Building Projects

       It has been very interesting to watch the progress on the building projects that are happening here at CORM. There has been a small crew of 4 or 5 men who have been working very hard on our projects here. Everything is done by hand. All of the gravel and dirt is moved by shovel and wheelbarrow. They pour a concrete footer and then build the foundation with blocks. The picture below is the completed foundation for the our apartment house. The stuff in the center that looks like dirt is actually a kind of stone and gravel that compacts very tight. When it is compacted, they will build a form around the outside of the foundation and pour a 6 inch slab on top of it for the floor, and then begin building walls of block on top of that.

The next two pictures are the completed foundation for the new church

    The last three pictures are are of the progress on the third wing of the school. This is what they have been working on for the last couple weeks, and have been progressing pretty nicely, especially considering they mix all the concrete by hand and move it in wheel barrows! I have been fascinated by the way they mix concrete to pour sections of floor. Once a section is done, they layer the sand, cement and stone in a huge pile right on top of the floor, and then place a hose with water just trickling out on top of the pile. After the pile has begun to soak, they start mixing sections of the pile with shovels and scoop it into wheelbarrows, until the pile is gone, and they just continue until the slab is finished. They can actually move pretty quickly doing it this way

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 All of the buildings here at CORM have been built using this method. Definitely different than in the US!!