Just to Bring You Up to Speed...

Sorry for the delay in posting an update, we lost power in Shirati for a while.

Let us start with what occurred on Friday. Friday was a much slower day than hoped, with most of the day spent finishing formwork, putting bolts into place, and beginning to straighten some of the corners. Since our rebar crew was out of work, they began moving the aggregate into position near the mixing pad. We worked hard until 430, then had a meeting to discuss options for pouring concrete on Saturday. Julius believed it would take 12 hours to pour. We toyed with the idea of working til nightfall to straighten and level the formwork, but then decided we would end up making more errors than progress with everyone being exhausted. On the ride back to the hostel, we toyed with ideas to see if we could pour zege on Saturday, since no one really wanted to pour on Sunday. I believed it would only take 5-6hrs to pour, so we decided that we would pour at night if necessary. Julius, Daniel and Sakai went to Shirati that night and rented a generator, lights and cables in preparation to pour at night. That concluded a long day five and we hit the hay soon after dinner.

This was it. Day six. Zege day. Whether we were there til 5pm or 11pm, zege was going to be put into place one way or another. We hit the ground running with another 630am start and immediately started working our butts off once our boots were on the ground in Burere. The day started with Richard and I running a water level, getting all the marks to which we would level the formwork. Once that was done, Richard went around one side leveling and straightening formwork, while Sakai and Daniel went the other direction. While they were doing this, I continued to place bolts in there proper locations. By 11, the formwork had been leveled, and 18 of the 26 bolts were in place. At this point we started to pour zege. Richard, Otoke and another worker started in one corner while Otienu, another worker, and myself started in another. The zege crew was well versed in the process, and everything ran smoothly. After a while, I had to take a break from zege and finish putting in the bolts into position, making sure the crew didn't put zege in that area without the bolts in place. Things ran smoothly, and the zege was completed by 330.

DONE. Mission accomplished. And it only took four and a half hours to pour the beam. It required six long days of work but the third phase of the project can be checked off the list.

Sunday was a day of relaxation with trip out to Roche in the morning. In Roche, Richard did a quick inspection of the building, then we set about the main task for the trip out to Roche. We were there to take photos of the rough location for the planned doctor housing to be built on site. After the trip to Roche, we went back to Shirati, and Sakai invited us to his house for lunch. To say it was a good meal and a large one at that would be the understatement of the year. Sakai had a whole feast for us. Ugali, chapati, beef, fish, rice, mangoes, cabbage, pineapple, bananas, you get the picture. Sakai had a wonderful spread, and we ate til we were almost in a food coma. The rest of the day was spent relaxing fishing and just being lazy.

And that brings us to today. We left Shirati this morning and we are now relaxing comfortable at the Mennoite Guest House. Tomorrow we head to the market to do some shopping, then from there we board our plane in the evening for the long flights home.

Good Night and Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

A Little Different Perspective on the Trip...

Two posts in one night? I must be spoiling you.

   This post is a little bit different than any previous posts we have done for the Burere Schoolhouse Project. Most of the time you hear about the updates on how construction has been going, and what the travel team has been up to while over here in Tanzania. Most of the people who follow what we do know that it has a positive impact on the region, but they have not been able to actually make the trip. They hear the stories we tell of funny events that occur during the rest breaks, and they get to hear a few names of the people we meet. In this post, we wanted to put a face to the name, and discuss the impact we are having on a more personally note with regards to the villagers.

Deo with his daughters, Anna (left) and Sofia

   Tonight I introduce to you Deo (pronounced Day-o). Deo has been one of our hardest workers, helping me cut and bend rebar, as well as helping to put it into place. We have been able to get to know him better than some of the other crew members, since he can speak some English. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with him, and (hopefully) he has enjoyed working with us.

