The power of toilets and electricity

About Toilets

Tuesday was the grand opening of a village latrine. We arrived to see the villagers singing and dancing in celebration that HCW had paid for them to get a latrine. I don't think that I had ever before fully grasped that a toilet is life-saving. But if the village has a well (not all do), it is critical that the ground water be protected from contamination. Without a latrine, people only have the bushes, and children just go on the ground wherever they might be. A latrine changes all that.

Some pics from the village

Notice the mud brick construction (middle pic)

The grand opening included speeches from the chief, a strong but very wrinkled woman, who spoke only in Krio. In addition to her, we heard prayers from a Christian and also a Muslim, as both faiths live together in the village. 

The village chief

Four young men played homemade drums to enliven the dancing, and we all danced, clapped, and sang. This all happened in the covered village gathering space, or Peace Hut. Then we danced and sang down a footpath to the new latrine. Little children vied to hold our hands as we walked.

Babies came too

The three latrine doors were ceremoniously unlocked. The chief got to look first, then other villagers could peek inside. I gathered that no one could look ahead of time. A dedication was said and the latrine was prayed over and blessed to the glory of God.

First look into the new latrine

Then the villagers headed off down another footpath to show us the school. There is one teacher for all the children of the primary school. The school has maybe two rooms and  windows with no screens. (Kids who go to secondary school must move to Bo, the city.) The teacher gathered his students to sing for us. The tune he chose was John Brown's Body.

Celebrating at the school

The man in the hat is the teacher

I found myself humming the tune as I walked the footpath back to the road and our cars. I wasn't paying much attention on the dirt road as there was zero traffic. Suddenly a young women grabbed my hand, yelling BIKE-AH! I smiled at her thank you, but she just yanked my hand harder and pulled me off the road. Turns out a motorbike was speeding up behind me and I had not realized it! I guess BIKE-AH has 2 meanings!

 

Electricity

Remember those long weeks of no power after Hugo? Well, that's pretty much the way it is here all the time. There is power from the city, but it comes and goes, off and on, seemingly on a whim. Mostly off. And yesterday, we got word that a transformer has blown out all power for at least the rest of this week. Our only option is to grin and bear it...and pay $10 an hour for generator time. We are purchasing an hour early each morning and 5 hours from 6 to 11 pm. Tommy and I are in bed and asleep before it turns off, and we have the advantage of falling asleep with help from the overhead fan. We sleep with a flashlight under our pillows.

The food is always cooked outside over coals, so that's not a problem. But of course no ice. A small generator separately keeps a tiny frig and cooler running. (I think we are supposed to have fish for supper tonight, and I'm a little worried if those fish are being kept safely cold in the meantime.)

When we lose power after a storm, it's a HUGE inconvenience. In Sierra Leone it's an everyday part of life.

Toilets and electricity...I won't take them quite so much for granted in the future.