Today at St. Elizabeth, we finally finished up an amalgamator that we’ve been struggling with for a while. An amalgamator is a machine used in the dental clinic to shake pellets for fillings in side of a little plastic bean. Don’t ask me more—I don’t know enough about dental fillings! This thing was full of problems when we got it. We fixed the electrical connections easy enough, but there was a snapped plastic bracket we just couldn’t figure out what to do with. We fixed a metal bracket (for holding the bean, shown to the right), by drilling holes through a similarly-sized strip of metal and overlapping them across the break. The metal strip on top is new. Notice how the arm on the bottom is a solid piece, w/out screws.
Even the littlest things like that can be tough here though. Where do you go to get holes drilled through metal? At home: My dad’s shop, of course. He doesn’t have a metal bit? Off to Home Depot! Not so here in Tanzania. There’s nothing close to a Home Depot—you go to separate stalls (not quite stores) for pipes, spare auto parts, auto oil, nuts and bolts, tools, glass, lights, etc. Every shopping trip is an adventure! For these holes, we found a fundi wa fungua (key technician), who has a little key-making table on the side of the road.
Even the littlest things like that can be tough here though. Where do you go to get holes drilled through metal? At home: My dad’s shop, of course. He doesn’t have a metal bit? Off to Home Depot! Not so here in Tanzania. There’s nothing close to a Home Depot—you go to separate stalls (not quite stores) for pipes, spare auto parts, auto oil, nuts and bolts, tools, glass, lights, etc. Every shopping trip is an adventure! For these holes, we found a fundi wa fungua (key technician), who has a little key-making table on the side of the road.
Amalgamator. See the zip-tie inside?
We then scoured the city for metal pipe-holding brackets (Ω shape) that would fit around the broken plastic…. thing. We finally found them, and then that didn’t work! Charlotte started using my zip-ties from home to supplement the brackets, and then we realized—“Hey! Do we even need these metal brackets?” Nope, we ended up securing the stupid thing with just one neon orange zip-tie. Sometimes the best solution is right in front of you.
After returning the amalgamator to the unbelieving dentists, we opened up a giant suction machine. The motor was bright blue, and it reminded me of the blue Mustang my parents used to have. My dad had this motor that I remember painting the same bright blue. I think the plan was to put it in the Mustang (I really don’t remember, I was like 7). Anyways, the machine had some suction but not enough to draw up any water. As we were opening up the pump to check the valves (dirt-clogged valves are a common problem in pumps here), we noticed something strange. The “seals” of the metal components, instead of nice rubber gaskets, were circles of newspaper! Jonas scoffed, “Inafanya katika India!” (It’s made in India!) And so it was. But the strange materials didn’t stop there—we went to clean out the oil filters, and what were we pulling out? Strips of khanga! A khanga is a really colorful piece of fabric used for everything in Tanzania. It’s like the multipurpose T-shirt: skirt, head scarf, blanket, towel, etc. I’ve seen books titled 100 Uses of the Khanga, but it never said oil filter! It was like a magician pulling scarves from a hat. Guess there’s really 102 uses.
After returning the amalgamator to the unbelieving dentists, we opened up a giant suction machine. The motor was bright blue, and it reminded me of the blue Mustang my parents used to have. My dad had this motor that I remember painting the same bright blue. I think the plan was to put it in the Mustang (I really don’t remember, I was like 7). Anyways, the machine had some suction but not enough to draw up any water. As we were opening up the pump to check the valves (dirt-clogged valves are a common problem in pumps here), we noticed something strange. The “seals” of the metal components, instead of nice rubber gaskets, were circles of newspaper! Jonas scoffed, “Inafanya katika India!” (It’s made in India!) And so it was. But the strange materials didn’t stop there—we went to clean out the oil filters, and what were we pulling out? Strips of khanga! A khanga is a really colorful piece of fabric used for everything in Tanzania. It’s like the multipurpose T-shirt: skirt, head scarf, blanket, towel, etc. I’ve seen books titled 100 Uses of the Khanga, but it never said oil filter! It was like a magician pulling scarves from a hat. Guess there’s really 102 uses.
Hii ni shida = Here is the problem.
We diagnosed the main problem with the machine as an uneven wearing of these little metal “flaps.” In the picture you can see the coppery rectangles—notice how the one at the bottom doesn’t quite fit in the hole? Nothing we could really do about that. The rotor was also unevenly worn, and we might have been able to find an auto shop who did rotor grinding (thanks Dad, for teaching me about that right before I left home!), but it turned out only one side of the pump was really that bad. It was too old to spend much money on, so we just re-fitted the tubing to only use the good side. The suction doesn’t get to the max, but it sucks up a lot of liquid, really fast. Good to go!
Tomorrow we’re going to Ithna Asheri. Ithna both expects us later and is way closer to our house. Yay, sleeping in!
Tomorrow we’re going to Ithna Asheri. Ithna both expects us later and is way closer to our house. Yay, sleeping in!