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Week Two – Our First Latrine <3

Building our first Latrine

This week we got to begin our first latrine project. It is to be a fairly modern latrine with a 40 foot hole, two toilets, a washroom, and a tin roof. The entire structure is built out bricks and mortar, with wood for the doors and roofing. This structure is built at our host family’s home, replacing there much older and temporary one. Fortunately for us, the 40 foot hole had already been dug, and the foundation already laid. So our work began with measuring out the dimensions for the Latrine and then beginning brick work. Brick work involved first mixing large quantities of mortar – a concoction of water, sand and cement. Then the corners of the latrine are built up first to ensure that they are square and aligned with each other. One brick at a time, the corners are then connected to each other all the while ensuring that each new brick placed is aligned with the lower layers and is straight with those on its same layer. The tools used to do this are a level, a square, a spade to scoop the mortar, and a plum (a string with a standoff at the top as well as a metal weight at the bottom used to make sure that each new brick is not bending the wall in or out).

[pic of brickwork in progress]

This brickwork took roughly three full days to complete, one brick at a time, until the outside walls, entry way and bathroom wall dividers were completed up to their final height of ~6 ½ to 7 feet.

[completed brickwork]

Now, with walls placed, the only remaining steps are to complete the roofing, plaster the inside walls, and to put doors on the toilet rooms! For the plaster, the same mortar as used for the brickwork is placed over the bricks on the inside walls and then smoothed with a tool that looks like a metal iron. To complete the roofing three wooden trusses were constructed and stained, and then finally nailed to the roof along with tin panels. This process along with the door installations took roughly another three days, making the entire latrine construction after the foundation able to be completed in about one week!

[pic of roofing]

[Completed pic]

 

Meeting the Host Family

While working on the latrine, we got to meet the host family that we would be staying at, and they fed us every day! Bonefes, the father, even helped us to build the latrine! Their family consists of the mother and father, as well as two young girls, Anett, who is Secondary school aged, and Jennifer, who is primary school aged. As with any kids in Uganda, they were absolutely fascinated by the large Mazungus, and enjoyed watching our every move as if two centaurs had travelled to their home to build them some toilets. After the end of the first day Jennifer even gave us both flowers as a token of her thanks!

[flower power]

With the exception of Jennifer, the youngest daughter, no one in the family really pushes the definition of being fluent. The mother and father mostly understand us when we speak, but have difficulty in putting out their own words. Fortunately, Donald (our friend who lives in Kampala and who is from Kagadi), has been working with us every day and can always help with translation. The mother of the family has a particularly hard time understanding us, but she did understand one thing: Avocados are my favorite food! We have not had a meal without a large bowl full of avocados since! We also leave their home nearly every day with a small bounty of fruits and other goodies, from mangos to jack fruits to sugar canes.

[faces of bones and/or fam]

 

Night out in Town and Bday Celebration

After our first full week of constructing latrines, we spent a night out in town with Flavia and Donald. As an added bonus, it was my (Mars’s) bday this past week so the celebration counts double. And nothing screams celebration like a Ugandan club. All inclusive with swirling 90’s style multicolored lights everywhere, funky paintings on the walls, African beers, a DJ who speaks over the music every 30 seconds (of course the music has to stop while he chimes in with his quick soundbite), and some funky Ugandan dance moves.. All in all, the essential ingredients for a great night. We spent the first part of the night until more people showed up playing pool outside with some strangely small balls. We split up the locals and Mazungus to have one of each on each team. After far many more scratches and miscues then our more seasoned neighbors playing beside us, we eventually got through two games and split them both.

After our elite-level game of pool, we hit the dance floor. We got our own little dance circle going and even gained a small crowd of onlookers. Clearly, they were impressed by our moves. You stick out a little bit when you’re significantly the biggest people in a room. Oh yeah, and also the whole being white thing makes us stand out. Eventually, as more people flooded into the room, some of the locals who were just standing around and watching came to life, and busted out their own funk. By funky I really mean mostly standing around with a couple people occasionally releasing their deepest feelings through a quick 15 second freestyle of moves.

Before too long the crowd developed into an atmosphere worthy of busting our Ugandan-club cherry. The crowd was feeling it and the DJ was excited. Unfortunately, this DJ’s method of expressing his excitement is to speak over the music (again, pausing the music while he speaks) for longer and more frequent intervals. By around 10:30 the music made its full transformation into its final form: standup comedy. Perhaps it was the language barrier, you know with us not knowing any of the language, but the comedy just didn’t hit with us. Perhaps he wasn’t even speaking the local language either, because none of the locals seemed to be laughing too much either.

Eventually, we did head out with everyone having gained new experiences. Donald had his first drink (of course he had a cheesy facebook post about it that night), Flavia played her first game of pool, and Lucas and I had our first Ugandan club experience. Birthday complete.

 

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