A lot has happened onsite over the last few weeks! Below is a recap of everything that’s happened!

• Digging  & Blinding Trenches
  • Excavating the trenches was no small feat. All excavation was done manually with shovels, hoes and machetes. It took approximately 2 weeks to complete the trenches.
  • After successfully digging the trenches, we sprayed the ground with powerful termite killing solution.
  • We created a consistent flat surface in the trenches using a sand/concrete blinding. This 50 mm layer provided a flat, consistent surface to lay the brick foundation walls on.

• Foundation Walls & Columns
  • Once the blinding was finished, masons began to finalize the foundation wall layout. Robin, Allan and I helped to layout the columns. The column foundations were wider and deeper than the rest of the foundation walls. Allan’s structural engineer provided us with the required rebar and layout to adequately support the building.
  • Originally we planned on placing a column in an internal waiting area, but the structural engineer resized the ring beam so we could eliminate the column. This will be a much better design as it will now be an open seating area.
  • It took crews only 1 week to layout and complete the masonry foundation walls.. Robin laid several portions of wall throughout the week and I helped mortar and finish many sections. It was fun to work beside the guys, they were surprised to see me doing “physical labor” although mortaring joints is pretty relaxing, minus the excessive heat ;).

• Back filling & Hardcore
  • Since the site is located on a slight slope, there was a lot earth that needed to be moved around. The GC wanted to leave as much dirt around the site as possible to eliminate double work of hauling dirt. As a result, the trenches on the high end of the site were MUCH deeper than the trenches of the lower portion of the site. The crews worked hard to level the rest of the site and haul the unneeded dirt. As back filling progressed, crews also spent time compacting the soil, first using water and then using a jumper/compactor.
  • After compacting was complete crews carried large rocks onto the site and began to break them up, creating the hardcore layer. This process took several days as the stones were large and they were being broken by hand using mallets.

• Casting the Slab
  • We poured the slab this week! This work includes sand blinding the hardcore, which is adding a layer of sand to help make the surface flat. After the sand blinding was completed, crews laid down a waterproofing.
• Women in Construction
  • Thursday night we met with a few local women to discuss an initiative to get women on the jobsite. In larger cities there are women in construction, but in smaller towns and villages it is virtually unheard of. We worked with Zaintuni (our favorite seamstress who partners with ACCESS to train women to become seamstresses) to find women who would be interested in working in construction. We set up a day (March 5th, which is conveniently close to International Women’s Day, unintentionally, on March 7th) for women to come onsite and be introduced to construction. We will teach them basic skills to work. Depending on how comfortable they are onsite, we will teach them their desired skills. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

• ALSO! Scott is here 🙂
  • In case you couldn’t tell be the few pictures above! We met last week in Tanzania (which I’ll be posting about later). He’s now here with me for a week in Nakaseke! He’s getting the full Africa experience; including no running water, no power, food poisoning but also custom sewn shirts and delicious pork.. so it’s not all bad haha. Despite being sick, it’s been great to have him here; introducing him to the team, showing him around the village and sharing my day-to-day life. It is a lot of fun to show him what we’ve been working on and getting his input.

• What’s up next?!
  • We’re waiting a few days for the slab to cure; making sure to keep it wet to prevent cracking. Friday we will cut the slab joints and continue leveling the site; there is a lot of dirt that still needs to be moved.
  • Saturday we will layout the walls for the building. Once the layout is drawn on (with chalk lines) we will have the team review and provide feedback. There are some rooms that are very small and on plan do not seem to have much functionality due to their sizing. Hopefully with the walls drawn on the ground, decision makers can review and see if those rooms are actually necessary.
  • This week we are also determining a septic tank location. The originally proposed location was under a parking area. The parking area was eliminated due to the size of the site and budget limitations therefore it had to be moved. Our suggested location is behind a small Medical Clinic directly below the new Medical Centre. We’re going to dig a test pit to see where the water table is at these location.