We got a bit of a break today by not having to walk very far to our worksite. Typically the rubble house cages are fabricated here at the compound then transported to the home site once the foundation has been laid. So, after our breakfast sandwich(?) and hot Haitian slaw we sauntered the 30 yards or so parking lot just outside of our beautiful compound to get to work.
The basket guy's name is Greg. He was a little late arriving so we got started without him. The first step in the process is to roll out the 1/4" rebar sheets and cut to 18.5' lengths. Next, you flip the sheets over to press out their memory. Then, you line four of those with chicken wire using thin wire to wrap around the chicken wire and the cage. These will make the two long walls with windows. Once the windows are cut out you stand two of these wall pieces up opposing one another with the chicken wire on the inside. These two pieces are connected with 18" wide ribs giving strength to the wall.
The tool used to connect the ribs to the walls is a great handmade tool. The one I used was a piece of slightly bent rebar with a small metal cylinder welded to the end just big enough to slide the rebar from the cage inside and use the leverage of the tool to bend the rib around the cage.
We completed the long walls before lunch and begain on the short walls (with doors) after lunch. The short walls are composed of two small baskets each that will be connected at the top to form the doors. These baskets are constructed in similar manner with the chicken wire being attached to the insed and connected with the ribs. We had our responsibilities pretty well broken out today. Jeff, Wayne, and George were working on the chicken wire. Our interpreter, Jamale, and I were connecting the walls to the ribs, and Linh was Greg's assistant getting all of the above pieces ready for use. It seems that each of our locations Linh is very quickly identified as a hard worker.
We had another treat this morning as well. One of the workers you see in the pictures above climbed a coconut tree and cut down the crop for anyone that wanted any. Of course they were cut open with a machete.
Tomorrow is another day. We will either be laying the foundation for the cages we made today or building the trusses for the house we worked on the first part of the week.
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