Day Four

Today was for the most part spent doing documentation and getting the booklet printed out.

The booklet.-


The rationale behind the instructional take away booklet is that I wanted to produce something that anyone throughout the world could use to be able to create a bike generator. I have not yet in my research have found distinctive step by step how to plans on producing power from a bicycle. Also language becomes a barrier and since putting up the site I have heard from people from several countries that speak very little English interested in knowing more about being able to empower themselves through power on demand. So I have created the document to be completely graphic based to assist people in walking through the instructions. I have checked this with several people and made many corrections to hopefully make it as easy to get through as possible. The other interesting factor is planning out a document that does not rely on color to assist you in moving through it. So now we have a fully image based, black and white document that explains how to take apart a bike, build your own stand, and hook up a generator to a series of lights. It was a very good design challenge and directly related to my thesis. Knowledge is the first step at empowering people and empowerment is the first step for people to take charge of their own lives and create their own source of energy.

With a stack of 50 take-away booklets sitting on my desk in A-1 format we walk down to “Viva” market and purchased the light bulbs that we need for Friday. It was very interesting to walk around the market; so much of culture is based on the food they eat. For one thing peanut butter is almost non-existent here, when I asked some locals if they have ever had it, they say yes but they don’t like it and would prefer Nutella. We shop around for awhile and make our purchases.

Based on quality of the ginger cookies I ate that night I also think that I was born to be eastern European. The amount of sugar in even the sugary things here seems be half that of what I have found in the US. That is not to say that they do not have twenty variations on the Kit Kat bar that have never seen the shelves in our country, but overall the feeling I have received thus far has been of less sugar. We walked down Mother Teresa blvd and discuss that even though it would be interesting to duck into some shops, neither one of us are really the shopping type. My wonderful host then takes me to a fantastic bakery where we eat French style cheesecake for dinner and drink mint tea. The cheesecake and conversation were wonderful until I heard a strange smacking sound from behind me. I take a quick glance and a younger couple are going full boar into a make out session. Beings that we are the only two tables in the restaurant this feels a bit awkward and last way too long. After dinner we take a very relaxing walk back up the hill to campus in a complete downpour. I had a raincoat with me but refused to wear because my walking partner was without one and I thought it to be a bit rude to be dry while watching someone else completely dripping.