Week Three: Mayo Building Workshop hosted by Mayo Women’s Association – ‘Dalu for Development’

An extraordinary sight met our eyes arriving at the Mayo center the first morning of the second week of the workshop. The trainees had all of the equipment out, were mixing the earth/cement mixture already and filling the bags! Ordinarily they are sitting in the shade waiting for us. We were so impressed. 

Ustaz Hooman is impressed that the trainees had the equipment out and the work started 
before we arrived!

On top of that, four new guys had arrived from Darfur; and NOHS had replaced Raania with Mugdba.  We were sorry to lose her, but the work is pretty hard! The four Mayo ladies remain with us.

Mujtaba (NOHS), Saifadin, 
Mohammed Issa, Rashid

Ladies of AECOM and Mayo
Alia, Fatima, Lila, Rihab, Abeer, Reem 

We discovered the second miracle of the day when we arrived at Afra Plastics Industry and met with the owner. Mr. Maher said they had a special order for 50 cm bags, so he promised us plenty to complete our structure. He said that he will produce bags made of completely recycled material soon. We are hoping this will be a low cost item allowing the people of the periphery of the Sudan to be able to afford these safe, environmentally friendly houses.

Clockwise from top left: Mubarak, Fahti (AECOM driver), Rashid, Mathias, Djo, Abubaker, Bushara, Mujtaba, Hashim Anwer (New Halfa), Ahmed Abdulrahman, Suliman, Ahmed Abubaker, Saifadin, Mohammed Issa, Ustaz Hooman

Ahmed Abubaker and Djo unload the bags
from AFRA Plastics Industry

Alia from AECOM brought her Uncle Hashim to the site. He was very impressed with the utilitarian method of building and the team working on the project. His tribe was from Wadi Halfa; but the government had moved them to New Halfa when the dam was built. They are now planning to return and they need a solution for their housing. HS4S’s director Dr. Marie, had visited New Halfa at Eid two years ago and had Eid dinner in his same village in New Halfa.

Alia and Hashim Anwer from Wadi Halfa

We visited Afra Plastics Industry again on Monday and got 1600 meters of 50 cm bags donated, and the next day received 2100 meters. As we had suspected, the owner changed one of the looms just for us, he really didn’t have a special order. Normally they do not change the loom width for orders less than 100,000 meters.  

Mohammed Issa, a new arrival from Darfur who AECOM is sponsoring, revealed that he had seen our small dome in Nyala at the technical school where Ustaz Hooman had taught a workshop in 2009.  He said that after we left in 2009, the school added a door for the dome. We asked him to see if one of his pals in Darfur would take some pictures for us, until we can make another visit and see it for ourselves. 

Darfur Workshop dome from 2009

Old English Mixer 1961 (doesn't work)

Najlaa from ARC Peace located a donated mixer for us, which arrived on site Wednesday, however it appears to need a new motor and a lot of work. It is a beautiful piece of machinery made in 1961 (almost from the Mahdi era… well, not quite), and has metal wheels. Amazing, but probably not practical, and it would take too long to fix as well as a lot of money. We looked at another used mixer with thoughts of purchasing it, but it also was not operational.

 

Team work filling the heavy bags in place

After only two weeks of the actual workshop (the first week Mathias and Djo tore down the old building), we have an exceptional amount of building finished. Next week we will start with the smaller salmon colored bags for the rise of the structure. We decided to keep the 60 cm bags as foundation and buttressing – making the building extra strong! We looked at one of the mixer rental sites on Thursday and Saturday, but did not find a suitably operating mixer at a reasonable price. Apparently everyone uses ‘ready-mix’ for their buildings, so finding working mixers is difficult.  

The team advanced the domes almost to floor level with buttresses included this week. They are developing a strong work ethic, making the work smooth and swift.  The week was brutally hot, so the team did remarkably well for such harsh conditions. It is supposed to be a bit cooler, breezy, and rainy during this time of the year, but we have had little rain. 

Aerial view showing neighborhood of Mayo. Ustaz Hooman poses while team members take pictures.

The third week the team is well into learning the earth mixture (by hand since the mixer doesn't work), filling and placing the earth bags (in place on the dome layers), tamping the bags to set the cement/earth mixture, and laying the barbed wire.

Working together to fill the bags in place with the earth mixture

 The class for the most part has learned to work extremely well together and each trainee has developed her or his own skills recognized by the rest of the crew.

Rashid places the barbed wire

Mubarak tamps the finished joints

The earth-builders from 'For A Purpose' have built quite a few earth bag structures in Nepal, but never a stabilized earth dome. So Ustaz Hooman is able to pass along his many years of experience and knowledge to the earth builders as well as the class of trainees from Mayo, Nuba Mountains and Darfur. The NGOs who sent their trainees (AECOM, SHPDO, and NOHS) want to be the forerunners of bringing this technique to an area where the IDPs (internally displaced persons) will be leaving camps to return to their villages soon. It isn't just that this building method is fairly low cost - it does not require cutting any trees, it is fire resistant/proof, and flood resistant - lasting a very long time. The members of ARC Peace Sudan send one of their architects daily to assist with the work, finding equipment, and to learn the technique themselves to apply to their village designs for Darfur.

Djo from 'For A Purpose' learning dome structures from Ustaz Hooman (Berkeley trained architect)

Ustaz Hooman sketches out different methods to make the window frames and arches with the earth bags

Hardworking gang: Ahmed Ali, Rihab, Mujtaba, Abeer, Rashid, Abubaker

Ahmed Ali (AKA Dr. Turabi) and
 his lovely Darfur shoes

Ysryya, team cook, head of the ladies' organization,
and Ahmed Ai's wife

Djo and Mathi hang out by the barbed wire dispenser

Djo and Mathias have been amazing teachers and learners. We will sorely miss them as Mathias left this week to go visit his grandfather who is very ill, and Djo will leave in the middle of next week. The University of Khartoum's Faculty of Architecture remains engaged in their research and oversight of the project.
-->