Karibu! Welcome!

Since 2004, EWB@ MSU's professional and student volunteers have worked with community members in Khwisero, Kenya to provide water and sanitation infrastructure at the district's 58 primary schools, making it easier for Khwisero's children to avoid waterborne disease and get an education.

In that time, the group has grown from a small club to one of MSU's premier student organizations, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund seven borehole wells, six composting latrines and a biogas latrine that serve thousands of community members.

Thank you for joining us as we continue to work hand-in-hand with local partners to make a difference in one small part of our world. As Western Kenya's limited internet access allows, we will update this blog while in-country with the successes, stories and lessons provided by our work.

Thursday, July 16, 2009


I'm happy to report that Team 2 has landed in Nairobi and are eager to get to work in Khwisero. They will be arriving Friday afternoon and spend the weekend working with Team 1 getting up to speed. Things are continuing to go well as noted in Kiera's post the other day. The picture above is the current status of the bio-gas latrine. We have dug the dome hole and the expansion chamber. Time to start constructing.

More to report next week as the work continues to ramp up with the great work from Team 1. We will start construction on the dome for the bio-gas latrine. We will receive both the second team in the west and the first ever team to stay in the east of Khwisero. The community in the east that we will be staying with is very, very excited to receive EWB and start working with them. We will be finalizing our drillers and meeting with the EWBMSU Kenyan board to discuss the best option. We have a much work still to do with the hand washing stations, the household survey of the schools, the assessment of the distribution system from Emwaniro, and many many other projects to work on.

We are busy, happy, and thoroughly enjoying Khwisero. We will end with a quick Kiluhya lesson.

Bushire - Good Morning
Keshitare - Good Afternoon
Bwakera - Good Evening

And my personal favorite:
Oliomulamu - Are you fine?
in which you reply:
Endiomulamu. Yes I am fine.


JJ Larsen
Co-Project Manager
Phase IV
0723 353 821
Posted by Jj Larsen at 5:12 AM

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