I am researching water quality in Tanzania for six months. I assist a UC environmental engineering graduate student, and our focus is collecting data and gaining a better understanding of sand filters, a point of use water treatment system. We work daily with local people, and to accomplish our goals we must not only understand and value the data, but must also understand and respect the individuals using the water treatment system. These people spend a large portion of their day collecting water that is highly contaminated. The original goal, of having the communities we work with build the sand filters, has been quite successful. The system requires a bucket, two feet of plastic piping, and some gravel of assorted sizes from the road. While this system is costly in their eyes, it is still within reach for the majority of the community. On the other hand, we have found new goals during our water testing. One new goal is getting every family to use the technology correctly. Many families have built, and value, the treatment system, but they now need to understand AND PRACTICE the use requirements to make the system work. Some of the special things about my location are related to having and running a lab. We use a pressure cooker as an autoclave. We frequently heat over a small flame burner, as electricity is not reliable. We use ultraviolet light from the Sun to disinfect things whenever possible. We dispose of some waste in a pit in the backyard. After about 7 pm our office light turn into a strobe light, when there is electricity at all (we can only conclude that this must be due to the increase in electricity use further up the line).