Hot water for Kara Bara

Pete and I flew up to Kara Bara last week. It’s north of the Chalbi Desert in the Hurri Hills.

The 206 was completely packed with boxes full of hot water heater parts. John drove up and met us there to tackle a couple of plumbing projects and install the hot water heaters.

We saw many amazing things: the snake house, made from asbestos, now inhabited by a lot of wildlife; a hyena and several gazelles out at night; and a Brazilian missionary who refuses to eat vegetables.

We had a couple parts break and had to come up with new solutions, but by the time we flew out on Saturday, the water was warm-ish and there weren’t any leaks.

Kara Bara is at 4200 feet with sustained winds over 20 mph. While it warms up a bit in the afternoon, it gets down below 10C at night. If this hot water system can take the edge off, I’m sure it will be a blessing to the young missionary family living there.

Meet Pete

He’s a new pilot with AIM AIR. We flew up to Kara Bara. It’s north of the Chalbi Desert in the Hurri Hills.

Flying past Mount Kenya

We had the 206 completely filled with a hot water unit and supplies for a missionary family in the Hurri Hills of northern Kenya.

Space Age Hot Water Units?

John working his magic

We met John, who provides logistic support for our missionaries in Kenya and beyond. Here is trying to figure out how we’ll mount the hot water units onto the roof.

Cuttin’, Threadin’, and windin’ tape

We spent the rest of Thursday, all of Friday, and Saturday morning cutting and threading pipe and assembling the hot water units.

Hooking up the tanks

Simon and John work out plumbing the water from the header tank into the hot water units.

Fixing those leaky joints

Unlike Lokichogio, the Hurri Hills have no reasonably accessible ground water. Because of the geology of the area, the water runs off and also under the mountain and into the chalbi desert. So John worked hard to seal up any leaking joints. It’s a challenge when there isn’t a neighborhood hardware store.

Improvising

Inevitably, parts break. Several rubber washers ended up being useless, and the new shower mixer cracked when it was connected to our pipes. So, we improvised: inner tubes became new washers and an extra ball valve became the shower mixer.