Building, building, and child labor

The house is coming along, slowly but surely. We waited for government rocks for a while, but they arrive, and as of now, have been used to build the foundation wall. The adobe walls are next, and our great egg will start to take shape. Here´s some photos of the work so far, and an explanation or two.

This is part of the project called digging. Digging make back strong. We dug the hole, then filled it with old, broken cement that we found in the surrounding area, and some of the mixture used to make adobe. The rocks, and wet cement were added when the hole was almost full, and continued into a short, rock wall.

This is us inserting a large metal pole in the center of the house. It will be used in conjunction with lengths of bamboo, to insure that the walls are all the same distance from the center point of the structure. Lebn and Jess were only with us for a couple of days, but Ian (project leader) didn´t want to let them leave.

And Lebn looks like he´s about to sneeze.

I can´t remember if he did.

This is me enjoying a beer and talking to the father of the house who gave it to me. It may appear that I´m idle, but I carried many rocks before this photo was taken. This beer was the first of many and a good conversation about life after the earthquake. It was nice to finally make a connection with the father. He works a lot, and it must be kind of weird for him to have a bunch of gringos living in a tent in his front yard.

This is the wall going up and our little army of child labor. The kids in the house have been really helpful in its construction. They´re between 9 and 15, but they work hard and ask many questions. Usually its just how to say things in English, but sometimes its about construction.

This is Ian and an up close look at the wall construction.

And here´s where we live and some fun ones.