Pohnpei, Part 4: Special Projects - The Engineering Side of Things

 Before we went to Pohnpei, my husband, Rob Frohne, had been in communication with Ray Betz, a current teacher at the school, to set up some special projects that need his expertise while we were on island.  Ray was one of Rob's former engineering students, and had been an SM a while back.  He returned again to Pohnpei teach after graduation.  He has been there for a total of 5 years, with no plans of stopping.

Rob was asked to set up a radio communication system so the main school can talk to  the little school out on Supwafik, an outer island, about a days journey away by boat.  (Where Solomon died - for those of you who knew him.)  Right now their only means of communication between the two schools is a regular paper letter, the kind we used to send home, back when we lived on Pohnpei.

I'm sure you have never forgotten that it cost $3 for every minute you talked on on the phone with your Mom.  Painfully expensive phone calls were seldom made.  I called once, just to hear my mom's voice, and hung up after 3 minutes, because that is all the money.  And my mom called me a couple times.

Now days, there is Internet at the school.  It is slow, but you can send and receive email, as often as you'd like, and even set up a chat time.  It makes the island feel not quite as far away as it used to feel.

While talking with Ray, another need of the school surfaced.  Electricity on Pohnpei costs $0.51 a kilowatt hour!  Electricity costs use up something like half of the whole school budget.  Another thing is that unless God intervenes, a large portion of funding for the school may be drying up in the next year.  That's not good!

(I am guessing that you thought electricity was expensive at your house, right?  Go ahead and pay your next bill with a smile, and gratitude to God.)

Pohnpei gets a lot of sun every day, there is some sun even on days that it rains.  Pohnpei is the perfect place for solar panels.

A few years ago a very kind person made a donation of solar water heaters to the school for the teacher's apartments.  You can see one on the roof of the building below on the right, providing hot water for an apartment of male teachers.

I got to use some of that solar heated hot water every time I took a shower on Pohnpei, and let me tell you, it felt really good.  I know what it feels like to have only cold water showers available.  I was really happy to think that those nice hot showers didn't use electricity.

So, my husband, Rob Frohne, is now in the process of doing research, and writing a grant proposal to get sufficient funds to install a grid-tie, solar panel system on the roof of the gym (the building on the left in the photo above).

A grid tied system doesn't use batteries to collect the electricity.  It instead makes electricity, and sends it into the public electrical system, causing one's power meter to move backwards, and then when the school uses electricity, the meter moves forward.  It is possible for the electric bill to come out with very little to no money owed to the power company.

Rob has personal experience with what is needed with the grid-tie system, and has the expertise to design the system, as a professor of electrical engineering.  Ray is an electrical engineer, and another teacher, from the Philippines, is a civil engineer, so Rob thinks this is going to be a very successful project. If you have any experience writing grant proposals, or any other questions or advice, or would like to help in some way, please contact us.  We would love to hear from you if you know of any organizations that might be willing to donate somewhere around $180,000 to the project.  And please pray for the project, that it will be for the glory of God, and for the blessing of the students who attend Pohnpei SDA School.