Day 3 and on with the build

Up at 6 a.m. as usual and this morning MAC did make it to yoga and I to writing this. Yoga takes place from about 6.30 a.m. until about 7.15 a.m. and quite a few people do take part with Rania who is a yoga instructor. At the end of the session there is a short meditation and an anointing with orange oil. I am sure that this is very uplifting for the participants. At best it is beneficial and at worst harmless.

This morning dawned sunny with few clouds so it is likely to be a rather warm day. I anticipate that the day will mostly be occupied by constructing the trough fr the ‘bond beam’ and then filling that with cement which will probably mean some fairly heavy bucket brigade work. Next days may well involve the roof construction which will be very heavy work at the top of the building. The lumber for the roof perlins is quite large gauge and some of it very heavy as I found out yesterday when one fell on my right foot!!

So after the usual morning ’pow wow’ with some sort of schedule for the day (things change here at a moment’s notice) and good breakfast, we set off for the site with the main task for the day the pouring of cement for the ‘bond beam’ which goes around the circumference of the walls of the building just below the roof level.  As usual, there were multiple opinions about what we should do and when we should do it as well as, of course, how we should do it. Every now and again, one of the locals would ‘pipe up’ and tell us how THEY constructed houses in Belize which often contradicted what we planned to do. So, of opinions, there were plenty and it was often confusing to know what was going to be done and who was going to do it and changes were made often as to how the task was to be done.

At the site, it was decided that we would commence work on the stucco of one side of the building while the finishing touches were made to the formers which would hold the cement for the ‘bond beam’. A mix of stucco was made up in the cement mixer but it was really too viscous for easy working and more water had to be added to make it more workable. Even this, in the opinion of one of the locals was still too thick and he demonstrated that they just threw handfuls of stucco onto the wall and smoother it out later. He also advised that the drier the stucco when it was applied, the more likely it was to crack later. Eventually, a compromise was found and the wall on the right of the building as one looms at the house from the front door was completely covered in a rather uneven coat of stucco. There was still time before lunch to stucco one interior wall and also the outside wall on the left hand side of the front door. The fits coat of stucco was very rough but it will be followed by two more coats. Some difficulty was encountered because the wire mesh which was supposed to be fixed close and tight to the wall was not so fixed in many areas. Thus the work had to be interrupted to fix this issue which was done by a combination of staples and also screws with washers which were screwed into the brick.

Lunch intervened and after lunch the crew on the top of the walls had completed the troughs into which the cement would be placed to form the bond beam. As each mixer full of cement was complete, a wheel barrow of the mixture was moved close to the area to be filled and then a bucket chain filled the buckets and passed them up to the crew on the wall-top. This work proceeded apace and after about three or four mixer loads fo concrete the bond beam was complete and would be left overnight to dry. 

In the meantime, in the carpentry shop, work was going on on the roof members. Also during this time and at intervals, Luke brought out his drone and flew it over the proceedings to film work from above. It made me wish I had brought mine!! During the afternoon, the brick press arrived and it is possible in the morning that it will be demonstrated for us to see which would be very interesting.

This afternoon had a refreshing breeze and although very sunny the temperatures never became unbearable to work in. But, at 4.30 p.m. after all the concrete for the bond beam had been poured, I decided that enough was enough and that I would retire for a shower and to relax a bit and complete another blog entry. This evening at dinner we didn’t have the usual presentation from Marcin and we just sat around and chatted. We were not long for bed.