Bruce Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 (edited) Took a boat ride (motorized home made canoe with bamboo outriggers) to a remote village with no roads into it. Saw a few patients there. Have breakfast as usual in the morning and stopped to see the homless kids. COVERED in flies as they sleep. Costs me about $0.55 cents to feed each one at the local rice and fish stand. Lot cheaper than Jollibees where I eat. The pics of the kids were taken over several days. Edited January 27, 2012 by Bruce 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted January 27, 2012 Author Posted January 27, 2012 Traveled to another rural area with no doctor. 17,000 people in the area. Pics are of the local health department and their toilet, which has been out of service for 4 years! And of course, no medications! So I returned today with some antibiotics and 2 laborers to repair the toilet. pulled the top of the septic tank and it was almost dry, confirming that it was not in use for quite a while. Did some digging and found the 6' pipe out to the tank was 'gone'. Yes, gone! not collapsed, not broken, not full of roots... but stolen! And done so long ago that the ground was level and hard packed again. I was asking the staff there about the pipe that I was expecting to be damaged or blocked and they THEN said it was stolen 4 years ago... No wonder the toilet does not work. All the water is trapped in the pipe under the building and then it hits packed dirt where the end was cut when someone stole the pipe. Huge tree and roots there so we are digging a new trench and bashing a hole in the side of the tank and will chip up the floor and install new pipe to the toilet. In the US, many thousands of $$$ to fix + a permit! Here, it think it will cost me about $100. The 2 laborers make about $7 a day.....When I am riding the motorcycle and passing people on the side of the road, I hear Hey Joe! about 100 times a day as they all are yelling at me. Odd to see a white face this far out. Also with the motorcycle it is interesting to see how cautious I have become as I am now 'old'. 35 years ago, I was doing 100mph between red lights. Now, I can drive as fast as physics allows, but now I am too smart too. Just not fair..... Also 2 pics of Venus and her mother and new 7 day old baby boy brother. I figure in 3 months mom will be back in Manila working the bars again...... Venus graduates the 6th grade in March and it not yet certain she will return for 7th grade. She will be 15 tomorrow and has already lost 2 years / grades from running the streets until I found her in 2009 and paid for her to return to school. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike S Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Thanks Bruce a great post ...... also liked the pictures as they show the true side to those who live the not so glamorous life of the rest of us ..... and congrates on you being able to make such a difference in these peoples lives ....... I wish some of the newspapers and politicians could see that not all foreigners are sex-pats ....... there are some very good foreigners living or visiting here ...... :signnvm: :tiphat:Have to repost this as the damn Martians ate my other post AGAIN ........ :kidding: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyAway Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Keep up the good work Bruce. Many do not get past the big city to truly see the rest of the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art2ro Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 (edited) Bruce,You must have a thing for dirty and nasty looking toilets! Delete the toilet pic eh! I think I'm going to be sick! You should teach those people in Samar how to clean their CRs! :kidding: Edited January 27, 2012 by Art2ro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted January 27, 2012 Author Posted January 27, 2012 Bruce,You must have a thing for dirty and nasty looking toilets! Delete the toilet pic eh! I think I'm going to be sick! You should teach those people in Samar how to clean their CRs! :714_full_of_crap:What gets me, from a kano point of view, is that this is 'the' health department building, with a staff and patient load AND they allowed this to go on for 4 years! The local city has 'workers' and they could have fixed this 4 years ago. But the mayor says they are relocating the health department to a newer building in town, so they did not want to spend any money fixing the toilet.....Of course the NEXT question was... WHEN is the relocation to be.... they don't know. It has been planned for ..........................4 years now! Also not shown in the pics is the roof facia / soffit rotten and falling down or the other issues the building has. I beleive it was built in 1975 by funds from UNICEF. But of course, no funds were ever set aside for any maintenance!The pinoys I have met in construction have no idea on what a union is, so they actually WORK. I guess it will be 2-3 days to dig and lay the pipe and fill in and do some cement repairs. Costs are labor at 2 men each 300p a day (!!!!) and the costs of the 6' pipe and fittings and cement. While I, the Kano, supply the money, the two workers buy the materials and take a jeepney out of town to the job and do it with out any complaints. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJReyes Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 There is a new system called "ecological-sanitation" or "ecosan" toilets. There are NGOs supported by the Dutch and other governments producing the concrete toilet bowls. The remaining materials needed can be sourced on location. The cheapest version for rural area is around P2,500.The way it works is the urine and feces are separated. Ash is used to reduce smell and both by products are recycled as fertilizer. There are diagrams, photographs and construction instructions on-line specific for the Philippines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted January 28, 2012 Author Posted January 28, 2012 There is a new system called "ecological-sanitation" or "ecosan" toilets. There are NGOs supported by the Dutch and other governments producing the concrete toilet bowls. The remaining materials needed can be sourced on location. The cheapest version for rural area is around P2,500.The way it works is the urine and feces are separated. Ash is used to reduce smell and both by products are recycled as fertilizer. There are diagrams, photographs and construction instructions on-line specific for the Philippines.Unless there is some chemical / ph benefit to the ash, I see issues with the ammonia byproduct of urine breakdown. There have been some versions of dry toilets for 30 years now, but they all have problems with heavy use and they can't process waste fast enough.Human nature is 'out of sight, out of mind' which translates to 'flush it and it is gone'. If there is ANY homeowner maintenance required for the eco toilets, then they are doomed to fail. Human nature is to put it off untill another day, hoping that day never arrises. If the eco toilet is any more difficult than 'flush and forget it', there will be issues.Many people here cook with gas and have no 'ash'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 Many people here cook with gas and have no 'ash'. This statement surprised me. In the area I live I have found only a handful of the 'very' poor using gas. I notice them cooking over a fire of sticks or, if they have a little money, using oling which is a native charcoal (we use it to barbecue and it is not bad)Thanks for the pics Bruce. I can see that you are doing a great thing over there. I admire your dedication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted January 28, 2012 Author Posted January 28, 2012 (edited) Many people here cook with gas and have no 'ash'. This statement surprised me. In the area I live I have found only a handful of the 'very' poor using gas. I notice them cooking over a fire of sticks or, if they have a little money, using oling which is a native charcoal (we use it to barbecue and it is not bad)Thanks for the pics Bruce. I can see that you are doing a great thing over there. I admire your dedication.Yes, I see wood for sale everywhere and the poor do cook with an open fire. But these poor would not be looking for a toilet to add to the nipa hut. But the middle class to upper class gook with gas. Most Gasul and some Shellane (SPL?) sold here. 850p, tax included for 11 kilos of gas, in a blue bottle. It would be the middle / upper class that would have a toilets.I remember paying for a renovation of the family house back in 2009. Cheap by US standards and I am happy..... but when I arrived and was shown the work, I saw a toilet bowl, too low to the ground and no tank and was flushed by a bucket of water and NO SEAT...... My fault for not setting the standards I wanted for the CR renovation. So I went out to at least buy a toilet seat. Nothing but real cheap plastic Chinese made seats here. I remember asking the sales girl if there was a better one (no) and if she had a seat on her toilet in her house (no again).I made sure to demand flush toilets with seats for the boarding house! You know, it is these little creature comforts that separate us from the animals. That and forks! Edited January 28, 2012 by Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now