Before coming to Malawi, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The image of Africa that I had in my head was very different than the reality. After living in Blantrye, Malawi for two months I can say that while there is a lot of need in Malawi there are also lots of motivated Malawian people who want to help out.
Thank you so much to the all of the Rice 360 donors and the Lemelson foundation for funding this internship. I am so thankful for this wonderful opportunity and for the great work happening in Malawi. There are lots of bright minds in Malawi who are waiting for the opportunity to do great things. Through this internship, I was able to meet some of the amazing engineering students at the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic who are truly inspiring.
I’ll always remember all of the Poly students! There’s Taonga and Demobrey who were great friends and great teammates. Taonga is an Electrical and Electronics engineer who is optimistic, clever and a great person to be around. His clever comments always had all of us laughing and I always knew I could count on him to guide our team in the right direction. Demobrey is an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer who is very outgoing and personable. He could be Malawi’s next CEO! The three of us had a good time together. Outside of my team there was Alinafe who brought such great fashion, poise, sass and elegance to the studio everyday. She literally has a great presence and she is studying biomedical engineering. Then there’s Alfred an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer who came to the studio bright and early everyday (at like 7 am even though we didn’t start until 8:30 am) with confidence and energy. There’s Gloria, also an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer, who was always trying to bring together the Rice and Poly interns and who was always in a good mood. There’s Matthews (an Electrical and Electronics Engineer) who is a downright nice, wholesome, motivated and hardworking person. There’s Timothy (Electronics and Telecommunications engineer) who is a very hardworking, put together and intelligent person.Finally, there’s Isaac (Mechanical engineer) who is a quiet yet thoughtful and hardworking person. I learned something from each student. Thanks so much for a life changing experience!! I can’t wait to come back to Malawi!
The inevitable end of an era has come :(( Team Novaflow 3.0 is done with our project!!! The Rice interns are headed back to Houston while the Poly interns will stay in the studio for another 2 months working on new projects. I can’t imagine the studio without all of the teams there!! I really wish we could have more time together!!
My time in Malawi has been amazing. I’ve learned so much about life in just two months. I will always carry with me everything that I learned from my Malawian friends. Everyone that I met in Malawi was very motivated, kind, and down to earth. I can say that because of my new friends, I will always remember Malawi and I will make it a priority to come back again in my lifetime. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone but it was a little easier knowing that I will be back again and that I can reach them on WhatsApp or Facebook.
Day 45
Monday July 23, 2018
Done
Goals Accomplished
Finished Novaflow Project
Today we finished our project. We were so hard at work that we forgot to go to lunch! Demobrey and I looked up and everyone was gone haha. We finished the presentation, worked on our final report, and finished up our final prototype. The day went by really quickly and it was over just like that.
After work we went to pick up some shirts that we got made by Blantyre street tailors. We also went to Veg delight for dinner for the last time.
Day 46
Tuesday July 24, 2018
Poly Library
Goals Accomplished
Final Presentations
This morning we all dressed up nicer than usual. We all wore business casual to formal clothes for our final presentations. At 10 AM we presented in the board room to the dean of engineering at the Poly, several lecturers and other guests. Each presentation was about 30 minutes long. Everyone’s presentations went really well and I’m so proud of all of the teams for our awesome work.
Presentations
After presentations we all got to have free time for the rest of the day. My team and I had lunch at Nandos and we went around Blantyre again. When we got back to the Poly my team gave us a tour of the Poly library. It was really nice. It was pretty empty since most students have already finished their final exams and they are on holiday.
Group pictures after presentations!!
Day 47
Wednesday July 25, 2018
Don’t be sad
Goals Accomplished
Cleaned our table
Organized project documentation
Today we spent the day cleaning up our table and organizing the design studio. We also compiled all of our project documents to leave with our mentors at the Poly Design Studio. It was a really emotional day. My team and I went to the MCA cafeteria for the last time. The food was extra good today. We all had beef and nsima/rice. I said goodbye to the manager of the cafeteria and she said she had gotten used to seeing me and that they would miss me. After lunch The Poly interns and the Rice interns exchanged gifts and said our final words. Tears were inevitable :’(.
We were let out early so Franklin, Alfred, Tebogo, Nafe, Taonga, Gloria, Kristofer, Prince, Demobrey and I went to play pool. It was a great way to spend our last afternoon together. Afterwards we all headed to Kabula and hung out for a bit. Alfred told us some scary stories, and we all chilled until eventually we had to say our final goodbyes. I wish we had had more time to hang out like we did today. I’m really going to miss everyone, especially my teammates (Taonga and Demobrey). There’s still so much that I want to see and do in Malawi, but time has run out for now.
Walking home to Kabula for the last time :’)
Day 48
Thursday July 26, 2018
Chileka International Airport
This morning we woke up at 6 AM, had our last breakfast (peanut butter toast with tea) at Kabula and headed to the airport. We left at 7 AM and our flight was at 9:30 AM. The ride to the airport was sad. I took a last look at Blantyre: the beautiful scenery, the minibuses, people bustling on the streets, the Blantyre market, the vendors, and the beautiful, kind, caring, optimistic Malawian people. Until next time Malawi!
