Outs

Apparently today, November 19, has been declared World Toilet Day by the United Nations. You can learn more about why the UN is bringing awareness to the value of toilets here: http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday. It is actually a real issue worth highlighting. I wrote the blog post below a few days ago and given that it's World Toilet Day, it seems like the right time to drop it. Enjoy!

If you are one of those people who dislikes acknowledging that we civilized humans have well-developed and very important GI systems that include the removal of waste, this is not the blogpost for you. Leave now! Or at least consider yourself warned. Today I am discussing something that is an integral part of my everyday: human waste.

My awareness of human waste and its disposal has been a regular part of my professional adult life. Many of my peers arrived in Africa a bit skittish at the thought of dirty latrines and the very likely possibility of GI problems. I, on the other hand, have spent a decade with an awareness of when, where, and in what way human waste can be removed from the ship. I have regularly explained to students what can go into the marine head and what to do if things do not disappear the way they “should” after pumping the handle correctly. Similarly, when on land, I often find myself drawn to places where pit latrines are the only private option. I even spent my last summer in the US including the discussion of “humanure” in my composting classes at AMC's Three Mile Island.

It stands to reason then that the options for removing waste from the body in Africa would not phase me much. In fact, they tend to amuse me more than disgust me.

Young Children:

Once out of diapers, most young children are taught to always go outside. It is not unusual for a three year old child to drop into a squat only feet from other people to discharge both ones and twos. During training, the young children were always so excited to wave to our bus, that sometimes they would stop in the middle of discharging waste to wave to us!

Latrines:

Personally, I love my latrine. When I was working on Three Mile Island, I created signage about water usage and waste for out latrines. It astonished me to think about how much treated water is used throughout America to “wash away” our waste. I am not suggesting the entire world revert back to pit toilets, especially in urban settings, as this would create other issues such as aroma and the potential for disease to spread more easily.

At the same time, I take joy in knowing that at the moment, my waste does not need water to wash it away. Despite my latrine being brand new when I arrived and despite my following the keep it covered rule, my latrine had a serious fly problem for a few months. Finally, tired of blasting DOOM, a local pesticide, into the latrine to annihilate the flies, I called upon an expert-one of the guys I worked with back on Three Mile Island, where our latrines serviced over 100 people a week for the duration of the summer-Jake.

As Maintenance Manager for TMI, Jake had spent a lot of time looking into options for reducing fly populations and odor in the traditional latrines on the island. He suggested adding a bucket of water to the latrine from time to time-not an ideal option here, but doable during big rains. He also suggested I look at a company called AMKA Organico, a company based in South Africa he had looked at but not yet tried out.

A bit of research online showed they have a product called SuperSeptic, which uses biotics to reduce odors and fly breeding in latrines. The biotics also help waste break down faster than occurs naturally. A few weeks later, I stumbled upon it in one of the three grocery stores in my camp town. I read the package and decided to test it out.

Super Septic suggests using is weekly for the first month as an appropriate level of the helpful bacteria is established. After that, one use per month is said to be sufficient. It also suggests adding a bucket of water with each treatment to help with waste breakdown. Lastly, it stresses that detergents and chemicals are a big no-no as they will kill the bacteria. At 15R or $1.50 US, it was well worth a test even if it did not work.

The first week, I noticed an immediate reduction in flies and by day two, the smells come out of my latrine were almost floral. Unfortunately, this was before the rains really started and my enthusiasm to put as much liquid into the latrine as I could meant that toothpaste went in to. By day 5, the flies were back and living happily. I bumped up the next treatment by a day and started separating gray water in the house to ensure I did not accidentally kill off my bacteria.

At the end of the second week, things were still looking good. The rains had started, so it became easier to add a bucket of water with the treatment. Now, I am about to add the last of my weekly treatments before transitioning to monthlies. While flies still enjoy hanging out in the shade created by my latrine, they are not down in the pit, which means that Super Septic has eliminated a breeding space. Hooray!

Pee Buckets:

My beautiful pee bucket!

