Best looking sinks in La Cumbre, even if I do say so myself

This is the first construction project I undertook with Seeds of Help and we got iit done just before the xmas break. It consists of 4 sinks and a soakaway for a school. The Water is provided by a rain water harvesting tank also constructed by Seeds of Help. In the picture above you can see the foundations and the soak hole. Have to admit i was walking around with a measuring tape and a pen and paper for the first day so cant take any credit for much of the digging.

Morning of day two. Striking the shutter for the foundation. Was a bit soft but the oul mix of comcrete wouldnt exactly be up British Standards now.

The idea is that the soak away has two purposes. One to disperse the water and two to act as a pathway for the children to walk across. Area gets especially wet in rainy season I am told. Also raised the path above the existing ground for same reason. i was going to turn the concrete blocks flush face up originally but had a little brain wave. Thought that the students could use the blocks as a little herb garden, each witht there own little area (block). Consulted with the two Peace corp volunteers/agriculture experts they agreed as long as there was a hole for drainage in the bottom.

Roberto checking the blockwork for level. I did the blockwork myself so there must be something wrong with the level becuase that says its way off...................

Relaxing on the job. Thats is your fired me bucko. You dont actually get sand or gravel in la cumbre you use a seive to take what you want out of a pile of aggregate.

 

The finished article. Well the concrete was actually scribed up again after this so that another layer of render could be put on in the new year to guive irt a better finish.

Have to say I really enjoyed this project. It was such a change not having to be the bad guy. Back home there are deadlines and budgets that are normally my resonsibilty so I do whatever I feel I have to, to get a job done. Its a big part of my job normally, if that envolves giving a bollocking, and not being everybodies friend then so be it. This was different. Everybody on the site was volunteering in one manner or form so there was absolutely no point in shouting or giving orders. Also this is Guatemala so even if everybody wasnt there by there own free will there isnt much point in getting excited. Everybody worked as hard as they could when they were there, it got finished a day later than I hoped and its still not fully finished. Yea and so what?
Had a bit of a block layers strike for basically the entire project besides half a day, alright but sure coming from Ireland that would be a normal job. So had to improvise there myself but everybody did, George and Adriana are agricultural experts and they were laying block kerbs and plastering, nothing was set in stone and it turned out pretty rough but I am really proud of it. Few things I would probably change on the next one would be having the sinks a little deeper and proabably scud dash the raw blockwork first rather than trying to just plaster it. Would take an extra day but would be a lot easier and would probably give a better finish.

I have to admit the real project manager on this job was Brenda even though she wasnt there. Rightly so too becuase I would have f·····d it up without her. Let me explain. We were half way through the project and I called Brenda and asked if we could buy more stone, she said that yes we could but only if the community decided to pay for it. I straight away thought hey but sure for what it will cost I will take a few euro out of the fundraising money. She flat out said no and when the community also refused she still said no. What happened next? They found stone. It took a day but they picked stones and we got enough to just about fill the soak hole and path.
In Ireland like most places the split in cost between labour and materials is normally around 50/50. I am not totally sure of costs here yet but for instance the materials probably cost around 60 euro for this project. Sylvia´s (The girl we a sponsoring to go to school next year) brother gets 30 euro a month for working in construction. So we could have paid 2 construction workers to work for a month. So it is safe to say that the materials cost is much more than labour. To be fair most people would probably guessed at this but it is really important that I start thinking this way.
It is part of the fundamental make up of Seeds of Help that people help themselves, the community provided the blocks, cement and aggregate along with a lot of labour and we provided the taps, pipe work and a bit of a plan. Initially we had discussed with the community putting a roof over the washing station and they had agreed to provide the Lamina (galvinised sheeting) but it never turned up. Nothing to say it couldnt be done in the future however.