Day 49
Friday July 27, 2018
Home
Its really crazy being home again. We have so much here that many people take for granted. I knew I was blessed before going to Malawi, but now I believe that there isn’t anything that I can’t do given the resources in the USA. Thanks Malawi for everything. I’ll be back soon! https://youtu.be/HqCuMafDSBU
This week is our last full week in Malawi. Time really went by too quickly! I really tried to make the most out of this last week with my teammates and with our project. Taonga, Demobrey and I worked really hard to finish our final prototype this week. It’s been a very fulfilling journey! We learned a lot about electronics, suction machines and about ourselves. The obstacles we faced made our friendship stronger. I’m really proud of us! I love spending time with Taonga and Demobrey because I learn something new from them everyday. They’ve made my time in Malawi amazing!
Day 40
Monday July 16, 2018
Transistors
Goals Accomplished
Created working shutoff circuit without electrolysis
Today wifi was installed in the design studio! We now have 100 MB of data per day provided by Skyband when we sign in using our Facebook accounts. Using the wifi we did some research on water sensors. We found a resistance “sensor” circuit that used MOSFET transistors and we implemented this circuit into our existing relay circuit. We created a proof of concept and it worked!!! This circuit will eliminate the corrosion and the salt problem. Now we need to add a buzzer and fix up the soldering. We tried several ways of adding the buzzer and they all failed. We believe that we need to add another transistor in order for our circuit to work however we have to wait until tomorrow so that we can check the datasheets for the transistor online.
We didn’t do much after work because the weather was really cold and rainy. Everyone went straight home and bundled up. For some reason cold winter days in Malawi seem to last forever. Hopefully the weather will get better soon!
MOSFET Transistor Circuit
Day 41
Tuesday July 17, 2018
Polywood
Goals Accomplished
Got footage for a Rice-Poly internship video
Today we were trying to figure out how to add a second MOSFET transistor into the circuit so that we could include the buzzer. However, there was no internet so we couldn’t really figure it out without the datasheets. We then switched to working on a video of the internship. I took videos of Taonga, Nafe, and Demobrey walking on the street leading up to the Poly, walking into the Poly and then walking into the design studio. The interns looked like celebrities! They are really photogenic!! I also took some shots of the campus and the different departments. I’m really excited to make this video!!! I will post it to YouTube when its finished!!!
Shooting the video with Taonga and Akshaya!
The stars of the video!
Day 42
Wednesday July 18, 2018
Try Again
Goals Accomplished
Understood how to use transistors
Again we were trying to add the buzzer all morning but to no success. Again we used up all of our data and worked on our video until tomorrow. We are definitely close since we figured out 1) which transistor is best to use since we have been trying different ones and 2) how to connect two transistors in series.
Since I’m not going to see my team for a while after I leave, we are going out to eat lunch at the mall. Today we went to Kipps, a very popular local fast food restaurant. Fast food restaurants are very fancy in Malawi. The food is also pretty good. It’s much better than fast food in the U.S. in my opinion.
Today was another really rainy and cold day. We all wore several layers to work and still felt cold! After work we went to dinner at a Chinese restraint called China Da. It was very authentic according to Angela. There’s actually a good amount of expats (foreigners) living in Malawi. Blantyre has a lot of Indian restaurants and a couple of Chinese restaurants. I have yet to see a Mexican restaurant, but apparently there is a Hispanic restaurant called Casa Latina.
Day 43
Thursday July 19, 2018
Success 2
Goals Accomplished
Created working buzzer and power interrupting circuit!
This morning before work Akshaya and I headed to the Rice 360 office to use the wifi. It really helped us to get on with our projects. After about an hour and a half I headed back to the Poly alone since Akshaya needed more time. When I got back we finally built a working circuit!! The buzzer and the relay work together now using three contact points just like we wanted.
For lunch we went to Kipps again to celebrate.. We sat outside because it was full inside, and it was really cold (remember its winter in Malawi right now). It has been really chilly in the design studio this entire week since the weather has gotten really bad. It has been raining on and off since Monday and its about 40-50 F everyday. Everyone has told us that this is the coldest week of the winter.
Lunch at Kipps!
After lunch, our team was busy for the rest of the day. Demobrey and Taonga worked on our higher fidelity prototype. They made our circuit cleaner and a little more compact. In the meantime, I was making a bigger casing for our circuit on SolidWorks.
After work we (Rice interns) went to 21 grill. I got a sirloin steak that was really good. Sajel, Franklin and I shared a pretty good sorbet (guava and raspberry flavored).
Steak at a fancy restaurant in Malawi called 21 grill
Day 44
Friday July 20, 2018
PAM 2
Goals Accomplished
Received useful feedback on our final prototype at PAM
Today we took our device to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s PAM (Physical Assets Management) to 1) get feedback on our final prototype and 2) to get pictures and video footage for our final video and billboard.
