Thursday, June 12, 2014

Construction... Rwanda style.

As the school year goes on, construction has begun on the piece of land behind the current two buildings of the school. They are building a new science lab, library, and computer lab for the students. Currently, there are no facilities to do science demonstations available to the students and it is hard to learn chemistry, biology, and physics without the ability to practice or apply your knowledge. Tim does a very good job holding physics labs and demonstrations in the classroom, but he faces many challenges in doing so (including a lack of materials). With classes like chemistry it is even harder. Without the proper tools and space it can be very dangerous to be mixing chemicals (that would be if we had any chemicals to mix in the first place). So I am excited that the school, in its quest to become a leading and transformative school in the area, is getting a science lab. 

The construction of said labs is a sience of its own though. Rwandan construction astounds me and occasionally terrifies me (in particular when electricity and they have exposed wires with current running through them left out in the wide open, or their welding, which is crazy). St. Ignatius is on a hill so the first task was to level the hill with a large backhoe and a steamroller. Then, they had to build support walls around where the foundation of the new building will be, that meant first digging a really big ditch... by hand. Everyday we'd arrive at school to see a swarm of day laborers working away on the land. After the ditch was dug, more day laborers were hired to build the retaining wall. All the work is done by hand. Dump trucks of rocks from a quary are brought in and dropped off. A group of laborers spend their days with mallets and hammers breaking the rocks into the right shape by hand.
The rock pile with workers chipping away.

They are then transported to the area of wall being laid by wheelbarrow or, for big rocks, on a wooden "wheelbarrow." By that I mean it is 2 pieces of longer wood laid parallel and nailed together by smaller pieces of wood laid across. They are loaded with rocks and 2 men then carry this contraption (one on each end) to the correct location. 
The wooden rock carrier.

While all this is going on, another crew is mixing cement with their one cement mixture for the whole operation. Then they shovel it into wheelbarrows which runners deliver to the people building the wall. The cement is used to hold the rocks together. First you build the outside of the wall with big rocks that have been chipped smooth, held together with the cement, then you pile smaller rocks behind them and build up. 
In this picture you can see the start of a retaining wall, the wheelbarrow for the cement, a jerry can for the cement, and the wooden rock carrier. 

The entire thing is measured, leveled, and made straight with string. There are usually at least 30-40 day laborers working a day in little groups. Once the rocks have been chipped and moved from the rock pile, other workers continue to chip at them at them to fit the needs of the wall at that location.
Some workers chipping away at rocks and then laying them down.

 
In these two photos you can see how they used wood to brace the end of the wall and the string used to make it level it. The face of the wall is smooth, but the rocks behind the wall are just piled on and somehow they fit. I have no idea how you get the face of be smooth to begin with though, I mean it's rock.
Another example of Rwandan construction.
The tools used in he work, again the string for leveling, they use trowels to spread the cement between the rock and metal discs to hold the cement when not in the wheelbarrow so they can go back for another load.
More workers.
These guys were muggin for the camera.
The work is very impressive, they way it is all done by hand, the tools they are limited to, and the fact that he final product turns out so well. And then..... There is this:
One of my favorite aspects of Rwandan construction is their use of shovels. They love their shovels. It is hard to see in is picture, but the workers behind the fence on the right are shoveling dirt from one pile to another pile a few feet away. Don't ask me why this first pile needed to move over a few feet, don't ask me why they did not use the machinery they have like a backhoe and dump truck to move it, but Rwandans really love taking large piles of dirt making 2 or 3 small piles, then going back to a big pile, at that point they may shovel it into a dump truck that will drive 10 feet away and dump it, so they can make 2 or 3 small piles from the big pile all over again.





Thursday, June 5, 2014

Oh lala

In Rwanda, French is heard as often, usually more so than English. While the government insists they are now an English speaking country, anyone above the age of 20 was educated under a French system, in French. Yesterday I had the pleasure of finally hearing a French phrase I had not expect to hear here, and hadn't heard yet. "Oh lala." Coming out of the mouth of a 20 year old male playing basketball, in Africa, was.... unexpected. So was the context however, as I stole the basketball away from, well, the oldest person playing in the game, who no one else would dare steal from because happens to be a priest... who is old. As the only girl in the game (me) and the oldest player (him), we were pretty well matched. The comments from the peanut gallery were just a perk. It is midterms this week and next at school. I gave 3 midterms today and now have a stack of 81 exams (including 240 short answer question -three per test) piled on my desk begging me to grade them. Stay tuned for another update soon (serious to all you non-belivers out there). I will post again next week when that pile becomes 81/81 graded and not the 0/81 it currently is.