Water and What's In It: Building Poopers

 Every year, when rainy season hits, the little mountain town of Belen Gualcho in western Honduras has a Hepatitis A outbreak.  Many houses have no, or inadequate, latrines.  Fecal matter gets washed into the streams by the rain water and the folks below, who use this water directly out of the steams, get sick.  Basic right?  It's more complicated than you might think.

Here's a photo journal of a latrines project being carried out by my workplace, ASONOG,  with funding from the Sources youth leadership water project, of Canada World Youth.

 This household already has a latrine, but it's full, and there ain't no pump trucks in this neighbourhood.

The owner of this house does not want to sacrifice his peach tree to erect a latrine, shared between his household and that of his grandson (background).  Peaches would be a valuable asset too.  What to do?

Belen Gualcho means place of many waters.  So, it's no suprise that after digging the 3m needed for the new latrines, some beneficiaries hit water and must relocate if possible.

Houses on hills.  Water and what's in it, flows downhill to communities below.  When your upstream neighbours don't have latrines, and you drink the water directly out of the nearby stream...eww.

A kid herding mules on a mule. The pic is here because I love that shit.

Unloading the 40 of 100 toilet bowls in one of five neighbourhoods benefiting from the latrines project, funded by Canada World Youth, as part of the Sources water project.

More materials for the latrines.  Counting and recounting the metal sheets.  Everybody on the list gets two!

PVC tubing, bags of cement, rebar, and sheets of metal for the latrines. Overheard, "I'm just going to put this long tube directly into the stream." Oh man, that defeats the whole purpose dude!

The local municipal office.

Daniel leading a workshop for the beneficiaries of the latrines.  Why, where and how to construct their latrines. Cell phones on vibrate please.

Carrying off the materials up the steep hills to their houses.  The concrete and toilet bowls are awaiting them at the top.  Hopefully the materials get used for latrines and not improvements to the TV rooms in their  adobe houses (mud huts).  I'm not kidding about the TV rooms.

On the Importance of Outhouses

Over the past couple of weeks I wake up and repeat the mantra, "I am calm, and at peace." a few times before I dart out of bed and start the day.  It's been a little crazy around here lately with the arrival and then departure of some Honduran volunteers for my "Sources" Canada World Youth  water project, my first experiences with Honduran financial paperwork, and scrambling to apply to the "Glimpse Correspondents' Program" by yesterday's deadline.  All this, and a boss who was travelling in Mexico and was only intermittently available by Blackberry or occasional messages from fellow ASONOG employees.  Skype, Facebook, texting...I use technology here as much or more than I did in Canada.

I am happy to report that this Canada Day is chill  for me, and I'm enjoying a little down time along with all the Canadians who are vacationing today.  If you're out camping in the British Columbia wilderness this long weekend, give Smokey the Bear a hug for me would you?