We got a lot of helpful advice from the PAM managers and a lot of great pictures!
Working on the suction machine at PAM
Day 45-46
Saturday-Sunday July 21-22, 2018
Last Weekend
Our last weekend in Malawi was well spent. On Saturday we all went to the Blantrye market for the last time and had lunch at KFC for the last time. It was a lot of fun to have the interns with us. After lunch I walked around Blantyre till sunset with my teammates Taonga and Demobrey. We ate at crossroads mall for the last time. On Sunday I went to church with Demobrey at Chilobwe Catholic church. There were a few differences in the service compared to the one I go to at home but overall it was very similar. After church I spent the day with Demobrey and his neighbor Limbani in his hostel in Chilobwe. Again everyone was very kind, funny and welcoming. I’m going to miss Malawian people.
This week truly revolved around our team adding a buzzer to our prototype. This took us on a rollercoaster of options and emotions. This was definitely one of the more challenging weeks in the internship for our team, but we figured it out in the end! I’ve also been appreciating my Malawian colleagues a lot this week. Visiting their homes/rooms has been a truly amazing experience. I really appreciate their motivation, dedication, kindness, patience, optimism and so much more. I’m truly lucky to be working with my teammates (Taonga and Demobrey) and the other interns.
Day 33
Monday July 9, 2018
Its okay
Goals Accomplished
Tested buzzer circuit
After the long weekend, Francis and Andrew are back from their Rice 360 retreat. We updated them on our team’s progress and they liked the concept overall. Now we are trying to add a buzzer and a female outlet (to plug suction machine straight into our device) to our prototype for our presentation on Friday.
We hit a road bump when trying to add the buzzer to the circuit. We wanted to test out the buzzer circuit and in the process of soldering the buzzer into the existing circuit, the transformer circuit from the phone charger stopped working. I’m not really sure what happened, but my best guess is that we fried it by accidentally soldering together pins that weren’t supposed to be connected.
Our team was very down about this, but I reassured them that it was fine and that we could replace it easily. Demobrey replied to this by saying that it wasn’t fine. Which I responded to by saying “well it happened already so we have to move forward. Its okay”. He said “yes its okay, but its not fine”. In my head both meant the same thing. This really made me think about my choice of words. It’s really important in terms of communication especially on cross-cultural teams.
After this blow, we took a break and went to lunch. Demobrey and Taonga (my teammates) took Franklin (Rice intern) and I to a cafeteria at the Malawi College of Accounting (MCA) which is right next to the Poly. It’s their favorite place to eat. I now love this place too! They sell a lot of fresh foods like chicken stew, fried chicken, beef stew, chips (French fries), nsima (a mashed potato like food made of maize flour), fried veggies, beans, and rice. It was really good. Again, we were given plates but no utensils. Eating nsima with my hands was fun and manageable (its like playdough!).
Lunch at MCA: chicken, nsima, and beans
After lunch, Demobrey went out to find another phone charger that we could take apart for our circuit. Meanwhile, Taonga and I tested the buzzer circuit on its own (not in the actual prototype circuit) with a 9V battery (instead of a phone charger). It worked but the problem is that the contacts are corroding. This is the same problem as with the water level shut off circuit because both are working off of the principal of electrolysis. Since this is a repeating problem we are going to begin looking into a new circuit design that will eliminate the need for electrolysis.
When we got home for the day, the power was out again so I watched The Lion King with Sajel and Akshaya. We ate cereal for dinner and went to sleep. Today wasn’t a great day … but tomorrow is a new day.
Day 34
Tuesday July 10, 2018
Poly Hostels
Goals Accomplished
Fixed the original shut off circuit with new charger
Tested buzzer circuit
Designed and 3D printed a hose adapter
Visited Taonga’s hostel
When we got to the design studio we immediately began fixing our prototype by adding the new charger. We also added a second pair of contact points for the buzzer into the circuit. However when we tested the circuit, it didn’t work as we had thought. We had created a short circuit by having two contact points so neither the relay nor the buzzer were switched when the water touched the contact points.
We also had some help from Kristoffer in the design of a 3D printed hose adapter for our external bottle attachment. I was also heping Matthews from Team Mathermal with the adjustment of the Mathermal circuit casing using Solidworks. Finally my team and I brainstormed possible ideas for the videos and posters for the Lemelson foundation.
Orange 3D printed hose adapter
After work I went over to Taonga’s and Timothy’s rooms. They live at the Poly hostels which are kind of like off campus rooms. It was like a block of rooms in rows. I met Taonga’s roommate (Gracious), Timothy’s roommate (Alfred), Taonga’s Neighbor (Sungeni), and many others who came by. They were all really cool and we talked about everything from Cuba to Jeff Bazos. I felt super welcome and the guys even cooked dinner for me. We all shared dinner from two plates. (Malawi is a very community oriented society) Visiting the Poly hostels was a really humbling experience. It really made me appreciate all of the Poly students for the effort that they put in to get an education. Even with the power outages, the mosquitos, the lack of wifi, the lack of transportation and other obstacles they are working hard to graduate as engineers. There’s a lot that we take for granted in the USA. I will always keep this in mind when I’m back in the U.S. where we have so many opportunities.
