Burundi 2023: Moving Day #1

Today we began with a time of devotions in the guesthouse. Earl was going to share in the hospital devotion time today but it got moved to next week. Don has been down with a stomach/intestinal virus of some kind and was unable to leave his room. Please pray that he will feel better tomorrow. Everyone else seems to be doing fine. Your blogger's cold is getting better by the day and so I thank you if you thought of me.

We started out the day with turning the PowerPac onto Bypass mode and shutting down the system. We then disassembled the battery bank for the Main Cluster and moved the bank to the other container.

Other work during the day involved some being under the PowerPac. Kind of tight and some of us wouldn't actually fit at all...

Wire pulling began from the Solar Arrays to the PowerPac.

And from the new Solar Combiner Panel to the Multicluster Box in the PowerPac.

As the day progressed we were able to get that Main Cluster A Battery Bank back online and as we took the system off Bypass we breathed a sigh of relief. By 7:30 PM we had Cluster B also moved over and reenergized. This was a good day. The rains began around 1PM and continued through the rest of the day, sometimes hard. This closed down outside work in the Solar Arrays. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day of sun. Some guys even seem to ask for handouts from behind bars.

We got word that Darrell missed his connecting flight in Brussels because of an damage of the overhead luggage compartment on his plane in Washington DC. The airline rebooked him onto Ethiopian Airlines and he should arrive in Bujumbura around 1PM tomorrow instead of 7:30PM tonight. When the driver picks him up at the airport tomorrow he will drive straight to Kibuye, hopefully with Don's lost luggage.

Things are going well overall here and we hope to have all three remaining battery banks moved by mid-day Friday. This will open up the space in the PowerPac for the nine new Sunny Island Inverters to be installed on the wall, along with the connecting wireways and conduits. We are hopeful that by Monday we could be ready to begin the commissioning of the additional batteries and Inverters. If the weather cooperates we should be able to install the Solar Modules. We are hoping the final week of the project will allow time for programming, monitoring, and documenting all that has been done. We have parts coming from each of the three people yet to arrive here, and we are hopeful they will not have any issues with Customs in Bujumbura. Also there are a number of additional projects that are planned to be done while we are here. One will require work on installing transformer fuses on the 33,000 volt electrical supply, as well as a connection to the Busoma Milling Division of the Hospital and mission here.

We are thankful for the support staff we have here who prepare our meals and help us to stay hydrated while we are busy working.