New roof—and clogged toilets
Published February 19, 2025
One of the first jobs we completed this year was repairing the ceiling inside the elementary school’s restrooms. It turned out that intruders had gained entry, climbed up, and damaged the ceiling in an attempt to reach the computer lab. That turned out to be impossible, as a brick wall prevented them from going any further, but the result of their break-in was a damaged ceiling.
The ceiling has now been repaired, but our presence brought to light another problem we weren’t aware of. Time and again, the restrooms have been clogged by elementary school students, and we had a hard time understanding why. What makes a 7- or 8-year-old bring rocks inside and drop them down the toilet?
(The new roof is shown in the bottom left photo)
The explanation was simple, yet very surprising and something we hadn’t considered. Our students come from what is perhaps the poorest area in all of The Gambia. At home, they’ve never seen a regular toilet like the ones we have, and only a few have seen a toilet like the one at school—a hole in the floor and a couple of “footprints” to stand on. What they usually do at home is relieve themselves outdoors, or perhaps in an outhouse, and they never have toilet paper to wipe with. Nor is it common for them to use water, either to wash themselves or to flush after using the toilet. What they do is find a suitable rock or two, and then they wipe themselves with them. Afterward, they throw them into the outhouse or where they relieved themselves. At home, this isn’t a problem, but it becomes one at school, because there the rocks clog the pipes.
It became perfectly clear to us that a change had to happen here. We went around to every single classroom and carefully explained how to use the restroom, but we didn’t stop there. To make sure they understood, we gave a hands-on demonstration of the entire process, much to the students’ amusement. Let’s hope that problem is now solved.