   This project is a little bit more than just a job for Deo and a lot of the villagers we work with on site. This is something they do for there families (both by blood and community). He actually attended school at the Kingigoro Primary School, and two of his three children do as well. Maurice is twelve years old, Anna is eight, and Sofia is four. This is something that is very humbling and exciting, knowing that some of the crew themselves went to this school and they are sending there children there as well. It makes the time and effort we put into theses projects so much more enjoyable.

Rebar Cage in Place

Good Evening from Shirati!

   Work continued into day four and I am excited to inform you that ALL of the rebar has been placed for the ring beam! While we will still have some minor adjustments to be made to the position of the cage, work is progressing ahead of schedule. The hope is to begin pouring zege on Saturday, assuming that there are no major complications. Sakai now has the formwork in place around over half of the building, and the hope is to have the remaining formwork in place by the end of the day tomorrow. Tomorrow will not see any ridiculously fast paced progress, as we will be placing the bolts for the truss, and adjusting the rebar cage and formwork. So we will be checking the elevations and clearances multiple times so come Saturday we can pour zege with confidence that everything is in place where it should be.

   This afternoon right before lunch, I decided to take a little trek up the hill over looking the school. I was able to take some amazing pictures of the school, as well as a few panoramas of Burere, which I will post once I am able to compile them together.

   The crew from Burere worked as hard as ever, allowing us to stay ahead of schedule. Even Obama, our work site clown, has been able to be helpful the past few days. He does this all while talking, despite the fact that we have no idea what he is yapping about. The crew has worked hard for the past four days, and they will get a lighter day tomorrow since the rebar is already in place.

   On another note, I believe a good thoughts should be sent Richard's way as he broke his trusty, loyal hammer yesterday while trying to split a pre-cut 4x4 into two 2x4s. He somewhat fixed the hammer by chiseling the wooden handle and sliding the head back on, as well as adding two pieces of #3 rebar and duct tape (what can duct tape not fix?) to it as well. But the hammer will never be what it once was, will be forced into early retirement, and it will be missed.

Ring Beam Beginning to Take Shape

    Day three got a bright and early start again this morning, and things started off well. We had to stop in Shirati to pick up the rest of our lumber since they were only able to deliver 2/3 of it the night before (the truck that they used to transport 100 2x4s and 10 1x8s was the size of a Chevy S10, and looked like it was about to break). After picking up the lumber, it was off to our special little hillside in Burere.

Day III progress

   Richard started the morning by helping Sakei work of formwork and bracing, while also making sure the crew placing the rebar cage into position was doing it correctly. While Richard was doing this, I was working with Deo, Michael and two others (hopefully I will know and remember all their names by the end of the week) cut and bend #6 rebar. We cut and bent a total of 15, 40ft pieces by 11am, so the day was off to a great start. I forgot to mention it last night, but our rebar crew is one well oiled machine. They cut and bent 332, 8" square stirrups in two days! So, by the end of the day all off the rebar needed for the ring beam has been cut and bent, and is now just waiting to be put into place. Sakei was his normal beastly self, working hard as ever to make sure the progress of the formwork stays on schedule.

Rebar cage in place

   The first section of rebar that we implemented on Tuesday took a little bit longer than expected, but by this afternoon the crew putting it into place seems to all be on the same page, and is running much more efficiently. This afternoon they successfully put in the cages in the corners of the building, so now over half of the rebar cages are in place. There will still be a few adjustment that need to be made  before concrete is poured, but we have been making wonderful progress.

Usiku  Mwema! (Good Night!)

Phase III Has Begun

Good Evening from Tanzania!

     Richard and I arrived in Shirati Friday evening after three full, tiring days of travel. Upon arriving in Shirati we stopped in to say hi to Dr. Esther and Josia Kawira. We then had a quick dinner and then it was time for some much needed rest.

Burere Schoolhouse

    On Saturday, we started the day by heading out to Burere to view the site and perform an inventory of what we had available supply wise, and to finally see what the building looked like after the ISSBs were finally in place. We were not disappointed, and the building looks amazing. It is pretty awesome to see so many years of hard work paying off. While in Burere, we also went down to take a look at Jim Moyer's pit latrine project, which he completed while he was on Co-op with Village Life.

