Construction 101

Greetings from the land of latrine building.

So, let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…..

When the project began Saleh, our partner, gathered the school together and introduced the latrine project. He introduced himself as the chief engineer, Sulah, the contractor as the engineer, and myself as the boss. I have lost my name of Ketty for St. Stephens and now hear the greeting of, “Hello Boss”.  ***sidenote I cannot help but think of the movie Australia with “mrs boss” running through my head.

Before any work could happen on the latrine we had to empty the rubbish from the pit. The whole team came and we began a true African cleanup. We scooped trash and food waste into potato sacks and pulled them up with ropes and created a rubbish heap. After clearing the debris construction could begin.

When you begin building a latrine it begins by going on a very intense trip to the “hardware store”. By hardware store I mean a hole in the wall with access to all building supplies.  I spent a few hours ordering supplies and watching countless bags of cement being loaded onto a very small truck. Then the meters of twisted metals, a few jerricans of paint, red oxide, and variety of nails and off we went.

Building in Uganda is a totally different experience. Okay, I realize I don’t have a lot of experience in the building world but I feel like I understand the basic working of construction sites as I have worked for construction foremen and had many friends who have worked construction.

Here they don’t wear shoes, or if they do they wear gum boots- or rain boots-, we do all the digging and trimming by hand with hoes and spades (shovels) Also- we reuse iron sheets for roofing even when they are worn out. We reuse nails that have been removed from previous projects and we use plastic jerricans as mortar pans.

After all the materials were delivered we met the team of workers that are helping us figure out how to building Africa. Sulah is our contractor, and he is HILARIOUS. He loves to have his picture taken and wear his contractors coat (which is just a painters over coat).

Anyways after we cleared the rubbish we (mainly the workers who knew what they were doing) trimmed the sides of the pit to be the appropriate size for the tank. It was amazing to watch the skills they have with a hoe.

Then we moved the hardcore. Yep. Hardcore is a building supply here. Hard core is a load of large boulders that we put beneath the downslab (foundation) of the pit. We did three layers of hardcore mixed with backfill dirt. Then a layer of aggregate (or smaller rocks to fill in the holes). We do not want the latrine to sink because that would be really bad if it detaches from the topslab. The hardcore and aggregate are used to strengthen and keep that from happening. Then we pour the downslab...

Pouring the downslab sounds simple enough until you take into consideration we do everything by hand here… even ferrying water. We had a 2-3km walk to the water source where we filled out jerricans with 20-30 liters of water and carried it back to the site where they quickly dumped it on our cement mixing plant… aka an arrangement of bricks in the yard where we mix the cement, river sand, and water and create cement.

The next great task of the week was brick ferrying. Due to the location of the new latrine we had to have the truck drop the bricks in the front courtyard. However, the latrine is in the back courtyard and the only way to move bricks is with our hands and occasionally a wheelbarrow. Let me tell you handmade bricks are HEAVY… and really dirty.

We then began to build the walls of the  underground tank system. This latrine is again designed to be emptied by truck making it wholly sustainable which is really amazing. The students have been so receptive and thankful. Thursday when we went to work there was a student named sarah who came to me and told me she had not a lot to give me to show her gratitude but then handed me two tomatoes and said she was very grateful for all that we were doing to help her school.

I have been so humbled  by the people I have met out in bukawaka ( village where the school is) they are so poor but so willing to help with the project. We had countless children help us pathetic muzungus carry water on our shoulders. The people in town have given us great deals on tools and jerricans.

All in all the project has been completely overwhelming with all the logisitics but it has been the most fulfilling project because I have been so physically involved. Maybe I will become a construction forman when I come home…. New life plan? Who knows!

Love,

Boss.