Days 7 and 8 : A-lat-ta Progress

All has been well the past couple of days in Obodan. We have continued our latrine construction with the help of many masons and community labor. We hope to have them up and running by the end of the week!

On Monday, we took an inventory of what supplies we have available from past trips and revisited some latrine sites to see what materials they would need. Our day was cut short due to a long rainstorm. However, we were able to use the time to compile a list of all of the supplies we need to put the finishing touches on the latrines and make a day-by-day plan of goals to accomplish. We sent Christine and Steve to Nsawam to buy the supplies in the afternoon, which went smoothly. For dinner, we made Ramen noodles with eggs and cabbage, eating by candlelight as we were still experiencing a power outage.

Today, Kerri, Andrea, and Caitlin began surveying the path for the water distribution system. We need to determine the elevations of the land and see if our proposed pipe path is feasible. Unfortunately, it looks like there are a lot of obstacles in our path, including a large amount of bedrock. We might have to consider alternative paths, and will be looking for better, sandier areas for the piping tomorrow.


We also made a lot of progress on the latrines. We finished laying the bricks for the superstructure at Anoff, smoothed and plastered the floor and exterior of the latrine at Alatta, and worked on the piping for the urine diversion and ventilation in Akwakupom.

In the evening, Mike, Christine, Caitlin, and Kabir attended a meeting with the Obodan chief and unit committee to discuss the slug test we will be doing on the boreholes on Friday. We had to tell the community that they would not be able to use the boreholes during our test, forcing them to collect all of their water earlier in the morning. We aim to determine the yield of the boreholes. We also scheduled an early morning community meeting for Sunday to discuss maintenance and usage of the latrines.

To finish off the day, we headed over to Nsawam to get chicken and rice from a restaurant called Mcdonal's. It was delicious! We're looking forward to a productive rest of the week!

Until next time,
Mira, Mike, Andrea, Christine, Caitlin, and Kabir

Playing with the kids

The girls waiting to pump water from the borehole after school.

Kerri surveying for the water project

Mira makes friends with Janet

 

 Andrea reads Dr. Seuss to the kids in front of the library

Mike, Steve, and Kabir working on the piping at Akwakupom