SOTA Clinic

    After spending the morning and part of the afternoon in Burere, we decided we needed to see the SOTA Clinic being constructed by the one and only Julius, our contractor in the region. The building is very big, approximately 175ft by 30ft, and sits right along the shore of Lake Victoria. We also find out that the same crew in Burere that had made the bricks for the schoolhouse had been given the job of producing 15,000 ISSBs for the SOTA Clinic. It was pretty cool to see some of the construction techniques we had taught them on display at another project in the area.

Two of Julius's Children

  
On Sunday we decided it was a good day to relax and coordinate logistics and our plan of attack for the coming week. December 9th is also Tanzania's independence day, so that just made the decision easier. We began the day by hanging out with Julius, Daniel (our translator), and Sakei (our carpenter). We had breakfast and lunch at Julius's house, and then returned to Shirati in the afternoon for a meeting with SHED.

Then it was off to bed since we were going to leave Shirati at 7am.

Bracing being put into place

    On Monday we began work in Burere. We immediately had the workers start cutting and bending the #3 rebar for the stirrups (we need 332 for the ring beam), and we hit the ground running. Sakei began creating the bracing the formwork, and Richard and I ran the water level around the top to find the exact height of the bottom of the ring beam. In the afternoon I began working on the #6 rebar for the beam, and the workers and I had successfully cut and bent 8 pieces of rebar for beam.

    Tuesday we got a bright and early start (we were on the road by 620am) and the second day was off to a good start. Sakei successfully got the bottom of the box into place, constructed scaffolding, and we began placing the rebar cage into place at one end of the building. This was a very difficult task, and we spent most of the day working on getting the four pieces of #6 and the stirrups into place. Work was slower today than it was yesterday, but hopefully the pace will pick up so we can pour concrete on Saturday. Once work was completed for the day we went to Shirati to place and order for the necessary lumber for the second half of the building it ended up taking one and a half hours to order 100 2x4s, 20 1x8s, 32 1x2s, 8 1x6's and 12 1x4's.

The day has finally come to an end and progress is being made on the third phase of the project.

Good Night! (or Good Afternoon for those 8 hours behind us)

Construction Continues!

It is once again a very exciting time for Engineers Without Borders - University of Cincinnati. Project leader Zach Banachowski and mentor Richard Elliott of Village Life Outreach Project departed today to continue construction of the school in Tanzania. Stay tuned for an update from them once they arrive!

December's EWBer of the Month

Allison Bosworth is a fifth-year Interior Design student who will be graduating this spring. She has been a member of EWB since the fall of 2007 and has maintained an active role in the group since joining. This is Allison's third year being the Design Chair for EWB-UC. Throughout the duration of her executive position Allison has designed numerous T-shirts, fliers, invitations, social media promotions, project posters, and corporate donation letters. She is also the only senior still actively serving on the executive board. Due to Allison's extensive involvement, unyielding dedication, and excellent design work, the executive board has chosen to recognize her this December as the EWBer of the Month!

Update from Burere and EWB-UC

Burere Schoolhouse with ISSB Walls (Oct 2012)

Great news from Burere this month! The community was able to finish the ISSB walls and cover them to prevent weathering while we prepare for our next trip. This picture is courtesy of a Village Life Outreach Project (VLOP) trip to the area involving several education students from UC. Additionally, we have just received travel approval for our fourth implementation phase of the Burere school this December. We have one student traveling, Zach Banachowski, along with our reliable travel mentor, Richard Elliott. Both traveled on the first implementation trip this past June. Good luck guys!

If you are interested in helping out with this project, we are beginning our campaign to finish the school. We are trying to raise the rest of the funds needed to finish this school by Summer 2013. Click here donate to the project: https://ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa/pfp/ewbucputaroofonit.htm

Our Nyambogo committee is also continuing the design of a water distribution system for a community in Tanzania. We recently conducted a water survey in the community in order to determine where the best location for the borehole will be. Look for more news on this project as the design continues to progress.

