Homes for Sudan HS4S: Week Two: Mayo Building Workshop hosted by Mayo Women’s Association

All the trainees from SHPDO, NOHS, and DALU (the Sudanese NGOs) arrived by the first day for the training workshop (last week our earth-builders tore down the old building - see last week's blog below). By the second day we added two trainees from DALU. Next week the four representing the AECOM NGOs in Nyala, Darfur will arrive.

Ahmed Ali, Abdlrazeg, Amjed, Ahmed Abubaker, Fatima, Bushara, Lila, Raania, Abeer, Rihab, Abubaker, and Mubarak – sitting in the rock foundation (the bag full of rock as well for drainage)

On day one, we had our introductions, almost learned everyone’s names, had some video training on the computer, some instruction on earth testing and cement percentages necessary for different kinds of earth, and then mapped out the foundation.

After training the crew on soil testing, Ustaz Hooman asked one of the engineer trainees (Mubarak) to give the same demonstration the second day, re-enforcing the knowledge for the trainees to pass along.

Ustaz Hooman (Berkeley graduate in architecture and Calearth trained)
demonstrating soil types, the silt test, and cement tests

At the end of the second day, the digger that was supposed to dig the foundation arrived, but the team on the ground had nearly dug the entire foundation by hand. Even the women rocked with their shovels!!!

Ladies rocking with their shovels and wheel barrow

Engineer Raania shoveling

Earth-builder Djo shoveling

We wanted to discard the large pile of concrete chunks and rubble from the tear down of the old building as it was in the way and ugly. We commissioned the guy who was supposed to dig the foundation to haul away the rubble but one of the community leaders arrived and insisted on keeping it, and spreading it out in the compound to help stave off flooding. They took the large chunks of concrete and piled them up by one of the concrete walls of the Habitat compound that is falling down. In the end, the community was correct to keep the material.

The bulldozer

Habitat representative and Ysryya (who is in charge of the cooking), Rihab, Asjad from ARC Peace, Raania, and Mubarak

Mubarak, engineer from NOHS, wields a pickaxe (digging the foundation)

The ladies of the community are cooking ‘breakfast’ (early lunch in Western time) daily for the trainees and our earth-builders. We hadn’t budgeted for food, but wanted to involve the community in caring for the project so decided to ask the women to cook and pay them out of the contingency fund. In general, for such a labor-intensive training workshop, the complaints were few, and none at all from the ladies, who rocked!!

Rihab, Abeer, and Raania

Filling one bag layer full of rocks for the base of the foundation

We took on board a recent grad from the University of Khartoum as ‘assistant manager’. He helps with daily monitoring of attendance, bookkeeping, translation, and general problem solving. He did a great job the first week! Between discussions on all of virtues of Islam (to which he has the zeal of the young), he also helped do the hard labor! Impressive. All of the workers break for prayer at 12:30+ and 15:30+, though we have encouraged them to go in shifts so that the work doesn’t stop completely.

Councilman Abdlrazeg

Monday a guy with a cane showed up saying one of the community leaders had sent him, and he started working on the site. Ahmed Abdulrachman, our assistant manager and I gently took him aside and said that probably he shouldn’t be lifting anything. We wondered why he showed up, and it turned out he was our applicant for the security guard position. We negotiated a bit, and came up with a salary, a plan, and a demand from him. So, Bernard from various places in South Sudan (from where exactly, it was unclear) is the security guard for the time being.

Bernard

Assistant manager

The work is not easy, but we were blessed with a few breezy days bringing the temperature down a bit. Hooman, Djo, and Mathi are doing a great job of developing ‘ésprit de corps’ among the team who are very proud of their work. Homes for Sudan’s director is dividing her time between Mayo and the University of Khartoum (for other joint efforts with University of Khartoum, US embassy, and Portland State in the business management and political science areas) which makes for a lot of time on the roads (much of it white knuckle time). By the third day, the team had the rock and bag filled with rocks foundation begun, so the layout of the double dome building was already visible.

Second layer with earth mixture for foundation

Abeer takes a rest on the sandbag roll

Women working

Men working

The fourth and fifth day we had the proper soil on site and cement and began the process of placing the layers of the earth-bag foundation, with the barbed wire and the buttresses. Seeing such quick results was instant gratification for some really hard work.

Djo with the tamper

Bushara laying the barbed wire on the earth filled bags

Dr. Ahmed from the University of Khartoum visited the site on Wednesday and was pleasantly surprised by our progress. The trainees were impressed by his visit. Community leader Abdul Jalid also came by with his son.

Hooman and Dr. Ahmed - U of Khrt Faculty of Architecture

Mayo community leader Abdul Jalid and his son

Rihab and Lila posing

Ahmed Ali, Raania, and Rehab working hard

Mathias and Rihab working with the earth mixture the team decided 10% cement for the foundation and 7% or less for the upper structure after the testing

A nearby cistern provided a nice aerial view from the top to start a time lapse record of the domes. It also shows a nice view of the surrounding neighborhood.