On the 28th of September we rammed the last small piece of earth! After 6 weeks of hard and restless work this step has succesfully been done! Thanks to all workers and volunteers who putted so much effort into building that with us!
Linda, Paolo and Beatrice left the site on Tuesday morning. We wish them all the best for the future. We really enjoyed your generous and amusing company guys!
On Wednesday we took advantage of sunny weather and short time available after lunch to set up the wooden formworks within the patio and to pour the concrete on it. The mix was enought liquid to spread it all around the casting just with shovels. Before that, some iron bars were measured and bend as reinforcements, then layed down at the right distance.
During the day we even designed the structure for the water tank tower, to be placed at the back side, close to the end of the corridor in order to collect much rainwater from the gutters.
Thursday 29 the wood sellers finally delivered all the planks we ordered. The wood looks very hard but way heavier than we expect. We should manage to cut it easily on ground and set it up on top, following the suggestions of carpenter Adyyengo and Safu.
In the meantime, the team fixed all the windows and doors frames which were out of size compared to the walls heights. This was due to the developing process of our working and changes we did while ramming the walls. The first concept considered 6 levels of ramming. However, we relized it was almost impossible to reach that height, taking the decision to reduce it until the 5th. At the end, this implicate fixing all the frames according to the new walls dimension.
The day after, we packed the wood, protecting it from the rain. In fact, the wet season is still making troubles, especially to the infrastructures in these rural villages, and this was also the reason why the wood delivering delayed almost 10 days.
Opoku is really excited about his new house and can’t wait for starting. The formoworks upgrade is done and we are almost ready to carry them down to his place. He is helping us nearly every days collection babadua canes from the forest around, though we will probably need more to complete the four facades.
Saturday was not a day off for the team, since the concrete into the patio walls was enough dry to start ramming on top. The new formoworks system allow us to use it in every foundations type, with different thickness. The L section is not used any more, but only the straight pieces, offset them to make a strong corner joint. This was actually a test for the next Opoku’s project, and it worked quite well.
More updates are about to be published very soon!
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