Day 35
Wednesday July 11, 2018
Apologies
Goals Accomplished.
Finalized billboard and video ideas
Brainstormed new buzzer circuit
Solved team conflict
This morning we settled on a storyline for our video of the internship and we came up with an idea for the Poly-Rice 360 Billboard. We also began thinking of different ways to add the buzzer into our circuit. Eventually my team and I got into a disagreement about adding the buzzer. We were all a bit upset so we just gave each other some space. We didn’t even have lunch together today. I went to SPAR with the Rice interns. I think we all thought about the situation and by the end of the day we had all apologized to each other and resumed adding the buzzer. It was a great moment for me and my team :’). We even had a group hug at the end of the day. I love Taonga and Demobrey. I was so happy. I really appreciate them.
Day 36
Thursday July 12, 2018
Gloria’s Hostel
Goals Accomplished
Finished presentation for tomorrow
Designed laser-cut circuit casing for prototype presentation
Today was another slow day. We had another setback. We broke another phone charger transformer circuit. It kind of was a mini explosion. I’m really thankful that nobody was hurt. I also made sure to remind the team about the safety guidelines of working with electronics. After that we just fixed the prototype for tomorrows presentation. I used solidworks to design a casing for our circuit. We lasercut it and finished our powerpoint presentation. The presentation is an update on our work so far.
Today we didn’t go straight home as usual. Instead took a minibus to Gloria’s house. We met Lucy, Chimango, Waku, and others. Demobrey was the only intern there besides Gloria because of transportation issues. Gloria was very welcoming and she cooked us a huge meal all by herself using two electric plates. Props to her for inviting all of the interns to her hostel. This was the only time we all (all the rice interns) went to anybody’s hostel. It’s definitely a lot of effort to host many people in your room because it is culturally unacceptable to invite people to your house without having food. I really appreciate Gloria’s effort from the beginning of the internship to welcome us to Malawi.
Visiting Gloria’s Hostel!The girls with Gloria’s neighbor Lucy!Gloria’s amazing home cooked dinner!
Day 37
Friday July 13, 2018
Goals Accomplished
Presentations
We had our presentations early in the morning. We got a lot of really good feedback for our project. As we were already thinking, our mentors (Francis and Andrew) recommended that we look into other shutoff circuits. We plan on creating a new circuit to eliminate the corrosion issue and the need for salt in the fluids (for conductivity) because our current prototype isn’t very practical.
Team Mathermal presenting
Day 38-39
Saturday-Sunday July 14-15, 2018
Hanging out in Blantyre
This weekend I hung out with friends in Blantyre. I went with Angela and Nafe (poly intern) to the Blantrye Market on Saturday. We had a great day shopping and eating at the KFC in Blantyre. KFC is surprisingly fancy here compared to the U.S. It also tastes a lot better. On Sunday I met up with my friend Chimwemwe ( a Poly graduate who I met in Houston) and I got to meet her family as well. It was a great weekend and I felt like I fit in perfectly in Malawi. I felt like I got to experience a true Malawian weekend in Blantyre for once.
Shopping at the Blantyre MarketLunch at KFCMeeting Chimwemwe’s family!
The next few blog posts are from the last few weeks of the internship! I wrote a blog each week but had little time (and wifi!) to post them.
This week we made a lot of progress on our device. Francis and Andrew (Studio managers) were out of town the whole week for a retreat so we were working independently a lot of the time. We also had a short week (3 day weekend) because of Malawian independence day. On the weekend we got to travel to lake Malawi. It was really beautiful and a huge tourist attraction. The highlight of my weekend was visiting my teammate Demobrey’s home in Zomba. I feel like I’m beginning to get a lot closer with my teammates now!
Day 26
Monday July 2, 2018
Poly Cafeteria
Goals Accomplished
Designed the power shut off circuit for our device
Created a proof of concept circuit prototype
Francis and Andrew left this morning to their Rice 360 team retreat. They named myself and Alfred (one of the Poly interns) as the ones in charge while they were gone. We were responsible for arriving early, unlocking the design studio and the office (where all of the electrical components and other expensive tools/devices are kept). We also had to keep track of all of the components that people borrowed and make sure that everyone was making good progress. I’m very honored to have been chosen!
Francis and Andrew heading out for the Rice 360 Staff Retreat!
That same day, we were figuring out the circuit for our device. The circuit needs to shut off the suction machine when water overflows from the collection jar. We thought of a very simple circuit using an electrical component that acts as a switch and some metal contacts in water which would also act as a switch/sensor of sorts.
