The latrines that we are building are made of concrete blocks, pronounced 'block' in Spanish. These blocks have to be moved by hand (or head) to the location of the latrine. Here, Susan attempts to move a block like the locals. (Watch the woman behind Susan to see how it is done).
Each latrine begins with a square hole five meters deep. This hole was dug by Pedro's fourteen-year-old son. It took him six days to dig. Pedro is a mason in the village and taught us how to build the latrines.
Setting the floor of a latrine.
The most difficult part of building latrines is digging the holes in the hard Guatemalan Clay to begin setting the walls.
The cement that is made for the latrines is intentionally semi-permanent. The reason is that after 7-10 years, each latrine needs to be taken apart and moved (block by block) to another location.
When a block needs to be cut to fit, it is cut with a machete. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the entire experience, where Rob is being taught how to cut cinder blocks by Pedro. We did not come to teach, we came to learn and to share. Who would have thought that cutting a cinder block would embody this ideal so well?
After one full day of work...
