At the end of May and Ethan’s two weeks the structure looked like the pictures below. To get a better look at what went behind the scenes in getting here, continue reading.
Four weeks worth of sweat and tears (mainly sweat) captured
Panoramic view from inside the facility
For their second week, May and Ethan started out by completing all scaffolding and reinforcement and moving on to casting beams around the grids. Their progress was hindered by rainfall as the newly casted beams got soaked. Also, a slight architectural feature was added as rain sank the shoring under the beam which led to a 4” sag in the final beam structure. Nothing major, just some salt and pepper to make the storage facility truly unique. This also outlines a major theme in many EWB projects, when it comes to weather conditions, it is impossible to plan around them and predict the consequences, especially with the time limitations our teams work with. May and Ethan also placed first of the 2200 CMU blocks on all four sides of the building in preparation for team 3 taking over!
First of 2200 CMU blocks
A chain of workers on beam formwork
Team 2 worked to procure all material needed for the next team including metal sheets for roof as well as water proofing material. This will help the next team, Evram and Alex, as now they need to carry money solely for labor and personal expenses like lodging and food. This will help them dedicate their energy on getting as much work done as possible while they are present on site.
On their last day with the Rubayan community, team 2 had another meeting with Good Neighbors and concluded with aligning Good Neighbors and EWB team’s goals, brainstorming on future projects, and thanking the Rubaya workforce for all their work and for the community for their generous hospitality.