Back to Basics and Basins

With two new water wells repaired the Water team Turned their focus to a new hand basin for the community school, Lakala, where we are camped out. The 11 pit toilets built by the community themselves earlier this year are a great demonstration of a village looking to get active but hand washing is the crucial missing element. The team have utilised the existing roofs to collect water and experiment with bamboo as a new type of concrete formwork. Amazing what can be done with local techniques and lateral thinking! Come the start of 2012 Lakala should be well equipped with all the basics…

Solid Foundations

The first of two concrete slabs for the two bathing pavilions has been laid following 5 days on the carefully crafted formwork! It was all hands on deck from Sago Network and Laukanu in an all day pour that saw lunch forgotten among the singing and shouts of encouragement from the locals throughout what became an 8 hour operation. 60 people mixing by hand backed up by a team of ladies constantly running sand and gravel for the mix in ‘skin boats’ propelled ahead by paddle alone! An amazing effort by all! Second slab slated for Thursday and will require a repeat performance…

From Consultation to Collaboration

Last week saw the week-long design phase draw to a close with the Planning, Water, Washing and Waste teams presenting their concepts to the communities. Each team was formed from UTS, PNG Unitech and village reps, who have formed a ‘Local Network’ to lead their involvement. The energy was buzzing as these local spokespeople stepped in to present the schemes to their own community members! The Unitech team also stood tall to communicate and even act out the finer details of the proposals to ripples of applause!

Now all we have to do is build it!

And Work Begins…!

The master planning project wrapped up on Sunday with the community agreeing on two sites for pit toilets in Laukanu. After days of mapping exercises and community consultation we achieved our goal. Next step: to get our tool kit ready and start building!!!
My first task was to build two retaining walls with the help of the community! And what an experience that was! Quite happy with the outcome and I can’t take credit for all of it! I simply mobilised the team, gave them a bit of direction and appreciated the local knowledge and advice. Great start to the week! 1.5 retaining walls build on Monday and the second one finalised yesterday. The positive attitude and the comradeship amongst the community, my peers and the project leaders are a real encouragement in achieving each task. I’m loving this and there’s no other place I’d like to be right now.

To my dear family, lovely friends and the crew at SCA, I’m missing you heaps! Can’t wait to see you! Merry Xmas from PNG – Laukanu.

Cheers,

Sandy

Xxx

model of village

local representatives presenting the design

our dining confrence hall

plan ofvillage

sago studio

teenage girls

village children

village children in the church

weaving

whit mans shower

Building among the Butterflies

Our construction work has thus far focused on Kelkel. After a period of consultation and design two pits have been dug and lined, 2 slabs poured and the building of the cabins is progressing well with a view to completion on Friday.

It’s a very scenic site, surrounded by jungle and dozens of butterflies. We regularly rescue crabs from our work. It is hot and muddy work but everyone from small children to grandparents help out and we’ve really enjoyed working along side them. Next week we begin construction in Laukanu.

Graeme McIntyre

From Design to Construction

Last week we finalised our designs for master planning, waste and washing. Each group presented this to the collective local representatives who had been helping us on the designs and opened the forum for questions and critiques. It was our chance to make sure that the local representatives both understood and approved of the designs before presenting them to the rest of village the following day.

The Unitech team were the stars of the day as they were able to communicate the concepts fully and clearly in Tok Pisin and ensured that no translation was lost in English.

The entire design consultation process has been an eye opener. Each team of master planning, waste, washing and water has been allocated four members from the local community; two men and two women. These representatives have been vital in advising us throughout the design process and have informed us on location complexities, building techniques and cultural sensitivities; they have also been our direct link to the rest of the community.

All of the design decisions are evaluated by the local representatives and then passed on to the community for approval. Often the explanations are not fully understood through the delivery of drawing and model making and this has required us to use other methods to convey design ideas; such as drawing in the ground, miming the activities, pegging out both building sizes and locations and using physical props to enact activities.

Our final presentation for washing was assisted by a small skit. Alex and myself had to crouch behind the well with Wara (Water) signs, Jak pumped the well pump (which is still yet to be fitted) and we jumped up, mimicked the movement of water with our signs, running down stream along the pipe path to the location of each male and female shower block. Both, Emma and Peter who were waiting in the shower locations mimed the scooped of the water with coconuts, and as the water ran off their backs we ran down to the soakage pit. As simple and unnecessary as this may seem, they loved it and their laughter confirmed their approval and understanding of the process of the water engineering.

