Jasmine Ferrarer: Week 6 at Drop Access in Kenya

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. This week, I will be talking about the progress I’ve made on my Drop Access project, some Swahili phrases I’ve learned during my time in Kenya, and fun activities I did with friends last weekend. During the past week at Drop Access, I spent most of my time editing the 4 walls of the VacciBox 2.0 product in SolidWorks. My original redesign of the 4 walls resulted in gaps at the top corners of the refrigerator body that would have allowed cold air to escape the vaccine storage compartment. After getting help from my production team coworkers, Sam and Francisca, I found a way to redesign 3 walls of the VacciBox so there is no longer a gap in the top corners. I am still in the process of redesigning the 4th wall, putting all 4 components into an assembly, and ensuring the gaps between each wall are as narrow as possible in order to make it easier to weld the 4 walls together. Last Wednesday, I met with Drop Access CEO Norah Magero to discuss my mid internship performance evaluation. She had generally positive feedback about my work at Drop Access, although she recommended a few ways to help me be more productive at work and how to communicate more effectively with my production team coworkers. We also discussed how I need to make engineering drawings, get a price estimate for building the VacciBox prototype, collaborate with the contractors who cut the steel walls and weld them together, and present my internship project by the end of my internship. I suggested a way to do heat mapping simulations for the VacciBox in order to determine if my redesigned walls will increase the holding time of the refrigerator. However, my Rice University faculty advisor, Dr. Wettergreen, recommended I spend less time running the heat mapping simulations and more time building the prototype due to my limited knowledge of simulation software and my more extensive experience with prototyping in makerspaces. If the simulations are performed incorrectly, there is a higher chance the computer will give me inaccurate results about the refrigerator holding time. On the other hand, Drop Access already has several refrigerator performance tests used to manually check the holding time. Last week, I also attended an online production team meeting with the company by the name Vision Mechatronics. The Vision Mechatronics team is based in India and has built a VacciBox 3.0 prototype for Drop Access. As we near the end of the contract with Vision Mechatronics, it will soon be time to deliver the final refrigerator PCB to the team in India and then transport the prototype to the Drop Access warehouse in Nairobi, Kenya. I started reviewing the VacciBox 3.0 CAD made by Vision Mechatronics in order to determine if any adjustments need to be made to the refrigerator prototype.

Latest VacciBox 2.0 CAD assembly

Zoomed in view of redesigned VacciBox 2.0 walls. Observe the components covering the corner gaps.

Over the past week, I started to learn Swahili. Many of my Drop Access coworkers and people I met in Nairobi are bilingual or trilingual. The two official languages of Kenya are Swahili and English. Although I have made it through most days by only speaking to people in English, I found the majority of people in Kenya prefer to speak Swahili. Swahili is a Bantu language native to East Africa and English was inherited when Great Britain colonized Kenya from 1895 to 1963. There are a total of 68 languages spoken in Kenya. Various ethnic groups in Kenya typically speak their mother tongues within their own communities. Popular Bantu languages spoken in Kenya include Kikuyu, Kamba, and Luhya. Popular Nilotic languages include Dholuo, Kalenjin, and Maasai. Popular Cushitic languages include Oromo, Borana, and Orma. Over the past few days, I began to use Duolingo and resources on Google to learn some basic phrases in Swahili. An Uber driver in Nairobi recommended I become fluent in Swahili if I plan to live in Kenya for multiple years. She told me foreigners who do not learn to speak Swahili are more likely to be swindled when making purchases at local stores or markets in Kenya. Here are a few essential Swahili phrases I learned so far:

Jambo – Hello (formal)
Sasa – Hello (informal)
Habiri – Hello/How are you?
Kwaheri – Goodbye
Asante – Thank you
Karibu – You’re welcome/Welcome
Jina langu ni Jasmine – My name is Jasmine
Mimi ni Mmarekani – I am American
Sawa – Okay/Alright
Samahani – Sorry/Excuse me
Ndio – Yes
Hapana – No
Maji – Water
Chakula – Food
Nataka chakula tafadhali – I want food please
Bafu iko wapi? – Where is the bathroom?
Rafiki – Friend
Hakuna matata – No problem/No worries
Kesho – Tomorrow
Tuonane kesho – See you tomorrow
Jana – Yesterday
Leo – Today

I don’t expect to be fluent in Swahili by the end of my internship, but the more I learn now, the more I can practice and remember these phrases.

Last Saturday, I visited Amboseli National Park with my roommates, Colin and Emma. We hired Kenneth as our driver and had to leave our apartment at 5am in order to get to the safari during the morning when the animals are more active. Once we reached the Amboseli front gate, we purchased souvenirs from local Maasai tribe members and picked up a Maasai tour guide named Joseph. He helped to point out which sections of the safari are frequented by which animals. Joseph was dressed in a traditional Maasai shuka, a bright pink plaid shawl, as well as several elaborate bracelets on his upper arm, wrists, and ankles. Although the dirt road throughout Amboseli National Park was long, winding, and full of rocks and potholes, Joseph eagerly helped us find a parade of over 20 elephants, a playful pair of elephant twin babies, a flock of grey crowned cranes, a family of happy hippos taking a plunge in the swamp, a mischievous band of Vervet monkeys running around an abandoned resort, some speedy warthogs, wandering wildebeest, an observant African Fish Eagle perched in an Umbrella Thorn tree, a herd of attentive zebras, a patient lioness who stalked the herd of zebras and wildebeest, and a few long-necked giraffes. About halfway through the safari tour, we encountered a tall hill with a lookout point on top. I felt like Mufasa from the Lion King standing on Pride Rock, looking out over the grasslands, animal herds, and swamps touched by the afternoon sun. We were supposed to have a clear view of Mount Kilimanjaro from that lookout point. Unfortunately, the top 90 percent of the mountain was hidden by cloud coverage on that gloomy day. My roommates and I slept like babies during the drive back to our apartment that afternoon. Who knew that chasing animals down the winding roads of the safari could be so exhausting! Last Sunday, I visited the luxurious Waterfront Karen shopping mall with my new roommate, Katherine, and her friends, Jemimah and Caleb. The 4 of us sipped delicious boba beverages and walked over to the Mad Max Karting venue in order to attend a Silverstone Grand Prix Formula 1 (F1) watch party. The Silverstone Grand Prix is a 52 lap race hosted in the United Kingdom. Katherine, Jemimah, and I were rooting for the Ferrari drivers, while Caleb was a die hard Red Bull fan. Colorful Ferrari and Red Bull racing jackets, snacks, and go karting tickets were also sold at the venue. The race was action packed because several drivers spun out due to heavy rain and low visibility on the track, a driver crashed into a wall while trying to avoid a safety car, and one Red Bull driver fought his way to the front of the pack during the 2nd half of the race. At the end of the night, the 1st place spot was secured by McLaren driver was Lando Norris, 2nd place was taken by McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, 3rd place went to Kick Sauber driver Nicolas Hulkenberg, 4th place went to Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton, and 5th place went to Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. As we left the watch party, we discussed how none of the F1 drivers in that race were women. Extremely few women have competed in F1 due to the sport historically being dominated by men, gender bias, limited opportunities, the high cost of competing in motorsports, and the perception of the sport’s extreme physical demands. Although I may never become an F1 driver, I hope more women qualify to compete in F1 and become successful drivers someday. That’s all I’ve got for you this week folks. Have a great day and I’ll see you next week. Kwaheri!