In continuing pursuit of rural water system solutions, representatives from The Ohio State University’s Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering department have landed at Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. Our group looks to further the effort made by the students from the class of 2015, which had come to Tanzania in August of 2015. Their goals, actions, and emotions are chronicled at https://u.osu.edu/tzsu2015/. While the primary objective of the 2015 trip aimed to explore many regions of the country in search of viable candidate communities for a rural water project, we’ve since identified the Masai people of Same, Tanzania the best candidates. In addition to the primary qualification of lacking reliable water infrastructure, we found the Masai to be eager to participate in the solution. What’s more, the Kilimanjaro Hope Organization is a very strong non-government organization that actively advocates for many struggling communities like the Masai around the Kilimanjaro/Same region. All three of these factors – the need, the eagerness to participate in a solution, and the strong NGO representation in the area – make this community the perfect candidates for a cooperative rural water project.
We’ll cover more specifics about this trip, our goals and plans, in later blog posts. For now, we’re going to open things up with some introductions.
Robbie Pesarchick – Having graduated in December of 2015, I am now a Civil Engineer working for Burgess and Niple in Akron, Ohio. Anyone that read the 2015 CEGE Tanzania blog posts may remember me; besides Professor Hagenberger, I am the only other participant on this trip that also went in August. I feel very invested in this project, so when Dr. Hagenberger invited me to accompany the new group back to country, I was only too enthusiastic to accept. I feel so lucky to be here again; lucky to be invited, lucky to be permitted by my employer, lucky to have stumbled across this specific capstone project in the first place. I hope to contribute with understanding of the culture, the language and water supply issues, and also by managing the blog, writing the prefaces to summarize the action points of our trip. Thanks for reading!
Pat Enright – Planning to graduate December of 2016, I am in an interesting position in the group being the only non-graduate. I am on this trip to help collect data and receive community feedback as well as relay my experiences to the next group to continue this project in the fall. Having some international experience in Ecuador, I was more than excited to have the opportunity to be a part of this trip and be able to make a real impact in the world through my capstone project. To be able to use what I learn in class every day to change thousands of people’s lives is an incredible opportunity and I am grateful to be in a situation where I can help so much. I am looking forward to my first experience in Tanzania, hopefully the first of many more.
Melanie McDonough – I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this team and participate in an ongoing humanitarian engineering effort here in Tanzania. I have just graduated and will start working in Charlotte as a Civil Design
Engineer shortly after I arrive back to the States. My excitement for this trip is two fold- I want to better understand how a successful and sustainable humanitarian engineering project is conducted and also get a feel for the culture and people of Tanzania. I have been lucky enough to travel to a developing country once before and it was an experience I will never forget. I want to make it an ongoing goal of mine to use my education to help bring water to developing countries through humanitarian engineering trips much like this one. I believe that access to safe drinking water is a basic human right and when this trip is over I hope that our group will be one step closer to bringing water to the people of the Marwa community.
Alex McWhirter– Right here: A phrase I picked up on a previous service trip to Nicaragua. When working with the people of Little Corn island, we would ask, “how are you,” they would respond with, “right here.” As if to say, I am in the moment and that is all that matters. It reminds me that while it is very exciting to work with the technical aspects of the project, the people, the community and the culture can have the most impact on you as a person. When we leave, we will inevitably feel like we are leaving a part of ourselves in the work we have done and with the people we have met, but the amazing thing is, it is those same people that fill in the holes left behind. I am extremely excited to meet the community, share my knowledge but more importantly, learn!
Sierra Heaton – This trip has been a long time coming. I have been waiting for this since September 2015 and I can’t believe it’s already here. Since then, I have graduated from The Ohio State University with some great friends and accepted a job in Charlotte, NC. Things have been moving so fast this semester. I know I can’t slow down time, but I feel like too often I find myself looking to the future and not appreciating the present. So for this trip I am going to try to fully absorb what Tanzania has to offer. I am truly blessed and privileged to be here. I am excited to meet all the community members, collect data, to be apart of this team and to see where this project can go. I am grateful for this opportunity The Ohio State University has given me even after graduation.
Randall Berkley – Coming into The Ohio State University as a freshman, I was accepted as part of the Humanitarian Engineering Scholars program which has shaped my college years. The program allowed me to participate in other project teams, similar to this one, where we worked to design a grey water filter system for an NGO in Guatemala. After returning from this trip, I will begin working for CH2M in Columbus, Ohio as an entry level engineer in the water business group where I will focus on drinking water mainly in the central Ohio region. That is why working with this team towards designing a water distribution system in rural Tanzania is the perfect fit for me to end my undergraduate career because it not only summed up my time at OSU but has helped prepare me for the next stage in my life.
Tony Duke – Australian born and raised, dual US citizen Tony Duke has worked extensively in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, the Middle East and West Africa, in the Cultural, Community and Development sectors. He is committed to people centered development. He has a diverse and eclectic portfolio of experiences, having held positions ranging Research Fellow at the Te Ake O Nga Waka (Centre for Cultural Tourism and Hospitality) in the Department of Maori Studies at the Auckland University of Technology through National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Policy Implementation Facilitator with the Australia Council for the Arts to Executive Director for Culture and Development International (Ghana) producing the 2nd International Conference on African Culture and Development. He is currently working with Dr. Joe Campbell (OSU / SENR) on developing the Sustainable and Resilient Tanzania Community program and is a candidate with the Doctor of Creative Industries program at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Australia.