Westerners expect certain accouterments in their buildings and schools. Toilets, for example! Specifically, toilets. The thought of a school without toilets is startling. Once again, I learned what we consider a staple, is sometimes unknown to some parts of Africa.
On April 5, 2022 we traveled about five and one half hours north of Accra to hand off three biofil toilets to the Domase Village School. The school was a long walk from the small hilltop village, but centrally placed so that most of the neighboring children could attend daily. It was surrounded by lush green open vistas, with the occasional semi-hidden dwelling, and no electrical poles or signs of running water.
When we arrived at the school the 150 children didn’t seem to know how to react to two white strangers. We parked our vehicle and attempted to interact. The only common language we spoke was gestures. I pointed to the electricity producing merry-go-round close by and watched them run and jump on. Some of the braver students followed as the one English speaking teacher showed me the classrooms. The original building was in a state of decay, so a group from Texas had donated enough money to build the new school that consisted of walls, roof and floors. The wooden desks were handmade. The teaching materials consisted of two programmed learning teacher manuals with the text written side by side in Twi and English. Only one teacher spoke the children’s mother tongue, that person translated to Twi and then to English. I saw only one book and no text books.
Toilet questions. If there are no toilets, what did the children use? They used the vast open spaces. One obvious concern when 150+ individuals are randomly choosing where to go is environmental sanitation. Another concern is snakes. The children are afraid of the snakes in the grass and choose to stay close to the school to avoid an encounter. The teacher said that it was getting difficult to walk in the areas around the school. Why three toilets? Because their culture requires separating boys, girls, and adults. What is a biofill toilet? It is an innovative way to get rid of waste in a sanitary and odor-free manner using just one cup of water. As the children wash their hands in the sink the runoff supplies the water to flush. Waste decomposes so efficiently that the toilet only needs to be emptied once every five years.
Note the machete in the teacher’s hand. Most of the boys carry one and use it very adeptly. Given the request, some of the older boys began hacking and digging with theirs to clear a space for all of us to stand during the hand off ceremony.
My biggest concern is whether the toilets will be used. Even though the children had been instructed in toilet usage, they have never used one, nor have they seen anyone use one. George, the NGO representative, gave a refresher lesson while we were there, but it was apparent the children had no frame of reference or understanding. Foreign, foreign, foreign. I wonder.
As a parting gesture, the now friendly children, sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” with gusto. The English words were memorized and sung with a Ghanaian twang. We loved it.
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