Days 16 - Infinity: Mike and Christine Edition

After bidding farewell to the rest of the travel team, we (Mike and Christine) spent the day with Steve Forbes, mentor extraordinaire, and Sammy in Accra.  We had the opportunity to meet up with EWB-Ghana members at the MTN (one of Ghana’s major cellphone carrier companies) building. After a blur of hospitality in which mugs were brought in and taken away twice, tea cookies were spread out, and an assortment of drink mixes were offered, EWB-Ghana, Steve Forbes, and EWB-USA CU talked about different means of collaboration for the future. Mike and Christine agreed that the Ghana Program will definitely be reaching out to EWB-Ghana in the future for mentorship and networking.  Sammy, Mike, and Christine dropped Steve off at the airport, and the goodbye was cut short as a security guard obstructed Mike and Christine from going into the actual airport after Sammy sneaked by.

5/31 and 6/1 (These two days have become one muddled 48 hour period)

The next two days were spent finishing up the work needed to be done on the latrines. Instructions (in both Twi and English) were painted next to the stencil drawings we had put in the latrines during prior days. After struggling a little bit with the idea of manual center alignment, Christine started getting the hang of painting and 6/7 latrines were finished, the walls of Anoff being too wet to paint still. Additionally, we had noticed that some of the jerry cans meant for urine collection had been stolen from one of the latrine sites so we decided to label them all. We imagined it would be difficult to steal a jerry can that had “PROPERTY OF OBODAN” and “URINE COLLECTION” plastered on its sides. Mike worked on installing ventilation pipes in the remaining latrines (which our awesome carpenter Bempo did in half the time that we took and without a need for a wooden bracing) along with the side pit doors.

We tried to gather water collection data from the two boreholes to gauge Obodan's water usage. After a few setbacks, we were only able to get a vague range of daily cedis collected from one of the boreholes. Money collection is definitely something that needs to be looked into during an assessment trip. Last, but definitely not least, the pits on the pilot latrine were switched! Turns out said awesome carpenter Bempo is also a mason (keep in mind for future trips) and he completed the job for about 1/4 of what the other mason was asking for. The toilet seat was taken off from the right pit, sawdust was added, and the pit hole was sealed shut with cement while the toilet seat was attached to the left pit hole. After a quick celebration, Mike and Christine ran to pack/clean up/ingest all the things left in our living quarters (ex. Kabir’s shoes, lonely socks, Nutella, etc). We left Obodan under the cover of darkness, which Mike noted made things easier (albeit sadder) since the kids were asleep and we couldn’t say goodbye. The night was spent at Sammy’s house, enjoying Sammy’s wide taste in music and his wife, Beatrice’s, jollof rice. However, the past two weeks must’ve taken a toll on all three of us since Christine left the dinner table to curl up on a couch before she pancaked on a plate from exhaustion. A few minutes later, Sammy leaned back and fell asleep, which prompted Mike to lie down on the other couch and immediately pass out. 

Everyone woke up on 6/2, fully rested, and after a quick bite to eat, Christine and Mike were off to Accra. We attended church service in the morning, then headed to the same crafts fair that the other group visited before they left. Between Mike being a self-proclaimed “man of jokes” and Christine’s last attempt at dancing a little Azonto (the popular Ghanaian dance for the year) with the shopkeepers, we got away with some serious steals. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at KFC, and Christine was dropped off at her hostel, while Mike continued to the airport to continue his adventures for the summer in Germany. 

Anti-Theft system of Jerry Cans

Poultry House that another EWB Chapter built

Instructions on the Latrine Walls

Kobe!

(Pictures of Pit Switching on Christine's Phone which is currently not cooperating. To be Posted ASAP)

Days 14-16: Final Days in Obodan

     Our travel team, with the exception of Christine and Mike, who will be staying an extra couple of days, has now returned home to the United States. We accomplished a lot in the past few days, leaving just a few tasks for the remaining travel team members to finish up in our absence.

