Neighborhood housing issue

May 22, 2010 at 10:56pm

I was up rather early this morning, again trying to come up with an idea to help one of my neighbors, when the thought came to me that there are a whole lot of people out there more qualified than me that could come up with a solution much more quickly than I can. My neighbor's house was built 2 years ago by a Costa Rican government agency. The agency decided which design to use, where to place the home on the building lot and who to use to build it. In their great unplanned wisdom, they built my neighbor's house so that her front door and porch is IN the leech field for the house that I rent and live in. Everyday, as I wash dishes in my kitchen sink, I see this problem. I also see my neighbor's 4 year old daughter and often her 1 year old nephew, playing on the porch with the adults trying to keep them out of their rather small yard. I would love to find a healthy, affordable option to give this family a healthier yard and home. I recently had the brilliant idea to use 3 prefab cement panels that were laying around unused, to sort of bridge the 'mud' directly in front of their door, for which they are very greatfull. My neighbor works hard everyday cleaning houses, she earns barely enough for food, electricity and water. We have spoken about this issue and neither of us have the resources, the talent or skills necessary to solve this problem... I will post some photos tomorrow - If you have an idea, please share it.