So, I am an AT volunteer now..

The clay oven for my women's group is finished. It took 4 days to complete after we had a table built with blocks. I can now say that I could build one on my own. It was a lot of work though, and we had to make due with the materials that I was able to locate here in Samana. We had originally planned to use all yellow clay for the oven because it is more flexible for building than red clay. Unfortunately, the yellow clay that arrived from the hardware shop was full of rocks and we only had a little after sifting. The oven ended up being built mostly with red clay. Here is a brief description of each day of work.

The table we built was supposed to be 2 meters by 2 meters, but the women were quite sneaky and added in extra block to make it larger because they wanted an even larger oven.. This was the biggest oven that Duncan had ever built, and he didn't really want to go much bigger than 2mx2m. After building the table, we filled it with dirt and left a small amount of space at the top.

Day 1- In a 2x2 meter space, we put a layer of sand and then broken glass on top of it (for handling the heat from oven), with salt over that to fill in the space between the glass. Then, another layer of sand. After we put in a brick floor and built a mold for the oven with block and sand.

Day 2- We covered the sand/block mold with newspaper, and then made our clay mixture. The clay mixer had red clay (which was supposed to be yellow), the yellow clay that we had available, koalin (which is a clay like substance that helps the oven not crack) and water. We formed blocks with the clay and then proceeded to put them around the oven and smooth them together. We built an arched entrance to the oven with bricks and clay. I added sea shells to make it more beautiful. :)

Day 3- Another clay mixture with sawdust, kaolin and clay. We formed balls out of the clay and put them around and around the oven smoothing them and packing them in until it was finished. The sawdust is used to make the oven stronger.

Day 4- A layer of pure clay and water to give the oven a nice finish.

Little by little we have taken the sand mold out of the oven and now are making fires each day that have started with a small fire and will grow into a roaring fire after about a week which will finish the curing process. The oven will reach full baking potential after using it for 3 months. I want to give a shout out to my co-volunteers Duncan and Gabe, who taught me everything I know about clay ovens and assisted me so much throughout this project! :) I couldn't have done it without you guys.

More news on the latrine manual. I finished updates on the manual, but it is STILL a work in progress. It is much, much better than before and is the official copy that will be used with the new Appropriate Technology volunteers. I included a section on how to form a latrine committee and updated the construction segments and various other parts of the manual, along with adding in the new drawings that had been done by a few of our more artistic volunteers.

This next week, I will be training a group of 15 volunteers and their masons on composting latrine construction and the BIBOBSI latrine manual (the one from the last paragraph). My mason that I used in Dajabon will be joining us in a mountain outside of Santiago for the 4 day training to build 1 latrine. The goal of the training is so that these volunteers will learn how to implement a composting latrine project at their sites and have a mason who is trained to construct them.

And..finally, the BIG NEWS. There are still people here in the Dominican Republic without a place to poo...so, on September 15th, I am officially an Appropriate Technology Volunteer and will be moving to the capital. I will be living with 3 other close friends that I have made throughout my service 2 carro publicos from the Peace Corps office. My new Close of Service date is April 15th. My work plan is as follows...

"In my extension as an AT volunteer, I plan to move to the capital on September 15th, 2011 so that I can serve as a “consultant” for the ecological bathroom project. I will begin by immediately reaching out to volunteers that are trying to implement composting latrine projects at their sites so that I can begin to plan for cross-sector training for ecological bathrooms. I will use October to search for funding and the means to hold an ecological bathroom training event for volunteers. In the following months, I will be planning and hosting the training event. Throughout my 5 ½ month extension, I will also be working on developing a more systematic approach to the project which will include learning objectives and lesson plans. I will also be visiting volunteers at their sites to help them with the BIBOBSI method and their projects. Throughout these visits to volunteers, I intend to continue updates on the latrine manual as needed. At the end of my extension in April, I will present during the training sessions for the project to the incoming group of AT volunteers in CBT."


Don't worry friends & Fam--I'll be home for Christmas most likely for a visit! :) I love you all, and thank you for supporting my mission here in the DR!