Rose is a deserted mother with six children, living in a tumble-down shack near Kamuzinda. She has a small plot of land where she grows some vegetables, pineapples and bananas, and earns
some money weeding the adjacent pineapple plantation. We have agreed to build a new house for her, as an example that others might follow, and while we were in Uganda we built her a new pit latrine and,
to help towards some financial independence, a pigsty for which which the farm school will supply a sow and a boar.
In rural Uganda the common form of human waste disposal is a pit latrine, a small hut over a deep pit, well away from the house to avoid the smell. Pit latrines, unlike our septic tanks, do not require
a water supply, and are probably less harmful to the environment. The pit is usually hand dug, to a depth of up to 12 metres, though this one was less than half that, as there was rock at 6m. It is
about 2m long and .5m wide. The digger,
who may have pit digging as his only occupation, is paid €1 per foot.
