Building with clay brick in Tosagua

Despite all the events and festivities going on while we were in Tosagua (see "Tosagua, the Heart of Manabi" post), we found time to finish two houses, and "dedicate" an additional 5!!
Here I am in my now requisite on-site working hat... I feel incomplete without it! (it's quite useful at the equator with the sol FUERTE (strong sun)).

Karen Pickett's Global Village team put in 1.5 weeks of volunteer labor: laying brick, pouring concrete floors, digging and lining a septic tank, and plastering walls. Pictured below is one of the houses in a close-to-finished stage. The windows and doors were installed the day after this photo was taken.Karen had been in Tosagua the previous February and loved her experience so much that she wanted to return to the town for her first trip as a Habitat for Humanity Global Village team leader. She brought her husband, John, along with 10 other eager workers (above photos taken after day 1)! Her only disappointment she couldn't show John the lush green vistas she had seen in February (because the wet season begins in January).

Below on the left is the house one of the families (mother, father and children) was living in, along with a cousin(s) and the mother's parents (the above house with the team will be Marta's new house).













The house below is the second of the two houses the team worked on...Karen's group was a "Thrivent" global village team, meaning they were all members of the financial services business, "Thrivent". The financial services company has made a pledge to Habitat for Humanity International to make an additional donation to Habitat for any of its members who participates in a global village team. The team-members donates $450 ($100 to the international Habitat office and $350 to Ecuador), and Thrivent donates an additional $800!
This team was really fun and included many world travelers, and experienced volunteers. They were all from the U.S., and represented states from Washington, Texas, Michigan, Kansas, Tennessee, and the District of Colombia and spanned ages from their 30s to their 70s. Those who weren't world travelers were not inhibited with the new surroundings. They were ready to explore, learn about the local culture, eat the food, and try out their rusty (or newly acquired words and phrases) in Spanish.

The teams (one on each house) were immediately put to work learning to be brick masons:
First we unloaded brick, then soaked the bricks in water.














Pictured are Ricci and Jane soaking and passing the red clay bricks and Karen and Colleen working on an interior wall.




The bricks are made locally and cost less than one third what concrete blocks cost in Tosagua. The red clay bricks cost 9 cents a piece while concrete blocks cost 33 cents.










We were instructed in the art of brick laying by the "Maestro" (teacher/brick master) and his helpers who are contracted workers for Habitat. Pictured here are Tim, one of the volunteers, with Freddy, one of the "maestros."














Next, James builds an exterior wall from scaffolding on the outside of one of the houses.



















The laying of bricks is a detail-oriented job which requires precision-placement, the squaring of each brick with the rest of the wall, the floor and the rest of the house, and use of the proper amount and consistency mortar by mixing cement and water.



















Above, Jenny helps pass mortar to Sharon. Below, John sets a string to a consistent height for his next row of bricks.



















Above, John taps a brick into place and below Clare mixes mortar to perfection.



















To the left below, Jane demonstrating the art of the final "tap" required to set a brick.



















Next pictured is Sharon, working on "her wall" and using scaffolding to reach the top rows.



















The maestros frequently checked on our work. Actually, I should say "their work", ... because I mostly went around "llenando huecos", filling holes, which is my favorite activity involving cement:-). Here I am pictured below, filling my trowel to smooth out the wall and eliminate holes where bugs may have lived.... making it "pretty."

As days passed, much progress was made on the houses' walls. As the houses became full- fledged, four-walled structures, we added the less obvious parts of the house, such as the floor, the kitchen counter and the septic tank. Here are Kim and Colleen, lining the septic tank with a small red brick. They were pretty vulnerable in that hole.. we had to bring them water and lower a ladder to let them out! When they were digging the hole, it reminded me of the book, "Holes" in which the boys who have been sent to work-camp are forced to dig perfectly round, perfectly deep, holes... all day! Well, our volunteers only had to dig for less than a day to complete this hole, but they were in it for awhile afterwards in order to line it.

As always, the work site was also a site for play:














above, Kim tries to kiss a cow and below, Rick really enjoys his watermelon (it was grown fresh in Manabi)!













To celebrate the completion of the two houses at the end of the 1.5 weeks of building, and to dedicate the houses, and 5 others that had been finished recently, we had a big ceremony that lasted over 2 hours!~!!!! .... I interpreted, and it was truly EXHAUSTING. I must say it was my biggest language challenge yet.

The ceremony included entertainment by some local high school dance teams, such as the one pictured below. They incorporated traditional and modern themes.














Above, they are dancing with clay pots and bowls. Below, they are pictured towards the end of a dance during which each girl placed a bottle of juice on her head and danced with it balanced there, until the bottle fell.



















When a particular girl's bottle fell, her style of dancing would change. Eventually only one girl was left and then they all started a new portion of the dance; it was choreographed, but a competition for was built in!

During the Ceremony, each family was presented with keys and a bible and Auster's house was blessed as the symbol of all the houses blessings. In this particular dedication, a Catholic priest blessed the houses. Families in different areas of the world elect to have different religious/spiritual leaders bless their houses. The reason that so many houses were dedicated at the same time is that the house-owners, of the five previously finished houses, wanted Hugo, our interim National Director, and the man who started the Tosagua affiliate, to be present during the ceremony.
Pictured above I am interpreting a portion of Hugo's speech to the assembled crowd about the importance of decent housing to a community.
When I say crowd, I am not kidding: we had representatives from the mayors office, the police department, local collaborators, members from all seven families (if not the whole family), habitat employees, and the 11 Global Village volunteers.

Here is a pic of me with Auster's family, his wife and three daughters, behind their new house, after the dedication ceremony. Once again, one of the best parts of the house-building experience was working with, and getting to know the families.