To build our circuit prototype, we used a relay (switch) and a transformer (to step down the voltage from 240 V to 5 V because the relay can only handle 9 V max, and 5V is less dangerous) from a phone charger. At first we were trying to figure out the pin configuration of the relay online, but the wifi isn’t very reliable. Thankfully, I ran into Tebogo (a Poly student who hangs out in the studio sometimes) who explained the pin out of the relay. Quickly after, we got a working proof of concept prototype using a relay, a rechargeable battery, a cup of water and a lightbulb.
Tebogo helping out my team with the relay
I also finally ate lunch at the Poly cafeteria with my teammate Taonga. The Rice interns were worried that the food would make us sick, but it was fine and I will definitely be eating there from now on. It was a very different dining experience. Some groups of friends were piling all of their food into one large food for sharing. Others brought their own plates and forks. We like most others were eating off of styrofoam containers with our hands. I’m really not used to eating with my hands, but I think with time I will get more comfortable with it. It seems simple but there’s actually a technique to eating rice with your hands!
Day 27
Tuesday July 3, 2018
Amazing Goop
Goals Accomplished
Organized power shut off circuit
Created “water sensor” part of our device
After confirming that our circuit would work, we began to incorporate it into a working prototype. We did a lot of soldering and used a lot of electrical tape to contain our circuit in a small cardboard box. The small box contained the relay, the 5V phone charger transformer circuit, and the connections to the main power supply (240 V from the outlet).
Demobrey working on our low fidelity circuit casing. We used a lightbulb cardboard box!
We also created an airtight jar to contain our contact points (“water sensor”). This jar will then be attached to the suction tubes on the suction pump machine in between the collection jar and the motor. The idea is that when the collection jar overflows, it will overflow first into our device and when the contacts touch the liquid the suction machine will shutoff before any motor damage occurs. Our device jar was just an old peanut butter jar that we punctured holes in to attach the hoses. We used a sealant called Amazing Goop to make our jar airtight and let it dry overnight.
After work we (Rice interns) went rock climbing which seems to be popular among Ex-Pats (foreigners). It was a good workout and a little scary because there was no belay (ropes).
Akshaya rock climbing!
Day 28
Wednesday July 4, 2018
First Success
Goals Accomplished
Created an airtight water sensor container
Tested the container for airtightness using a syringe
Documented our working prototype on camera
When we got to the design studio today, the Amazing Goop sealant on the device jar was completely dry. We tested to see if the jar was actually airtight by covering one end of the tubes while sucking air out of the other tube using a syringe. The container contracted when we did that meaning it was definitely somewhat airtight. We also poured water into the container and flipped it upside down to check for any leaks. There were none.
Airtight container that will be attached to the suction pump hoses in between the collection jar and the motor
Afterwards we combined the device jar with our circuit prototype to complete our first working prototype!! We were so excited that we made a video demonstrating how the device would work. The video captured the prototype in action by turning on and off a lightbulb when the copper wires came in contact with salt water (in real life the bulb represents the suction pump machine). Note: We have to add a lot of salt to the water for our device to successfully shut off the machine. (Major drawback of this prototype)
After work today, we went to a café for dinner. The food was really good and there was also a poetry reading. The poetry was written by local Malawian students which was really cool. The topics ranged from school to love to politics.
Dinner at Kwaharaba
Day 29
Thursday July 5, 2018
Feedback
Goals Accomplished:
Obtained feedback on our device from hospital medical device maintenance unit
Since we created a working prototype, we wanted to get feedback on it at the Queen Elizabeth hospital Physical Assets Management aka PAM which is the medical device maintenance unit. We wanted to know what improvements can be made to our water sensor jar (is it air tight, does it obstruct air flow at all/normal operation of the machine?). We also wanted to know how we could improve our circuit.
After visiting the PAM we learned that we may want to add a buzzer to our device so that the nurses will be alerted before the machine turns off. We also want to try different methods of attaching the device to the suction machine so that our device isn’t hanging in midair. Since we want the suction machine to plug straight into our device instead of to the wall, we also talked about the kinds of plugs that each suction machine has so we know what kind of female outlets to buy for future prototypes.
My team and I in front of the Poly
Day 30-32
Friday-Sunday
Republic day weekend
We woke up bright and early Friday morning to go to Lake Malawi in Mangochi. We hired a private minibus to take us there. The drive was 5 hours long. When we finally arrived we went straight to the lake. It was really beautiful. The nights were also really nice because we could see so many stars. We tried some of the local fish and went on a boat tour of the lake. We also got to go snorkeling and we fed an eagle. It was a nice weekend!
Lake Malawi-MangochiSunset
On our way home I stopped in Zomba, Demobrey’s hometown, to visit his family and their home. His mom’s name is Shalome and she made us Nsima with fish and veggies. I’m really thankful to Demobrey for taking me to his home. It was a very great experience. I truly got to see the real, everyday Malawi not the tourist part of it (Safaris, the Lake, etc). It was really nice and I hope to be able to do this with more of the Poly interns. I can’t visit many of the interns families since many of them aren’t from Blantyre. For example Taonga is from a city in the north (about 12 hours away). However, I plan on visiting their hostels (their temporary rooms/dorms).
