“It will be here tomorrow…”

A storm rolled in this morning that has kept us from working on the Latrine so far today…which gives me time for a quick update.

We have been working on a little bit of everything for the past week. Hygiene education, latrine construction, Kinkajou home repair, drilling boreholes, pump repair and boat building. We spent a couple half-days drilling in the community. Providing a second well (we drilled a great one back in March) was not a high priority, but we drilled 9 boreholes. 9 boreholes that we need to fill up because they yielded little to no water. The well we provided back in March is being used constantly, but not all the families walk to it, so we were trying to find water closer to those particular families. We made some improvements on the pump so it could keep up with all of the use. The important parts of this trip are the 2-toilet latrine (outdoor bathroom) and the hygiene education classes. The fundraising campaign for the latrine materials was amazing (thanks to all who donated!). We raised $2,100 on the crowd funding campaign “A Place to Poo” for the septic tank, toilets, etc. We have been working with the community for them to provide labor (digging the septic tank hole, cutting the wood for the building) while we provide the materials (septic tank, leach tank, toilets, roofing, etc.). It hasn’t been very easy because the families do not all get along, so we have made a couple changes based on who was willing to help. For example, we moved the location of the latrine to be closer to the families living in the mangroves because they are the only ones willing to help. We are still waiting on the wood for the building and running out of time. The family in charge of cutting the wood quit and the family that took over the responsibility has not finished yet (although they keep promising it will be done “tomorrow”). We don’t have many “tomorrow”‘s left, but we are still proceeding the best we can at this point. Here is a video showing us lowering the tank into the hole followed by photos from other tasks of our past week.