SIM Card Rescue

One thing I thought I’d learned was that pit latrines are unforgiving.  When something falls in, it is never coming out.  Well, perhaps I don’t give them enough credit.  Perhaps latrines have a tiny bit of heart.  We often take our mobile phones to the outhouse at night so we can check for anything inside before using them.

The other night, Chepngetich’s phone slipped and the back came off.  Her battery and SIM card bounced and disappeared rapidly down the hole in the floor.  Now, most people would have written them off and decided that it was better to just purchase new ones, but Chepngetich was determined to get her SIM card back.

At 11 pm, she and I and one other person, went out to the latrine.  She could see them resting on the top of the manure pile below.  At first we thought we’d use a hoe, but the head (blade) was too wide to fit down the hole and the handles would not have been long enough anyway.  On to Plan B.  Sticks.  Chepngetich and I ripped 2 long branches off of some nearby trees and stripped the twigs to have two long sticks.  I held the flashlight, while she carefully reached the two branches downwards to retrieve the card.  She declared that the battery was not nearly as important as the tiny SIM card.  She reached the card, but the problem was pulling it up and out.  It kept slipping out of the ends of the branches. 

Plan C.  We searched for a plastic lid about 2 inches in diameter an stabbed a hole in the centre with a knife.  We then got another long stick and placed the lid on the end.  With more careful and calculated actions, we hauled both the SIM card and the battery out of the muck.  I ran and got some paper to hold them with and we carried them to the water spigot.  Chepgnetich threw numerous handfuls of water on them and wiped them with a leaf, before taking them inside and drying them. 

What celebration and laughter erupted when she tried them and both the battery and the SIM card functioned properly!  Nothing had been lost.  No one believed that we had really retrieved the items from the latrine.  It was so funny and something I won’t easily forget.