Livin the Sibling Dream

One of my favorite things about being in India is my kid brother, Sean. While people might assume that I dragged him here with me, that ain’t the case. Last year when Sean and I were living at home together, we would often talk late into the night about going out and solving the world’s problems with his engineering skills and my public health/development passion. Shortly after accepting my position as country director for HELP International’s program in India a few months ago, I was approached by Matt Colling, a founder for Sain Terre (www.sainterre.org), about building “Soilets” in India.

The Soilet is a simple, inexpensive, and really innovative toilet system that employs really basic technology (like earthworms) to dispose of waste in a self-contained “mini-ecosystem” right there on-site. It is the perfect solution for places with little infrastructure (like sewer-lines), is much cheaper than septic systems, can be made with local stuff by local folks, AND… doesn’t smell.

While many underdeveloped nations have a great need for basic sanitation amenities, such as clean water and toilet facilities, India’s problem is exacerbated by cramming a billion people into this country.

So Sean is a tinkerer. Before he was old enough to ride a big wheel, he had the most insatiable curiosity for how things work, and a love for “inventing” all sorts of fine handicraft out of everything from toilet paper rolls to broken computer chips. So the minute the lightbulb went on that I may have an “in” to make our sibling dream happen, I called him up and told him all about the soilet. And he was a goner at that point.

Check out his rockin blog to see how he has taken flight with the Soilets:

http://seanhelpsindia.blogspot.com/

As you can see, he has now completely revamped the Soilet to make it Indianized, and in the process cut the cost and building time in half. I’m so proud of him.

Having Sean here makes it seem like home. Like, I could live anywhere if I had m’Sean. Early mornings we hit the streets on a run through the traffic and the less-than-awesome smells, for a few laps around the military field and finish it off with a rip-roaring session of laughing yoga with a big group of 60-year-old men. Most nights we take five times longer brushing our teeth cause we have too much to say through the foam about the funny or frustrating things that happened that day. He knows just what to say to make me laugh at any given moment when I’m stressed. He’s actually making a mango smoothie for us to share right now.

Aw. This is my Ode to Sean.