The loss of words in translation has also been a learning lesson during the presentations. In the shower design we are using a Mandi; an Indonesian bathing concept to scoop water from a small bath and tip it over the body. Our translation for this bath would be a shallow trough, however in Tok Pisin there is no word for trough or for anything that holds a body of water so after some discussion they made up a new expression to explain the mandi ‘pool bilong waswas’, a pool that belongs to washing.

The first two weeks of designing had caused some restlessness amongst the locals. We have follow a course of establishing the issues, responding with concept designs, critiquing these designs and then finalising the deigns.

After a some time we were informed that the restlessness had come from confusion; the villagers though that they would be building on the second day of our arrival and they couldn’t’t understand why we were wasting time with pens and paper. The concept of drawing and pre planning were unfamiliar. The villages design as they construct and our pens and paper was unexpected. The local representatives had to constantly remind them that the building will occur and that we were working through of the designs.

Construction started yesterday and the workforce of the community has been mind blowing.
On an individual level their energy and focus dissipates but as a team they are unstoppable. The cultural differences between our lifestyles have never been so apparent.

From the very beginning one needs to be very clear about the task that they are setting them for within 5 min the operation will be overtaken by a multitude of hands willing to help and direct, and they are fast, very fast.
I have been in Lae for the day running errands for supplies, I am sure when I return a whole new layer of construction would have taken place.

Joanne Taylor

construction of bridge

children in traditional wear

emma on culture day

family 2

family photo

friends

jak on culture day

local architecture

sandra chewing beetle nut

such a cutie

Updates from Week 2

After what seemed to be a rigorous consultation process with the community, segregated into different demographics and social standings, Team Wash Wash presented our ideas with support from everyone across all groups. It is hard to imagine every gaining such consensus like this anywhere but here, in a community like this, with cheers and applause, the whole community were genuinely excited by the proposal presented to them.

So now two days into the construction phase, Laukanu’s community involvement continues to inspire me. Today we had everyone from under 5 year old picaninis, young boys and girls, mature women to elders all carrying gravel for construction, with men young and old digging, slashing, and ripping, all while laughing and singing as well. The air was filled with incredible energy, and I was inspired to be part of it. I felt as though this is the true meaning of community spirit and thought it made my own small community of 2000 seemed very dispersed back home. I could only dream that someday I could my own little family (whom I miss dearly every night) in such a close communal setting, though I do wish this is wishful thinking, Perhaps I’d sugest we move to Laukanu, but if only I liked taro……

Michael W.

Building latrines may not be the most glamorous work, but we’re all finding out that it can be a lot of fun. The first week was the ice-breaking consultation with the various community groups: where would they like their toilets? how many? What style? Do they prefer squatting or sitting? Turns out, the latter, and by a huge margin. In fact, it seems that the majority of people in Laukanu and Kelkel would love to have porcelain thrones in tiled bathrooms alongside wash basins and showers in their houses attached to fully operating septic systems as most have seen in the magazine, so our proposed pit latrines using traditional materials have gotten just a lukewarm reception. Nevertheless they’re coming out each day to help build them with big smiles on their faces, and teaching us a thing or two in the process.

In Kelkel, a 20 minute stroll up from the beach from the village of Laukanu in which we are staying, the first latrine slab was poured last week under the house of its retired school teacher Teta, who lives in the center of this tiny community of 30 households, and promised to keep watch over our first construction work, wetting it three times a day in an attempt to have it cure properly in the extreme heat. We mixed the concrete in an old outrigger canoe, which turned out to be not a bad container for the purpose. Monday morning all the men, women, and children turned out to move 500kg mass of concrete to the latrine site about 500m away. This was a good thing as the slab seemed heavier than anything we have ever carried or would ever like to carry again. A few of the poles on which it was supported broke along the way, but fortunately the slab remained intact. Last week, the men of Kelkel had already dug the hole, so the final placement didn’t take too long, and first structure has already started to go up, and second in underway. The first two latrines are still on schedule to be finished before Christmas.

We were hoping to have all our latrine pits 3m deep so that they would last more than a couple years before the slabs have to be moved again, but in Kelkel water was struck at 2 and half meters. The high water table is one of the biggest impediments to having a good sanitation system in both Laukanu and Kelkel as contaminants and pathogens can travel through their sandy gravelly soils with great speed, and water seems to be just lurking under the surface everywhere waiting to carry them. Our proposed solution to build a concrete-lined composting latrine above the water table still is being met with skepticism, and rather than delve into the world of composting human wastes themselves first, it seems they would much prefer that we just move here permanently and build such toilets for ourselves to test. Some of us are seriously considering their invitation as everyone is so friendly, and the coconuts, pineapples, and bananas are great.

Juliet L.