In Zomba with Demobrey(leftmost), Raymond (his OLDER brother), and Shalome (Demobrey’s mom)
Tuesday we did our final presentations. That morning I was scared. On Monday the digital display stopped working all together (thankfully it wasn’t anything wrong with the circuitry) but the temperature wasn’t displaying. So we decided to just attach the LCD display we had just so everyone can see that the temperatures were correct. We went ahead and stuffed the components into the box. Nothing. It all stopped working. So ya Tuesday I was petrified. I was waiting at my table and I checked my phone to see where Tim and Matthews were. And I saw a video the two sent me. It was a video of Matthews turning on our device, completely encased and attached to the armband. And it was working. Monday I was prepared to showcase our semi-fictional device. It’s ok if it wasn’t perfect. But my teammates saw that I was a little disappointed and they snuck the device home with them and got it to work.
The second they walked in the door that morning I gave them the biggest hugs ever. We did it. All the work we put in this past month and we got our device to work. And we were ready to present to the others what we did. Slight roadblock the computer kept freezing during our presentation haha. But otherwise it went amazing.
I cried Wednesday. I knew I would. We came in the day after the presentations to clean up our tables and give Francis and Andrew all the research and documents we had about our device. I took my team out for lunch. Matthews bought me a cute fluffy Pom Pom keychain and Nafe got me these beautiful earrings.
After lunch I thought to myself wow I’m doing a good job of holding myself together. We were about to leave to go back to the lodge and I have yet to cry. But then Timothy did it. I sat down next to him and he looked at me and said “Akshaya you are our team leader and you have also become my sister. And like my real sister I will miss you so much. I am crying in my heart so much thinking of you leaving. But I promise our paths will cross again. And I’m so proud of you.” I started bawling my eyes out. Matthews and Timothy held me and laughed saying that we’ll see each other soon and to not cry. The interns all swarmed around me and gave me hugs. And they sent us off in our taxi. I cried the entire way home. I’m going to miss them so much. My friends I’ve made in Malawi have been so kind and so supportive and so welcoming. They have helped us so much during our time here and they have taught me so much.
I wanted to say thank you to all the people I’ve met in Malawi, especially the Poly interns. Thank you Gloria for being so open and hilarious. Every time I hear your contagious laugh, I laugh too. Alfred, I could listen to you talk forever. I love the stories you tell us. Isaac, you are so focused I hope I can be as driven as you are. Thank you Nafe for being so sweet to us. You made sure we were taken care of every day (like when you got us those beanies so we wouldn’t freeze on the mountain). Thank you Taonga for your kindness. You taught me the handshake that you and your sister do together and that was just so touching. You welcomed us with open arms and I am so grateful for you. Demobre you never failed to make me laugh. You say the funniest things, and you always had our backs. Finally, I wanted to thank my two teammates. Timothy, you are so passionate and knowledgeable about what you are doing. Whenever something wasn’t going our way, you were calm and confident in us. And you taught me a lot about coding and elec. Matthews, you were always so positive and patient. You always took the time to explain things to me, and you were always quick in coming up with solutions when we experienced roadblocks. I loved meeting these amazing people, and I hope I will be able to come back to the Warm Heart of Africa and see everyone again soon!
The second to last week in Blantyre. The last full week of our internship. This week I think is the week that it hit me. It hit me how unbelievable this experience has been for me. This week was very stressful no doubt. I think the most stressful week for me. Our device just stopped working again and again and again. Friday I was so jittery watching Matthews and Timothy try to put all of our components into the case of our device. We switched on the device. Nothing. Everything was working before and Friday it just stops. I was so stressed out my hands were shaking.
But my teammates, my supportive positive teammates looked at me and started singing Every Little Thing is Gonna Be All Right. Haha a little cheesy but what I needed in that moment. They told me don’t worry. They said we worked too hard for this to happen. Everything will be ok. Sometimes I lose sight of the big picture and get so stressed at every single step. They made me remember what this internship in Malawi was really about. It’s about all the things we’ve been learning. And it’s about the connections we’ve made. I’ve made really strong connections in Malawi that’s for sure. My teammates laughing and singing, telling me it will work out. That was one of the most memorable experiences of this internship for me. I love my teammates, I love what I’m doing, and I love that I’m learning so much. Afterward, they pulled me aside and said to take some goofy pics. I definitely became less stressed because of them.
Saturday morning I wanted to get some money out from the ATM because Matthews and Timothy wanted to help us buy gifts at the Blantyre marker for our friends back home. I put in all my information, my card came out of the machine like normal, and I tried to take it out. It was difficult because I just painted my nails and it was raining. I guess I took too long because the machine ATE MY CARD and didn’t give me my money. I was shocked. So I had to run into the bank and ask one of the tellers to get my card back. We were going to be late meeting Timothy and Matthews so we ran all the way back to the lodge.
