Painting the open latrine

So lately I have been painting the main latrine {called a choo here (one friend likes to point out that choo rhymes with go)} for the site.  While many of our buildings are in need of paint this one was starting to show damage due to the poor quality of the paint so it was top of the list to complete.

Prior to painting thought comes the cleaning and the fixing part of the job.  Cleaning is a big thing here.  I believe I have mentioned in the past the constant sweeping of the dirt areas around the buildings and all of the buildings are swept out every day.  All the medical buildings and the nurses’ house are mopped as well every day.  However walls are not such a big deal when it comes to the cleaning schedule. In fact I am not sure I have seen anyone scrub down a wall yet.

So for the first day of the project I scrubbed the walls of the building, both inside and out.  This is to remove anything that would prevent the paint from adhering to the old coat or as in most of this building to the exposed concrete.  The paint inside the latrine had gotten bad enough that the concrete was exposed and had actually started to break down and show the red mud bricks underneath.

After the cleaning came the repairs needed to the building.  All the doors frames here are set in cement against the red mud bricks and that is the method used to secure them to the building.  Depending on what time of the year they are installed it is likely that the wood will expand later on, bow out and pull away from the wall at the same time.  In fact the choo door frames have about a .325 inch gap between the frame and the wall.  As you can imagine that now interferes with the operation of the door.  At first I tried to nail them in place but like always the nails will only stay in place in a red mud brick for about one day.  Unfortunately the largest screw I have 2 ½” which only gives me about ¼” in the red mud brick making it ineffective.  The best solution is to use wood glue and then nail it in hoping to hold it in place long enough for the glue to take effect.  The glue will last about 4 months in the dry season because it will continue to dry out and become brittle.

In addition there is little working hardware on the doors so I put new pull handles on the door but decided that the nail you turn to lock it in place was working just fine and did not replace the bolt slides.  In addition both doors had to be chiseled/planed down along the edge to get them to fit inside the door frame. Several areas had to have wall patch work done due to the failure of the concrete plaster covering.

Some of you may remember when I tried to describe having to bath while standing over the open choo hole.  That lasted normally around 10 minutes.  That was nothing compared to 4 hours inside the rooms cleaning and repairing items.  Not to mention the 5 hours outside only smelled marginally better.  One of the interesting things about the choo is the vent pipe seems to direct any wind into the pit area and up through the choo hole in the floor.  It is unfortunate that on days when the temperature is around 109 degrees, the coolest breeze comes from the choo hole.

 

This is 10 PM, note the hi of 109 degrees

Painting is about normal, except that the fruit flies inside the latrine are attracted to fresh paint.  It was like a decorative effect.  I would finish a wall, step back to take a look at it and see 30 or 400 (typo intended) dead fruit flies stuck in the wall paint.  If you try to clean them before the paint dries you will get black smears in the paint so I am hoping that I can clean them out after the paint has dried completely.

It takes about a whole day to do put a coat on the inside and ¾ of a day to put one on the outside.  It took three coats on the outside and three and a half coats on the inside (some damaged areas needed a fourth coat).  The wood fascia boards however have had four coats and I can still see the grain of the wood-they are that dry all over the place.  It appears the smell will never leave my paint clothes no matter how many times I wash them.   At least I believe I have coughed up the last of the fruit flies that I inhaled during the project.

Speaking of smells do you think this real product would help.  If not at least the commercial had me laughing like that first year in Peru.

I have just started the outside of the doors which are painted a different color than the rest but the blue I got is a lot darker than what used to be on it.  One coat so far expect I might can do one more and be good as the paint on the outside of the door was in good condition.  After that it is repainting the lettering telling people it is a choo and which side to use.

I did find it interesting and thought some of you may offer opinions on why the paint on the lower half of the inside walls was the worst condition and that was also where the most damage was done to the cement plaster.  I recognize that one of the gases created in a open latrine pit is ammonia which is caustic. While ammonia gas has a density less than standard air (go back to blog on science is fun for a discussion on densities) and should rise to the top of the structure it seems to stay lower-I am guessing it is caused by the metal roof creating a very hot layer of air higher in the room that would be less dense than normal air.  (remember hot air balloons rise) So maybe the density of the ammonia gas is low enough to cause it to rise out of the latrine pit but not lighter than the heated air at the roof surface.  Regardless it is the most likely cause of damage as ammonia gas is caustic and would over time eat through the paint and the cement.

So my next free time project will most likely be to build a cover for the holes to keep both the gases and the flies in the latrine pit as well as junior who likes to fly out of the hole as you are doing your business (the one that makes you change what kind of business you went in there to do).

And for those fruit flies that gave their life during the painting process I give this memorial ode:

Silly Little Fruit Fly in the choo

I just took one swipe of paint

And straight to it you go 

And quickly you struggle until you faint

Now your carcass decorates our wall

No 300 Spartans could stop you

All your brothers and you creating a pall

Always in the loo