THE LATRINE CAMPAIGN!

On Saturday 7th March at around 5pm our time we set up a website for people to donate money, so that we could provide a family of 7 with a latrine. That was a mere 3 weeks ago. We only asked for around 200/300 pounds for our project to happen. Since then we have received, at this current moment, 1320 pounds from 57 amazing caring individuals. Such was the sudden and vast response from these people, it meant that our pipeline campaign immediately became a reality virtually overnight! After the bureaucratic procedures had been organised physical work on the site began on 15th March. At this point time the entire structure is standing, roof and all. This is how it has all come together...

Me, Phil and the wonderful Hannah Reid have been inundated by generous friends, family members and supporters of our cause, including previous volunteers of CALM. Our sincere thanks go out to you all. Consequently we have the means to provide 'our' family in Kira not only with a latrine, but also blankets, mattresses, pots, pans, shoes, clothes, soap and crop seeds which they desperately need. All in all we will provide this family with over a million Ugandan Shillings, 500 pounds worth of life improving commodities. Furthermore we have such a massive pot of donations left over that we can build another two latrines as funds stand at the moment. Our 2nd will be for a widowed cook of the Jolly Mercy School. She has worked there for a year since her husband died. She has 5 children and only a half finished latrine; a 30 foot pit. The third family we will identify and target will be in the Rakai district where standards are arguably worse especially after the severe crop-destroying floods/droughts they the area has experienced recently.

Back to our family in Kira:
First day we visited the site involved gathering the whole of the local council to delegate organisational responsibilities and decide the most reliable local workers for the cheapest cost. Once our bargains were settled work was due to start the next day. Fortunately for the whole of Kampala, unfortunately for us, it rained considerably. This meant work was frustratingly slow, but allowed the soil to soften up for digging to commence the following day. The work that preceded that was relentlessly fast and impressive. Two of the finest strappiest workers made light work of the digging and got 10 feet down in the first day. This was a vast improvement from the very first workman, who turned up drunk and subsequently flirted slurs at the local women for a little bit before sleeping under a mango tree. Life is good here. However his replacements were a little too good for my liking; Hannah and Phil wouldn't stop oogling at them... I put up with it because I felt like we were providing the local community with economical benefit. But I could have dug the thing myself without the need of those two prancing rippling Africans. No problem.

So this is what we have built this family with your money; a pit. Essentially it's a 30 foot straight drop with a supported concrete slab on top, a brick sized whole (the business end of the entire building), and a roof on top. It has been split into two rooms; a toilet and a bathroom for washing. This is all sealed off with brick and a door to form a rather cosey separate room to the house, in the back garden next to the pigs. Nonetheless this will inevitably improve their sanitation ten fold. On our second visit one of the smallest children had left proof for the need of this latrine on the floor right next to the house. It really kicked home at that point how vital this project is, and how atrocious it is that entire families have to go by without something as basic as a toilet. In all seriousness using toilets is what separates humans from animals, and yet so many families are reduced to sub-human existences simply for lacking them. So on the second day and the pit was virtually 75% of the way there. The diggers, as if to show off even more, would notch foot holes and hand holes along the side, so they could climb in and out of the deep hole to excavate dirt and swap roles.

One of the council members is a 50 year old eccentric matriarchal figure by the name of Agnes. After observing for a bit she would offer us to come round her house for lunch. Dishes thus far have included Matooke (a Ugandan dish based on mashed and steamed bananas to make a staple), offals (the less said about that dish the better) and today pork with rice (anything with rice here is always amazing, especially the rice).

Yesterday the horrifyingly deep hole was complete and the brick work was commencing. Prior to this, me Phil and Hannah went hunting for 600 bricks. This comprised of riding on top of a small lorry with a liftable bed. This also comprised of invading seemingly uncharted parts of rainforest, on top of a very rickety small lorry with a liftable bed, along with a clan of Ugandan teens finding the whole journey hilarious. Here bricks are made as if they are crops. Sand and cement are mixed. Then mud is added and the mixture is poured through wooden lattices as to create individual bricks. Then they dry out for a few days. Then they are piled high on massive stacks and eventually set alight. This gives the same effect as a kiln, thus producing, in picturesque and beautifully unspoiled locations, huge family-run brick farms. After loading the rickety small truck with a liftable bed, we all then piled on top of it again and drove back through the uncharted rainforests back to the house. This gave the same effect as riding on top of a rickety small lorry with a liftable bed, clutching at a rusting cabin roof and standing on piles of very wobbly unstable mud bricks. Very illegal and dodgy but so so much fun!

This has all been exactly a week labour, and our pit has now been permanently covered up never to se the light of day again. And as of several hours ago, our little brick shed is donning its new roof, made of corrugated iron, sheets and is happily glistening in the sun. The only things that are left to do include; fitting the wonderfully hand-built door, plastering the walls at an additional 50 quid, and eventually knocking through the lone naked brick on the floor, to once again expose the hole for which will be this family's lavatory for the rest of their days.

One that day, which will be next Wednesday, an official opening ceremony is being conducted, featuring all the local council members and politicians. This will also be the day we surprise everyone by giving the family all the additional provisions. I suspect it might be set to be one of the best days in my life! Can't wait!

That is about everything toilet related at the moment. I am so sorry for not being able to upload photos currently, but the rains also brought along with it electricity problems. Rest assured they will be up very soon and there are some very very good ones!

Thank you once again to all who have contributed. Our wonderful website organiser Suzanne has ambitiously bumped the target up to 2000 pounds. Momentum hasn't slowed yet so if you're still considering donating, please give what you can so we can help even more families without toilets.

Thank you also for all the family messages and comments! They keep me sane and loved when the towns are all out of airtime cards!

Much love and thanks!
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