Sunday, October 21, 2007
Construction time in Kazamoyo
October 10, 2007
We've had our first real taste of living in the field, and I must say I enjoy staying in the village much more that driving back and forth on the worst roads in the world every day.
We are working in Kazamoyo but living in the village of Samburu. This is necessary because SP works in a lot of different in villages in the area and we want to avoid accusations that we favour the village we live in. Anyway, we were under the impression that our house wasn’t ready yet, so we had planned to sleep in tents for the first few nights. But, it turned out that the work was done after all, so we moved in, setting up our bunk beds, mosquito nets, and camping stove and cleaning up everything as best we could. The house (not a hut, unfortunately) is great. It's made of stone and is quite large, and we even have running water. We also have rats, frogs (in the shower, toilet and sink), bats (one of which died on Teresa’s mattress – she wasn’t too happy about that), and a snake that lives under the house and eats the bathroom frogs. We’ve also had chickens and a hedgehog saunter through the house, and we have a huge, and I mean huge, spider living right above our front door. His name is Mfupi, which means “short,” and I’ve been told he’s poisonous. We'll be living here for a month. We've already made friends with the neighbour kids, who have made themselves at home in our house.
We spent Monday and Tuesday in Kazamoyo, constructing of our filter-building work site. This was an unexpected change in plans: we were supposed to be doing filter installation in a different village this week, but someone had died from AIDS, and when there is a death in the community no one goes to work. Apparently, delays in work plans are quite common due to frequent funerals.
Anyway, we need to build a shelter/construction area to shade us from the sun when we are building filters, and to store our molds and other supplies. Basically, we're building a fairly large structure with nothing but pangas (like a machete), and saws, and nails (no hammer), and the whole time we were working I felt like I'd stepped back into cave-man days. We started by pacing out the dimensions of the shelter and then marking it with sticks. We dug holes with the panga where the main supports of the structure would go, then went into the bush to cut down trees (really thorny trees that have ants living inside them that will come out and bite you) and then stripped off the branches. Then we carried them back to the site and straightened them - yes – we learned how to straighten a stick. This is a fairly time consuming process that involves making lots of strategic cuts along the trunk and then inserting small pieces of wood into the trunk to force it to bend one way or another, thereby straightening it out. Then we took the timber and formed the walls, putting each tree into the hole we had dug. We strung rope made of tree bark across the tops of the timber (poles) to make sure they were level. Then we went back into the bush to cut more trees for cross supports, and started nailing them on the poles to make the walls. We don't have a hammer, so we used the flat side of a wrench. This has taken tree days.
We also built a slab for latrine we are going to be building behind the village church. There is no latrine in the entire village yet, so we are going to be building a lot of them. The slab is the concrete block with a hole in it (that you pee into), that covers the latrine hole.
Of course, I have no idea how to do any of this, so we have been working with and learning from the men in the village. There are about five who have been helping us, one of which is the pastor of the church. It's really challenging because 1) their first language is Duruma, not Swahili, and 2) they are men and we are not. I could tell that at first they didn't know what to think of us. Construction is seen as men's work, and it was strange to them for us to be there. But, eventually they got used to us and started to see that we wanted to be part of the work and to learn from them, and that made them happy (I think). It's crazy how you can communicate with people who don't speak your language if you really want to.
I'm also excited to work more with the women because I think they will be a bit more accepting of us. The first day we came to the village they showed up at the work site to check us out, but I've haven't seen any of them since then. I've been told that since building the work site is seen as "men's work," they will wait until the site is ready and then come to help with filter construction. I hope so.
Oh yah, one cool thing: The village church is about 20 steps away from our construction site and inside the church there is a big drum made of cow hide. On our first day, a group of kids hauled the drum out of the church and sat a few feet away and beat on it while we worked. It sounded amazing. Yesterday I got to try, and I was so much fun. I'm hoping five months in Africa I might be enough time acquire a sense of rhythm!
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hey girl!it's me ingrid. just dropped by to show some love.take care.i happy your having so much fun.peace out dude!! miss you!!
Just want you people to know that I'm enjoying your comments and intend to use stories of your experiences to promote Turn on the Tap in Canada. Keep up the good work and the postings. - Dick Nichols, SP Canada Communications Manager
I want you all to know that I really enjoy reading this blog and intend to use these accounts of your experiences to help promote TOTT to potential donors here in Canada. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work. - Dick Nichols, Communications Manager, SP Canada
Way to go girls. We are praying for you. We get updates in chapel occasionally.
Your blog was thrilling to read.
May God richly bless you and the adjustment to your new living arrangements.
Thanks for the great posts - we've all been enjoying the blogging back at the SPC office.
Take care! Danielle