EWB UC, GCP, and Miami Chapter Bridge Construction

Last month our chapter also completed a project in collaboration with the Greater Cincinnati Professional chapter (EWB-GCP) and the Miami University student chapter (EWB-Miami). Together, we completed the construction of a new foot bridge at Kennedy Heights Park in the Cincinnati area. More picture are available here: Kennedy Heights Bridge Construction

Second Burere Implementation Trip Complete

Second implementation team, including EWB-UC travelers and community members

After two weeks of construction in Burere, the columns are poured and the bricks are being laid for the two-room school building.  Early last week, we removed the formwork from the columns and began laying the ISSBs (Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks).  By the time of the EWB-UC travel team's departure from the site, the entire first row of bricks had been leveled and mortared.  The community in Burere, with the help from our contractor, will be finishing the ISSB walls in the next few weeks.  The next implementation phase will include the ring beam followed by the roof implementation.

Travel mentor, Richard Elliott, stripping formwork

Columns with the formwork removed

Otiendo and Jim laying the first bricks at the site

Southeast corner of the building with the first brick courses

I would like to thank Village Life Outreach Project (http://www.villagelifeoutreach.org) for their mentorship (Richard Elliott and Emily Roush Elliott) and their continued partnership on this project.

As we begin the fall semester at UC, we look forward to continuing the progress we made this summer and look to have another successful year.  As a reminder, our first general meeting will be this Thursday (8/30) at 6 PM in 3250 CRC.

Columns Set and Poured For School in Burere

Overview of the columns being poured

This week the community in Burere and the EWB-UC travel team assembled, leveled, and poured all 19 columns for the two-room Kinigoro Primary School expansion.  Earlier in the week travel mentor Richard Elliott worked with the carpenters on site to construct the formwork, while student travelers Jim Moyer and Ben Gentry assisted the community volunteers with the bending and binding of the reinforcement bar.  Once all of the rebar cages were assembled and placed on the dowels from the foundation, the forwork was added and leveled, and ready for concrete.

Head contractor, Julius, and other community volunteers binding the rebar cages

Richard coordinating the form work construction

For the last two days, a dedicated concrete team measured, mixed, and poured each of the 19 columns by hand. All together, 5 cubic yards of concrete were used to pour the columns.  After taking a well deserved day off today, the community and travel team will begin laying the ISSB blocks this weekend and early next week.  Stay tuned for a post next week with the final progress for the second phase of implementation.

Jim and community members mixing concrete

Jim running through some on-the-go calculations with Julius on some scrap wood

Otiendo pouring concrete into the column

Ben shortly after vibrating the box by hand to settle the concrete

Ben with future beneficiaries of this project

EWB-UC travel team and community workers in front of the site

Burere School Second Implementation Phase Kicks-off

Second EWB-UC implementation team after the first day of work on site.

Jim Moyer mid stroke.

Travel mentor, Richard Elliott, coordinating column formwork

During the first day on the ground in Tanzania, the EWB-UC travel team (Jim Moyer, Ben Gentry, and Richard Elliott) traveled to Tarime to order materials and purchase new equipment--enough to fill a 7-ton truck!  The order included 50 bags of cement, 40 pieces of reinforcing bar, and nearly 300 pieces of lumber for forms.

On Day 2, the team made it's first trip to the project site in Burere, where we were met by a large group from the community eager to continue construction.  The team broke into groups, cutting the rebar (#3 and #6 bar) by hand, making ISSB's, and putting together the form work for the columns. After a long day under the equatorial sun, we had all the rebar cut and 2 of the 19 column boxes assembled.  Our goal is to completely assemble the corner columns of the building, so we can begin pouring the columns in stages early next week.  We have already made great progress and we are looking forward to completing another successful phase of implementation.

Keep up with the blog in the coming two weeks for updates and pictures as we continue construction in Burere.

