Primary School children dancing at a lodge on Lake Mutanda near Kisoro in Southwestern Uganda.
Preparation to begin building latrines are now in full swing. Tor and I have mapped out about 40 latrines to be built at 4 Batwa villages. Often I drive the motorcycle down to the guesthouse in the morning for breakfast and find Tor cranking away on some new latrine design modification or looking for ways to cut costs on existing designs. Tor and I have come up with four main criteria for the construction of the latrines:
1. We want to maximize the involvement of the community in every step of the projects. This includes participating in every step of the planning and building process.
2. We want to provide the strongest most versatile latrine for the least cost and we want to use building techniques that use existing masonry an carpentry skills within the communities.
3. We want the materials to be light as transportation costs are the highest they have ever been in
4. Lastly, if at all possible, we want to provide a latrine that can be sustainably used for over 50 years. This means that the structure will outlast the life of the pit and can be disassembled and reassembled with minimum skill and effort (aside from digging a 15 to 20 foot hole in the ground).
One method that we have come across is the use of thin layers of sand and cement applied to a light structural framework such as chicken wire. This process used to make walls and possibly slabs is known as ferrocement. This is cement that is not poured into forms but applied as a plaster and has proven its strength and usefulness many times over in projects such as boat hulls and water storage tanks. The ferrocement walls are lighter than brick walls and utilize traditional mud and waddle techniques of applying plaster to a structural framework. Test walls are going up as we speak and we hope to have built our first latrine in early February. I guess this is all a lot of excitement about storing well…crap! But it has been extremely rewarding working with the Batwa communities on their concerns about sanitation and coming up with a design that they can be proud of and that they will take responsibility for long after we have left.
Members of the Batwa community with the tools and food that will be used for digging the pits for the latrines.
To increase community buy in and involvement we are setting up water, sanitation, and nutrition committees. These groups of people are the current and future managers of these Rotary projects. In some cases the committee members overlap and in others they are completely separate. These committees are what Rotary calls the Rotary Community Corps. The RCC are groups of volunteers that manage the financial, logistical, and enforcement aspects of the projects. By-laws are written for the proper management of the projects and include schedules for maintenance and in some cases fines for misconduct. One such fine I found particularly interesting in the Batwa community of Bikuto was for 10,000 shillings for cleaning pig intestines at the protected spring source. Apparently a prized delicacy among the Batwa they also realize it is one of the more unsanitary and disgusting preparations of food known to mankind.
Batwa children grouped together at a community meeting to talk about water and sanitation. Meetings are often populated by all ages from the youngest suckling babies to the oldest crotchety Muhzees (respected elders).
As for living in Bwindi, I continue to enjoy the near perfect weather on a daily basis. When the sun comes out in midday it can really cook here especially with the humidity but without fail the clouds will roll in in the afternoon to cool things off and provide short bursts of rainfall that will give way to beautiful sunsets against white pillowy thunderheads. I am settling into my new Banda (another name for cabin) quite nicely which has a 180 degree view of primary rainforest. The forest sits there as one of the last remnants of truly unspoiled wilderness. The majestic quality of the forest seems infinite and is a great source of mystery and curiosity in my daily routine.
For the Christmas holiday Tor and I traveled south to the volcanoes on the border of
From there our travels took us through the town of
Ranger guide against the backdrop of Mt Sabyinio seen from the top of Mt Gahinga. The guides carry rifles to scare off wild animals such as buffalo and elephant though I'm not sure a fully automatic AK-47 is totally warranted.
It’s hard to believe that already 4 months have passed here. It has been such a blur of new experiences it’s impossible to describe effectively all of the daily nuances of being here. Hopefully, in time, you will all have a chance to experience
Photos
Three Bakiga men hold a banana tree sluice up to an unprotected spring in order to determine the water volume produced by the spring. This volume is then compared to the number of families that will collect the water to determine if the volume of the spring is adequate.
A man collects papaya by dislodging the fruit with a long wooden pole.
A photo of a taxi park in Kigali from a short three day trip that Tor and I took to Rwanda during the holidays.
