tena trabajo

the last few months have been a little better in work. the main project ive been working on is building dry latrines in a small kichwa community called cuya loma. most of the 12 latrines we´re constructing are made with concrete and metal roofs, and are ´dry´- they dont use water. we refers to mary fifield, coordinator of a ngo called global pediatric alliance in ecuador, chris kennedy, an american now living in puyo, a few other PC vols, the community, and myself. about once a week for the last 6 weeks the community has had a ´minga´, a kichwa word for group work project. mary is mostly organizing it - she´s been living in tena about 5 years and was already friends with the community. chris kennedy is the ´maestro´ (expert) on latrines - he´s already built dozens in small indigenous communities. he´s friendly and really knows his stuff, and really stands out in a kichwa comm´ty with his long, gray beard. he´s been contracted for 2 mingas.other vols have made a visit out to help also - sadie, kelly, kristin, jeremy, roger, susan, and the other mary. the first minga went extremely well as far as turnout goes - there were 7 pc vols, maybe 15 comm´ty members, and even a few guys from the municipio that mary invited.

we´ve utilized chris´s design since he´s got tons of experience, the construction materials are readily available in tena, and they come out very strong and durable, something necessary when building raised latrines. we´ve used tiles for the base and cut 2 holes for the poop to fall thru - there are two 90 cm tall chambers it goes into. under the holes are plastic funnels made from cut-out clorox bottles. every 6 months the waste accumulates - supposedly odorless - and then can be removed & used as fertilizer for crops. sawdust or another natural agent will be thrown in periodically to speed-up the decomposition process and it could take away some odor. its funny, i said alot of volunteer talk revolves around the toilet, and now even my work is.

ive been impressed with the community´s efforts thus far. most kichwan comm´tys are tough to get working, but cuya loma jumped right on this project. its been slowing down a it, esp after the first minga. i think its taken a lot longer than they expected to build latrines. i expected it would take 4 or 5 mingas, and now we´re at our 6th with one or two to go. also, construction materials are a little expensive, especially the metal bar (¨armex¨) circumference (theyre round latrines). for a couple latrines weve decided to leave out the metal armex and use wood poles as supports. then we just put chicken wire and plastic around the circumference and plaster on the cement. we were also thinking of building with clay, which seemed too labor-intensive, or a wire-bound rock-based base, which was too expensive (for the wire).

having not worked with the consejo for a few months, mary from GPA is pretty much my new counterpart. we´ve been the only gringos to attend all the mingas in cuya loma, she´s introduced me to some people around town, and i plan on doing more work with her. after the latrines are finished and fully-functional, i plan to give a few environmental ed charlas (educational discussions) on how to maintain the latrines, how to utilize the fertilizer, and some other env topics. and i may also teach the kids some env ed a few hours a week. the kids are also very friendly, fun, and photogenic, as you can see in my photos on snapfish (lmk if u want a link). and there´s a project coming up in another comm´ty installing potable water rain catchment systems. the idea is since it rains here all the time, to catch the rain in 500-liter water tanks (that are fairly common in rural parts) and send it thru tubes and a filter down to the house. sounds simple, and could significantly change lives.