Progressing on construction and progressing on tanning

I don't know why I didn't notice last year, but these past few days I've been feeling the effects of being closer to the equator.  Even when the sun is only out for a little bit because the clouds come by quickly, that little bit of sunshine just feels so much more intense than what I've felt this past summer and we're all getting tanner by the minute. That we're outside.

Today we met with Mr. Brobbe and Kwabena, both engineers who are helping us out with the project.  We showed them to the latrine (which now has a roof!) and discussed potential methods of closing off the pit (concrete slab vs. metal door), the possibility of a rainwater harvesting system on the roof, an alternate design for the second latrine, and the decomposition of the waste.

Our designs have tweaked quite a bit compared to what we came to Ghana with, after talking with the villagers.  For example, the pit size is a little bigger and the pit access doors are positioned differently, but these changes were made to adapt to what they are familiar with and more comfortable with maintaining.  The design for the second latrine may also change from this first one, but construction for it will not be finished on this trip.  Instead, we'll finish the substructure since they have already started digging the pit, and continue with the superstructure on our next trip after we have gotten some test results from the first project- making sure that the source separation we designed is successful, and that the waste does compost like we hope it will. 

We also did some more water quality tests today- bacteria tests for both boreholes.  They need to be incubated, one for 24 hours and the other for 48 hours, so now we wait until then to see what's in the water. We went to get the water samples midday, and proceeded to brown in the sun, though we were not out for very long.

Right now, Suraj and Nnenna are purchasing materials to finish up the latrine.  Hopefully we'll get some pictures of it in soon!