| |

Septic Tank

Since the beginning of May 2022, we have been working tirelessly on the septic tank project. It has been quite the journey, considering the numerous challenges we faced and the fact that all the excavation work was done by hand. Surprisingly, the digging was completed in just about two weeks, which is quite impressive when you consider the scale of the task.

Let me paint a picture for you: imagine a pit 1.8 meters deep, spanning an area of 12 square meters. That’s almost 22 cubic meters of sand, rock, and soil that had to be dug through. It was no easy feat, but our dedicated team pressed on, determined to see the project through.

In addition to the excavation work, there was the daunting task of pouring the concrete slab in one go. The original plan was for five people, including Luke, to handle the job. They started early in the morning, carrying heavy buckets of concrete to the tank area. However, as the day progressed, only two people remained to tackle the daunting task. You might now better understand Luke’s face at 10.30pm when we finally got home. Amidst the exhaustion, there was also a sense of triumph and accomplishment.

The build of the tank was also not without challenges, but we’ll let the photos tell the story and will just say this… On the 13.06 the septic tank only needed the lid and it was done. 

Note: For the septic tank design we used OzFam guidelines found here.

Final update: on the 13.12.2022 the septic tank has a lid.

Similar Posts

  • Scenic Route to Timor

    If you thought getting to leave Australia was a challenge (with cancellations, delays, rescheduled flights, requests for exemptions, tests, etc)… you would be right… but I think that was only to prepare us for what was to come 😉 On the evening of 27.02.2022 we arrived at the hotel in Darwin after a full day of flying……

  • |

    My Key!

    This morning before I began walking from our rental house out to the building site where we are building the community center, I locked the door to our rental house and carefully put the key in my pocket as I began down the dusty road. “Dusty” is key (pun intended!) because anything small that lands…

  • ~Tais~

    A while back, I promised to tell you how I found out about Timor-Leste, but if you have read our purpose, you might already know that… and it was Luke’s passion that inspired me and made me love the Timorese people even more. When he first came from Timor, Luke (my then friend, now husband…