     Monday was an interesting day, with nothing going completely as planned. We were supposed to supervise the pumping of Kwasi Doi at around 6 or 7 in the morning, but when we arrived there around 7:15 (we were getting used to Ghana time), there was no sign of the pump. We couldn't get in touch with the foreman we were borrowing it from either, so lacking information about the pumping, we waited around at Anoff to watch the masons work on the stairs. At noon we headed over to Borehole 2 to meet the guy who would be taking apart the pump for our second borehole test, only to find him already working. Since when are things ahead of schedule? We tried to help disassemble it, only to find that the threads on one of the pipes had rusted away, forcing us to buy a replacement. Another unexpected event was the height of water in the borehole. Almost immediately, water flowed to the top of the pipe, threatening to spill over. We had to do a bailer test instead of a slug test because the water level was too high to measure with our water meter. The recharge rate was even faster than that of Borehole 1, and we did multiple trials to confirm this. In the afternoon, we got a hold of the pump and removed the water and trash from the pits in Kwasi Doi. We needed to send some men into the pits to dig out dirt and garbage that remained at the bottom. By the end of the day, the access doors were sealed in place, so hopefully this will not be a problem again. We got some bad news that day too, unfortunately. We got the results back from our water quality tests. They indicated that the borehole water contains coliform including E. coli. This was very disappointing information obviously and it means that before implementing our water distribution system we will have to decide on some treatment system. A biosand filter might be our best option, but we have many alternatives to consider as well, including chlorination and UV treatment. Luckily we have a lot of dedicated Ghana members who can work on this issue. We finished off the day with a trip to a Chinese restaurant with Steve and went home to prepare for an early start the following day.

     On Tuesday, we left early in the morning for a day of tourism. We headed to Cape Coast which was about five hours away. We first went to Kakum National Park for a canopy walk. After a short discussion of some native plants and the park's history, we took to the rope bridges. 40 meters above the ground, we could observe the structure of the rain forest and observe some birds and butterflies. It was a beautiful view, but not for someone who is afraid of heights. Afterwards, we went to Elmina Castle, which was one of the most important stops on the Atlantic slave trade. It was a very haunting experience, seeing where the slaves were held and the passages they took to board the ships for the Americas. The castle is now a historical site; it is right on the ocean and very beautiful, though this could not distract from the eeriness of the place. On our way home we stopped for a quick dip in the ocean. The water was very warm, unlike the Atlantic Ocean we're used to in the Northeast.

     On Wednesday, we collected soil samples in the morning from the hill we plan to put our water tanks on for the distribution system. We need them to determine how strong the dirt is to ensure that our system will stay in place. Afterwards, we all packed up to get ready to leave for the airport. We left early so we could go to the craft market in Accra to get souvenirs. The merchants were selling everything from fabric and clothing to carved bowls and metal figurines. They were very eager for our money, but there were plenty of good deals to be had provided you haggle well. This concluded our trip, but we look forward to hearing how the last two days went from Mike and Christine as they finish up the remaining work in Obodan.

All the best,
Caitlin, Mira, Kabir, Kerri, Andrea, Mike & Christine

CUEWB on a rope bridge canopy walk. Look moms, no hands!

CUEWB takes a rest from hiking, posing with other hikers

We spent a drizzling afternoon at the sobering tour of Elmina Castle, a former slave castle

Days 12-13: A Busy Weekend

     The past week has been really busy as we tried to finish everything before our departure, which accounts for the lack of blog posts recently. So here is a quick recap of last weekend in Obodan.

     For the majority of the weekend, we continued our latrine work, painting instructions and supervising the masons. We also went to Nsawam to pick up the remaining supplies we needed and conducted household surveys in Kwasi Doi to assess their need for latrines and guage their opinions on our source-separated one.

