Finishing Touches - Day 4

28th May

Day 4

Today was the day: we were going to finish the assembly of the purification system. There were two primary tasks at hand: assembling the serpentine loop, and wiring up the system. 

VWOS project leaders, Amanda Schneider and Amy Heindel, along with Dr Thomas Soerens, volunteered to handle the serpentine loop. Their job required them to make accurate pipe cutouts and pipe connections. When considering their design, they ensured that the loop was 30 feet long and was compact enough for practical and aesthetic purposes.

Serpentine loops are tedious to plan and make. Consequently, Amanda, Thomas and Amy were knocked out after the assembly was finished (or maybe it was the fumes from the glue...)

In the meantime, Ray Knepper and Toby Mea proceeded to install the wires and electronics of the VWOS installation. Between the two of them, they have at least 51 years of experience as electricians (more specifically, Ray has 50 plus years while Toby has only a year). Thus, under Ray's direction, the various electronic components (i.e switches, electric meters, the pump and the ozonator) were wired to the power supply here at Villa Esperanza.

Installing the power box, from which all other appliances will get their power. 

Sometime before lunch, the serpentine loop joined the rest of the system and suddenly, we get something that looked similar to the VWOS in the Engineering Laboratory at Messiah College. 

With the installation of the serpentine loop, water being pumped through the system makes contact with the ozone, allowing for water disinfection and oxidation of other chemicals.

In the electric department however, there was a slight setback as some components were still missing. Fortunately, William managed to fetch the necessary components from around Managua. The sun started to beat on us as we scrambled to put the finishing touches to the installation. Ariela even flicked the switches to ensure that our wiring was done properly. In the end, we breathed a sigh of relief as we stepped back to behold all that we have done

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 The VWOS system, installed in Villa Esperanza, Managua, Nicaragua

We are so thankful to have come this far in our journey. We would like to thank everyone for striving together with us in prayer. We will continue to run tests and observations to optimize the system and prepare ourselves to pass this system on to the staff working here in Villa Esperanza.