Brick Making Begins in Burere

On Monday, we visited the Burere site to train the community on the making of the ISSB brick that will become the walls of the future school building.  Our partner, Village Life Outreach Project, has previously used the ISSB (short for Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block) in the construction of the Roche Health Center.  Village Life has allowed us to borrow the press, which they purchased for building projects in the Shirati area, for use in the Burere project.  We owe them a thank you for not only allowing us to use the press, but for helping arrange the training for the Burere Village members.  The Burere project is a part of a larger Village Life initiative to spread ISSB technology through the Shirati area.

  

The series of pictures below were taken during the training and have been arranged to show the steps as they were shown to us.  The training was led by Daniel who is also our translator.  When the press was originally purchased, he traveled to Nairobi to be trained by Makiga (the press manufacturer).  After the day of training, a crew of Burere Village members took over the ISSB making process and has continued to manufacture bricks for the past few days.

Clear and level a space for the press to operate

Bolt the press to the platform and oil the moving parts

Sieve the soil for the bricks

Mix the soil with cement (at about 11 parts soil and 1 part cement)

Add water and mix thoroughly

Place the mixed soil and cement into the mold and level it off

Close the press over the soil

Pull to compress the brick

Eject the brick by pulling the handle back

I will be visiting the site tomorrow to check in on the brick making process.  The training went very well and I expect to see some solid progress in Burere tomorrow.

A Long Day of Zege and a Job Well Done

The construction team after a long day

Yesterday evening, around 6, a tired crew posed for a picture at the Kingigoro Primary school site.  5 EWB   members, 2 Village Life mentors, and a large group of employees and volunteers from the Burere Village had been working for 8 long days to see this moment.  The foundation of a new 2 classroom building was dug, formed and poured.  Everyone was exhausted and dirty from a day of concrete mixing, placing and finishing. An amazing 64,000 pounds worth of concrete had been placed by hand in a single day.  

Emily and Freddie tying rebar

If you've been following the blog, you know most of the steps leading up to yesterday's work.  I left off a few days ago with finishing the boxes which would become the footings under the columns and tying the rebar.  Once the bar was tied, we cut all of the excavated boxes to fit them.  On Saturday, we put all of the bar in the excavated boxes and tied the reinforcing bar for the strip footings which will support the brick walls.  This took some work, as everything needed to be placed 3" above the soil in order for it to be completely surrounded by concrete.  After all of the steel was in place, we lowered in the forms which our carpenter, Sakai, and Kelsey had been working on.  Everything fit well and looked great.

On Sunday, we worked with only three volunteers.  The task of the day was squaring and leveling the forms so that the final foundation would be straight and flat.  The day went a little longer than expected, but one full day of work saw our forms nearly completed and looking great.  We also had some visitors from the hill behind the school who were interested in what we were up to.  A troop of baboons came down onto some large boulders to watch us work.  Zach has some great pictures of them, unfortunately I do not.

Measuring and discussing before mixing concrete began

Then came the big day, zege (Kiswahili for concrete)!  A large task was at hand and would take all of our volunteers, hired fundis and students.  We needed to mix 90 bags of cement weighing 50 kg apiece with over  120 wheel barrows of stone and over 50 wheel barrows of sand to get to our 16.25 cubic yard goal.  The work was backbreaking and hot.  We managed to finish half of the job before lunch and completed the other after.  The total day, including lunch break, lasted from 8 am until 6 pm.  Everything went smoothly, besides the inevitable soreness and exhaustion.  The Burere community now has a foundation upon which EWB, Village Life and the community will continue to build.

