15 Oct 2019
I woke up at about 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Closer to 5am, I just got up and rearranged all of my things in anticipation of the day. I also began posting photos and writing this blog before going down for coffee at 6:30. I also spoke to Becky by phone (wifi) and updated her on our status. Wifi was poor in the lobby, so I returned to the room to get more work done.
I went back and forth between the lobby and room for a few hours, alternating between coffee and wifi. Mike sat outside in the cool morning air with his coffee until the air conditioning was turned on in the muggier lobby. A local woman came buy with a large bag basket of produce on her head for the hotel. The lady proprietor picked through the small bags in the basket consisting of mustard greens, spinach, and the very long green beans that seem to be a staple here.
At breakfast we discussed the days plan with Dinesh. Everyone was excited to get started. We were told that wouldn’t be leaving until about 8:20, which we interpreted to mean that we wouldn’t be out of the hotel until 8:45, but we were happily surprised when Santos, our driver, showed up with the bus shortly after 8am. We were on the road by 8:15 and headed southeast across Lamahi and then on the road to Unako House (local home of CNP) and our work sites.
Along the way, Dinesh explained that this was one of the main roads to India and that there was considerable construction along the way, funded in part by the Indian government, to improve the road. We saw immediately that the state of the road was not very good and in one little town saw the construction first hand. The road was down to one bumpy, muddy lane in the middle of town and workers along the side were putting in drainage channels. The road alternated from very good to very poor several times and included a long, “one-plus” lane bridge across the river. I say “one-plus” because a bus and a tuck-tuck could cross paths on the bridge, but it wasn’t wide enough for two vehicles larger than a passenger car. On the return that evening, we had to wait for a string of buses coming the other way.
Dinesh told me that we could be passing through another town on the way and when he arrived he explained that, outside of Lamahi, it was the nearest large town that included both a police station and small clinic. He also said that we were passing by the hardware store where we might be buying things during the week and asked if we’d like to drop by to see what they had in stock--a short five minute visit. I agreed and the stop was just that--about a 50 meter walk from the town’s main intersection to the very, very crowded little shop that held everything from a paint mixing machine to corrugated steel roofing sheets, glass, plywood, flooring, hardware, etc. It was kind of like a micro-Home Depot in the size of a small convenience store. Every square inch was used for something.
Dinesh had told us that there would be a welcoming ceremony at the Unako House with the families that we would be helping attendance along with the rest of the staff and some trainees. When we arrived shortly before 9am, that’s exactly what we saw. We were greeted with leis of flowers and led into a large room with about twenty others. We were seated in somewhat of a semicircle and a little girl, along with a couple of other young ladies came around to each of us giving us a hand-full of flowers and putting s very bright pink bindi on each of our foreheads, saying “Namaste” as she did so.
Dinesh then introduced us to everyone and asked if one of us would like to say something and that he would translate for us. I stood up and gave a general thanks and welcome and Debra did the same, emphasizing CNP’s role in helping girls and women and how much that meant to her. Dinesh also explained some of the circumstances of the families, especially pointing out a widow we would be helping near the Unako House that had been abandoned by her husband’s family upon his death--a cultural issue not uncommon to the area by which the husband’s family places blame for his death on the wife.
We then took a few group photos and split into our two groups. Debra, Grace, Mark, and Mike joined me--we would be walking to the widow’s home about almost a kilometer up the road and the others (Hoot, Mark, Deb, Sue, and Hal) would be working at a site just a few meters from the building.
Sam, one of the staff members, joined us in the walk to our work-site as did Santos, our driver. The road was dusty with loose gravel, traveled by a tractor, a tuck-tuck for local transportation, and many on bicycle. We passed small farmhouses with water buffalo, goats, chickens, and a few pigs. Several of the homes had beautiful gardens with tall marigolds and other flowers attracting plenty of butterflies. Families from the homes were making their way to the rice fields as harvest season was underway.
When we arrived at our location, we were pleasantly surprised to see that much of our work would be done in at least partial shade as there were several small trees lining the ditch bank near the stick, mud, and thatched roof home. The site “foreman” used his three meter tape measure to mark out circles where we would dig the two septic pits (four feet in diameter), separated by about two feet, and the structure itself that would only be four feet by five feet. We were surprised that all of their measurements were in feet.
Our team took to digging the septic pits quickly--maybe too quickly. We were digging furiously and started to sweat profusely and overheat. Our pent up enthusiasm was getting to us. The weight and thickness of the loamy soil quickly took its toll, though, and we slowed. We had to cut through some fairly big roots as well.
At first, two could dig at the same hole at once, but once we were down into the ground by much more than about two feet, it got two crowded and we had to alternate. At first, the foreman said that we needed to dig down “nine feet” as we would be putting in (i.e., stacking) six half-meter tall, one meter wide concrete rings for each ring, but I had my doubts as to whether we’d be able to go that deep before hitting water.
As we worked in each hole, the foreman, along with Sam and Santos dug the foundation for the latrine with a wide hoe. It seemed larger than what we’d done with bricks in Cambodia. Once that was dug (about six inches deep and a foot wide, they began to line it with large, rounded river rock.
