.

The training was, at least, gender sensitive with 2 of the 32 participants being able ladies (Odelia and Vanessa), both from the NASPW-AB. Generally, all participants were always punctual and very pro-active.

In the course of the training, both groups worked with the trainer in producing two turbines, one with blades made out of wood, and the other with blades made out of pressure pipe. The former was offered to M’muock Fosimondi (Lebialem Division), where the GREEN STEP e.V. (GS) project pilot phase is implemented, and the latter to NASPW-AB, received by the Director (Mr. Kouontchou) on behalf of the school.

 

In the course of the training, two members of “Engineers without Boarders”  British chapter came visiting at the workshop venue where they were briefed on the GREEN STEP e.V. technology by Edwin. The two were very fascinated and appreciated the technology as well as the GS approach to disseminate knowledge.

 

At the end of the training, the participants were instructed by Cornelia and Claudia Atemnkeng on how to now start a business on the acquired knowledge. GS motivated the participants by establishing a loan scheme through which the participants can obtain loans to start renewable energy businesses. The participants, in filling out evaluation forms provided them by GS, gave their appreciation of the training.

 

To mark the end of the training workshop, the donated turbine was erected at the NASPW-AB on the 14^th of June 2009 at about 2:00 pm where the Director was invited to receive and switch on the turbine on behalf of the school. All participants were then accorded each, a certificate of participation and successful completion. Just before the award of certificates, and coinciding with the closing date of the workshop (14^th June), Cornelia made to Edwin an amazing surprise, presenting a pleasant birthday gift and congratulating him for coordinating a wonderful training workshop. The award of certificates was followed by group photographs of organisers, participants, the hosts, guests, as well as individual photographs.

 

 

 

 

At the end of it all, journalists were very interested in the news making event and granted interviews to the trainer, Johannes, Cornelia, Edwin, Vincent Anu, and a few others. Most interesting during the interviews was the fact that journalists kept moving cameras and recorders up and down, and very close to Cornelia’s face. This she admitted was amusing and distracting her from concentrating on what to say. The movie can be seen at: http://www.africanews.com/site/Communitybased_green_energy_in_Cameroon/list_messages/25662

 

 

Immediately after the closing, the Director of the NASPW-AB in his joy invited all who were there present for a drink at Pavilion Hotel, in celebration of the wonderful event.

 

GREEN STEP e.V. and NKONG HILL TOP in this way joined the rest of the world in advance to celebrate the first ever Global Wind Day which was June 15^th 2009.

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M’MUOCK RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT (MREP) TEST PHASE GOES OPERATIONAL

5.3.2009 von Johannes.

Beneficiaries around the Molah Palace in our partner community, M’uock Fossimondi, can now enjoy electricity generated by the GREEN STEP e.V. produced water turbine.

Travels

  A team of five persons travelled in two sets on the 5 th and on the 7 th of February 2009 to M’muock Fossimondi at Lebialem Division in the South West Region of Cameroon, all the way from Buea – a distance estimated at 310 Km.

Asonganyi Joseph had the credit of ensuring that the first set, Cornelia Ehlers and Njonguo Edwin travelled safely to M’muock, alongside some of the bulk of the wind and water turbine components transported knocked-down. He even did the wonderful job of driving back to Buea on the 6th and again to M’muock on the 7th with the rest of the team, that is, Johannes Hertlein and Reinhold Hertlein , as well as the rest of the bulk of the materials needed for erecting the wind and water turbine demo sites. On Monday the 9th of February, the above five were further joined by Nkemalem Francis from Menji who will be working in the technical department of the Project.

Water Turbine Demo Site

Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th were basically used to put together the materials needed for the demo site, such as sand, gravel, and other tools. Musa Tezeh of M’muock village was of great assistance in ensuring these. It was even very interesting to know that the indigenes were willing to sell some materials at reduced prices in order to see development come to them the soonest possible.

Meanwhile, Cornelia went straight into business as she began the training of the women’s groups and the school clubs on environmental issues the very next day.

With the arrival of the rest of the team on Saturday the 7th , Sunday the 8th saw a very busy day  for the G  REEN STEP e.V. team as work began at exactly 9:00am with a 10km drive down to Molah Palace from the Mbelenka Market Square, and eventually, the transportation of the construction materials from the palace to the less than a kilometre waterfall called “Fohlepai”. A concrete was constructed at the foot of the waterfall to fix the small water turbine to the ground in order to avoid loosing it to any unscrupulous individual or group. Reinhold particularly did a good job here.

 

A provision of 48 hours was made for the concrete to fully solidify, then followed another visit to the site on Wednesday the 11th when a dam was constructed at the top of the waterfall to direct much water into the PVC pipe that connects to the turbine. The initial flow had just little pressure, unable to rotate the generator, but with the idea of the technicians, Johannes and Reinhhold, assisted by Edwin, Francis, Joseph, Chief Festus Fonang, Musa Tezeh and a few others from the Molah Palace and it’s neighbourhood, the dam was given another phase which finally brought the desired water-flow, and hence rotating the generator of the water turbine. Asked what his overall impression was at that stage, Johannes said “I think we are now generating electricity”, and truly, electricity was being generated.

 

The challenge even lied ahead to stabilise the fluctuating flow of electricity. It meant redoing the dam, straightening the PVC pipe and reconnecting it into the water turbine, as well as stopping all leakages. It could take less than an hour to accomplish this task but it was more demanding and quite technical. Renewed brainstorming and plunging back to work finally had the electricity detection metre reading properly by midday. Three hours later, the metre reading indicated that something was not going right, this time, a minor concern. Reinforcing the blockade at the dam to step up the water level for increased pressure automatically solved the problem, and today, we can proudly say that it is working – the indicator metre and bulbs could show.

Whereas, seven interested beneficiaries were selected by the community to test the electricity generated by the water turbine. Two of whom were chosen to manage the demo site.

The two managers, Nkemtiafie Thomas and Nkemeloh David, were on Wednesday the 11th of  February 2009 drilled by Johannes and Edwin on how to go about the process and what is expected of them. It was particularly reiterated to them that the batteries should never go below 11.5 volts, neither should they exceed 14.2 volts. Overcharge and undercharge circuit controllers are however, built in the battery boxes to switch of automatically when maximum or minimum level respectively is attained. They found it very interesting and are already doing the job right.

