Construction of a kindergarten in Tanzania: Part 8

Monday morning and it's raining. Breakfast takes a little longer for us because of it. When it stops, I go down to the construction site and no one is there. I remove the formwork from the support pillars for the 2-room building. In the end, there are nine more and even more beautiful support pillars. Good, I like it! Baba Steve will be happy too.

He and Henry also come to the construction site. However, our Fundi, Baba Steve, is now sick. He has headaches and body aches and takes the day off. So there are only two of us today. But there is news: The machine for molding the bricks is here. We get the final instructions from our Fundi before sending him home with medication.

The machine is quite simple (see image gallery). We try it out immediately and pour a sand-soil mixture into the machine and mold the first test brick. The molding and, in particular, the compaction of the sand is mostly done with the upper flap (see image). Unfortunately, I immediately discovered a design error by the spengler. I have already worked out the solution. Unfortunately, I have to wait for our Fundi to clarify the details with the spengler so that he can fix it.

Henry and I spend the rest of the day working on the reinforcement for the ring beam of the 2-room building. So a quiet day for us, but we have made some progress again: the first prototype brick (without cement).

Explanation of the image 'brick' (for the tech enthusiasts):

The brick has a trapezoidal contour at the top and bottom, so that the bricks can be nicely stacked on top of each other. Like big lego. Unfortunately, a small edge of the brick broke off at the top while removing the base plate. Nevertheless, this brick turned out well for the first try. I have even conducted an initial test regarding material compaction in the still undried state. This explains the many round impressions in the image. Except for one spot, we have achieved a fairly consistent compaction. We, or rather Fundi and his assistants, will determine the best approach in the next few days. And then Henry will be busy for the next few weeks. I scared him a bit today already.

Best regards

Klaus