Pee Buckets are the gem of Peace Corps life throughout the world. Our first day in country we were given a bucket by Peace Corps along with instructions to use it instead of the latrine at night. The instructions, given by current, more experienced PCVs, came with some tips and tricks. They strongly suggested only using the bucket for pee. If one needed to do more than that, it was “recommended” that one use a plastic bag at the mouth of the bucket to capture the waste so it could be tied up and would not foul the precious pee bucket.

While some people in training openly bragged about how often they poo'd in their pee buckets, others discretely acknowledged “they aren't just for pee!” in an adorable and playful voice. Still others worked diligently to master the art of using a bag in the bucket for solids.

I am lucky enough that I rarely need to use my pee bucket for more than pee, however, I find the bag in the bucket method to be pretty ridiculous. The theory is that it is more hygenic, cleaner...however, the tied up shopping bag is then left in the bucket until it is dumped into the latrine with the liquid waste in the morning. We all know shopping bags are not hermetically sealed, so the germs are still present in the bucket despite the use of the bag. Additionally, tying up natural waste (be it food pre- or post-digestion) in plastic makes it harder to break down once added to the latrine. Lastly, the pee bucket is like a portable toilet or chamber pot. Like a toilet, it needs to be cleaned with detergents from time to time. Why go through the challenge of training yourself to poo in plastic bags when all you need to do is wash your bucket more often?

In short, human waste is natural. It's not that hard to clean up safely and effectively. Why make it more awkward and clutter up a latrine with a bunch of plastic bags that negatively impact natural decomposition?

When there's no Water:

Most of the camp towns (district capitals) in Lesotho have flush toilets and sinks for washing. Despite my love for my latrine and pee bucket, I still appreciate flushing a toilet from time to time. The excitement, however, comes from being in town all day on a day there is no water. The downside to having the flushing toilets is that there are few places to go privately when there is no water.

Two weeks ago, I was at the taxi rank and desperately needed to use the public toilets before hopping on my taxi for a bumpy ride home. With no water, however, they were closed. I spoke to the attendant for a few minutes and asked if I could just go to the taxi rank fence and squat like the children do. This was met with a firm no, as that is not private enough for a woman.

Once the attendant learned I needed only to pee, she directed me to a small brick closet off the public bathrooms. She told me there was a woman there with a bucket I could use. I went and knocked. The woman welcomed me in. The “office” or closet was not much bigger than a large portapotty. The woman continued sitting at her small desk and simply pointed to the bucket. As I squatted, her phone rang. I could not help but laugh to myself as I peed in this small space while the woman sat there talking on her phone. In Lesotho, woman sharing space like this is normal, even when they do not know each other. After I finished, I took the bucket out to dump it in a nearby grate, and returned it with many thanks. Sometimes basic needs trump the desire for privacy.

Traditions:

Legend has it, you are not a Peace Corps volunteer until you poop your pants while on public transportation. This probably comes from the reality that many PCVs encounter serious diarrhea at some point during their service. I have one friend who acknowledges this has happened to him not once, not twice, but three times. I am pleased to say, it has not happened to me as of yet and I am praying it never does!

And Away We Go!

Well, it has finally arrived: Departure Day!

It has been a whirlwind since the incredible Bon Voyage from my friends and family last weekend. Seven straight days of busy finished up the school year, working the final weekend, and celebrating graduation with the Oliverian School meant that the final ten days have passes quickly.

I made it home last night shortly after 8pm. Tomorrow morning, we will be leaving for the airport sometime before 5am. Today, I got a haircut, panicked and bought another pair of shoes, packed, weighed my checked bags multiple times after minute adjustments, prayed that airlines would magically changed the weight limit by a measly 5 pounds, adjusted the packed bags again, signed over my car, and somehow managed to avoid a complete freak out! 

Thankfully my sister is the most incredible woman in the world and does not mind that my room is not as neat and tidy as I had intended it be when I left, as I am now enjoying some "seester" bonding after a great dinner with the family. 