     On Saturday, we witnessed a Ghanaian funeral in Akwakupom. They are large events with loud music and dancing that look more like parties than ceremonies. We stopped by for a short time to observe, but didn't stay long for fear of looking out of place. We had our own celebration that night for Andrea's birthday. We made garden egg stew with coco yams and went to Fotobi to hang out with Sammy. We played our iPod on the big speakers there and talked for hours.

     On Sunday, we met with the elders, chiefs, and queen mother at an Obodan community meeting. We discussed the latrine usage and maintenance instructions as well as the water distribution system. Afterwards, some of the community members showed us locations that they thought would be good for the spigots. These locations seemed more reasonable than those in our original plan and are closer to more homes. We surveyed the spots and for now, they look promising.

Signing out,
Mira, Mike, Kerri, Andrea, Christine, Kabir & Caitlin

 The chiefs, including Steve Forbes, who is a chief in Obodan

The EWB team listen attentively

Days 9-11: Sluggin It Out

     The Obronis (foreigners) have been pretty busy in Obodan the past few days. The latrines are coming along really well. We are putting the finishing touches on them: painting usage and maintenance instructions inside, completing the urine diversion pipes and connecting them to collection tanks, and bracing the ventilation pipes. We will definitely have the latrines up and running soon and hope to survey some of the villagers on their initial reactions to them before we leave.

     In terms of the water project, we have completed our surveying and calculations of the land elevation and piping distance and will soon send our data to send back to our team at home. Today we completed our first slug test on Borehole 1, the well we plan to pump from for the water distribution system. Planning to start at 8 in the morning, we closed the borehole to the community only to find that the man hired to remove the hand pump didn't show up. We made some calls and finally got someone else to help us out and began the testing around 4:30. That sums up Ghana time for you. Not only did we have our whole team watching and working on the test, but we also had quite a few families as well as a couple dozen kids observing too. We didn't have time today to do a test for Borehole 2, but plan to finish it on Monday. We were concerned about the yield of Borehole 1 because it is notoriously harder to pump and takes a long time to get going. The slug test alleviated our worries though because our results show that the borehole has a very high recharge rate and is probably pumping from a confined aquifer. We still need to do the calculations for our data, but at the moment it looks quite promising.

     Throughout the week we have been problem solving more than just latrines and borehole tests. Given the limited tools and supplies available to us, we have recently developed a knack for using things for unintended purposes to accomplish our goals. For example, after breaking our last hacksaw blade, we began using Christine's Swiss Army knife to cut our PVC pipes, which supposedly "cut like butter," though most of us prefer the new saw we got in Nsawam this morning. Other innovations include a rock for a hammer (there are only a few hammers to be found in all of Obodan) and benches for ladders (which are also limited), but most notable is our use of trenches. Alongside the main path of Obodan, is a fairly deep drainage trench to channel water from the top of the mountain to the road and to help prevent erosion. However, erosion is a huge problem in this part of Ghana, washing away over two feet of sediment in the past 30 years. As a result, the trenches are now elevated above the ground level and they can no longer serve their intended purpose. As we mentioned in our last post, we were having doubts about the proposed plan for our water distribution pipes, due to the rocky ground and erosion. However, we decided that the trench might be the perfect place to put our pipes. It takes something that is already in place and no longer used and makes it a hassle free and safe place for our pipes. Plus it's the perfect size! We surveyed this new route and hope to figure out appropriate spigot locations in the next couple of days.

     In other news, we are still being treated like celebrities here. We assumed that the novelty of our skin colors and language differences would wear off within a week, but the natives still call out to us wherever we go. It is impossible to go outside without hearing people calling out, "Obroni, how are you?" and having a swarm of children run to hug you and hold your hand. It can be difficult to deal with the kids at times because they constantly want to hang out with you on the work site and take you away to play and show you things. That being said, their cuteness and sweet temperaments make them a joy to be around, especially if you're Christine, who we are convinced might try to steal an African baby to bring home. The adults are quick to show off to us too, offering us fruit, porridge and banku, and marriage proposals. Yesterday, a pineapple farmer was passing through our work site and he stopped to explain to us how they determine when a crop is ready for harvest. They pour juice on a refractometer and then hold it up to the sun to read the sugar levels. All in all, it has been a productive week and we look forward to an equally productive weekend.

