Our construction materials arrived on Monday from Migori, a semi-large town about 20 minutes north of Isibania. All six of the 1000 L tanks plus the 3000 L tank for the Nuru house were crammed onto the bed of the lorry along with our 18 bags of cement, 100 2 m lengths of gutter, 7 20 ft pipes, and numerous gutter clips and pipe joints. It was quite a sight to see! The most absurd part was the drive from Isibania to Nymetaburo where we were storing the materials in the Nuru office at the dispensary (basically a health clinic). The road from Migori to Isibania is a pretty decent paved road with the occasional pot hole. Isibania to Nymetaburo is quite a different story, a single lane dirt road with tons of ruts and places where the road is washing away. But, we made it!
The six team members were responsible to pick (Kenyan english for pickup) their tanks and three bags of cement each. Some of the leader's homes are over 40 minutes away walking so it was quite a task but all of them got it done. We could have hired a truck to drop off the materials but that would have been expensive and the trucks would have only been able to travel on the main roads, not directly to their homes.
Tuesday we did a lot of planning for the build and started to collect the final materials and tools as well as having our bi-weekly meeting with half of the w+s representatives in Sorrie Simba. Lucas and I spent a few hours discussing the long term plans for our time together as well as setting up the meeting. One of the key points we tried to get across in the meetings this week was having the w+s representatives train the children in their groups on proper sanitation techniques. It's great that we've gotten the word out to adults about w+s but it is also immensely important to have children follow proper hygiene such as washing hands with soap and water and going to the bathroom in appropriate places, preferably latrines.
Wednesday morning was a little hectic with Lucas rolling in with tools in the morning. There was a little miscommunication on Wednesday morning and some of the leaders went directly to Marabe's instead of the dispensary to pick the gutters, gutter clips, and other various things we needed for the project. Thankfully, we had enough leaders to carry all the material down the long path to Marabe's in only one trip. Lucas arrived shortly after with the tools and we surveyed the site and the materials. Marabe and his family had done an excellent job of collecting sand, rocks, and water for the project. Unfortunately, the rock pile Marabe had collected was right where we needed to place the tank. We worked at a team to move all the rocks over about 6 ft to make way for the fancy new 1000 L tank.
In order to ensure that the tank was placed properly, the first thing that we worked on was the gutters. By having the gutters in place we can more accurately place the tank near the end of the gutters. We first measured the length of the roof and made sure we had enough fascia board and gutters to cover the length. Then we went about hammering the fascia in place, then spacing gutter clips, finishing off with the gutters themselves. The gutters had to be mated one inside of the other to prevent leaking so we had Christine and Pauline unbend one end of each gutter while they were still on the ground to better fit around the gutters in place.
The best part of the whole day was that I did very little. Sure I showed Marabe, Lucas, John, Pauline, and Christine some tricks and how to keep things consistent. But the majority of the work was done by them, exactly as it should be. I am only going to be in Kuria, Kenya for six months, therefore it does nobody any good if I become an expert at rainwater catchment. We need these six leaders and Lucas to take charges, as they did. I was merely a foreman overseeing the operation and helping out when needed.
Thursday we completed the foundation that the tank will rest on inside of Marabe's compound. By we I really mean the fundi (name for worker) completed the foundation. Our team helped bring him the bricks and cement. Because the gutters were already up, we simply placed the tank where we wanted it and traced it's outline to find where we wanted the foundation. We dug down about 12 inches to provide a solid level surface to begin construction. The foundation consisted of two concentric circles of brick with and empty center. The bricks were stacked six high with the last four layers above ground. After finishing the last layer, we filled the center with big rocks and mud, capping it off with two layers of cement and bricks. The entire structure was then coated in a final layer of weather resistant cement. Because the bricks are made of sand, soil, and dung, they don't hold up well to weather if they are directly exposed to it. The outer coating will lengthen the life of the foundation greatly.
The final task on Thursday was to whip up a piping scheme to keep the water falling out of the gutter from ruining the foundation as it cures. It was one of my proudest moments in jerry rigging. I'll have to take a picture of it, words just can't describe it.
Friday we met as a group at the dispensary and debriefed on the whole construction process. The team came up with some excellent suggestions for how to proceed with the next five homes. We also set up the schedule for the remaining homes and planned the next two weeks of construction. I wanted to build alternating between women and men but John happens to live the closest to Marabe so our order is Marabe, John, Pauline, Christine, Maurice, and Elizabeth. Everyone was really excited at the meeting.
Our original plan was to hire the fundi for the first two homes until we learned how to do the foundation ourselves. All of the leaders knew this so they were watching the fundi intensely as he built Marabe's foundation. At the meeting I was discussing how I thought the fundi had done a good job and was considering hiring him for at least the next foundation. The meetings are run by Lucas in Kiswahili with occasional explanations to me in English after a discussion. Following my suggestion about the fundi, there was 15 minutes of discussion between the entire team that was pretty intense. At the end of the discussion, Lucas turned to me and said, "Chris, we want to build the next foundation ourselves." Something inside of me skipped. I was taken aback by the team's confidence and desire to build their own foundation. I was incredibly proud of the ownership they were taking of the project from the hard work they were putting in to now wanting to build their own foundations.
We discussed the idea a little bit and John said they only needed to know how close to put the bricks which they had watched carefully on Thursday, learning from the fundi. The team also had such a desire because they know the long term plan is to roll the catchments out the community if we decide they are worth the expense. The team wants to be prepared to help their neighbors. This attitude is exactly why we selected these six, an innate leadership and desire to help the community.
So far one of my three big projects is off to a great start! I look forward to putting the finishing touches on Marabe's rainwater catchment on Monday and starting John's, Pauline's, and Christine's next week!
nine new pictures
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