 

The beneficiaries paid a refundable deposit of 10,000 frs cfa each and collected a set of 12volt car battery and bulb provided by GREEN STEP e.V. Beneficiaries take the battery to the charging point and pay a fee of 600 frs each time the battery is charged, and the electricity in the battery can light up a house for up to 10 days before it can be recharged again.  

Wind Turbine Demo Site

 

The GREEN STEP e.V./NKONG HILL TOP team worked on the wind turbine site on Monday the 9th of February from 8:00 am and were visited by Dr. Erecting the wind turbine was really communual work as the village community could not wait to enjoy electricity from such source for the very first time. They contributed in the cutting of the poles and erecting of the turbine as instructed. Work at this site will

Coping With a Work Partner in Language Barrier

 

The eight days passed on the field was that of actual division of labour, improved specialisation, and yet committed team work and total collaboration amongst the entire team. Sign Communication and Irrigation skills are some skills we developed and learnt as Reinhold only speaks German while Edwin speaks English. It was very fascinating as both of them paired up perfectly and did the job successfully.

 

Moreso, the inreased rate of water shortage at M’muock especially during the dry season calls for innovative techniques. Mending and linking pipes were only a provisional solution. GREEN STEP e.V. and NKONG HILL TOP are presently researching on Ram Pump Technology for irrigation to relief M’muock of the critical water crisis.

© Njonguo Edwin, February 2009.

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How things will move on and the story of a hectic visit to Germany in January

16.2.2009 von Cornelia.

Dear friends and supporters,

After our last blog on December we went on a short holiday to Kribi (to get some sun!) and then spent new years with our Canadian friends of International Children Awareness in Lewoh. Except for the fact that nobody seemed to care that it was new years, when we celebrated it, it was a pleasant and very interesting stay down in the valley! We learned a lot on health care in the village and on the solar-light systems the NGO had distributed down there. Thank you Ed!

In the picture you can see our adventurous trip down to the valley on January 1st!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public transport

We took the trip on public transport this time, since the office vehicle was needed for other purposes. An adventure on its own - we had to walk some of the hilly parts since the bus was not able to climb the hills with so much load and we got stopped and checked at several police-stops - but we managed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news: sponsors stay with the project

But let me start with the good news – in our last blog we explained the problems we are facing and told you that we needed some response from our sponsors before we know how to go on. Well – the good news is, they all approved of our new plan B an we can now happily move on with the project.

Trip to M’muock – explaining the plan B to the villagers

After our trip to Lewoh we made our way to M’muock Fosimondi to discuss with the villagers first of all the delay of the demonstration site put up (some of the electrical parts we needed hadn’t been ready then) and also the shift of the project and training. The craftsmen on the one hand were disappointed that we needed to take the technical training for the wind- and waterturbine to a different village, but they understood that they are able to come with us, if they are very interested to still learn the technology. We also discussed some of the pressing issues in the village and tried to find out where we could be of a assistance with a different environmental technical training. The biggest problem now is water irrigation in the dry season. We will be trying to work out something with the villagers and our technology and environmentally friendly approach.

Environmental school clubs and women groups

Apart from that I was travelling to visit the schools to discuss with them the possibility of launching environmental school clubs whose activities we would be supporting. The teachers and headmasters as well as principals were very much interested. And in February we will be having the first workshop with the teachers on what activities those clubs could get involved in and how they are to be run.

I will also be working with the women groups to find solutions to the high firewood usage and also on other environmental protection activities.

Hehe – eat my dust!

e left the village on bikes – unfortunately Johannes had to eat my dust – which made the whole of Dschang laugh out loud when they saw him reaching the town. And here is why J:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short trip to freezing cold Germany

On January 10^th then we left for Germany – after a flight missed by 24 hours (yes we were really stupid and mixed up times…) we reached freezing cold Germany on January 12^th. We refused to leave the airport since it was 36 degrees colder than in Douala and our winter clothes were in the car…

Presentations of the project in Hammelburg and Munich

On January 12^th we gave a little presentation to supporters, friends and family in the small town of Hammelburg. Thank you Stefan for arranging this event! About 20 people were there – we never thought it would be that many!

And on January 13^th I was leaving for Munich, while Johannes had to meet the press J

It started with an Interview on the radio on January 14^th and ended with a press conference with our “Schirmherr” Hans-Josef Fell (he is a parliamentarian of the area and speaks in favour of our project) in Schweinfurt. Johannes even had an interview on TV!

You can download and see all those press reports, interviews etc. on www.green-step.org/news.htm.

On Januar 21^st we then gave a presentation on the project in Munich – thank you Bernadette for arranging it! About 25 people came to listen and discuss with us!

On January 23^rd I gave a presentation on travelling in Cameroon and was sure nobody would turn up to that – but believe it or not – 25 people were sitting there! Many of whom had either lived in Cameroon or wanted to travel there!

Visiting a supporting school and a sponsor

Johannes also visited one school in Würzburg. They had been selling little things before Christmas they had produced and had donated that money to our project – how wonderful is that? Johannes went there to give a presentation on the project and on the technology.

He also went to visit the Umweltbank – the bankers on bike – initiative had donated a huge sum to our project in 2008.

 

The mud issue

In-between all those presentations we managed to buy all sorts of presents and some foodstuff we needed (since some things we missed are either incredibly expensive in Cameroon or unavailable). And we visited Angelika – she had lived in Cameroon some time ago and had worked on clay and improved cook stoves. She did some testing for us on the mud we had brought from M’muock (to the very big amusement of the villagers – they could not believe that we would be taking their dirt to Germany J). Unfortunately we found out that the mud is not burning well and we cannot use it for cook stoves… we need to find a new solution here…

Well and on January 27^th we left again for Cameroon. This time with some additional help – Johannes father came with us to help putting up the demonstration sites.

We will report on this soon!

All the best

Cornelia and Johannes

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You just cannot plan for everything, sometimes things just happen…

17.12.2008 von Cornelia.

First there was: Enthusiam

That is the right word for what we felt just after we came back from the village in the beginning of November – we worked hard, too hard – since Johannes then lay down with a back-problem for three days, cause he really wanted to finish that water turbine for the next trip to M’muock. We met with the MUDECA president discussed with him our plan for the village and met with Vincent and Dr. Kennedy and were all really excited that now the project was going to really make a step forward.

