Talking Sh*t...my first day in the field

If you've ever seen a matatu drive, you'd wonder how they actually stay out of accidents. they drive on the sidewalk, on the grass, on the opposite side of the road and basically anywhere they can fit. well today i finally figured it out...not long! on my way to work, i saw one matatu completely rear end another in the middle of morning rush hour...somehow i doubt any insurance information was exchanged.

Enough about matatu's. Yesterday morning i woke up knowing that i would be taking my first trip to the field (my official title here is Assistant Project Field Officer) so i was pretty pumped. The visit was to a village (mburibana or something like that) about 60-90 min. outside Mombasa near Marikani. We were going to visit a village where CHD was working on water sanitation and hygiene in conjunction with AK's Coast Rural support program.

Bright eyed and excited we arrived in marikani around 8:30am...and....waited...then sat..and waited...for 2 hours. apparently we had not recieved the proper permission from the village elders to enter so we were obtaining that. 10:30am, we leave marikani and get to the village by 11:15am...ready to observe, learn and teach! we waited...and sat..and waited...until 2pm. ahh...african time. We had requested parents from the village gather by noon so that we could teach them about waste disposal (yes..human waste) and hygiene.

CAUTION: the following goes into great detail about human waste.

see..this village does not have any bathrooms...at all...anywhere. they go in the bush. the idea was to educate the village members into not only how disguisting it is..but how dangerous it is due to the nature of communicable disease and illness. we spent an hour or so talking in a classroom and asking them questions about their current hygiene practices. we then went to the their households and actually found a sample of someone's waste lying in the bush. one of the staff (i stayed far away from it) placed a slice of bread next to the pile and we saw the flies go from the bread to the waste. then started offering the bread to the village members as an illustration of "this is whats happening in your community...you're eating someone elses crap". thats where the shame comes it. Then they took a water bottle and mixed it with some samples and offered it around "this is whats happening, you are drinking someone elses crap".

Our goal was to get the village people to decide for themselves that they needed to build bathrooms. we can not decide this for them...they have to decide for themselves. but we can discuss and teach them about what kinds of dangers there are with their current practices. So, back in the classroom we go and we debrief. a quick calculation using number of people and weight determines that every year approx. 40 tonnes of waste is produced and its just lying around attracting flies and infecting the homes and people arround. The question is posed to the community: How many people want to continue this?...none. How many people want a solution?...everyone. Grassroots change at its best!

The village decided for themselves that within 2 months, every household would have a bathroom for proper waste disposal. A committee made up of local people is formed and CHD and CRSP would facilitate this and help fund the creation of latrines and proper areas to wash your hands after using the latrines. It was a very inspiring day to see people empowered to change their own destiny. Where disease and water borne illness is rampant, small changes like these make a world of difference. what i've described here is a simplistic version of the day, that is actually 10-12 hrs long and takes weeks of preparation....but its worth it in the end...

decided to skip dinner last night though...for some reason...i just wasn't hungry...