iBlock: Construction - plain and simple

Well, here we are at day twelve of construction (Friday the 14th) with two Sundays in between. To be honest, the construction time has kind of been a blur. Doing a day by day scenario would be somewhat tedious so we’ll talk in generalities for now.

The kids have been working hard on a variety of projects. The current base is on the same grounds at the Juan Calvino (John Calvin) school (an elementary and high school). This school desperately needs two additional classrooms. In 2011 our group poured a roof/second floor on one of the buildings. Last year we added a storage area to the main floor of this building. This year we came to two additional rooms having been blocked on the second floor. When we arrived we did some demolition upstairs so this new second floor could be expanded over top of the storage unit we built last year. We have spent much of our time working on this second floor including a major project of forming and pouring a set of stairs to this new second floor.

Last week we focussed on forming and then pouring the beams around the perimeter of the blocked wall. Through this time-consuming task we learned that it is difficult to drop our “Canadian-ness” to be “Dominican” but, having said that, the beams are quite level and were formed very well. They still don’t meet Canadian standards but they exceed a Dominican norm so I guess it is a win-win. The only thing we lost in the process? Time and patience.

Max hired some locals to stucco the building and pour the floor. We cleaned out the rubble so the floors could be poured and we mixed and hauled mortar, stucco and concrete. We also joined Solomon (Pierre’s son; Pierre manages the base on behalf of the Christian Reformed Church) in the best truck in the world to a local watering hole to get water to mix the mortar, stucco and concrete. We were busy filling in a lot of gaps while learning to work alongside the locals: Alejandro, Johnny, Jose, Cesar, Alberto (two guys that last year’s crew worked with), Pastor Max, Albertico and Gregorio. While this was going on we were also busy building rafters for the roof which is being installed today. Don, a chaperone, is the foreman here but Megan & Emily and then Alex & Monica spent time with him this week working on prepping the roof: finding 2x4’s, measuring, playing with angles and cutting. Brian and Thomas are currently installing the trusses. Don would love to be up there with them but this past Tuesday he was diagnosed with an amoeba. He has struggled a lot this week and it is very clear that often he is in a great deal of pain. He has been to the hospital for treatment and will likely go again today to get things really cleared up. He’s essentially been out of commission since Tuesday. Having said that, the group has really rallied around him and filled in the necessary gaps. A special shout out needs to go to Brian, our other male chaperone, as he has ably taken the reigns and kept things moving!

Singing "Alabare" with Big Max!

Another project we had was removing the old entrance: a large iron gate. Thomas and Emily spent much time hacking away at that so it could be transferred to a more accessible part of the compound. Since this gate was removed it needed to be replaced which meant we got to smash out another part of the outside wall of the base. Demolition is always fun. It is Friday, we’ve been doing construction for twelve days now. The gate came out on the second day here. We’re still waiting to reinstall it: other jobs just keep getting priority!

Sam and Sophia had a lovely job one day: to clean out the storage unit that we made last year. We left in a bit of a hurry last year so we never cleaned out the excess concrete/block pieces and we weren’t able to install a proper door on it either. As a result, as with many empty spaces in the Dominican, it became an impromptu storage unit for old desks as well as garbage. Well, Sam and Sophia had to clean it out. At one point they asked Sarah, a chaperone, if they could switch with someone because there were a lot of bugs. They were not allowed to switch...but they were right: it was an insect zoo. They found a centipede that was about 20cm long, cockroaches, a tarantula-like spider, and some magical cockroach-like bug that was very difficult to kill. Clearly it was only fair that the entire group learn from this biology lesson so they promptly got a piece of wood on which to display their creatures and shared their findings with their classmates as well as with the Dominican high schoolers on site. The Canadians handled the site much better than the Dominicans did; go figure!

Dylan and Greg have been busy working with Brian, a chaperone, on forming a kitchen counter. This is yet another job which seems relatively straightforward when first assigned but all three can attest to the complexities when actually completing the task (similar to forming the beams on the second floor). When Max told me about the job he told me I’d need “thinkers” on it - boy was he right! There are concrete pillars every two feet or so built to support the future counter. The wooden forms need to compensate for every nook, cranny and pillar. Thankfully they completed their task after a solid three days. The counter has been formed and tile was laid yesterday.

Many students have been exposed to carpentry skills as well: Arie and Brian have made a moveable door for the serving area of the new kitchen. Many students were involved in making the trusses for the roof. Others were involved in creating the form for the stairs. Arie with Bethani, Jordan with Sophia and Scott with Rebecca have all made bathroom doors (copying the template that David Bergsma, Rachel VanderVeen and Megan Piccolo created in 2011). Arie with Bethani and Jordan with Sophia each took about a day to create their doors - this compensates for the lack of power etc...Scott and Rebecca created their door in record time: it took a good four days. They were the going joke for a while...they had to deal with lack of power, no wood and being given multiple other jobs at the same time and, as a result, their task took them much longer. It was quite hilarious.

Mr. Groot, our principal, came to visit us from last Monday until this past Monday. That week absolutely flew. He got himself right into the thick of things, as much as we would let him: he helped form the second floor beams, he tied rebar, played with a welder, formed and filled in wherever he could. He had the luxury of a room to himself. His room had a door and it closed and he was the King of his quarters: quite the bonus considering our cramped quarters (9 boys in one room, 9 girls in one room and 7 girls in the other room...chaperones are part of those numbers). The downfall to his room alone? No shutters on the windows (they were completely open) and no bathroom door...because Scott and Rebecca took so long :D

A room of 9

Today, Friday, March 14, is another busy day. Right now Arie/Sierra, Sophia/Alex, Dylan/Rebecca, Greg/Nicole and Zach/Nicole are watching a maestro lay block and they will soon be taking the task on. By the end of the day all students will experience laying block as we build a wall for the school on site. Currently Jordan, Scott and Bethani are in charge of mixing the mortar and Sam, Jea, Erin, Emily and Monica are busy priming and painting the new classrooms upstairs.

As I was perusing pictures yesterday some students joined me. The overall conclusion? Wow...we’ve done a lot in two weeks of work. Wowsers. The base looks very different now than when we arrived. The interesting part? The current state is our new normal and the original state is nearly forgotten. The lesson to be learned? Journal as you experience for things constantly change but still remain familiar.