While Emily and Bhupal cleaned off the cement mixing tin in preparation for making plaster,
James and I went to check on the tank.
Little did we know our day was about to take a ribbeting turn.
As we walked up to the tank they realized box A was completely non-functional. CDF had been at it again. The box was fully flooded and bubbling and the only reason the taps were flowing was because the disconnected pipe was underwater.
We decided to connect CDF’s pipe into the T themselves to dissuade further CDF shenanigans.
To turn off the water to the system they went to the tank. The float valve ball had come off one of the inlet pipes and one of the strainers was clogged. On top of that the drainage pipe was partially open.
We turned off the drain and school line and while waiting for water level to increase in the tank we used my water bottle to bail out the valve box.
Back at the tank James volunteered to declog the stainer. From above, it looked like a simple bunch of leaves, perhaps with some gunk interlaced. After reaching in and finding it squishier than expected, James realized it was not in fact gunk, but a dead frog that had
probably been there for days.
James snatched his hand from the tank, disgusted, I got two sticks and pulled the frog out of the tank to dry in the sun.
The second inlet pipe wasn’t working again so we hiked up to the source and worked to fix the poorly connected pipes.
A few hours later the second inlet pipe was flowing but likely by no fault of our own.
Meanwhile, Daniel was busy digging a hole for testing soil percolation. The team is constructing a menstrual hygiene management friendly latrine at the school site this coming year and part of the teams responsibilities this summer is assessing the soil at the site. A percolation test quantifies the capacity of the soil to absorb water. In installing a septic system desirable soil absorbs water very well. Daniel poured 50 liters of water into the hole and timed how long it took to absorb the water.
Emily supervised the plastering of the tap stand. Two masons joined the construction today, Ganjaman and Krishna. They tapered the top of the tap stand to prevent kids from climbing on it, smoothed the walls and added an incline to the basin to direct water into the drain.
The team finished attaching CDF’s pipe along with a ball valve.
Yesterday we made a list of things to accomplish before they leave Kalinchok. The only item not completed was the burial of the drainage pipe. This task had gone unacknowledged for about a week now due to its seemingly impossible nature. However, after putting our heads together and succumbing to a return to ditch digging, the pipe was buried in less than an hour. A couple Nepali men took a "break" from constructing a house to join us!
As we began our trek down the mountain, it started raining. I slipped almost immediately, and resigned to remove my shoes and walk barefoot back to the homestay.
Bonus points for whomever can spot my feet in half these pictures.
Love,
Abbie
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