A sign outside of a church near Kigali Rwanda. This is one of the many genocide memorials in Kigali, Rwanda. Over 1200 Tutsis who took shelter in this church were killed. Over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu sympathisers were brutally murdered in 1994. The sign is self-explanatory. Suprisingly enough it is sponsored by Rotaract a club of young Rotarians from the area.
Me hanging out with a couple boda boda drivers at Lake Mutanda where I spent Christmas.
A girl peeling beans while her younger sister looks on.
Tor befriending the Batwa community of Kyabuyorwa.
Photo of Lake Mutanda at dusk with the outlines of volcanoes Mahavura, Gahinga, and Sabyinio in the back ground.
3 comments:
Looks like you guys are making great progress! Happy Belated Holidays and New Year. Take care bud.
Sol,
We are in awe of the adventures you are having! I, Janine, finally caught up on all your posts (Eric wants you to know he has been reading diligently). We are glad to hear your projects are going well and you are seeing progress. The trip you guys took on the Nile sounded amazing, so much wildlife, I would love to see lions and elephants in the wild, from a distance! Eric is enjoying your pictures of the Ugandan people. We missed you last weekend in Nevada City during the Film Fest. We sort of had an informal reunion with our old friends, Molly, Noel, Maegan, Kelly, and the 2008 Americorps guys, Simeon and Dan at the good old Mine Shaft. We miss you Sol, but know you are doing great things. Much Love,
Janine and Eric
P.S. Helloooooo Tor!!!
Sol,
What a great blog. I just got caught up on it yesterday. I am so impressed with your work over there. With so many lacking in the most basic need for water, I have often imagined myself, going into one of these areas to drill wells, develop springs, install storage and run pipes, at least to the village centre. In these imaginations, aside from financial limitations, I get bogged down with how these systems are to be maintained as well as what negative impacts might ensue. I also wonder how best to gain acceptance from those people one is trying to help. You mention the methods of pre sensitising the locals to the problems and the frustrations you sometimes encounter in trying to educate. It is so easy for me to think that we can just bring in our methods and they will work. Obviously that is not realistic and it sounds like you are meeting some of these challenges head on. How easy it is for me to think about saving the world from my armchair. I must say, I am quite impressed with your commitment.
We decided to emigrate from the US in November of 2004 and were successful in arriving in Wellington, New Zealand in September of 2006. In May of 2008 we moved to Kaikoura. About a year ago, we were traveling through Kaikoura, staying at a backpackers, when we met a couple that had been on a mission somewhere in Africa, I think it was. They told us of a circumstance where the women had been walking the significant distance to the spring to fetch water for as long as they knew. When the water pipe went in, this broke the social structure that had given the women this time to commune with each other and share the events of the day, a very important part of their lives. This is just one example of the delicate fabric of humanity in which we live. I get the sense that you are keenly aware of many of these sensitivities as they apply to your endeavours. And I imagine that in places like the refugee camps and other serious areas, this is the least of the worries compared to simply getting clean water. I imagine there might be entire majors at Universities that study many of these things.
Your studies in hydrology bring far more to these direct efforts than many, but then I see how helpful Tor was in bringing his skills into the mix. It reminds me that these sorts of things often are a team effort and require multiple talents. I applaud you both for your tenacity in gaining your skills and your choice to apply them in such a meaningful and valuable way. Maybe down the track you both could write a book including latrine plans and spring development illustrations for the various villages along with the trials and tribulations you are beginning to document in your blog. That was an especially poignant account of the woman who wanted to live in the latrine. It really demands us to adjust our perspectives. As with $6 petrol when others are complaining about $3 petrol, it is good to stick our heads out and have a look around.
It will be good to hear what purification methods are more successful than others in being maintained down the track after you leave a site. I was especially interested to hear more about Kristen’s ventures in using UV. Are there systems that do not require “grid power”?
I am keenly aware that photographs tend to romanticise and sanitise otherwise real circumstances. When I arrived in New Zealand, I had every intention of photographing and relating every side of my experiences. But it became too comfortable to focus on the beautiful scenes and only the poetic side of the negative.
I will be following your exploits and wish you all the best.
Cheers,
Ralph (Hogan)
PS. When you see Dr. Kellerman, tell him my elbow is almost perfectly straight now although I seriously doubt he will remember me from a single visit some 20 years ago. (It was my left elbow, if that helps:)
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