DoYou Belize in...?

For those who would rather see the results of the CEB Micro House building and our other adventures in Belize as opposed to reading about them, MAC and I have a huge trove of photos and videos which I will find a way of incorporating into the blog as soon as possible However, the combination of an i-Pad, Google Chrome, my GoPro and other people’s images in various applications isn’t conducive to the posting of this media at the present location and with the existing resources so it will have to wait until I get home when a ‘downpour’ of images will appear in this blog. Here are some of my photos and videos of the CEB Micro-House Project. MAC will add hers in due course. Bob & MAC Build a House

Today we had booked a tour for most of the day to Lamanai which is about an hour’s drive northwest of Belize City and then a further hour or so boat ride on the New River from there. We got up at 6 a.m. and went down to the restaurant on the ground floor for a quick breakfast before Kendris our tour guide arrived to pick us up at 8 a.m. We left Belize City and headed on the highway in the direction of Carmelita where we would take the river boat to Lamanai. Kendris proved to be a good driver and an excellent source of information about the history of Belize from the time of the first settlement by the Europeans and also about the earlier Mayans who had inhabited the land as the first indigenous population. People of direct descent from the early Mayans still live in Belize, especially in the southwest part of the country. 3 Mayan languages still are spoken although they are starting to die out and the schools in the Mayan area are including the native languages in their curricula

This is a fast-running time lapse video of the building of the CEB Micro House in Belize in February 2020 Time lapse video of the Belize Micro-House

These are some reflections on our experience at the Open Source Ecology CEB Micro House build in Belize. Bear in mind these are MY personal reflections and are not necessarily those of others. We were asked by Marcin to make comments on how the project could have been improved. This is my list which stands additions and updates as I reflect over time on the way the project proceeded: Ø    Screen volunteers for age and competence before selection. Be honest about what is required of volunteers and help them to acquire any skills which are needed and which they don’t already have. Bricklaying, stucco, carpentry, etc. Ø    Perhaps have a one or two day ‘training camp’ prior to starting the actual build. Ø    Develop clear plans which are easy to read on site and outline steps which have to be followed in order to complete the house in a given time. Ø    Develop a basic tool inventory consistent with the project so that work is not held up by a lack of the proper tool for t

This morning the alarm rang, as usual, at 6 a.m. but the difference today was that the last of the packing needed to be done and our last breakfast eaten before loading up on the bus to the airport which was scheduled to leave at 7.30 a.m. sharp. The rain had ceased and there was, strangely a bit of a chill in the air. After breakfast, last goodbyes were said to the staff and we all loaded our bags and boarded the bus. We did manage to get away by 7.35 a.m. After about 20 minutes we cam to the hand-cranked ferry across the New River. There were some cars in front of us and our team haled crank the ferry across with them and then back to pick up and the bus. The ferry is a barge with planks on the top and a wire which stretches across the river and the crank winds to wire up and moves the ferry back and forth. The sustenance of our string team, helped speed up the process which is usually carried out by one attendant. As the ferry approached us from the other side, we were able to see

As best I can recall it, this is the method we used to build the CEB Micro House. 1)       When we arrived at the site we found that there had been a concrete square base slab laid on the ground about 9-12 inches wide, I am not sure how deep down it was in the ground. This formed the foundation of the house. There was also piles of CEB bricks of varying compositions and stabilizations from 0% cement to 10% cement. Other materials included sand, gravel which had been crushed from the rocks which had been brought in to the site, soil, lumber, plywood and some preformed structures such as two window frames and a door frame. Some lumber framing was in place to hold up the door frame and also to support the ‘guides’ which would be used to lay the bricks. 2)       On top of the concrete base square slab we placed a layer of wire mesh 6 to 8 inches wider than the slab itself. Boards were fixed to give a guide as to where the bricks should be laid. Then, a mix of ‘slurry’ which was a c

Who was there? This is the list as best I can recall it as we introduced ourselves, apologies for any errors or omissions: Marcin – Open Source Ecology - USA Scott – Belize and ? Aidan & Gabbi – wanderers!! Duane & Rey – Utah & Newfoundland Aaron Nathan Dustin - Oregon Ken – Philadelphia  Luke Patrick David  Mark – D.C. Joe - Canada Raina – our yoga lady Brett - Idaho Ethan Alex Robert - Europe Cindy - Chicago Will - Belize Leila and Peter - California Piet - Netherlands Christine & Jamie - Ohio Ismael - UK Reggie – UK Bob & MAC - NYC

We were up at 6 a.m. as usual after a fitful night’s sleep. MAC has developed a persistent cough and this disturbed both of us. Soon we were at breakfast and when MAC became vertical, her cough was better. We set off for the build site at about 8.30 a.m. and soon were preparing for a brick makingg demonstration. We needed gravel for this and had to use the hand crusher machine to fill up a wheel barrow with gravel, This contraption which is straight out of Rube Goldberg is put together from parts from an old Coca Cola bottling plant. By pushing a handle up and down, a large disc crushes the rocks into small gravel. It is sometimes necessary to put the residue through the crusher twice in order to get the correct grade of gravel for brick making. When the gravel was prepared we retired to where the brick making machine was and the gravel was mixed with sand and water to make a suitable consistency of mix. Aiden demonstrated how this consistency could be assessed by scrunching the

Today we rose at 6 a.m. as usual but there was a significantly less  amount of energy in our rising end MAC who had been coughing during the night definitely did not feel that good. We went to breakfast but there was a general feeling that everyone was feeling the pace of the heat and the workload. I felt really tired and drained. Nevertheless we proceeded to the site where the preparation for the application of stucco was well under way. We fixed a few small areas of the chicken wire which needed to be bedded against the bricks and then the stucco work started. This is back-breaking work and consists of filling a square board of wood on a short handle called a ‘hawk’ with stucco mixture which is the consistency of a thick gravy and then placing the hawk up to the wall and scraping off the stucco onto the wall with a ‘float’ or rectangular flat metal applicator and them smoothing it out over as much area as possible. This is not at all easy especially as the wall is rough and cover