Despite that, I had such a great time going to the market with my teammates. They helped us a lot, showing us the best places to get gifts. We also got to go eat at KFC. The ice cream and fries are AMAZING.
Sunday my friend Daisy (who came to the secondary schools last week with us) invited Sajel and me to her house for lunch near Limbe! When we got out of our cab we heard really fun music playing loudly nearby. Apparently there was a wedding happening, and weddings are a huge deal. We walked over to Daisy’s place where we were greeted by her siblings Teresa and seven year old Horrace. Horrace was especially thrilled to see us. They showed us their family’s chicken farm, and Sajel and I got to hold a chicken.
As you can see, I was TERRIFIED. It was great just talking to Daisy and playing with Horrace. I was really sad because I wish we spent more time with Daisy. But Daisy who is wise beyond her years told us that some friendships don’t need a lot of time to become so strong.
So funny thing. We took out our device, measured ambient temperature, and it was all good. It seemed like correct temperature readings (it’s 19 degrees in Blantyre, and that was what our device was measuring). But then Timothy wanted to see if our device would go off when someone had a fever. Of course, no one around us had a fever (I don’t think…I hope not anyways). So Matthews brought over our soldering iron and held it next to our thermistor. And the temperature DROPPED to 9 degrees Celsius. Ya…I don’t think our soldering iron is that cold considering how many times I’ve burnt myself with it. Apparently, something in our code was making our device read a drop in temperature when there was actually a rise in temperature. Our device reads the correct voltage changes when we tested with the multimeter, but we had a bug in our code that was converting the voltage values to the wrong temperature readings. I’m glad there was some trend in the error because if our device was just outputting the wrong temperature readings, I don’t know how we were going to fix that (and I definitely did NOT want to solder all over again).
Timothy and I did some research and found a revised code and equation we could use. After uploading this code, our device was reading the correct temperature and was reading an increase in temperature when the ambient temperature was also increasing. Yayyyy!
Day 35
I had lunch today with a girl I met at the presentations a while ago. Her name is Yvonne and she’s from Zomba (an hour or so away from Blantyre). She’s a third year studying civil engineering, and the crazy thing is she’s only 18 YEARS OLD. She started school really REALLY early which is crazy! We were talking about a lot of things like the school system in Malawi, jobs, day-to-day life and I’m always so amazed by how different life is here compared to the US.
Day 36
My awesome team fixing our somewhat working project.
Day 37
Gloria who is wonderful invited the interns to her house off campus for dinner. We rode the minibus after work (my first time, it was so cool) to her neighborhood five or so minutes away from the Poly. We got to her house and we met her roommate, some of her housemates, and her other friends. I got to see how nsima is made, and I got to talk to some other students who got to the Poly. It was really awesome to see how the students live their day to day lives. And Gloria made really great food for all of us.
Day 38
Women In STEM, a global organization promoting girls to pursue STEM, invited me and Sajel to visit some secondary schools in Thyolo and talk to the girls about our experiences in STEM. The Thyolo Secondary School was so pretty and I got to each lunch with some of the girls there! They told me about their favorite music and what they do in school, and they taught me a few more phrases in Chichewa. After lunch, myself, Sajel, a few girls from the Poly, Faith (who led our trip to Thyolo), and Dr. Teresa (the former dean of engineering of the Poly) spoke to the girls and we had such an awesome time! The girls were tasked with building a tower with uncooked spaghetti and balancing a marshmallow on top. And I have to say they are very talented. I had to do that challenge last semester and our tower collapsed.
Day 39
We left early this morning to go hiking Mt. Mulanje. And I was TERRIFIED. Why were we hiking so much in two days our legs are going to be LITERAL JELLY. We were supposed to hike all the way up to Sapitwa (the peak of the mountain), but we changed our plans and chose to hike up the second tallest peak, Chambe, instead. We stayed at a cabin a few hours away from the peak and it was super cool (literally, I was freezing despite the bajillion layers I was wearing). We saw the stars really well (for a few minutes before the clouds came in), and we had a fire place so we ate a really good dinner.
Day 40
We woke up early and set off to Chambe Peak. It took a few hours and honestly the SCARIEST thing I’ve ever done. We had to scramble up a really steep slope and if I looked down, I definitely would have fallen off. It was horrifying. But we made it to the top and it was so breath taking. I honestly didn’t realize how high up we were it was crazy. Kristoffer and Franklin wanted to go higher so those two set off to scale another treacherous part of the mountain while Sajel and I watched from a distance, eating our cookies and chips. We hiked back down (which was way easier than going up haha), said goodbye to our guide Davys and his team, climbed into our cab, and passed out from exhaustion. Would I do that again? Probably not. But I don’t regret it. It was a wild experience that’s for sure.
We continued working on our project today. Since everything was all good on the breadboard, we decided to go ahead and start soldering all the components together on a PCB board so that we could start testing the accuracy of the thermistor on the skin. On the board we could only detect ambient temperature. I think I burned myself ten times with the soldering iron but it was all done. We will see how it works tomorrow. Oh we also ate at the school cafeteria today instead of our usual spot and there were no utensils so we had to eat with our hands. But it was REALLY good food.