Throughout this process, we had about ten kids from the family and nearby watching us, ranging in age from five or six up to early teens. Some of the kids helped by carrying river rocks to the foundation--something Debra was helping with, too, but most just stood around and watched. As it got warmer, I opened my bag of Jolly Rancher hard candies and handed them out to the workers and kids who seemed to like them.
The digging got more serious as the clay soil got thicker and thicker. Soon, in the hole nearest the house, we were alternating one person at a time and struggling to pull that person (Mark, Mike, or me) out of the hole. Grace was working hard on the other hole as was Debra and while one was in each whole, the others were using the excavated clay to build a berm between the latrine and the drainage ditch beside the home--something we told might flood the house during the monsoon season. We also had to clear the excavated dirt from around the pits just so the digger could successfully toss their shovel-fulls of clay over the edge.
Soon, in the first hole, we were too deep to even throw out the clay easily. Debra suggested using the plastic buckets nearby and also tried to explain to our non-English speaking foreman that we needed steel buckets and rope. Sam and Santos weren’t there at the time, so this became a little frustrating. We decided to use the plastic buckets while we had them--along with some rope--and that worked for about five or six trips out of the hole until the handle broke. It was repaired but broke again. By then, Sam and Santos had returned, understood the problem, and promised to go into town during lunch to get steel buckets.
We took a lunch break at noon and walked back to the Unako House. The others were headed to lunch at the same time. We could see that they were suffering a bit more from the sun than we were with their work in an open field. They did have a “relief site” next to the building with shade, though, at which several chairs allowed them to take breaks. They also were struggling with the thick soil and, in their first pit, had hit water barely a meter down.
Lunch was a good break. We had a chance to clean up a little, get some water and have the standard meal. We compared descriptions of our sites and discussed the project more. Then and again later in the day, we realized that the latrines were going to be different than we expected and the thought came to us that it would’ve been nice to see a diagram or photos of the plan or to just visit a similarly completed toilet in the area before we started work.
We walked back after lunch and had a very productive afternoon. We completed digging the closest pit first. Mark had struck water before lunch and when we returned there was quite a bit in the bottom. We used the bucket to clear out the water and continue digging, but it was clear that we wouldn’t get much farther down. Same came over and told us that we were close to finishing and that seven feet deep--the depth to the now-established water table level would be good enough. Meanwhile, Grace was working on the second pit with Mike and Debra was helping with the rocks and mortar at the latrine, all of us switching in and out of roles, taking some photos, too.
Over lunch, not much was done with the toilet structure, but once the two pits were completed by about 2:30, everyone focused on that. Our foreman allowed us into the mix as Grace and Debra brought us buckets of mortar and we worked to together to add layers of rock to the walls of the latrine. Mike turned on his bluetooth speaker and the kids listened first to some classic rock and then some country music of Mike’s choosing. Grace (and I) got sick of that, though, and she chose a “Glass Animals” playlist followed by my selection of “Portugal. The Man.” The kids seemed to like that quite a bit better.
By about 3:45, we were done with the rock and mortar. The foreman and others piled some dirt around the outside the rectangular structure (with a step on one side and a slot on the other for the pipe) and filled the two-foot high structure with clay from our excavation piles to keep everything in place. We were told that we would dig out the clay from the inside once everything was set the next day.
As we left, I took a few photos, gave the kids another Jolly Rancher, and we packed up for the walk. It was a beautiful afternoon with the fields being harvest, the golden colors and vibrant dress of the locals making for some striking sites and photos.
At Unako House, we surveyed the work of the other team with Kevin and Hoot still digging away. One of their pits was nearing seven feet in depth--it was the one farthest from the nearby well head, while the other, only two feet away was wet barely four or so feet down. Mark jumped into that one and did some more digging, but it seemed obvious that both would have water in the bottoms when we returned the next day.
The rock structure at this site was a little higher than ours by a few inches and they did not used mud in the middle to hold things in place. They also seemed to use noticeably bigger river rocks than we did.
We decided to pack up for the day and left by 4:10pm. On the way back, Dinesh showed us a completed latrine that we saw from about 100 meters away.
Back at the hotel (we arrived at 4:45), everyone cleaned up with some doing sink laundry but others discovering that the hotel would do laundry. I cleaned my clothes in a bucket of hot water in the bathroom, showered and felt refreshed. We started to gather for the 7pm dinner by 6pm to have some refreshments.
At dinner, Dinesh told us that we would be helping load the concrete rings in the morning and that he had some meetings but would see as on-site later in the morning. He also said that the menu would change a little the next day and that we’d get some noodles and chicken instead of the same meal we’d had for lunch and dinner in each of the last three or (in some case) four days. That made everyone happy.
The evening concluded with Hal singing “Oh, Canada!” to the Canadian ladies in our group, fueled by a couple of beers and a generous shot of “Old Durbar” Nelapi whiskey--a highlight of the day. I was in bed shortly after 9pm and slept (with a few interruptions) until almost 5:30am.