5. The building. Part 1 (our bit)

If you asked me, or any of our team, what we were going to do in Tanzania, we would answer that we were going to 'do some building' and a 'holiday club for kids'. 'The building' is a rather big part of the trip!

The goal

Our thoughts, when we were still in the UK, were that we were going to help build a laboratory (singular) at the secondary school in Ibumu. When we arrived at the site, we were a bit taken aback to see the foundations of not one, but three!, classrooms ready for building on. It was a laboratory complex, not one classroom!

Contemplating the major task ahead of us on the first Sunday in Ibumu

So our goal was adapted to include the whole building, and we hoped to have at least some of the walls to at least hip height. It was still a tall order!

What we did

Every morning (for 7 of the mornings we were in Ibumu) the team left the home base around 9:30am in the morning and walked to the building site. I worked at the building site for only 4 mornings, as I volunteered to help out at the preschool group being run at the church too.

The walk up to the building site was about 20-30 minutes. We walked through the village and past the church. We worked at the building site until 12:30.

Walking along the main road

We had several jobs to do at the building site. One was passing bricks along a line of people to get the bricks to where they were needed by the builders. This was the very first task we got allocated when we arrived on the first morning. There were a couple of piles of bricks, but we needed to move them to spots closer to the foundation. We first packed them in neat stacks, but then soon found that it takes a lot of time to stack them and pick them up too, It was much more efficient to just put them in a pile again - very much against my tendency to organise them. This was very dusty work as the bricks gave off a lot of dust when picked up from the pile, which was then spread in the air when we passed/threw them from one person to the other. We soon looked like we had a tan, but it sadly washed off in the shower. I really liked this job. We stood in a long line, alternating the direction we were facing, and you could easily pass along a brick in each hand without even looking. It was good exercise for the arms!

The mortar also had to be mixed and distributed to people. I don't know how much cement had to be mixed in, but I do know that each mixture required 24 buckets of river sand! Yes, I would carry buckets of sand from the supply pile to the place where it was being mixed. I say 'carry' but it was never more than a dozen steps away. It did feel like a good distance, after a few heavy buckets of sand. There was usually a man with a space at the supply pile, ready to fill the buckets for a couple of us who would cart it back and forth.

The sand and cement would be mixed and then water had to be added. They would make a big hole in the middle of the sand/cement and the water was added in the middle. The skill was in starting to mix it all up without the sides collapsing and letting the precious water run out. Water was carried in buckets from the water container at one end of the school. This walk could be longer (if you had to get it to the far end of the school) or again no more than a dozen steps. I also did this a couple of times. I didn't try my hand at the mixing. It was a job that required strength and skill, both of which I lacked! The young men in our team were keen to do this and soon got the hang of it - getting the exact consistency just right.

Hard at work, mixing udongo!

I thought it quite amusing that several dignitaries came to visit us at the building site, dressed very smartly to suit their status. But they were not beyond joining in, mixing mortar or passing bricks, the most mucky of jobs!

The mortar had to be taken to the builders in bucket loads too. I managed a fairly full bucket of water, a bucket 3/4 full of sand but half a bucket of udongo was all I could manage - it was really heavy. I loved this job most of all. Yes, it was hard work but I really liked the fact that I could learn some Swahili and interact with the people. If I heard "udongo hapa!" (mortar here), I would grab a bucket, have it filled half full of mortar, and race over to the caller. The bucket then had to get turned upside down (tough job!) and the sticky stuff shaken out of the bucket. I'd often have to do this twice as I could only manage half the amount needed! When we had too few buckets, as they were being used for other tasks, and there was a call for udongo, people would bring it over by the spade full.

On one occasion, I was ready with my half bucket of stuff and one of the teens ready with his spade full of udongo, and to much amusement of all concerned, we had a race to see who would get the mix to the caller first. He went the long way, through the bushes, with his spade full. I went through the building site, with obstacles that were easier to negotiate, but carrying a heaver bucket of udongo. I am very proud to say that I beat him a hair's breadth! It was not a fair race by any stretch of the imagination, but don't tell him I know that! I rubbed it in that I, a middle aged woman with a bucket of udongo, beat a young man with only a spade full!

We also helped with the actual building of the walls. Don't worry, we weren't turned loose nilly willy to just build to our hearts' content. We were shown very carefully what was required, and every layer of bricks was inspected by a qualified builder before we were allowed to continue. We were also taught a few Swahili words that are essential for the building site: udongo (mortar), maji (water), tofali (brick), matofali (bricks), kamba (string). We also picked up hapa (here), nusu (half) and asante (thank you).

Some of those more expert at building  at work

There were a couple professional builders, called a fundi, who made sure that the corners were built securely as they were quite tricky and needed skill and experience to get right. As mentioned, they would also check each layer of bricks to make sure they were done to specification. My 'rows' often required a bit of rejiggling and I felt that perhaps I am using too much of their time to redo my mess and that they would be better off being supplied with mortar or water by me instead! I won't bore you with the details of laying bricks, but you had to keep track of where you position the joint, how far the brick is from the string, not touch the string, lay the brick level (without a spirit level!), tap them or add mortar to keep them in line with the others so the layer doesn't dip or raise too much... It was just too much for me to keep track of everything! I much preferred to fill in the gaps after the layer of bricks was approved. You used a runnier consistency of the mortar, which was easier to use and then you chop-chop-chop it into the gaps.Very satisfying!

One of the fundi, Nehemia

We also had a 'rest tree'. It was hot in the sun and building was hard work. We had to be sensible and rest when needed, drink lots of water and get a bit of shade when needed.

Good company while having a rest.

At the end of the working day, we had to clean our implements (trowels, floats, etc.). The water level in the tank was usually quite low by this time. We had to hang over the edge to dip and wash the equipment in the water. It was quite funny to see everyone hanging over the edge of the tank!

Here are some photographs to show the progress of the building over the time we were there.

More to follow...

We are so happy to have gotten this far with the building, particularly as it was a much larger foundation to build on than we anticipated. The outside walls were all at least window height, with the pillars between the windows built on one side. The inner walls were also to the same height, apart from one that was two rows short. The end walls were nearly roof height.

We tend to focus on the work that 'we' have done, with 'we' being the summer team. But this was not a job that was done by us alone. In fact, we only played a really small part in getting the building this far. The village has done an enormous amount of preparation before we came and contributed greatly to the progress during our time there. I'll tell you about their role in the next blog.