11/1/00 -- Learning to build a latrine in Suriname

Let me tell you about building a latrine in Peace Corps Suriname. It's not particular to Peace Corps, but then again, I don't think this method is particular to Suriname either.

Step One: Put all trainees into a room with a flip chart and a currently serving volunteer. The volunteer discusses everything he/she did wrong in designing and building their latrine. Next, all the high-minded, green trainees discuss all the finest qualities of the outhouses they've frequented in their life in the States. Invariably, there are a few experts: one who wants to build a composting toilet, and possibly one more who wants to try to use their own waste to fertilize his own garden. (Thank goodness for spousal veto power!)

Step Two (One week later): A random assortment of wood, nails, and aluminum roofing arrives with a 55 gallon barrel. It's now time for the trainees to put up or shut up, and build a place to poop in the woods. Fortunately, everyone has forgotten their planning notes for the luxury jungle potty at their host family homes down the river.

With shovels and saws in hand, they march to the rather ridiculous site designated by the village leadership. A path has been cleared into the jungle, so the men take to digging the hole. Some take to removing the ends of the barrel. Meanwhile, the female trainees actually design the REALITY of the latrine after finding out that there may not even enough wood for a four sided latrine, let alone enough for an outhouse that's propped up above a rotating solar composter! It's around this time when the men who are removing the ends of the steel barrel discover that its former contents is a toxic chemical used to remove bauxite from other minerals commonly found in the sandy soil of the savanah of Suriname.

Attention instantly shifts to the digging. An arguement over how deep the barrel should be buried into the ground has heightened beyond its worth. Finally, with the arguement decided as a draw (because everyone is tired of digging), the carcinigenic cylinder is placed into the ground and surrounded by the shoveling of the clay-rich soil. Twenty minutes after the cutting of the plank wood has commensed, someone manages to scrounge up a tape measure from the village. It has taken far less time to deem the Chinese saws that Peace Corps has provided as the sharpest "Silly Putty Utensils" on earth. With everyone having had a chance to use those fine carpentry impliments, it was now time to line up to use the ONLY hammer. Nail by nail, the Sur6 gift to the Brokopondo community was erected. A monument to all that could be... with one hammer and sixteen laborers.

It stands there now, three glorious uneven sides towering above the glowing steel pit. And there, in Brokopondo along the Balensoela pasi, the curious landmark will wait... for Scott & Kerry to organize a work party to finally finish. Then again, two years is such a short time. Maybe we should devote our time to more grassroots, non-formal projects and leave the latrine to the trainees of Sur7.

- Scott

(Note: The latrine was actually finished the late afternoon of 11/14 by Kerry and I, as well as four other trainees who have their homestay near Brokopondo Center. This time we brought a second hammer.)

-- top of latrine photo