This blog was written in collaboration with Professor Rodrigo Peña: The Global Innovation Field School is on the road again. As we arrived to the Nairobi Airport, on Tuesday May 22nd, unexpected rain with low temperature was waiting for us. Even though the commute was long (almost 24 hours) and made us all exhausted, the [...]
In their final week, the students visit a new area near Sericho, a small fishing town a mile away from the Ethiopian border. Here the group is introduced to new people and a new lifestyle. Very few people in Ileret town use fishing as a means of finding food sources. In fact, it is a [...]
This week the Global Innovation team discussed their ideas for long-term projects. The five short term projects had covered major aspects of the community’s ability to develop sustainably and thus are important topics the group will keep in mind on as they move forward. Among them are access to electricity, water management, building infrastructure, [...]
One of the great prospects that Kenya has is its abundance of open flat land and solar power. Because of this, photovoltaic, or solar panel systems are a very favorable form of obtaining energy for the communities that need it. Professor Rodrigo has created a full day lecture around photovoltaic, or PV, systems to enlighten [...]
Classroom Relocation Project Building a classroom is no small task, but the Global Innovation team is up to it! Last week, after consulting with Mwang’ombe, the team was generously offered many materials from the TBI campus to conduct their project. Metal and plywood was provided from the TBI Ileret facility and TBI staff offered to [...]
On Tuesday May 30th, a vast storm hit the Ileret area and brought an immense amount of rain. Within a short period of 9 hours, TBI Ileret facility documented a record-high rainfall of more than 200 mm (8 inches). This amount is much more than a typical rainstorm at Ileret (~20 mm), and more than [...]
Classroom Relocation Project A new development arises: The day after Alan and Saffron moved the students out of their old classroom and into the dining hall, the local primary school received food rations from the government. (Up until now, the school hadn’t received any rations for three months; hence, the building had been abandoned.) This [...]
A Tour of TBI Last week, students took a tour of the Turkana Basin Institute for the opportunity to see what resources TBI uses, understand what makes the campus so unique, and discover what materials are available to be used in their projects. The first stop was the energy systems of the campus. TBI is [...]