Until next time,
Mira, Mike, Christine, Kerri, Andrea, Caitlin & Kabir  

Our team performing the slug test on Borehole 1 

Pumping and cleaning

Surveying along the trench

#engineers

Fellowship of the Latrines

Kerri measures while Andrea records

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

Days 5 and 6: Let it rain (please)

Quick blog post today because internet cafe time is limited

Two nights ago, on the 18th, Mike and Christine arrived safely in Obodan. They came to a room full of Obronis killing the many bees that had infested the room. Apparently a bee hive is right outside our window so once all the inside bees were slaughtered we sealed the window and Sammy will exterminate them tomorrow.

Yesterday on the 19th, the team helped the construction site at Anoff, where masons were working on the superstructure. A sudden rainstorm in the afternoon interrupted the work and monsoonal amounts of rain gushed onto Obodan. It was refreshing, but also highlighted one of the biggest problems in Obodan: erosion. The erosion is so bad that some houses are even being undercut. Hopefully our EWB group will be able to take care of this issue in one of our next projects. The rain also set back the pumping at the Kwasi Doi latrine, and added a few inches of water in some of the other pits, so we will have to have them emptied before the access doors can be added. For dinner we cooked in the room rice, eggs, and a local tomato-based sauce. The rainstorm caused a blackout so we went to bed on the earlier side.

Today on the 20th Mike, Mira, Andrea, Caitlin, and Kabir went to Akwakupom for a 6:30 am community meeting during which we explained how their latrine should be used. Kerri and Christine surveyed people around the Western Obodan latrine location. Caitlin, Christine, and Kerri went with Faustina to the Presbyterian church in the village and Mike and Kabir and Andrea continued to work at the Anoff site. In the afternoon we played soccer with villagers from Obodan and Akwakupom.

To be continued,

Mira, Mike, Christine, Kerri, Andrea, Caitlin, and Kabir

Day 3: New friends and better news

This morning the team finally moved into Obodan. We are staying in the same room in the village as last year's CUEWB team did. The electricity works.

Caitlin, Steve, and Sammy went to Accra to talk to the Water Research Institute in order to get the village borehole water tested. It only took 6.5 hours.

After settling in, Mira and Kabir went to interview the current users of the pilot latrine. Faustina translated for them. The responses were all positive. The main complaint was that the lines were sometimes prohibitively long in the morning, so the families would use the old KVIP instead. Many families remarked on the distance their children have to walk to fetch borehole water, and the danger the children are put in because of having to cross the street. This feedback was encouraging because it reflected the demand for the water distribution that CUEWB is working on at a personal level that had not previously been encountered by the interviewers.

Andrea and Kerri spent the early afternoon exploring the village. They visited the girls' high school. The students recognized them as the latrine-building people and asked Andrea and Kerri if they had husbands. They invited us to watch movies and dance on Saturday night, and so we will be sure to head out and have a good time. Then, Andrea and Kerri visited the construction site for the girls' high school dormitories. They met the foreman named John, who came from Accra. He has had some experience for latrines and they discussed methods of waterproofing, since some of our latrines have water in the pits.

Later, Andrea and Kabir went to interview Obodan residents who do not currently use the pilot latrine but will be using the new source-separated latrines. Their responses were also positive, which was encouraging to the team. It's great to know that the demand for the latrine is so acute and specific so our projects will make meaningful change to the community.

Finally in the evening after going over some logistics with Sammy, we went to the neighboring village Fotobi for chicken and rice.

Until the next time,

Mira, Kerri, Andrea, Caitlin, and Kabir

 Kerri and two high school students 

The village Obodan