As mentioned the actual job site is about 35 minutes away from our hotel. To get there we take two open truck taxi’s. They feel relatively safe although they are just benches with guard rails. On our way to the work site today we saw our first, what we think to be fatality accident. The cars were off the road and intertwined into a huge tree. It was very sad and scary to see.
Today our main goal was to finish the septic tank and the foundation slab so tomorrow we can
finish the earth backfill and leveling of the ground to later cement that. This took a lot of work because they don’t use any measuring or power tools, they use the resources around them. We have been using all recycled supplies. Ben took over on the septic tank and completed that from start to finish. They had their old septic tank, which is four cement circles stacked up on top of each other right by the work site; they had been used before. Ben started by digging a big hole outside of the bathroom and one by one we would put in a cement circle. Before, this septic system
sat on top of the soil – it didn’t drain; it would be left to seep into the soil. Because it was on top of the soil it would be in the sun, it would smell and take long to get down into the earth. What we did was put the entire septic tank underground by slowly adding one circle at a time and digging the dirt out. Since it was by the existing bathroom….. the top layers as you can imagine were NOT fun to deal with. As I said, Ben finished it in about three hours!
The rest of us focused on various parts of the foundation. I don’t know the exact name…. But we used a wire base for the frame and outside of the intertwined wire, we used big wood slabs for the framing of the home. Within that, we had to pour concrete which was time consuming job. As a few team members were doing that, me and about eight other people were using the old bricks, breaking them up with sludge hammers, and throwing them inside of the home. The bricks were the first layer of the “earth base layer.” We had a foot of bricks within the center of the home to level the next day.
After the lunch break, at 1:00 p.m, we started making the concrete for the frame of the home. We used the same mixture and ratio of gravel, sand, water, and one bag of mix. The buckets that we have to use are only about two gallon size. After we mix the cement, it goes in a large tub and we form a human line; starts with a scooper and we pass the full buckets down to the place we pour, someone pours, and there is a line down the other side for empties. This seems to be the quickest and most efficient way to get things done. This work took us four hours to do; once a batch was done, we had to restart the process of going to scoop up gravel, sand, water, etc. The process felt never ending and when we were done, we were covered in cement!
We were supposed to finish the frame today so it had time to set and dry and that way we could the following day we can do the inside foundation. Anne said that we are more than on track to complete this house from start to finish in eight days which is SO GREAT!! She said that the family raved about how we are finishing things so quickly and they were so appreciative.
Seeing their smiles and hearing their thank you’s throughout and at the end of the day makes the thirty three hours of flights all worth it! It’s good to see that even with two hard days of work, we have affected an entire family.
Today our main goal was to finish the septic tank and the foundation slab so tomorrow we can
finish the earth backfill and leveling of the ground to later cement that. This took a lot of work because they don’t use any measuring or power tools, they use the resources around them. We have been using all recycled supplies. Ben took over on the septic tank and completed that from start to finish. They had their old septic tank, which is four cement circles stacked up on top of each other right by the work site; they had been used before. Ben started by digging a big hole outside of the bathroom and one by one we would put in a cement circle. Before, this septic system
sat on top of the soil – it didn’t drain; it would be left to seep into the soil. Because it was on top of the soil it would be in the sun, it would smell and take long to get down into the earth. What we did was put the entire septic tank underground by slowly adding one circle at a time and digging the dirt out. Since it was by the existing bathroom….. the top layers as you can imagine were NOT fun to deal with. As I said, Ben finished it in about three hours!The rest of us focused on various parts of the foundation. I don’t know the exact name…. But we used a wire base for the frame and outside of the intertwined wire, we used big wood slabs for the framing of the home. Within that, we had to pour concrete which was time consuming job. As a few team members were doing that, me and about eight other people were using the old bricks, breaking them up with sludge hammers, and throwing them inside of the home. The bricks were the first layer of the “earth base layer.” We had a foot of bricks within the center of the home to level the next day.
After the lunch break, at 1:00 p.m, we started making the concrete for the frame of the home. We used the same mixture and ratio of gravel, sand, water, and one bag of mix. The buckets that we have to use are only about two gallon size. After we mix the cement, it goes in a large tub and we form a human line; starts with a scooper and we pass the full buckets down to the place we pour, someone pours, and there is a line down the other side for empties. This seems to be the quickest and most efficient way to get things done. This work took us four hours to do; once a batch was done, we had to restart the process of going to scoop up gravel, sand, water, etc. The process felt never ending and when we were done, we were covered in cement!
We were supposed to finish the frame today so it had time to set and dry and that way we could the following day we can do the inside foundation. Anne said that we are more than on track to complete this house from start to finish in eight days which is SO GREAT!! She said that the family raved about how we are finishing things so quickly and they were so appreciative.Seeing their smiles and hearing their thank you’s throughout and at the end of the day makes the thirty three hours of flights all worth it! It’s good to see that even with two hard days of work, we have affected an entire family.
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