Metal or plastic?

A problem occurred to us the past few days: the plastic corrugated sheets used as see-through material on the solar dryers of the past years were all turned white by the sun and hereby partly lost their function. So during this week we contacted a few experts in the field of solar drying in the Netherlands, Gambia and Senegal to discuss this phenomenon with them. One of the contacts was MyFarm, that we visited for the second time on Monday. Here we practically learned that everything in a country like this breaks down one way or another, so our solution should be not too complicated and if possible easy to repair or to replace. After gathering all the necessary information from the different contacts, we tried to make a decision for our solar dryer in Ndokey: for now it will be metal corrugated sheets on top, instead of plastic ones. We hope for the best!

On Monday in the afternoon we visited Serrakunda market again to buy the last materials: like matrass fabric and nets for the trays. After this, on Tuesday, it was time for us to leave the coastal region again and to go back to the inlands. Fully packed, with our own backpacks and the materials for the solar dryer, we travelled all our way up to Kuntaur, where we arrived late in the evening, totally exhausted.

The next days we made plans for the building process and Youri measured all the wood. On Thursday we visited Jakaba to see the solar dryers of last year outside for ourselves. Sarja (our interpreter) was not present, but another man who could speak a little bit English explained everything to us. When we arrived, two of eight solar dryers were standing outside. We were actually a little disappointed about the way it looked, because the plastic sheets were not turned white like we thought, but even black in some areas. Besides that, there was a lot of sand and dust in the air heater, because the dust filter was not used apparently. We will have to explore the possibilities of how to continue with Jakaba a little bit more. Furthermore we discussed about how to organize the excursion with the people from Ndokey. The excursion took place the next day in Jakaba. In the morning we transported most of the materials to Ndokey, where Youri picked up a few villagers with the jeep and together with them drove to Jakaba. In the meantime Irene and Lisanne cycled to Jakaba to prepare everything for the excursion. Once everyone had arrived, we explained to them during the gathering around the solar dryers, that the upper material will be changed to another material in Ndokey. They were happy to hear this. They were also fascinated about the drying boxes and the fact that the fans were working well. In short, the excursion was very useful especially for the people of Ndokey, because they could finally see it with their own eyes, before starting to build their own! In the evening of this day, we were in the midst of a long discussion about the focus of our project, when all of a sudden someone noticed a big and massive hippo at the other side of the river! He was relaxing on the southern river banks and we immediately jumped in one of the boats to have a closer look at this fascinating animal. But once we got too close, we scared him away and he quickly got into the water.

In the end of this week, we finally started building the solar dryer in Ndokey! On the first day we greeted everyone on the compound and explained our plans for that day. After this, Youri started sawing the wood and Irene and Lisanne started cutting the jerrycans. We all got a lot of help and ideas from the villagers and people on the compound. At first we were not looking forward to the language barrier at all, but this appeared to be less of a struggle! We managed to communicate using the building manual and a lot of hand gestures. On Sunday we cycled with the remaining eight jerrycans tied to our backpacks, a saw, and other tools to Ndokey. It took us an hour to arrive at the compound and to continue sawing the wood with a serro and the bidongs with a muro. As you can see, we even learned a few Mandinka words to improve our communication!