 

We worked on our data from the questionaires – evaluating them and we wrote a project report (unfortunately only available in German) about our progress so far.

 

We really had the feeling everything was just going perfectly as we had planned – except for the delay we had had due to the late arrival of material from Germany and the customs problems.

But then it hit us hard – shortly after we had sent out our project report to our donors and funders in Germany in late November we got news that a transformer had been erected in our project village…meaning that the village will be connected to the national grid line in 2009. Meaning also that our renewable erngy systems that we were to train on cannot compete with the subsidised AES Sonel electricity. And that we had made clear from the beginning of the project – that if Sonel comes the project is useless…

 

Demotivation and shock

That was the feeling we then had – from – we have to cancel the whole project to how stupid were we and to “how will we ever explain this to anyone at home?” – as we thought nobody will believe that we did not know about this transformer and everybody will blame us for being really stupid and naiv and not being able to plan well. We had some sleepless nights and were almost ready to go home and just drop everything. We had the feeling that everything we worked to hard on had just been a huge waste of time!

 

Carry on with it

Our partners and especially Vincent and Dr. Kennedy made us not jump to conclusions and asked us to stick with the program for the project for the time being until we had been to the village and seen what the feeling of the villagers was. But at the same time we also started working on a plan B, that would include looking for a second village and starting the whole project there.

 

So we did – and we were glad we did. We went on December 4^th to an agricultural show in Menji, where we saw the opportunity to speak to different villagers from the Lebialem area to start looking for a second village. During our stay there we stayed at Vincents brothers house – which was amazing – he has a livestock farm where he in the long run wishes to train young people from the area in livestock farming as a different source of income. The place is amazing and he showed us around his farm where he keeps all sorts of chicken, pigs, rabbits and bushmeat – procypine and canerat. We were really glad to have met him and had some quality time in his compound.

 

canerat

 porcypine

 mhmhm - snails

 

Unfortunately it rained during the agric show – which made the minister of agriculture run through the field to visit the stands since he did not wish to get too wet. It was quite a funny sight – everybody trying to run after him and throwing some last words and comments on him about the projects they were carrying out. Since the rain was not usual for december there was of course the rumour that the people of menj had jinxed the weather to show the minister how bad the roads to Menji were and how much people suffer there. The rumors died out though after they found out that it had rained all over the south west province

We had quite some busy time at the show – since many people came to enquire about the technology and project and Edwin spent the whole day explainig things. We got some good contacts out of the show and it is now for us to start identifying those new villages and seeing what potential they have for wind and/or water.

 

 

After the show we went to M’muock Fosimondi as planned and saw the transformer erected directly in the compound we usually stay in – make you really believe that there is something like jinxes here J. We also found out that for 2009 four additional transformers are planned for the village – meaning the village will be connected to the national grid soon…

In the village we met with our project-helpers in the village Musa and Chief Fonang Festus to discuss the new developments and also to discuss this with the benficiaries of the demonstration wind- and waterturbines as well as with the interested craftsmen that wished to take part in the training. They were all still really in favour of carrying on with full scale of the project, but we got the feeling that it was for the craftsmen more important to have any technical training in the village that would help them use the force of wind or water to do things like water pumping and so on. They also had the idea of building turbines and selling them to neighbouring villages. And the were talking a lot about bringen M’muock on a map. But we have to say – this is and was not the aim of the project – the aim is to bring a source of electricity and in that development to rural areas where there is no. The aim is not to exclusivly do something for M’muock – if that was the case then we should have named our organisation differently… So for our own decision about how to carry on we had to consider that what people in village say and said includes an interest of “not letting the whitemen go”. But we still did consider all they said and now made our mind up and came to the following plan B.

 

Plan B

After hearing what they had to say we came up with this:

 

-          we will erect the demonstration sites for wind and water in the beginning of january and people can test them for 3 months – in that way we get some experience and data on what needs to be improved and people can see the advantage/disadvantage of the turbines towards national grid. After 3 months they can decide on whether they want to buy the turbines or if the want to give it back to us.

-          we will drop training on our wind- and waterturbines since there will be no market for the craftsmen to sell the turbines to and the turbines cannot compete with Sonel

-          we will continue the project planning on environmental education and farming methods in M’muock and if time and ressources are there we will do some technical training on water pumping with wind

-          we will look for a second village to start the training there – this time with more consideration and research on what are plans for electrification for the village. This actually has some positive aspects since we will have the chance to train a projectmanager of Cameroon hands on o how to go about implementing the project in new villages.

-          we will continue with the rest of the project (mulitplier trainings) as planned

 

 

People in M’muock still wish to carry on with the full scale of the project as said before. But the project is about training those villagers that are in need. That means villages were there is no light and training for craftsmen of those villages. Now that Sonel is coming to M’muock, it is not in need of electricity any more. That does not mean that we will drop the village – but the focus of trainings and the focus of projects has to shift. Time and ressources for this project and for us are limited and since training the craftsmen of M’muock might make the project somewhat useless and unsustainable (since they would have no market to sell to) and would not not serve the project aim we think that the above stated plan B is the best option.

 

We are not dropping M’muock, but we need to adjust the project so that it really makes sense for everyone.

 

The fact finding mission

We also went on a fact finding mission to find out how we could have not known about this transformers and whether any of the project-partners is to blame for withholding information or for not doing research well. We were able to find out that no-one is to blame directly, since Nkong Hilltop did research since December 2007 very well with the ministries. I myself went to the delegation of the ministry of economic planning and rural development ( I forgot if that is the right name – there is a million ministries here!) to look up the “logbook” where all projects for all villages in Cameroon are planned in and that is brought out every january for one year. And NOTHING is stated in the logbook about a transformer for M’muock Fosimondi in 2008. The person we met there did not know anything about it either. He said that maybe since the neighbouring village had a project on electrification in 2008 the contractor put one of the transformers from there to our village.

Another reason might be that the people of M’muock gathered quite a sum to start building a hospital and the government planned for 2009 to assist the village on this. So maybe since this was on they thought light might be good option too for the village – you never know.