The travel timeline looks something like this: 

Tuesday: 

     5am Leave for Boston Logan

     8:25 Flight to Philadelphia

     12:00-7:00 Peace Corps Staging in Philadelphia

Wednesday: 

     2am Start loading up/bus to JFK

     11:30am Flight to Johannesburg

Thursday: 

     8:05am (local time, actually 15 hours later) Arrive in Johannesburg

     9:45 Flight to Maseru

     10:40 (6:40am EST) Arrive in Maseru, Lesotho. From there we move to our training villages, meet our host families, and settle in. From what little I have seen of the training schedule, it will be a busy nine weeks. 

Personally, I cannot wait to be the student. Many people have asked if I am nervous, and admittedly, I am in a few ways. I am anxious that Kathy's scale lies and my luggage weighs too much. I am anxious that I will be terrible at Sotho and therefore not pass my language exam at the end of training. I am anxious that I have forgotten to take care of something terribly important that my sister won't be able to deal with for me. 

But, mostly I am simply excited. It is hard to believe that after more than a decade of thinking about it and years in the application and preparation process, I am finally leaving the country with the Peace Corps. I feel genuinely ready for the challenges that I anticipate before me and firmly believe that this is the path I am supposed to be on right now. 

I also cannot wait to finally meet the folks noted below. It has been great getting to know them online over the last few months and I anticipate we will be incredible friends in a very short amount of time. 

Please consider sending me mail during training (and beyond!), I promise to write back!

Beth Spencer, PCT
c/o Peace Corps/Lesotho
PO BOX 554
Maseru, 100 Lesotho

Wish me luck! 

Outstanding Oliverian

As I get down to my last days at The Oliverian School, I feel much like the seniors preparing for graduation and their next steps in life. This moment is, in many ways, reminiscent of the situation I was facing upon my own high school graduation fifteen years ago. Much like I enjoyed my graduation ceremonies punctuated by saying what felt like permanent goodbyes as I moved only two days later, I will be celebrating the end of this school year and the wonderful successes of our seniors next week, then leaving friends and family for an exciting and challenging few years.

Right now, however, I want to focus on this wonderful school. I remember sitting in my favorite chair in the Charleston apartment, interviewing and wondering if high school and intentional experiential education could really blend the way the website and Bessa suggested. I was a bit spacey the day of my interview and therefore stunned a few weeks later when Bessa offered me the job for Summer School. When I left Charleston, this is ultimately where I was headed, for a seven week season. I never imagined I would return a few months later or stay for another year. I was looking forward, specifically, towards the Peace Corps.

Oliverian's catchphrase is A School as Unique as its Students. It is most definitely that. We are a small school with limited outside involvement due to our location. We attract some incredible people as employees and for the most part, students who will be incredible, but have not figured that out yet. Then again, how many teenagers really know how incredible they can be? My time here has been a blend of joy and amazement combined with stress, tears, and frustration. There was even a month this winter where I thought this might be the first job I ever quit.

Looking at everything now, I am so grateful I did not leave early. While downtime pre-Africa might have been nice, nothing compares to Oliverian  in the last two weeks of the year. Being in Northern New Hampshire, winter is brutal here. Finally, in the last two weeks we have begun seeing leaves and with the leaves come flowers! While most places have lost their daffodils already, ours are still blooming. The lilacs are hinting at their arrival and will most likely be perfuming campus early next week. At the end of the lilacs will come the crabapple blossoms in the most incredible shades of pink. Campus is literally the most breathtaking sight in late May.

Equally breathtaking is watching students who, for the most part, struggled to reach the end of the Senior Year. None of our graduating seniors attended the same school for four years. Some of them have taken more than four years to earn that cap and gown.  Most of them had at least one moment where they were unsure whether they would finish high school. Graduation at any school is a special celebration tinged with hope and healthy anxiety for the future. At Oliverian, graduation is this incredible moment when the families and students finally recognize that they have actually made it to this point. The experience is poignant, like all graduations, but it is as if someone has upped the saturation on life, making each emotion, each hug, each celebration more rich than seems naturally possible.

