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