We also wonder if me might have awakened sleeping dog when we informed all the various delegations and minstries about our planned project…

And another option would be someone just pulling the right trigger somewhere in some minstry for this rural electrification project to be taken up again…

However it was – this is the new situation now and we will deal with it as described above.

 

Our naivity

What we of GREEN STEP have to admit is that we had seen power lines going up to the village (high voltage) in 2007 (they were there since 2005/6), but the project had been dropped and everyone we spoke to and everywhere were our project partners enquired said that the project had been inactivated and that there were no plans to take it up again in the near future. We ourselves relied on this information and we did not consider that Sonel might take it up again since they had been privatised and have no incentive to bring light to villages since they don’t consume much. And it also wasn’t Sonel that brought the transformer but the government. This we did not research well enough – we should have known that these decisions are made by the government and not the company.

We did not consider this enough in our project planning and we take full responsibility for this and wish to apologize if anyone feels we have mislead them about this project. We do feel a little bit naiv and stupid about this, but on the other hand – it is a lesson learned for us that we will consider strongly with any project planning from now on.

 

After all – these are circumstances that we could not influence and we strongly believe that it is ok to make mistakes as long as you stand up for them and learn from them.

 

We will carry on with project now – a little slower as before and not rushing into things, but we are strongly believing that with this Plan B we found a good solution and will now be able to reach even more people.

 

After all this up and down of feelings, fact findings, 11-hour- days 7 days a week we will now be going on a short vacation for christmas and be going up to Lebialem on the 31^st with Ed from International Children Awareness (Canada) to see his projects and villages, trying to see if there might be any suitable second villages.

On January 2^nd we will be back in the village to erect the test-sites and speak with the craftsmen and beneficiaries again!

 

Something funny in the end - we passed this villag on our way to Menji - we were laughing aloud when we saw as it has the name every european would imagin an african village should have. It iven got a website!

 

 

 

Now we wish all our friends, sponsors and donors albeight the “bad news” (which are actually good news since the village is getting light, although not through our project) a

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Cornelia and Johannes

 

 

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M’muock Fosimondi sees it’s first windturbine produced in Cameroon

14.11.2008 von Cornelia.

On November 2nd the big day had arrived – the villagers of M’muock Fosimondi saw their first windturbine that Johannes of GREEN STEP had been building in Buea for the past weeks.

The population had gathered at the Fon’s palace because of a fundraising event of MUDECA – they were fundraising for their hospital that they want to build in the village. It is supposed to be completed by April 2009.
We (of GREEN STEP) were very impressed that the villagers and especially the elite of the village now living in towns or abroad brought together that much money in order to support the village’s health situation. This really shows the continious effort of the community to develop theit own village.

The village sports club
On the same day the village sports club was launched – it is also financed by the elite and is recognized by the government and ministry authorities that were also present at the event. On Sunday morning at 7.30 about 30-40 young guys of the village were competing against each other in a mountain race along the hills of M’muock Fosimondi. The fastest one was back after 1h 30 min (far ahead of the others) of this probably 15-20 km long track. In the afternoon the award-ceremony was held and the first girl and boy were awarded 25.000 CFA (about 40 Euro). Everyon got a small financial award for taking part in the race. Sports really get a different meaning in african villages – it is a great way to encourage personal effort and personal goals. Espacially since in Cameroon there is the Mount Cameroon race held once a year were people from all over the world compete against each other. Sports is a way to find out of misery and poverty for those young children and it is a way to gain international recognition through personal effort. It gives hope to those children and it shows that they can make it out of their sometimes miserable situation if they try hard.
I myself have never understood sports and the hype around it until I saw what good it can do to those village-kids.

The trip to and the stay in the village
But let’s get back to our visit in the village. We – Dr. Kennedy Fozao from MUDECA, Edwin – our biggest help here in Cameroon from Nkong Hilltop, Johannes and me had arrived Friday night very late at the Fon’s private house in the village and shared some drink and thoughts with him that night. The trip had been tidious since we had to go to Douala first to by a generator for the villages secondary school (some person from the village now living in the USA had sent PCs to the school and for that the school also needed a generator), and that really held us there for long.

It was dark when we reached Dschang were we had another great dinner at Mama Titi’s place. After that we made our way up the village – this time on much better roads than last time. Unfortunately the mist was so heavy that for a few parts we actually had to walk in front of the car for Edwin to see the road. But we managed and arrived safely! And we were welcomed by his majesty the Fon of M’muock when we arrived. We had never met him personally before and for us Europeans it seemed a bit strange that we were not allowed to give him our hand – when you meet him you only clap 3 times twice in your hands. But that is the tradition – so we accepted it and learned how to clap.
The hospital for a day
On Saturday we woke up because of many voices whispering in the parlour – we thought it was some sort of meeting time for him with the villagers and listening to their troubles they have had, but found out later, that the parlour actually had turned into a hospital for the morning – as the Fon is a medical doctor and give medical advice and medicine to the villagers whenever he is there.

So we had the morning to ourselves – which was nice, since it was also my birthday that day. We had some coffee and bread and played with the children and the small dog behind the house. For lunch one of the palace women brought Fufu and Achou with goat – which was just great!

Presenting the project to the Fon

And after that the Fon took some time to spend with us and listen to the renewable energy project we had been planning together with MUDECA and Nkong Hilltop over the past year. He had always been informed on the progress and ideas, but it was now the first time for us to explain our ideas directly to him. He made some great suggestions on the projectplan – especially on the way the to-be-trained craftsmen should be selected – he said it would be best to get one craftsman from each quarter since then the quarters could contribute to the material the craftsmen need to build the turbines and they would do so since they would immidiatly benefit from the training of the craftsmen afterwards.
We talked a litte more on the project and after that we went to visit the real palace – where we shared a beer with the Fon and looked at some pictures of the family.