Zach, Kelsey and Otoke finishing concrete

The challenging logistics of creating the foundation became more and more apparent each day on site.  The team worked hard and kept going despite long days under a hot sun.  The community provided two shifts of volunteers each day of work and all of them worked hard as well.  Our general contractor, Julius, had originally given us a quote for 18 days of work.  We managed, to his amazement, complete the task in less than half that many days.  The whole work team worked like crazy and the results were phenomenal.  The team should be in Nairobi resting as I type this blog post.  Tomorrow, they should be going on a short safari in Nairobi National Park before boarding their flight home to USA tomorrow evening.  They were a great group and I wish them safe travels over the next few days.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who made this possible starting with the EWB travel team.  Also thanks to our travel mentor team of Richard and Emily Elliott who guided us through all 8 days of work.  We could not have made it here without the help of the EWB design team and mentors Tom Bible, Julie Cromwell and Jason Jones.  Also, thanks is due for our donor partners who make the whole project happen through generosity.  

Hard Work Paying Off: Building Footprint Visible

Everyone hard at work digging

You have not heard from us the past few days because we have either been at work or exhausted from working!  We've been making some amazing progress on the foundation digging, rebar bending, and form building.  Since beginning our dig on Monday, the place that used to be a few stakes is now a massive excavation, several feet deep in some places, soon to be filled with a new concrete foundation.  The Burere Village has been coming out, in solid numbers, every day of work.  The volunteer labor which is the community contribution to the project is becoming an extremely valuable asset as we keep moving ahead.

Andrew and the rebar cutting/bending ream hard at work

On Tuesday, the story was the same.  More digging!  The main focus was a 6 foot wide strip around the edge of the footprint which will allow us to level and form all of our footings without needing to level the entire area inside the building.  We also had Sakai, our carpenter, create boards from which we ran string to mark the various footing edges.  Tuesday was also the start of rebar work and Andrew did an excellent job of starting the cutting and bending.  Richard, Julius, Village Life's employee Rose, and I also visited Tarime, a larger city about two hours away, to order the remaining supplies which were needed for the site.  Tarime took most of the day, and we ended up picking up the EWB team once they had finished work for the day on our way back to Shirati.

School and work let out at the same time, some kids came over to see our excavation

Wednesday saw another round of digging (common theme for the whole week).  This time, we strung the strip footing which runs all the way around the perimeter and will support the bricks in the final building.  Once we had properly measured it, we dug a rough trench all the way around the building.  The rebar team was working well with Andrew and hit their stride on Wednesday, making several of the rebar grids which will be the reinforcing for the large footers under the columns.  The site began to take shape and the base of the future walls was now clearly visible!  Julius led the pouring of a small pad, which will serve as our concrete mixing station when we get to that point.

The foundation is taking shape

Today, we continued our dig (kept to the theme).  This time saw the marking and leveling of the footings which will support the columns.  Zach and I measured the proper spacing and set a form in the position so that they could be dug.  Richard and Justin followed after and made sure the bottom of the excavation was level.  That led to quite a deep dig at the deepest corner, several feet deep to get to a level bottom!  Rebar continued strong and most of the rebar for the column footings were completed.  We began the stirrups, which will hold the vertical bars at the right spacing.  That was an interesting process, which involved driving some rebar through a 4x4 piece of lumber to create a form around which rebar would be bent.  The box forms, which will form the top half of the strip footing, began to take shape and all four corner pieces are already done.

Staying safe while making stone

While the team has been working, there have been many other things going on.  All around the site, there are people making stone for the large aggregate of the concrete.  One man, who began working diligently Monday, has nearly built a fort in the bushes behind the work site.  Our storekeepers are also constantly checking equipment for working and for safety.  Each delivery from Tarime is carefully counted and documented.  A big thanks to Walsh Construction for the donation of all of the safety supplies as well.  The whole construction site is full of people in hard hats, gloves, safety glasses, and vests.  We are by far the safest construction site in the entire Rorya district.

Justin and Otienu leveling a footing

Keep an eye on the blog.  I apologize for a three day break and I will try to get more frequent posts up!  The team is tired, but still in high spirits.  Everyone has stepped up to the plate when it comes to working.  It certainly shows when you consider that we are 4 days in and the building foundation shape is already visible.

Trying on some rebar for size