Day 5 the final push, the spirit is willing but...

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 mix up in a ball and seeing if it disintegrated on being dropped. It is very important to make sure that the mix is of the correct water content. At this point, just before actually making the bricks we were called to help lift up the final roof member which is a triangular wooden structure and is very heavy as it is made from the local hard wood. A team lifted the structure up to the halfway level and another team flipped it to the right place on the roof and the whole operation was completed very smoothly. It was soon fixed into place.

Aidan has helpfully added this comment to the blog which explains much more accurately than me what the crusher does and why the bricks which came out of the machine during the demonstration appeared to be rather crumbly.

Aidan - I want to clarify that what we are crushing in the pendulum crusher is the clayey soil, not gravel. I know it feels gravelly to the touch when it is dry but as soon as water is added it becomes very sticky and plastic - just like clay used in pottery. The clayey soil and the sand are the two types of earth that come together to give us material suitable for block production. Ideally, the earth we use for blocks has a good distribution of clay and sand right out of the ground, but in this case we had to combine two soil types. In order to get acceptable distribution of the sand into the clayey soil, we must crush the clay so that large pockets of clay do not exist in our blocks which would weaken them structurally both dry and wet. 

I know that our block making demonstration yielded poor quality blocks. This was because we were using builders sand available here on the site instead of the sand that actually went into the blocks for the house. The builders sand has high sphericity and rounded edges. We want low sphericity and sharp, jagged edges in order for the sand particles to lock together when compressed.
Here's the link to my notes on block making. 

Aidan’s notes on brickmaking

This is very helpful and clarifies my description. The link will give much more detail and information on the process of brickmaking.

Then it was back to the brick making demonstration. The prepared mix was loaded into the hopper on the machine and the motor which drives the hydraulic ram which compresses the bricks was started. Soon the first brick emerged from the machine. In full flow the machine can make about 6 bricks a minute.

After this there was not too much for us to do. MAC worked on using some special tape which she had obtained as a Kickstarter project to secure one corner of the brickwork. The tape, which has great properties including being able to tow a 16 wheeler trailer is applied and then heated with a hair dryer which seals in it strength. After much advice from below she managed to affix the tape and we will see if it survives. 

We decided to peel off at 11.45 a.m. and go back for lunch as the heat had become very intense. How the crew worked on the roof in the full sun, I do not know. Note only were they often balancing on small areas but they were sawing and hammering nails and screwing in screws in the intense sunlight.

Lunch was served and afterwards we had to set down our feedback to OSE on how the project could have gone better. One positive comment and as many constructive suggestions as possible as to how the project and the experience could be improved.

After lunch we decided not to go back to the site due to the heat and that fact that we were severely fatigued. MAC just passed out, I cleaned my shoes up which had got into a bad state with the construction work and then started typing up the suggestions and feed back which Marcin had requested and this blog post draft.

The clouds had started too gather and as rain was forecast, it became more humid as the day wore on. Everyone came back from the site at about 5 p.m. having completed as much as they were able. The roof was installed as well as the loft flooring. One wall still remained absent of its first coat of stucco but as much as could be accomplished by the dedicated and hard working team was complete. I think there was a mix of accomplishment and also some slight regret that we had not managed to get further on with the construction. Nevertheless we sat around and reviewed our experiences and also discussed what the future held for our time in Belize and when we got home.

The enterprise had not left any of us unmarked. It was a profound experience in many, many ways, physically, intellectually, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. The sense of achievement from the sight of the of the building arising around us to the feeling of camaraderie which was engendered by sharing the workload I think most if not all of us will remember this experience for a long time to come. Hopefully, many will repeat the work in other locations to the benefit of those communities.

Dinner was served and after that Christine read out the positive comments which people had written about the five days we had spent on this project. Most of the comments referred to the ease with which we had got along and the way in which advice and opinions had been freely and generously offered and respected by the group. No one criticized or objected to anyone’s idea or demeaned them even if they may have, privately disagreed. Such civility and tolerance is almost a lost art these days and it was really uplifting to experience a time when it was evident.

Thanks were extended all around, to Marcin for inspiring the project and being the mainstay of Open Source Ecology, to Aidan and Gabby for their efforts in preparing the project and selecting the soil for the bricks as well as Gabby’s yoga classes, to Scott for so many things which are too numerous to mention and for his enduring cheerfulness and helpfulness, to Raina who I was absent on her way to California for her yoga classes and finally to all the wonderful staff at Bamboo Beach Resort who cooked and cleaned up after us and were so friendly and upbeat. To little Evelyn who enlivened our evenings even after we came in tired and exhausted. To Cindy who helped organize and support us, to Christine who was a great organizer. I would like to add my thanks to everyone as I was sadly unable to contribute at a level which I would have liked and so many people stepped in to give me a hand when I needed it.

As the lightning flashes began to be more request we went off to our rooms and very soon the downpour started and the rain fell heavily. We learned the next day that those who had to go to the Orchid Beach location had to ride in the back of Scott’s truck in the pouring rain and then cross over on the hand-cranked ferry before being able to get to bed. The rain fell on and off almost all night and some unfortunate people had a leaky roof to their cabin but ours held out.

I think we fell asleep feeling that the project was so totally worthwhile but on the other hand, rather glad that we would not have to go back again to the site again in the morning!! For some of us, at least, this was a physical challenge, for others, not so much.