A letter from Doug Orbaker in Nicaragua
April 2012
4G Networks and Outhouses
an outhouse
A few months ago I was in the small and very isolated community called “El Porvenir.” There had been a group of university students in that community a few weeks earlier, and we were housed in the same building where the other group had stayed. When I went to the outhouse the first morning I saw a hand-lettered sign, “Welcome to the El Porvenir Internet Café. Begin downloading now.” I remembered this bit of college-age scatological humor as I met with a group of people from St. Louis and their long-term partners in Plan Grande 2, a small community in the far north of Nicaragua.
There really isn't much connection between outhouses and Internet cafes, but both subjects were part of our discussion.
The first discussion was about communication with their partners in the United States. The Coffee Cooperative in the community does have a computer, but it is about 10 km. to the nearest Internet access. However, the area does have cellular phone service, a bit spotty because of the mountains and not always strong enough to get into the concrete building where the computer is kept. The local group knew about 4G cell phone modems that can be plugged into a USB port to give Internet service. But there was a lot of discussion about whether or not it was possible to get an extension and place the 4G modem outside. Since I am not the most computer-savvy person around, I found this a bit difficult to translate, but it was important for the U.S. people to realize that some of these Nicaraguan campesinos (rural Nicaraguans) knew more about new developments in computer and cellular technology than some of the U.S. people.
The tiny villages where we work usually don't have a connection, but almost every larger town has some kind of a “Ciber,” a place with computers and Internet. Even the most rural Nicaraguans are very familiar with things like cell phone technology—many carry “dual-chip” phones that can connect to either of the two cell phone companies here. I don't even know—are there “dual-chip” phones in the U.S.? Also, in any community where there is no cell phone signal, some teenager can show you which hill to climb, where to stand, and what direction to face to make a call.
an advertisement for the 4G network
Then the discussion passed along to other problems in the community. The leaders identified their greatest problems as (in order of seriousness) water, outhouses, and improved cooking stoves to vent smoke outside of the kitchen. Of the three, the most interesting part of the conversation (to me at least) was about the outhouses. Since the soil in this area is quite thin before hitting bedrock, digging a deep hole is very difficult in most places. Several years ago the community found a plan for outhouses that only required a hole one meter deep. That is what most people have, but now they are getting full, and the leaders are looking for alternatives. We talked about a couple of different kinds of aboveground composting outhouses and other alternatives. Many of the leaders of the community were not even aware that there is such a thing as an aboveground composting outhouse.
I think this illustrates the pace of development in Nicaragua, and probably many other places around the world. Some technologies that we take for granted in the U.S. never arrived here and have now been bypassed by newer technologies. Landline telephones have been a common part of all of our lives in the U.S., so common that we never even identified them as “landline”—they were the only phones around, in every rural hollow and city alley. But large areas of rural Nicaragua have never had a telephone line. Even in some poor areas of the city of Managua there are no landlines. The old technology of telephones has been completely bypassed in these areas, which are now surrounded by cell phone towers, and everyone carries their phone with them.
But while personal technology is flying past, infrastructural technology lags further and further behind. Old water systems are decaying and not being well repaired or replaced. Large areas have no running water or sewer systems, and in many communities the raw sewerage runs down the dirt streets. The people can use their 4G cell phones to talk about the lack of an adequate sanitary outhouse or water system.
The struggle I see here is the bypassing of basic human needs for the glitz of the newest technology. Getting a newer, faster cell phone is easy because some large international company (not one located in Nicaragua) is going to make money from it. Not only from the sale, but from every minute of use. No large company is going to make money out of building aboveground composting outhouses or even from publicizing the existence and design of them. Therefore people who get most of their information about new developments from radio or hazy television reception know all about 4G cell phones, but not about new ideas for basic home sanitation.
Our effort at CEPAD is always to help communities develop in a way that fits their needs, with technology that works appropriately even in the more remote communities. With God's help, and yours, we can continue this work.
Doug Orbaker
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 11
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