Back to Ethiopia

13 Months of SunshineFour of us spent two weeks in Hosanna, Ethiopia teaching sanitation. The Ethiopian calendar actually has 13 months and their new Millennium began Sept 11, 2007. Even their clock is different with the day beginning at 6 am so that 1 pm would be 7 hours. Their rainy season was supposed to be winding down, but it rained hard all but the last 3 days day of the 3 weeks that we were there. Addis Ababa is above 8000 feet and Hosanna is only slightly lower, so we were wearing jackets most of the time. Pneumonia is a common problem there and it was easy to see why with many people walking barefoot or nearly so in cold, pouring rain.

The first week we taught sanitation promotion to 10 school directors (principals) of basic schools that ranged from 1000 to 1500 children and 10 sanitation promoters hired by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). They each represented communities of 500 to 800 people. Sanitation promotion may not sound important, but it was the most critical training since many people have never even seen or used a latrine. One rainy day, we traveled 2 hours to one of the schools to practice sanitation promotion with a target group of fathers. It is hard to convince people that their health depends on good sanitation. The fact that improved health will cost them less money and allow them to produce more income is a more convincing reason to them to practice sanitation. We learned that the project was a partnership between EECMY, Lifewater International, and USAID. The goal is for EEMCY to assure that 10 latrines are constructed in each school and one in each of 10 communities. If you do the math, the project should directly improve the lives of something on the order of 19,000 people.
The second week, we taught actual latrine construction to the 10 promoters and 10 community leaders. We discovered that they didn’t realize that maggots weren’t innocent white worms when we discussed how a latrine could control flies and odors. We constructed a VIP (Ventilated Improved Pit) latrine structure from locally available materials (structure from Eucalyptus & mud) and had them participate in construction of a portable, cement slab.

The students seemed to grasp the statement that I had heard: safe WAter reduces mortality rates by about 17%, Sanitation reduces it by about 35%, and Hygiene reduces it by something like 25% but the combination of the three (WASH) reduces mortality by about 65%. EECMY repeatedly points to its holistic ministry (promoting good health along with evangelizing), so they were quick to embrace the need for WASH instead of just safe drinking WAter.
Ethiopia may sound like a hopeless place with its over-population, famine, and poverty problems, but actually we were very surprised to see very positive signs of development since I was there 2 years ago (new roads, new buildings, and improved infrastructure). We were asked by the urban planning commission of “Hosanna town” to discuss sanitation with them. They mentioned a high death rate among children and the problems you would expect for a town of 77,000 people with no public latrines. We made some recommendations that included a promotion campaign followed by constructing public demonstration latrines in high traffic places like the bus station. They should require what amounts to 1 cent to use them, so someone could be paid to keep them clean. This is a picture in the heart of town.

One weekend we visited the Ajora falls which according to their register hadn't been visited for a month -- Ethiopia has great tourist potential. Two rivers come together here and fall over 900 feet.

Friday April 18, 2008 - we're done!

We awarded training certificates to our students today. SHIP's operations director leveraged our work by convincing Mobile Missions to construct the structure of the twin VIP. They are learning a German technology that allows bricks to be made at very little cost (76 bricks from 110# bag of cement) and laid with very little mortar. They used our latrine site as a training site, so we gave them a donation for helping us out. They were close to finished when we left. It has been a great experience as always. The students were very grateful and anxious to help make Zambia a better place.

One done, one to go

This is a picture of  the nearly completed arborloo. This is overkill on the materials I will admit, because it is intended to be made from the cheapest of materials (like bamboo walls). When an arborloo fills up, you simply move it to a new pit and plant a fruit tree where the old pit was. Since this is a demo latrine, we have invited the community to use this, so it might get moved every few weeks. The vision is for a row of fruit trees. Jerry was able to line up a team from Mobile Missions to construct the structure of the twin VIP from hydroformed bricks - completed picture tomorrow I hope.

2nd day 2nd week of training in Mapalo

We have essentially finished the construction of the Arborloo latrine which is ready to use and the pit for the twin VIP today. We have to wait one more day for the slab to cure on the twin VIP, so tomorrow will be dedicated to refreshing everyone on design, latrine types, promotion, etc. The picture is a little sad - the girl on the left is 5 yrs old and hauled that baby around all day long.

Zambia Sanitation 1 week gone by

The first week went by incredibly fast, but it was good to get a rest this weekend. You haven't lived until you worship Yehway (God) in an African church. I made a couple short videos, but they don't begin to do it justice. The picture shows our students, who we've been training in between construction steps, working on the slab for the twin VIP. It is going to be REALLY interesting trying to move about a ton of concrete on Thursday after the cement has cured.

Starting the Twin VIP

4/9/08: We started construction of the Twin Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine. It is designed for composting, so there must be access for someone to climb down into the pit after it has composted. We spent the day digging a pit, preparing a site to pour the slab, and determining how many concrete blocks we would need. It was a slower process than the engineer in me would like, but they are definitely starting to understand the process.

Sanitation training day 2 in Zambia .

4/8/08 : On Monday we made a form for a latrine plat, but it POURED rain. Add to that the daily electric power outages of 4-6 hours and the unbelievable cost of living, and it becomes challenging. I don't know how people afford to eat. Diesel, which is cheaper than gasoline by a fair amount, is $7.77/gallon. On Tuesday , we poured the cement for the latrine slab and trained for construction of a twin VIP latrine that we will construct in Mapalo. No rain today fortunately. The people here are inspiring. Some were really excited to learn that sanitation has the most impact of the WASH elements.

Zambia sanitation training - day 1

April 7, It has been a good day. We met our students - 17 of them - and some were familiar faces from the July training. Many were representatives of their respective compounds - Nkwazi, Mapalo, MacKenzie, and George. We were trying to pour a latrine slab for the arborloo that we will set up at the construction site in Mapalo when the skies opened up. We had a change of plans, of course, and began teaching disease paths and blocking and other of the sanitation latrine theory. We plan to pour a slab tomorrow and go into more theory. If you think prices have gone up in the USA, you wouldn't believe how much things cost here now. 80,000 kwacha ($22.41) for a 50KG (110lb) bag of cement. Diesel costs 7,300 kwacha/litre ($7.77/gal) and I have to wonder how the common family can afford to eat. We're enjoying the experience and the people are great! blessings, Lon

Zambia 2008 - tending to unfinished business.

 Lifewater Volunteers (Steve & Marcia) and I left on April 2nd for Zambia to teach latrine construction. This is a followup to the training that Jeff, Darcy & I conducted in July 07.   We had feedback on the first trip that they had really hoped we would construct a  demo latrine, so this trip was scheduled to accomplish that.  There are over 2.6 billion people in this world without adequate sanitation, see what you can do to help -- check http://www.lifewater.org/ We will be teaching three different latrine designs including two that compost the waste. As they say: "Its a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it." On 4/4, we arrived after MANY hours of travel and have begun the task of obtaining materials & supplies.