Building a latrine proves an awesome experience

LAURA DODSON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 08.01.08

Maura Gleeson, upper right, from Our Saviour Parish in Cocoa Beach, plays with Mayelin, left, and Franileisi, right, while on a mission in La Cucarita, Dominican Republic. “We spent every afternoon with the kids, teaching each other games.” This photograph was made by Jennifer, another young resident of La Cucarita, using Charlotte Gleeson’s camera.
Courtesy Photo

ORLANDO | Students from the diocese reached out recently to the needy in Haiti and Orlando’s sister diocese, San Juan de la Maguana, in the Dominican Republic.

Katherine Warwick, a 20-year old civil engineering intern at the University of Florida and a member of Ascension Parish in Melbourne, led three teams this summer to Dubre, Haiti, to design, transport materials and build a four-unit latrine – the only such facility within a one-mile area that would not pollute the water supply. Her father, Philip Warwick, and mother, Barbara Warwick, also went on the trip. The Warwick parents are the founders of Gift of Water Inc., an organization that brings clean water through technology and education to the developing world.

Katherine Warwick was most touched by the children. “A little girl had written me to help her with school supplies,” she said. “I prayed about it and brought them. She gave me a beautiful painting that she had done to say thank you.”

Marissa Woodard, 19, also from Ascension and a rising sophomore at Notre Dame University said, “The experience was more about the people than building the latrine, but it was an awesome latrine – we were proud of it. All the pieces fit together like a glove.

“The toilet team did good in more ways than one. We fashioned a Frisbee out of a plastic can lid and the kids loved it. We were all laughing and smiling – that was the best part of the trip,” Woodard concluded.

A group from Our Saviour Parish in Cocoa Beach went to the community of La Cucarita in the Dominican Republic June 14-25. The group transported materials and built a house from the ground up, and played with the children there.

“I went with the mindset that I was going to give everything I had,” shared Maura Gleeson, 17, a member of the youth group of 10 teens and three adults.

“I gave in a physical sense,” she reflected, “but I was given so much spiritually. They gave us God’s peace. I was raised in a Catholic home and love God with all my being, but the people gave us so much more of the love of God.”

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