Course After Course

And so it goes, course after course, more sand, more cement, more mixing...the walls grow.  The stones get heavier.

  

 
 Team Red-John and Holly under the skeptical eye of Fundi Minor. 

Higher and higher, more and more tired and sometimes you just have to take a nap!

We work amidst a sea of blue and yellow.  The recess bell rings and in moments we are surrounded by a rapt audience.  They are so close that you struggle for air to breath.  We are salvaging usable nails and hardware from the old doors trying desperately to keep the nails away from their vulnerable feet.  The faces...curious, skeptical, smiling, helpful; the hands...offering to hold splintered wood, wanting to shovel or lift a stone, touching "free" hair; the voices..."How are you?" in a nasal twang I can't begin to replicate.  Our names are known and questions abound for Beth & Holly.  "Where do you live?"  "What do you do?"  Why do you work so hard?"  "What are an engineer and a doctor doing in Kenya building a bathroom?"  They have no idea this bathroom is for them.  They imagine we are building it for the faculty.  We will wait until the last day to spring that surprise.  

  

Recess over....

Stones, String Lines & Plumb Bobs

Early morning, off to the quarry to pick up stone.  The order was in a week ago and the stones have been placed along the meandering road of the quarry as they have been "hand sculpted" out of individual pits.  The truck loads the stones that we accept as "suitable" for construction.

    

      

               Fundi Minor with strict orders to keep his feet off the ground.  Not Happy!

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Stone disorder to order...   

       

A string line and an experienced fundi...the building begins to take shape.  

   

  There is an incredible art to the construction.  The perfect stone shaped by a well placed hammer strike then set with precision along the string line taking care to offset the joints for strength.  The concert of people--Dominic and Kamao, the Fundis; Joseph, the  apprentice; Antony, John's talented brother; Holly and I, skilled laborers in our own right; John and Fundi Minor all working together.   The banter in English, Kikuyu and Kiswahili.    Dominic is surprised to find out that  there are Americans who do manual labor- much less two women.  Their perception of our society is one of wealth  and privilege...they have no idea there are poor people in America.  It is not hard to understand how that occurs...one of the first days we were there, a big truck pulled up to the school with two wazungus and their entourage , along with a new 1500 gallon cistern.  They were given a tour of the school (not the bathrooms), a festive native dance presentation by some of the students and then were gone all inside of two hours.  Don't misunderstand me the gift of the cistern was very generous but it is still sitting where it was unloaded, empty and unused 10 days later .  It is unclear whether or not there is a plan to actually provide water.  The donors are long gone...a flash of wealth and seemingly poor follow through.  

Kamao in action                                                                                                 Joseph seeking the perfect stone.

  

Set the stone

Mix the mortar

Organic Construction

Two courses of stone in place, time for a break.  Off for Chai and True Tea with ginger at the "Hotel" across the road from the school.  A hotel in Kenya is a restaurant.  Our local haunt has seating for twelve.  We walk in in mass and overwhelm the place.  The owners are so courteous and look to make sure we have everything we need.  They brew the True Tea (black tea) on demand for Holly, John & I while the rest of the crew drinks Chai.   Our attention is held by the small TV in the corner with the latest news about the upcoming Kenyan elections.  The candidates are talking about a peaceful process.  The electorate we are sitting with doesn't hold out much hope.  A stark reality bite but back to work.

     Three courses left to set overnight

Day is done...Dillon's and a hot shower!!

Muti Primary School--Building a Choos I

The main purpose of our trip was to build a Choos (long drop outside restroom) for Muti Primary School in the Thika bush.  The building would be a stone structure with twelve to twenty stalls and a sink for hand washing.  Gastrointestinal diseases run rampant throughout Africa especially with children.  Proper sanitation and hygiene help curb these outbreaks.  The current restrooms at the school were in various stages of degradation.  The boys "building" collapsed upon itself leaving a pit of open waste while the footing for the new restroom was being excavated.    

The pit for the new bathroom is 15 feet long, 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep.  The building will have 12 stalls--6 on each side and an extension on the far end for an enclosed urinal for the boys.  We had arranged for the pit to be dug prior to our arrival, oh thank heaven!!!

We won't have you suffer through each day but will try to give you a flavor of construction Kenyan style.  A typical day--up at 7,  breakfast of fresh fruit (mango, papaya, avocado) chai or coffee, energy bars from Seattle.  We provided snack lunch for our crew--PB&J on wheat bread, cooked maize and water.  I can safely say I can go for years without another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Bottled water for the "sensitive" mzungu stomachs as well as John's.  Cistern water for our crew.  Backpacks are loaded and we head to the car.  As soon as I open the door handle, my shadow appears... 
and we're off.

After a "massaging" 15 minute drive we arrive at Muti

Muti Primary School

Existing Choos prior to collapse

As I mentioned, the pit (long drop) had been dug and lined with 15 foot high stone footing for the building and the rebar reinforced concrete floor of the bathroom had been poured.  First task is to layout the stalls and place an initial layer of cement on the finished floor in preparation for the laying the stone walls. Sounds easy...

  Our sand and water for mixing mortar come every few days from the local river courtesy of a Mũthee (elderly man) and his oxen.  He loads everything by himself and then delivers it to the school so we are ready to go the next day.  

Then, you take four wheel barrows full of sand and one bag of cement and you mix.

Start here ---> go there

Then from "there" go back to "here"  

Not done yet...from "here" you must go back to "there"

 

And finally from "there" you go back to "here" and voila the mix is ready.

Layout the stalls

 

And set your concrete base

 Lunch time and the wind just shifted from the collapsed choos!  

 SAVE US!

 Mercifully, Holly and Fundi Minor survived the wind shift!  Day 1 finished with the base course set ready for stones tomorrow.  In case the definition of "long drop" had escaped you...there are no "toilets".  You aim for the hole in the stall and there is a "long drop" to the pit below.  The life span of the choos is dependent on the treatment of the waste and care of the building.  But built to last at least 30+ years. 

Ready for Rock!

Working under the watchful eyes of the peanut gallery

The supervising gaze of Antony Minor and his classmates. 

The rituals at the end of each day became a much anticipated reward for the sweat and manual labor under the Kenyan sun.  Another free "massage" home so Antony can clean up before going to work at his real job.  (Truly, he does not sleep!)  He loads his bike on top of the Land Cruiser.  Climbs in with his panga (machete) and sack "dinner" and we head out for another "massage".   Past the pineapple fields and stop at another unmarked intersection--haul the bike off the car.  

Antony sets out peddling on and we head to Dillon's!!!  Dillon's is a compact version of a truck stop--four gas pumps and a Mini Mart with all your heart could desire...Cold COCA-COLA in a bottle!!!! The employees of the store aren't really sure what to do with our singularly odd trio.  The security guard follows us around the small store marveling as we head with great purpose to the Coke cooler, then the potato chips aisle, (nobody said anything about healthy food!) more peanut butter, more bread...can't forget the bottled water--5 liters every two days.  We pay for our fare and move quickly back to the car.  Seconds later the bliss of a cold Coke consumed seems a just reward for the day!  Each and every day ended the same and was more treasured... a whole new blog could be titled "Conversations over Cokes".  I'll spare you.  Home to a hot shower, a cabaret show courtesy of Antony Minor and Francis, dinner with Edith and sleep!