PS Karen doesn’t really know how to eat with her hands so Kristoffer made her a makeshift spoon out of the container.
Day 28
We went to Mikos (again) and got some really REALLY good ice cream (I got a flavor that tasted very much like McDonalds soft serve). This was after I got really frustrated because the soldering was so bad that our thermistor was reading really wrong temperature readings. We spent all day trying to fix it, but in the end we just took everything apart and agreed to re-solder everything the next day. I took my frustration out when we went rock climbing that night. There is a boldering wall in a field behind a high school (kind of random) and it was so fun.
Day 29
We soldered our device once again and are hoping to see if this time, we get accurate readings (it took ALL DAY). I was really exhausted after burning my hand four times and wanted to just sleep, but we stopped at a café near our lodge. There was a poetry reading there, and it was actually really great. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but everyone that was reading a poem was from Malawi and talking about Malawi. It was really moving hearing what they had to say about their country and lives. I liked it a lot and we are definitely going again.
Day 30
Today was the last day before the three day weekend. We finally got some right numbers on our thermistor (yay thank you Matthews for helping me do a MUCH better soldering job this time). What a satisfying way to end the week and start a three day break. Hopefully next week we can start testing our device to see if it measures accurate body temperature (fingers crossed).
Day 31
We woke up early this morning and it was cold and rainy. But I was really excited because we were going to Lake Malawi! It was a five hour drive (I never get car sick but the road was so rocky at the end I almost threw up). We got to Cape McClear and passed by a bunch of SUPER PACKED lodges. I was a little worried that we would be staying at a super crowded part of the lake. But when we got to our lodge I was so happy. There was literally NO ONE there. It was quiet and empty and so pretty. And it was warm! That night was probably my favorite experience in Malawi. The five of us went to the beach right in front of our dorms and we laid down on the sand and looked at the stars for such a long time. It was so quiet and we could see parts of the Milky Way! I’ve never seen so many stars in my entire life it was amazing. It got kinda cold but we all huddled close to one another and just stargazed. It was the best.
Day 32
We got on a boat today that took us to an island off the coast. Apparently it’s a really great place to go snorkeling! I was really scared I’ve only been “snorkeling” in our pool, and the water was really choppy. ingested a lot of lake water. And I almost got hit by a boat while I was underwater. But it ended up being super awesome! We also fed eagles, and two eagles ran into each other mid air while diving for some fish it was wild.
So much has happened this last week. It seems getting the laser cutter working triggered everything else to happen all at once!
First of all, I’ve made a lot of progress tuning the cutter and learning how to use it properly. The alignment procedure had to be repeated, but all the previous work made it go very smoothly. The cutter software, however, has been a point of much frustration! As if technical manuals weren’t obscure enough, this one is written in often unintelligible English. Well, careful experimenting with the hints provided in the manual have been working so far. The problem now, is figuring out how to balance laser power and speed, to produce a cut which can burn through a thin layer of paper, without damaging a plastic layer underneath. I’ve most of the cuts down pretty well, but the laser is determined to melt little pin-holes at all the design corners!
At the end of last week, Gloria, one of the Malawian interns working with Franklin, invited everyone over to her house for dinner! We have all really taken to the food here in general, but the chance to be a part of cooking it at someone’s home was really exciting. There were many other Malawians there, and it turned into a nice party with all of us telling stories and listening to great music together.
Alyssa and Jessie also arrived this last week, and brought lots of supplies the Polytechnic had ordered in a giant camping backpack! I wish I’d caught a photo of Francis when we went through everything – he looked like it was Christmas Day.
Over the weekend, we hiked Chombe peak at Mt. Mulanje, which can only be adequately described with photographs. Well, close, anyhow. This is such a beautiful country! It also happened to be the same weekend of the porter’s races, during which the local porters compete in a footrace from the bottom to the top of the mountain. There was a gigantic party crowded around the finish line, big speakers were blasting music, competing with people in front of colorful stalls, yelling at everyone to try this or buy that. We weaved through the packed crowd with our backpacks, following our mountain guide up past the finish line, where we saw one of the racers coming down this last foothill barefoot. Some of these porters ran barefoot! I still can’t believe it. Others still, if I understand correctly, complete the race with big packs or loads on their heads, but I didn’t see any of them. It’s incredible to think about though, that they can do in hours what we were about to do in two whole days – amazing what people can condition themselves to accomplish.
The rest of the week has been filled with attempts to cut these paper-layered plastic sheets properly. It won’t make for much of a good story, all these experiments. I am reminded now of those many days spent in the laboratory back at Rice, making the original versions. Every failed attempt (there were many) had to be met with an open mind so we could glean information from it, building little successes out of them in the form of understanding, until one day it worked. It will be so rewarding to have figured this out, and to make that first batch of good cards which could one day be used down the street at the hospital.
