Barrio Malawi - green things

Alternative to Backyard Landfills

jon — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 09:20:47 -0400

If backyard landfills won't do it...

This will.

Art Explains the Beauty of Africa

jon — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:04:14 -0400

One of the joys of being married to an artist, is that my artist accentuates life in her paintings and shows me things I never would have noticed on my own. If any of you out there are not yet married, I highly recommend that you look into finding yourself an artist as well.

Last month Marissa and I took a long 24 hour train ride across the whole of Tanzania. As we watched the plains and mountains and villages of Africa pass by for hours, we were asking ourselves things like: “Why does this land seem so beautiful?” and “Why is it that I feel like I could stare at this countryside for hours on end and never become tired of it?”

The answer wasn't clear to me until Marissa started sketching some of the grasslands. When she finished, she noticed that the pattern in the colors of the grasslands in the sketches, without any conscious effort on her part, ended up matching perfectly with the colors of the rainbow.

In each of her sketches if you follow the pattern of the grass from top to bottom you proceed from a deep violet near the base and continue through the color spectrum up to the red tops of the grasses.

Could this be why we could stare at the scenery for hours and hours?? Could this be why the African countryside is so appealing to the eye?

Have a look for yourself:

Grassland in Tanzania

Grassland Sketch

Go Cats!! (or Super Toilets)

jon — Wed, 17 May 2006 03:43:44 -0400

Its amazing but two of our best friends here in Malawi are graduates of the University of Arizona also!! As if Cheri Blauwet were not proof enough that Arizona Wildcats are taking over the world... :)

Our good friends have been living in Malawi for about 20 years now working in health and water/sanitation issues. We were over at their house the other night for dinner and had a fascinating conversation about toilets that I wanted to share with everyone. Yes I said toilets... enough talk about computers and the internet for the moment... lets get serious for a moment folks and talk about toilets.

Improper treatment of waste is one of the major causes of disease and death in Malawi. Access to good sanitation systems is very limited and most people are expected to provide their own means of dealing with waste. Finding effective ecological sanitation solutions for people to manage their own waste is essential improving life and health in Malawi.

Our friend is working with a professor from the USA, Peter Morgan, on a project to bring his famous VIP Latrine design to Malawi. The VIP Latrine is simple modification of the traditional outhouses that appear all over Malawi. The only modification of the VIP Latrine is an improved ventilation/exhaust system carefully placed to capture increased amounts of wind and breezes passing around the latrine. The exhaust system on these latrines eliminates odors (no really, I am serious, it does) and at the same time reduces the fly population by factors of one hundred when compared to traditional latrines.

The other benefit of increased air circulation... fertilizer! At regular intervals the pits of the VIP Latrines are filled with a little bit of dirt and ash to aide decomposition of the waste. When waste pits are filled, the latrine is moved to another pit and the full one is sealed for one year to allow harmful bacteria to decompose. After a year the waste pit can be safely opened, harvested for fertilizer, then reused for waste disposal.

The fertilizer from these latrines is reported to be some of the most effective known to farmers. You'll have to read Peter Morgan's book for more, but if I remember correctly, Morgan's studies show that decomposed human waste as fertilizer was increasing crop yeilds by 4-5 times.

In any case if you want to find out more look for the book:
Ecological Sanitation: Rural Water Supplies and Sanitation
by Peter Morgan