Drinking with the elite and the villagers – or: a birthday party for me
It was already late afternoon – so the notables, Chiefs, subchiefs and other elite started to arrive in the village – all of them mounted with a craig of beer (with the master of ceremony announcing with each new craig that we should not leave now and that we have to share these drinks now)– you can imagine how the rest of the evening was passed… maybe I should note that I was the only female in the bar, having to drink one beer after the other… I don’t know how many beers later, but definitely after we had all socially bonded and were accepted in the village and definitely after I had showed the men in the bar how to open a beer bottle with a lighter and after I had promised to name our first child after the village and also after Johannes had started to only talk about the beauty of the stars in the sky and after Johannes then took 2 antibiotics instead of pain killers (which we only realised the next afternoon), we were trying to make our way back to the house into our beds… A birthday party to remember I would say 

The event – November 2nd

The next day the event in the palace started – it was sopposed to start around noon as the Fon had pledged that the whole event should be over by 2 p.m. – anyways the event started around 2-3 p.m. with the fundraising – we were listening to a list of names and numbers for a while and then some upraisal occured since someone had forgotten to tell the quarter-heads that they were supposed to collect money from the quarters and not have everyone personally give their share… things cooled down, we were sweating in the sun and watched some more people chipping in some money for the hospital. Noone was listening any more… but then Johannes decided to also get up and put money in and everyone was cheering and attention was back to the event – we felt a bit uncomfortable being always the centre of attention and being praised so much, since we are not doing much from our point of view. But we were happy that we were accepted and welcomed so much in the village. And this is what we really like about the people there – they really make us welcome any time we are there!

Well after a few more lists and numbers the event was going on again – and at around 4 we were sort of done with the fundraising and moved on to the other topics. Johannes and me had the honour to speak to the people and officially launch the project in the village. So Johannes and me gave a little speech, which the president of MUDECA translated into the dialect of M’muock. And we gave our short demonstration of the turbine, and we made a little bulb light through the turbine – everyone was cheering! We explained how it works and told interested craftsmen to sign up with MUDECA to join the training that will start in early december (if all goes well). Only shortly after the presentation the first interested craftsmen showed up – and we hope that more will come and sign up for the training. We are very happy that the interest is there and are sure together we will make this project a success story.

After our presentation that the runners were awarded and the sports club officially launched and after that a few PCs were donated to the school.

It was late again when we packed up and we left the village in the dark. We arrived Dschang very late and unfortunately had a car problem again which meant that we had to spent the night in Dschang. But this time it was only a small fault – two fuses had been burnt…

A trip to other renewable energy projects in Cameroon
On Monday morning we started our round trip around the West and Northwest province, meeting some remakable people and project along the way. We thought it would be a good idea to visit the projects and get a connection between each other to establish some knowledge- and experience sharing between the projects and people.

To explain every single one would be too much, but I will just shortly present a few of them here:

ADEID
is an NGO based in Baffoussam that has been working for quite some time with renewable energy especially with micro-hydro turbines for rural electrification. They have had and still have support from the EED (a german chruch development agency).
We had a really warm welcome at their office and they showed us a lot of their technical equipment and explained abot their projects. The meeting with them was great – they have a lot of experience in the field and we think that we will be able to share quite some knowledge and experience with each other. ADEID was really interested in the generator Johannes had built (the one Hugh Pigeott is teaching www.scoraigwind.com) and we will provide them with the manual and maybe a training in february.
Unfortunately we did not take pictures at the meeting, but you can see some on their website and read more. Go to www.adeid.org

The renewable energy entrepreneur Paul

On our way out of Bafoussam we saw a small windturbine on an office and naturally we had to stop and enquire about the turbine. To our big surprise we met Paul – an importer of eletrical devices who had just out of interest built one of the turbines from internet manuals. We were really impressed by this entreprising man!
We showed him our generator and he was also fascinated. On our next visit we will bring him Hugh Pigeott’s book in french and some magnets so that he can start exploring this too.

The technician Louis and his workshop in Bafousam

We also met Louis who is the technician that builds the waterturbines for ADEID in his workshop. He too was interested in the generator and we will bring him manuals and magnets next time we visit. He might even be sending one of is trainees to Buea to learn how to built the generator with us. His friend Denis from Bamenda was also very interested and is also building waterturbines – he will equally get some manuals and magnets to experiment with.

GREENERY in Kumbo

On Tuesday then we went to Kumbo – on the most terrible road that we have been riding on – it was officially paved 4 times – but only small patches were actually paved – the rest of the money went missing… so the road still is not paved all the way through and we wonder if it ever will.

Anyways – we managed to make our way to Kumbo – a 120 km stretch from Bamenda and it took us 4 hours… there we met Jude from GREENERY (www.greenery-cm.org) to visit their yatropha nurseries. As GREEN STEP is thinking to maybe later on start a yatropha project and since we had read and learned much about this “miracle plant” on the internet we wanted to see projects that are already on the ground to find out more about it and to see what kind of experiences and difficulties these projects were meeting. Jude was really helpful – he showed us everything, explained how the project is set up, told us all he knew about yatropha and we were really greatful for that. We definetely want to meet him again and stay in touch with their project!

Mr. Abraham and the improved cookstoves

Back in Bamenda we met a really interesting man – a man who made the second prize on a technoloy contest in Yaounde a few years ago with his own invented improved cookstove. It is a charcoal cooker that can be used to cook and heat things with much less smoke than the usual three stone fire. And the guy actually has a patent on the technology- what a great entrepreneur is that ?!?
You see him here in his workshop in Bamenda!

Bamenda: CAT
In Bamenda we also visited the NGO CAT (Centre for Applied Technology) were we saw a lot of different (low tech and high tech) renewable energy appliances. CAT had been doing research and trainings on the topic. Unfortunately they do not have a website. But if your write to us, we can put you in contact with them!

ACREST

Acrest is an NGO in the West Province actually very close to were our village is situated and those guys have the greatest renewable energy parc and workshops that we have seen so far. They basically have everything that is low tech and that you can build out of locally available material there! For now they are still trying to train their own craftsmen on how to build all those things, but they also offer tour around the house for visitors. So when our training has started we will visit them again with our craftsmen, just to show them what is actually possible with renewable energy!

We were really impressed with this house and Johannes was a bit jealous on the great workshop those guys have

Read more in www.acrest.org

Eat this: We did a trip from Dschang to Bafoussam, Bamenda, Kumbo and Mbouda back to Buea in 60 hours –that was quite impressive I would say – and I do not want to do that ever again – especially the road from Bamenda to Kumbo – you need some relaxing time after having been on that terrible road! So next time – we need more time for that trip

Take care

Conny and Johannes

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Aus dem Nähkästchen – was wir sonst so treiben

29.10.2008 von Cornelia.

