Yesterday was the most humbling experience to date. While helping building the toilet in Shada, one of the tasks we had to complete was carrying the rocks and sand from the street to the toilet location. There are no streets within Shada. In fact some of the passageways between houses are extremely narrow, maybe only one person across. Therefore, the small children and a few of us workers were asked to weave our way between all of the homes and carry large buckets of these rocks. It gets worse. The walk was about 2 minutes long after you were done weaving in and out. In addition, these buckets were huge! I’m talking 5 gallon water buckets, but instead of water it was rocks. There is no way any of the children nor I could carry these buckets with our arms, so we did it the Haitian way: WE CARRIED THEM ON OUR HEADS! It was so much fun to try this new technique that we have been seeing being used all around the city. Originally I was most concerned about the balancing, but it turns out this task is not the most difficult part of the process. The children gave me an extra shirt to loop around my head and for the bucket to sit on. The first bucket I have was about ¾ full. The children helped me hoist it onto my head. This was the most challenging task I have performed in a long time. My neck muscles were not prepared. It felt good to carry this bucket the “Haitian way” though because it humbled me and put me in my place. A lot of the people who see us working stop and stare, but this time it was different. As I walked by all of the women and men cheered for me for attempting the task and commended me for being such a hard worker. It felt great and I realize now how important it truly is to learn the culture and try to mimic it while working within a community. The children all knew my name after that point and the work became fun as we all toted buckets back and forth.
I am amazed at the ability of these young girls to carry such a weight. They are stronger than most men I know and definitely stronger than me. I can’t imagine the strain these children and women are put under to carry water from distant clean water sources. We hear stories of women and children walking for 5 miles with 5 gallons of water on their heads. I even had to use my hands to balance the bucket a little, but not these children. They would walk and talk and play and laugh all the while balancing perfectly their buckets. I am shocked, stunned and amazed.
Another interesting point is the fact that I was capable of carrying that load on my head when my arms would have failed me. I know now what to do if my laundry or groceries are too heavy. I’ll put it on my head as a little piece of cultural remembrance of my time in Haiti.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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2 comments:
Hi my name is Michael and I'm doing an MSc in environmental engineering in the UK. I just came across ur blog whilst researching on sanitation in Haiti. I am doing a report on developing a sanitation programme for 5000 people in the peri-urban settlements of Port-au-Prince, and I thought that dry toilets were quite a good idea as they seem to be sustaible, for composting especially. I was wondering if u could tell me if you think that the programme is really working? are the residents getting involved? are there any complications in the separation of the pee and the poo? thanks for your help! you've got a cool blog by the way
Rachel,
Just thought I would send you a quick Soil update. Myself and 3other of my good friends recently visited CapHaietin (june 09) via my friend Captn Patrick boat S/V Maggie. Patrick had viewed a short clip of what Sara and Sasha were up to thru a Ny times clip. We were all put in touch via email and short phone conversations. We sailed into D.republic and crossed over into Haiti by land using all public transportation (quite the experience, I must say!). We spent a few short days touching base with Sara and kevin and had an amazing opportunity to see what Soil was all about. We saw a number of pictures of the recent work that yourself and the rest of the interns had all participated in. We also had the chance to see the final completion and opening of the toilet site at the school that was located right outside of the city. Very cool and (for a toilet), very beautiful. The final project had been completed with flowers and plants that lined the base of the toilets. We had got the chance to sit in and listen the educational steps in which they take their time with all the teachers and the school childern.
I thought your blog was an awesome way to keep not only a traveling journal of sorts, but also a way to keep other travels united with global efforts. Because you never know where somebody has been, what they might have seen and or experienced. With experiences like this, I feel they are of the upmost importance to share, Im sure as they did with yours, as well as mine, these heart felt adventures and experiences continue to change the lives of others rather they have been there or not.
So thank you for your efforts, not only for the blog but for sharing with others a very personal heart felt experience.
Sending positve Vibes
RoMe
Ps. to Michael,
in response to some of your questions. It has been my experience not only in Haiti but in other 2nd and 3rd world countrys that dry toilets are not only a good idea, but a great idea. The hardest part as with anything new to a community is the education part. This I witnessed first had the importance and emphesis Soil places on this side of the program. Do I feel the program is actually working? The answer is absoutely. Are there any complications in the separation of the pee and the poo? Again it is from my experience this is typically not a problem if there has been a strong education foundation in place from the beginning. I have also found that there are typically many community members that naturally assume this role of teacher both old and young!
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