Septic System In

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. 

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.

Covering the "septic tank"

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.

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.