Latrine Update

 

Progress has continued on the latrine and the electrical wiring has been hooked up. The main builder, my counterpart Aziz and I have recently trying to figure out what color to paint the building. Traditionally, the color of most buildings in my area of Morocco are painted a burnt orange color. Though I want to keep with tradition, I also think that it is important (while being respectful to tradition and customs) to paint the building a different color. Though just a color, the uniqueness of the building would ideally, fuel a sense of pride in the school and provide more motivation for the community to maintain the school and the teachers to give all they can to the students. It would stand out to the community and to people passing by the school that this place is different and there is something special going on here.

            This past Tuesday Aziz and I went for our second round of training with the teachers at the school. In this round of training we reviewed what we had learned in the last session which were different facts about the risks associated with not washing your hands and some statistics. After going over that I taught them a simple way to teach a health lesson to their students. The activity was called “Glitter Germs” and in it I first tried to explain how germs can travel from person to person with ease and how proper hand washing can stop the problem. In this case the “germs” were glitter. First I poured some glitter into my hand and spread it around, rubbing my hands together. Next, I shook hands and said Salaam to my counter part Aziz. Thus the germs were transferred! We went around the room repeating the process until all parties were infected. Oh boy, what to do?! Why wash your hands of course. We then proceeded to walk around the school showing off our germ-infested hands to the kids and goofing around. We went over the proper way to wash hands and then went back and wrapped up.

 

Some clean hands!

            As I went down to Marrakech to see some friends who are completing their service this spring, the builders were bringing in the plumbing piping and the large rocks were being excavated.  I hope to go back this week and see what else has progressed. To culminate the project, we are planning on having a big party and health day. I hope to get some of the community members to come out and celebrate and to also talk with them about why we are doing the project. In the past we talked with the officials of the Association about why we did the work but having the parents there would be great. Who knows it could even lead to more work there and maybe a different project.

Aziz and his Moped

January

January.

The start of the new year and the prospects of beginning new endeavors in Morocco. 2015 kicked off with myself and my friend also named Jake heading to Europe for a week. After Xmas we hit up Berlin and Prague and back to Berlin before heading back to Morocco. The break was much needed and was only the second time I had been out of the country since my service started last year. Berlin was great. Super grungy, yet efficient as can be. Pretty funny to think about in that the city of Berlin is famous for its alternative subcultures which don't like the status-quo or rules yet everything related to the transport of people, logistics and transactions is organized to the second. Trains leave on the minute, crosswalks are respected and all of the other small things one can think of are in place and working fluidly. It was equally jarring to come from Morocco, a country where virtually everything does not run on time to one of the most organized countries in the world. This is not to say that one way is better than the other, Morocco's different way of doing things has lent itself to abundant random run-ins on the street with friends, work opportunities, dinner invites and other random acts of kindness.

In Berlin, we took walking tours of the city, partied hard, and ate GREAT food. I can't begin to explain how comforting a curried pork wurst with french fries ketchup and mayo  and a cold one was coming off the plane. It was a treat. After touring the city for a few days making friends and seeing sites we cruised to Prague. Prague was only a 4 hour train ride but definitely felt like a different place. Everything in the old town was pristine, the building looked like they had been borrowed from a Disney Studio's set and the orange hue of the lamp-posts created an aura around the city. Prague is a town that seems split. On the one hand you have ornate buildings in the Old Town and then just ten minutes on the tram away, the impressions of Soviet Russia remain.  We were in Prague for 3 days which in my opinion is enough to see the city. We all want to be locals when we travel and get the ins to all the hip spots but if you are traveling on a time constraint like most people do, 3 days in Prague will suffice. We we to the old castle, cruised around the squares, chilled in some funky bars and rung in the New Year in style with a bar crawl which was being organized by one of my good friends I have grown up with, Sarah. Because we were hostel-less on NYE we cruised to the train station back to Berlin where we flew out the next day.

Back in Morocco, it was back to reality and work. With the Dar Chebab still closed I have been going to Timoulit which is a small mountain town 6km from me. I may have mentioned it in a earlier post but the kids there are so nice and eager to learn that they deserve a second shout out.

The second Monday back was my first meeting with the teachers at the school where we are building the latrines. Albeit a little skeptical at first, the teachers agreed to sit and learn about the need to educate their students on proper hand sanitation techniques and how we can help them live healthier lifestyles. The first thing we did was a pre-test. Pre-tests are super important to the success of the overall accountability of the project because if we don't measure what the instructors already know versus what they will be learning there will be no way to record a positive change in behavior or, no change which would signal partial failure of the project. I find these pre-tests interesting because one it gives me a lot of work to do in terms of preparation and two, it has potential for reward if I do my job properly and the teachers and students learn.

Tomorrow I am headed to the Latrine site to see a machine dig up some of the rocks in order to create a septic tank in for the latrine run-off. Should be a grand time! Pictures and re-cap to follow...