In my last post I wrote how Lupe, Leti and their 4 children
were into their new little house (550 square feet) but had no drinkable water,
no septic system, and a totally inadequate electrical supply.
The septic systems here are totally different than in the US . Instead of having a septic tank and a drain
field they dig out a room under the ground.
They build the walls with cement block and it has a cement floor with a
hole, 1½ feet in diameter, in the middle.
They also build a cement roof for the room with a cement lid for
access. The drain pipe dumps into this
room and everything that goes into it has to escape through the 1½ foot hole in
the floor. I was told that all of these
“systems” stink. The whole process is
very time consuming and expensive. It
might be months before Lupe could get it done.
I explained to Lupe how a US septic system works and that we
could install it in a couple of days.
His main concern was that it would stink. I assured him that it would not.
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| Digging Trenches (notice their view) |
Having received permission to proceed, I made a shopping
list and set out to find the ingredients to build a septic system. Since no such thing exists here it was harder
than I thought. I had to make do with
what I could find and it took more than a day to find everything. It took us two days of work spread over three
days but the job is done and they now have a working toilet. The only problem is that they have no water
to run the toilet. As soon as the job
was finished we tried to fill the family water tank with the brownish water
from the community reservoir but we could not get the pump to start. Alas, we were disappointed. The toilet is now working with the “bucket of
water” method.
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| Covering the "septic tank" |
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| We had to drill our own holes in the pipe for the drain field. Levi (10) manning the drill and Daniel (7) holding. |
Speaking of water, I was able to find a good price for 300
meters of 1” supply line to bring city water to the house. The supplies to do this project are bought
and at the house. Pray that Lupe can get
the water people to make the tap into the 2” main this week so that he can lay
and bury the line that he now has and that they can have clean running water
soon.
I also bought 120 meters of #8 wire (two individual wires,
no ground) and conduit to bury it in.
Later today I hope to put the wire into the conduit and install it
tomorrow morning. Lupe will have to bury
the wire after we leave.
The cost of all the materials that I bought came to a total
of about $665. As I mentioned in my last
post, you can help with these expenses by making out your check to ICDV for
whatever amount you choose; write Negritas in the memo and send it to:
ICDV (Iglesia Comunidad del Valle), PO BOX 240, Jefferson, OR 97352.
All moneys designated to Negritas go to support Lupe and Leti as
missionaries to their home town and the surrounding communities.
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| It became the TOTALLY cool thing to do once I told the boys that they could fill in the ditch. Within 5 minutes there were "experts" telling the others the right way to do it. |