Whiteman, whiteman
Whiteman, whiteman, gerne auch mal hej cherie, hej baby oder hellooo, helloooo, hellooo – oder wie heute: white girl (da hab ich fast antworten müssen, da ich ja sonst auch immer whiteman genannt werde)– daran haben wir uns schon fast gewöhnt bzw. wir haben gelernt die Zurufe zu ignorieren. An der Ecke zu unserem Office sitzt eine Gruppe von jungen Männern, die die ersten Wochen nur so vor sich hin gebrüllt haben und unsere Aufmerksamkeit wollten. Inzwischen haben sie sich an uns gewöhnt und sagen nur noch Good morning…

Unser Leben hier ist ziemlich spießig, würde ich mal sagen – wir stehen um 7.00 Uhr spätestens auf, sind um acht im Büro und gehen um 17.00 Uhr wieder heim. Mittags essen wir in einem lokalen Restaurant kamerunisch zu Mittag und abends wird gekocht – denn auf dem Markt haben wir inzwischen so einiges Gemüse entdeckt (Rote Bete, Salat, Gurken, Hannis Lieblingsgericht: Bohnen und Kohl, Sellerie, Karotten, Tomaten und Auberginen und Zuchini – das war ein Highlight als ich das gefunden hatte!)
Letztens haben wir sogar eine Brotzeit gehabt – als das Survival-Paket (nach 6 Wochen per Luftpost…) meiner Mutter mit Salami und Roggenmehl ankam .

Das Internet und mein Job in D
Bei Link Up (eine NGO mit Internet Cafe) sitze ich ca. 4-5 Tage/Monat um meinem Online-Newsletterjob zu frönen – (der Job, der uns am Leben hält ;)) – und das ist wirklich angenehm – denn hier gibt es DSL und wenn nicht zu viele Leute im Internetcafe surfen ist die Verbindung fast schon schnell . Bisher klappt das auch wirklich gut mit dem Online arbeiten – drückt die Daumen, dass es so bleibt!

Unser Garten – Versuchsfeld organic farming
Johannes hat zudem inzwischen einen Garten angelegt – und sich dabei ultra den Rücken verbrannt (er konnte 3 Tage nicht auf dem Rücken schlafen) – und richtig- wir sind zu den ultimativen Spießern geworden und bauen nun unser eigenes Gemüse an…

Der Versuch heißt: ohne Dünger und Pestizid anbauen – ob das klappt ist fraglich, da unser Housekeeper auch einen Gemüsegarten hat und der Ansicht ist, dass wir vom Farming keine Ahnung haben, wird er uns mit Sicherheit einen Gefallen tun wollen und eines Tages, wenn wir heimkommen, ist alles unter Pestizid gesetzt – ich weiß es jetzt schon!

Während Johannes sich in Douala gequält hat und unseren Garten angelegt hat, habe ich mich dann auch für eine Woche flach gelegt – allerdings nicht mit einer coolen Tropenkrankheit, sondern mit

Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung – wie langweilig…
Da geht man also extra nach Afrika, um sich wenigstens eine der Krankheiten, die sich nach Abenteuer, Spannung und aufregendem Leben anhören, einzufangen – also eine Krankheit mit der man daheim dann so richtig angeben kann – nach dem Motto – ich habe den Biss einer schwarzen Mamba trotz Malaria überlebt - und was bekomme ich??? Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung. Ich konnte also noch nicht mal richtig jammern – war ja „nur“ ne Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung, allerdings heißt sie hier mit Sicherheit auch Malaria – schließlich hatte ich ja Kopfweh und dann muss es Malaria sein. Vielleicht hätte ich doch zum Arzt gehen sollen und mir die Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung ohne Fieber in eine Malaria umdeklarieren lassen sollen. Dann wäre ich zumindest auf dem Papier interessant…
Bleiben wir also bei meiner Nase – die ich während der Krankheit täglich 3 mal freiwillig mit Salzwasser spülte (kotz, würg) und die ich naturgemäß zu dieser Zeit nicht viel aus der Tür hinaus streckte. Ich verbrachte also die Woche mit unseren Fernsehrprogrammen. Mein Favorit ist nach wie vor Africa Magic – Nigerianische Filme von morgens bis abends… wobei auch Love World (Dauerpredigten von nigerianischen und anderen pentacostal - Kirchen) ziemlich klassisch ist.

Unser Fixed Wireless Phone
Nun die Krankheit hab ich auch gut überstanden und war rechtzeitig zur „rödel-phase“ wieder fit. Johannes hat sich dann noch die Zeit mit unserem neuen „Fixed Wireless Phone“ vertrieben. Kein Scherz, das heißt so und steht auch so auf der Box drauf!

Die Wundertechnik wurde in China produziert und funktioniert auch so – inzwischen haben wir das dritte Telefon daheim – beim ersten haben die Knöpfe nicht funktioniert, beim zweiten brach die Verbindung nach dem Abheben in Sekunden ab und seit gestern haben wir das dritte. Heute gehen die Knoepfe schon nicht mehr. Heute abend darf ich Nr. 4 bewundern - bin gespannt, wann wir eins finden, das funktioniert. Der Camtel Beamte meinte er hätte von einem Container voll schon die Hälfte wieder zurück bekommen…

Online Zahlungen
Damit es spannend bleibt, hat Johannes dann auch versucht einen Flug online zu buchen, was in der Sperrung seiner Kreditkarte und des Onlinezugangs endete, weil die Buchung aus Kamerun kam, und bisher nicht gelöst werden konnte, da die Verbindung immer wieder abbrach und Johannes dem Telefonkundenservice nie erklären konnte, was das Problem ist. Es wird sich aber hoffentlich alles klären… Bill – unser Mitbewohner aus den USA hat erzählt, dass er seinen Paypal Account nicht mehr nutzen kann, weil er aus Kamerun versucht hat zu kaufen.

Aber man gewöhnt sich daran, dass hier einiges einfach nicht geht. Und um ehrlich zu sein – es ist auch angenehm – die Finanzkrise z.B. ging hier ziemlich an uns vorbei (können ja eh nicht mehr an unser Geld ;))…

Ein Tag am Meer

Als die Botschafterin dann doch nicht kam, haben wir uns auch mal einen Tag am Meer gegönnt und versucht surfen zu lernen  War ein wirklich schöner Tag in Limbe – fast schon wie Urlaub  - ich hoffe ihr seid neidisch!!!!

