Print

[ccarr]

Week Four's Work is Complete


Yet another good week but with a dodgy start. We needed the cheapest mode of transport to bring in the many tons of earth that we will need to raise the ground levels. We arranged to hire this truck from a friend and imported 8 tons of earth at a time. Unfortunately it didn't work out as planed. It was too heavy for the site. It couldn't be maneuvered around the foundations and it had to be emptied by hand. We eventually hired a smaller tipping truck for the week.

To fill up within the foundation walls a simple ramp was constructed out of timber:

These young lads are students and were working to be able to afford jotters and pencils. They are between 16 and 18 years of age. After working all week and in their bare feet they earned 15,000fbu which is the equivalent of about £7 for the week. This is a good wage for them and they were very appreciative of the work.

The ground within the foundation walls was compacted with heavy timber and then sand blinded ready for the damp proof membrane and concrete.

Here you see the waste pipes that will service the toilet, shower and sink. The pipes are above the existing ground level but will be below once the ground level has been raised. Raising the ground level within and around each of the six houses will probably cost us an additional £3000 per house so if you feel that you can contribute towards this then we would be most appreciative. Before we started this project we were about £15,000 short but with the additional materials that are required to raise the floor levels we are now about £33,000 short. We will obviously keep going until the money runs out but if you feel that you can help in any way such as sponsored runs, car boot sales or just donations then this would help greatly:

Here you see the foundation walls being put in for the veranda:

Whilst the work was going on within the fenced of area we have started to fence of the larger area that will enclose all six houses. All of the fence posts are in and the matting is well underway. I hadn't appreciated that the rainy season could start soon and had originally hoped to build one house at a time but if we do this and it rains or floods we will not be able to put in the foundations so we have decided to put in all the foundations and foundation walls for all six houses up to floor level. This will allow us to continue building even though the ground should get flooded.

Here you will see part of the larger fenced of area just out side of the smaller fenced of area. Once completed this will be a very large area for us to work in:

Next to where we are building someone has made mud bricks:

Here is another mud built house right next to our site that is being lived in and has obviously been effected by the floods:

There was another truck on site this week. This one even made a clicking noise as it moved along the ground:

I would have loved to see what they made this kite out of: