A couple of weeks back we started the 2nd house in Guatemala. The woman who made this project possible is Mary Mullan. I met Mary while working in the bar one day. She came in because she heard there were two boys from her home town in Derry working there (Deane and Gavin). While we were waiting for the two boys to come in we got chatting. First off we figured out her sister lives in Ashford. Small world... She also explained that she had raised funds from friends and family before she came out but was having a bit of hassle finding the right people to build the house. I told her about the project in Huehue and she asked if it would be interested in building a house in Ciudad Vieja (15 mins from antigua). I jumped at the chance to build a house without having to get envloved with fundraising again. Mary is vounteering in Hermano Pedro hospital working with sick children and will be here for next few months. She met the family when she asked her spanish teacher if she new a family who needed help. The teacher asked her local priest who put them in contact with the family. The family consists of the father Francisco who works cutting coffee, the mother Herionita who normally works making tortillas and seven kids, Hectar, Anna. Maria, Jose, Juan, Dominga and a new born baby. Between them the parents earn around 60Q (6 euro/8 dollars) a day for a full days work. Herionita hasnt been working for the last few weeks however because of the new born baby. She said she will be back to work in a couple of weeks though (month in total after baby). The reason the baby hasnt a name yet is that the indigineous people of Guatamala consider it bad luck to give a baby a name before an actual christening. Right thats the back round we will get on with the construction project now.
First thing to do was clean up the site. Pretty messy at first glance but when you think of it if you have nothing much of value you would be reluctant to throw anything away either...
Next step was to dig the foundations and reduce the levels of the site. Below Jose and Olga can be seen working hard. Big thanks to Jose, Olga, Joep, Diego, Ale, Ramo and Lori who have all given there time and swet at various times so far. Special thanks to Rusty who has given up his life to work on the project and will be until it is finished. It is currently only myself and Rusty full time at the minute so if anyone around antigua is interested in giving a few hours or a few weeks we pick up volunteers at 7 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon outside cafe condesa. We normally work from 7 to 12 and from 2 to 5 to avoid the midday sun.
The foundations are a similar design to what we used in Huehue. Difference being the soil type. Easyt o dig but we did have to buy imported stone on the down side. The build up of the foundation is a RC ring beam with rebar uprights at base.
Stone layed with cement mortar for mass of foundations. 400mm wide by 600mm deep. Top layer of slate (DPC) with a 4 x 6 inch base plate on top tied down by bending the upright rebar over the top. This system is robust and enables the house to be mechanically fixed to the foundations which is important in earthquake resistent design. Also by using the stone we cut down on the use of cement making it cheaper and more eco friendly.
Fag break... From left... Juan, Dominga, Rusty, Hecter, Remo, Diego and Ale.....
Above. Finished foundations...
Above can be seen the base plate timber and the first corner column.
Two corner columns and the wall plate..........
All hands on deck. Kids have been great workers throughout the project so far. From mixing concrete for the foundations to loading stone there have been ever present and enthusiastic.