This week, the graduating seniors have completed a huge step towards graduation. Our students design and complete senior projects during their last semester. Yesterday, the each one presented their senior project to the overseeing committee. The projects always provide a wonderful look into what students want to focus their energy on, as they have to design the project themselves and also reflect heavily on the process of completing the project. This year's projects included things like building a campus composter, finding a biological mother, building and placing a reading library at a local coffee shop, murals, and creating a temporary sweat lodge on campus.

Some of my favorite senior projects centered on the idea of community. Sofia created the Oliverian Story Co, an incredibly project that focused on gathering stories from the Oliverian Community and sharing them. I regret that I never got around to sharing a story, however, those that are shared on her website provide a glimpse into the way each one of us has stories to tell. Please take a moment to enjoy some of these stories!

Another wonderful collection of the Oliverian Community came from Nick, who recorded musical performances of students (and occasionally staff) and released a compilation album of Oliverian musicians. The arts as a whole are a huge part of this school and I personally am thrilled to be able to connect through their music with Oliverian and my former students from Africa in the coming years!


Julia's Found Poetry project took Oliverian course descriptions and turned them into creative and amusing poems. Two of my course descriptions were turned into found poetry, both filling me with joy. Julia also gave me a lovely complement after going through all the course descriptions; apparently I write mine at a higher level than most educators! Thanks Julia!

And with these lovely moments, incredible views, and happy thoughts, I prepare to leave what thus far has been my most challenging job. I had no idea when I came here two years ago, the school, its staff, and my students would become such a huge part of my life. Sometimes seven weeks just isn't enough time. 

Unsticking

On Friday, I came across an article entitled "Navigating Stuckness" by Jonathan Harris. The concept of occasionally becoming stuck and breaking free of it resonated with me. Over the last few years, I have definitely had periods where I felt life becoming repetitive and mundane. The problem, of course, is not a specific job, location, or friends. Instead, it is a much harder problem to overcome and change: outlook.

My time teaching at the Oliverian School has been a great example in comparing being stuck or unstuck. When I taught during the summer session in 2012, it was new and fresh. Northern New Hampshire was displayed in all its glory and as a new space, I explored it constantly. Every moment that I had time off, I was exploring nooks and crannies throughout the Upper Valley and Vermont.

Comparably, when I returned last winter, I dug myself in. My explorations and adventures were anomalies instead of the norm. Despite loving springtime in the northeast, I did not get out and enjoy it the way I should have. There are exceptions of course, like gardening often at Kathy's house, but my zest for exploring and appreciating everything around me was not as high as I like it to be.

Much of this year, the worst of winter excluded, I have been incredibly unstuck. Something about knowing I am leaving this area and the opportunities it presents have me constantly on the look out for the chance to make more memories and enjoy every chance I have to enjoy life. Whether it has been connecting with friends and family during Spring Break, saving salamanders with students, or leading a weekend trip for sushi, I am up for every activity that comes my way. With barely five weeks until I begin training with the Peace Corps, I have had plenty of impetus to un-stick myself. The challenge I cannot embrace right now is unsticking myself when I do not have such an incredible force pushing me to maximize my life.

Having read Harris' manifesto on Friday, I went into the weekend mulling over the idea of being stuck while comparing it to my opportunities. For the third time during my time at school, I made the always shorter than I expect it to be drive up to my friends Will & Carrie's farm. We shared an amazing weekend complete with incredible cooking with food grown on the farm including pies and perogies, joining Carrie in her studio to create some gorgeous silk scarves, startling the brand new piglets, a night of new-to-me games, and a visit to my new favorite brewery, Lost Nation, for another stamp in my Vermont Brewer's Passport but sadly not a growler of their Dark Pitch. I particularly enjoyed my firsts of working with a pasta maker and silk. Most valuable, of course, was spending time with these two people who never fail to inspire me with their stories, experiences, and opinions. I cherish the memories of winter Saturdays holed up in my apartment in Charleston enjoying their company and delicious food we always seem to be making together!