Ach ja und noch eine Kuriosität – wir wohnen an der richtigen Kreuzung – Tuborg junction – dort steigen wir aus – es gibt zwar keinerlei ersichtlichen Grund, warum diese Kreuzung so heißt (noch nicht mal ein Tuborg Schild oder eine Bar in der Nähe), aber dort wohnen wir – beim dänischen Bier – Mama freut sich oder?

Spazieren gehen wir auch recht viel

Nun aber genug geschwafelt –

Alles Liebe aus der Sonne.

Eure
Cornelia

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Celebrating the start social award from the German Chancellor in Buea

7.10.2008 von Cornelia.

Ndanda!

Via SMS to Cameroon Johannes and me got the news that our pilot project in M’muock, Cameroon “renewable energy entrepreneurs for Cameroon” won an award on September 29th 2008 at the German national competition start social (www.startsocial.de).
GREEN STEP members Bernadette Felsch and Reinhold Hertlein were in Berlin at Angela Merkels office (who was part of the ceremony herself) to receive the award.
Here you can see a few pictures of the event.

“Help for helpers” is the motto of start social, an initiative of the German government and the german business sector to facilitate knowledge exchange between business and the social/NGO sector in Germany. Through professional help from the business sector selected projects are to be brought to success. 100 projects were selected in february 2008 to get councelling on the project plan. In July 25 of these projects were selected to visit the Bundeskanzleramt in September to take part in the award-ceremony. 7 of these projects were awarded yesterday with 5.000 Euro, among which GREEN STEP is one.

Together with the office staff of Nkong Hilltop (you can see a pciture here) we received the good news last Monday!

And together with Vincent and Edwin from Nkong Hilltop and Dr. Kennedy from MUDECA we celebrated this success in Buea at a restaurant.

It seems like it was the week of good news – since something else reached us in Cameroon yesterday – the German private foundation Louis Leitz Stiftung (www.LLstiftung.de) confirmed a donation to the budget of our project, which enables us to carry out the project for the benefit of the people of M’muock Fosimondi.

We are really happy that things are going so smooth for the project at the moment and we are greatful to all our members and supporters that believed in our project idea. Now everything is about carrying out the project, working our way through small everyday problems (like customs ) and helping the people of M’muock to learn how to produce their own electricity.

With happy greetings from Buea

Cornelia and Johannes

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The first trip to M’muock 2008

30.9.2008 von Cornelia.

Ndanda!

 

Which means something like good day in the local dialect of M’muock. We just came back from our first one week trip this year to M’muock Fosimondi (that is the full name of our project village) in Lebialem, SWProvince, Cameroon.

 

Thanks to our companions Dr. Kennedy (from the M’muock Cultural and Development Association MUDECA), Fabian and Edwin (both from our partnerorganization Nkong Hilltop) we were able to accomplish the two goals we had set for this first trip.

 

During our stay at Papa Nkyteyims house (he is the father of Patricia – our “family” in Buea) we were able to identify many possible sites for wind- and waterturbines and we were abe to train 10 interviewers in the village for our data collection on income and energyusage in the village. You can see our room and the kitchen where we spent most of the time doing our project documentation since itwas the only room that was bit warm…

 

 

 

But let us start from the beginning, since we also had some challenges to meet and adventures to go through.

We left Buea on Friday noon to go with the car of our partner organization Nkong Hilltop to Dschang and then further on to the village. By 5 p.m. we had reached Dschang on very good paved roads, went for a nice dinner at Mama Titis and left for the bad roads to M’muock. I don’t think you need any comments on the picture you see here – this is the condition of the roads and our car struggling to climb up… By the time we reached our house the car unfortunately was making funny noises… so there was no way we could be using the car again the next day. But we made it up there!

 

Saturday we were picked up early in the morning by Fabian and Dr. Kennedy and went for some Papp (some sort of fermented maize powder cooked with water) for breakfast in the village at this Mamas place:

 

Then the discussion with our bikeriders started, since there was no way we could go treck or take the car around the whole village. In the end we found an agreement and were travelling with our 5 bikeriders the whole day through the village to identify possible sites for wind- and water turbines. The aim was to select two sites where we could place the demonstration sites in November. We stopped many places and ran off into the bush and through fields and found many possible sites especially for water, with streams and waterfalls that do not dry out during the dry season – here you can see a few pictures of our trip.

 

 

 

In the end we were soaked – since rain started to hit us badly around midday, when we were only half way through the trip. But we found two sites that we wanted to explore more during the next days.

 

Sunday then was the day of the training of theinterviewers. Since we want to measure the impact of our project to the village after the implementation it is necessary to collect some data on income generation, energy needage and usage and other data (if interested you can get the questionaire by writing an email to me). For that purpose we had prepared a questionaire and now wanted to train 10 intrerviewers from the village on how to carry out the interviews in the 100 sample households. The training went very well and had some important guests too. The chairman of the traditional council was there as well as a few other notables and a quarter chief. They all wanted to find out more about the project and asked a few questions and made some comments on the carrying out of the quesitonaire and the project. We were glad that these people were there since this ensures good cooperation with the villagers. The workshop was a success and the interviewers were to carry out the first 2 interviews until Wednesday when we wanted to meet again to find out how the interviews went and if there were any major problems with the questionaires.

 

Monday was a trecking day for us – we went down to “brown hill” the site we had picked for the demonstration wind turbine. You can see Edwin and Fabian trying to collect some wind data.

 

Back in the village we tried to find out about the progress of our car, since the fanbelt had been raptured and the mechanics in the village were sure that it was that that caused the funny noise. Unfortunately nobody had been able to send somone down to Dschang to buy a new one. Which was strange, since we had asked for someone to go down and get the fan belt since Saturday – only problem was, we did not want to contract somebody solely for that purpose, but wanted (for cost reduction purpose) to use a driver that was anyways going down to Dschang with passengers…- did not work out that way and in the end we ended up sending someone down on Monday evening to Dschang to buy the fan belt.

