A Castle in the Clouds

A castle in the clouds. That is what we called it. In reality, it was a self-composting latrine that we were designing high up on the Tibetan Plateau. A traditionally nomadic community had been newly resettled into government housing, and its members were using open toilets. This new latrine could help improve health outcomes. It would also turn human waste and barley chaff into an organic manure in the extreme temperatures found at 12,000 feet.
It was 2005, and I had been asked by some engineering friends if I would help our new Tufts University chapter of Engineers Without Borders navigate social relationships within the community. I was a liberal arts student. They would do the numbers, and I would do the culture.
Tibet was a volatile place, far away from home, and we were undergraduates. It was with youthful enthusiasm, naiveté, and belief in a better world that we came together and forged ahead, preparing for our trip to the Tibet Autonomous Region. We gathered a few more interested students. The engineers sorted out the thermodynamics, researched waste decomposition, and designed a prototype. Liberal arts students organized for everyone to meet a Buddhist student to learn about key tenets of Buddhism and visit a traditional Tibetan doctor to seek a cultural understanding of health. (“Was killing bacteria OK?” we wondered.) We also attended preparatory Tibetan language classes from docents at the Kurukulla Center in Medford, MA. We were stretching our disciplines.
Sometimes, I suppose, not knowing meant that we were not aware of what our limitations should have been.
Looking back almost 20 years later, I can hardly believe the forthrightness of this group of young people barely out of their teenage years. I wonder just how our professors who advised the club gave us the freedom to pursue such a bold goal in an exceptionally complex environment. Sometimes, I suppose, not knowing meant that we were not aware of what our limitations should have been.
An engineering alum, Fred Berger, came to our aid. He had always wanted to pursue international engineering as an undergraduate, but that degree did not exist when he was a student. At one of our leadership meetings ahead of the trip, he showed up in a bow tie and with a six-pack of Killian’s Irish Red and asked how he could help. We received additional support from programs at Tufts: The Institute of Global Leadership had experience with international student projects and provided us essential guidance. The Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service stepped in with small grants for each student, and our dean provided undergraduate research funds. This cooperation demonstrated that it is pieces working in harmony that ultimately lift us up.
The Blueprint Comes to Life
We flew out from Logan International Airport in May. After four days of travel through Beijing, Chengdu, and Lhasa, we spent a couple days at our partner nongovernmental organization (NGO) to acclimate to the air at 9,000 feet. Unfortunately, a member of our group suffered from altitude sickness and needed to return to lower elevation for safety. The remaining team members spent many more hours in a 4x4 driving across snowy passes and mountain pastures until we arrived in the small community of about 100 stone houses spread out in the valley.
The next day, in the town courtyard, villagers and officials gathered. Using our translator, the head of the local Women’s League told us, “To survive as a people, we must learn from you.” And they took this quite seriously. The men of the village gathered over the next two weeks and hewed rocks from the mountain to erect the structure that we had only imagined—stone, cement, wood, steel, and PVC piping replaced the lines on our blueprints. In the thin air, temperatures reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit by midday, and rain would then arrive later in the afternoon. Stone by stone, the trailer-sized building was completed.
The village head invited one member from each household to join in the courtyard, and we performed a play. We shared, in story, how an open toilet—and the flies they attract—can create more illness. The main character, by using the latrine, helped keep his family healthy. We then walked out back to the latrine and showed how the toilet separated wet and solid waste and explained how long to wait before using the compost in fields and gardens.
Sadly, that was the only visit of the three-year project. The political winds shifted, and the following year, foreign NGOs in Tibet did not have their visas renewed. In the years since that trip, I wonder what became of this structure. Does it sit as an untouchable or strange monument? Has it been disassembled for its pieces for other uses, or has it been integrated into daily life?
Working Between Cultures
Here in the United States, the spirit of the work has continued. The Tufts chapter of Engineers Without Borders now has ongoing projects in Malawi and Nicaragua focused on access to clean water and sanitation, and it has also developed a mobile greenhouse project in Medford.
For the inaugural travel team, the work we did changed our lives. Engineering teammates were free to see what their skills could do for people rather than their projects being constrained by markets and capital. Two members of the travel team have dedicated themselves to water, sanitation, and resource conservation. Another is helping design a quadcopter to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. As for me, I ended up meeting a Tibetan monk in India who asked me to teach him English. I liked it, and I now work as an English as a second language teacher and coordinator for the English for Academic Purposes Program at Juniata College in Pennsylvnia. I still work between cultures, helping new international students navigate the English language and life on campus.
Remembering a certain boldness and enthusiasm and camaraderie in us—and seeing this now in our current students—I know that when students are supported, there is immense possibility.
Current Engineers Without Borders students at Tufts recently reached out to our team of founding members to invite us to the 20th anniversary celebration of the chapter. I am so proud to see how they have carried the mantle and continue to bend and blend disciplines around a purpose. I hope I might somehow live up to all the support and encouragement we received along the way—and be there for a new generation of students. Remembering a certain boldness and enthusiasm and camaraderie in us—and seeing this now in our current students—I know that when students are supported, there is immense possibility. •
Elliot Hirshon is the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) coordinator and ESL instructor at Juniata College.
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