Our (european) plan was to leave the village at 6.30 Tuesday morning to go to Bafoussam and Bamenda to visit a few projects on renewable energy that we had found on the internet. Guess what – Africa just does not work that way J - we were waiting for the fan belt to be changed until 11 a.m. and left for Dschang around that time… only that the noise in the engine was still there although the fan belt had been changed… so we decided we will go to Dschang and have a quick repair and then go to Bamenda and do the project visits on Wednesday…

 

On the way down to Dschang we stopped at the windturbine of the neighbouring village that had inspired us to the project last year. The windturbine is placed at a hospital to pump water. We found someone from the hospital to tell us a bit more about the wind turbine, since we had observed that is was broken. Well here is the story: The turbine was donated and constructed in 2006 by a french organization through a person from that village that studied in France. It was built to produce electricity that is stord in a huge battery system. The electricity then goes through a inverter (to change DC to AC) to run an electrical waterpump that pumps three times a day 1000 Liter water from a 45 m deep well. After 8months the inverter broke since the hospital had a power failure and some electrician decided to bridge the fuse and run the whole hospital with the electricity produced from the turbine. The inverter now cannot be repaired or replaced since the parts are not available in Cameroon… It is really a pity that this project failed so quickly, but it also gives a lesson to learn. It shows how important it is to ensure the material used for such technology is locally available and how important the technology transfer is…

 

But back to the car – as soon as we hit the paved road our car now started vibrating… we went to see a mechanic in Dschang to find out that we would not leave Dschang that day… The tire had to be changed since it was bent and the noise in the engine was still to be diagnosed…

So we made out for plan B, which was meeting Gilbert, another person (geographer) from the village who is doing his PhD at the university in Dschang on the topic of sustainable development in the village. He had some valuable information and papers that he had written on deforestation and its impact on the village – information we need for our underproject of environmental education in the area. So we met him and stayed the rest of the day in Dschang waiting for the car to be repaired. By then we had given up the plan on going to anywhere else than Dschang.

 

 

On Wednesday we had to get back to the village since we had a meeting with the interviewers in the late afternoon. We decided since we cancelled the trips to Bamenda and Bafoussam that we might as well go early and then check out the waterfall site for the demonstration site again. The site is near the fons palace with approximately 20 households around that will benefit from the demonstration site.

In the afternoon we had the meeting with our interviewers of whom only 4 showed up (with 2 being excused) – we clarified a few questions on the questionaire and discussed the challenges of a few questions. In general the few interviews that had been carried out until then were very good, so the data collected will be of use for us. We only hope that the things we clarified during that meeting made its way to the ones missing out on this meeting.

 

On Thursday we left early morning for going bakc to Buea with a stop over in Douala, since we really wanted to check on two parcels that were supposed to arrive for the project. One is a parcel from South Africa with copper wire inside that was donated to the project by a SA company… It came by airfright and was supposed to arrive September 11^th – which it apparently did, but noone thought it necessary to contact us to tell us that it was there… The cost for storage of course increased trough that ‘little’ delay. And of course we did not have the right documents with us, so we needed to come back to pick it up. But at least we found out it was there.

 

The second parcel is one from Germany, that was supposed to arrive in Douala on September 2^nd. Well it did arrive just not in Douala but in Nigeria (guess our freight handeler in Germany forgot to tell us that the container in which our parcel was, was not to be shipped directly to Douala…). Anyways after many phonecalls to the freight agent in Douala we finally found out that the container in which our parcel was had reached Douala on the same day we were there. Clearing of course still needed some time…

 

Well at least we found the parcels – and yesterday Johannes tried to get the one from SA out of customs… The price they tell us so far is 800 Euro for customs… we left it there for now…

 

And since we know since 7 a.m. this morning that there is a public holiday today (no joke, we only know since this morning that it is the end of Ramadan today), we did not go back to Douala today, we will try again tomorrow and see how we get that parcel out of customs…

So far so good – we had an amazing trip to the village, accomplished what we were there for and learned that trips by car can become expensive and should in the road conditions here not be planned too european, especially in the rainy season J

 

Take care

 

Cornelia and Johannes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Electronics and blades made in Africa

3.9.2008 von Johannes.

Finally we moved in our new room on Friday. We worked really hard to clean the whole room, although the craftsmen tried to wipe out all the paint on the floor with evil acid. But we cleaned everything and we are happy to have a new home.

 

Our project is going on very well as well.

At the beginning of the week we met John, a worker for Nkong who constructed one of the windmills at the university of Dschang together with our project partner Tangka. The construction of the turbine and to find the material is very easy, he told us. The main problem was the short lifetime of the critical parts of the wind turbine. The first reason was that they used really old bearings, which has been already destroyed before they used them for the turbine. But another reason was that the blades and other parts of the turbine weren’t constructed and carved accurately so there was big unbalance, which of course shortens the life of the whole plant. So we will have to deal with this problem and encourage our craftsmen to work very carefully.

 

 But there have been some progresses as well last week. We managed to get the first electronic circuit “Made in Africa” in order to transform the 12V Battery voltage to an voltage which is usable in ordinary fluorescent bulbs. This is a very important step for the project, since the villagers won´t be very happy about the energy we brought them as long as there are no possibilities to use it. Unfortunately I forgot to tell the electrician that the circuit should consume as less electricity as possible. So the device consumes about 200 Wattage – 5 times as much as a usual bulb. So we have to amend it a little bit.

 

            

 

To get the wood for the blades we went to the local wood dealer. We found a super piece of wood without any branches for 15€ - half of the price was actually the white man bonus, a fact we discovered later. But we can build 6 blades out this piece. So we feel comfortable by using tropical wood (since we are in the tropics), since we can almost carve 100 blades out of one big rain forest tree.

 

 

 

On Saturday we attended the Meeting of MUDECA, in order to present our project and the next steps. It was an overall fruitful and successful meeting. After we presented our proposed model to the delegates they fired many questions on us regarding the possibilities and constraints of the turbines. The delegates already solved the problems regarding the interviewer for our questionnaire, the “raw” selection of the craftsmen and they even got an idea of how to finance the demonstration site. We are really lucky that we found such encouraged people who really want to change something for their own people.

 

We are looking forward to a new week. We will try to get the rest of the material for the demonstration site and the container.

 

         Best regards

 

                   Johannes

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